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Fides Entrepreneurship: God and Mary's love for the young
Luca Zocche
February 14, 2026
This is Fides Entrepreneurship bi-weekly newsletter, your resource for Catholic Entrepreneurship wether it inspires you to start your own business led by your faith or help meet the people you need to help you grow your business.
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📆Upcoming Events
March 18th 🏃 ☕ Catholic Entrepreneurs Evening Run Club (FREE)
March 26th 🕯️ Candle lit dinner with Tim Busch, Founder of Pacific Hospitality Group and the NAPA Institute
Brief words from Tim:
“When Tom Monaghan became a billionaire I said, wait a minute if they can go to mass and then what you find out, is that prayer multiples your time it doesn’t take from your time. You’re using your time much more wisely and the holy spirit is guiding you away from people things and efforts that are going down dead ends. Through prayer you regain time” (Source)
Pope Francis said:
“The Lord often chooses the young to renew history by stirring them to undertake great things. Through them, he delivers words and prophetic vision.”
What he meant is that sometimes even the young can be more mature and have more wisdom then people who have live their entire lives the faith and experienced either a full career or become very successful.
When we look at the faith we have spoken of many older saints and examples of sanctity such as Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Pare Pio or Saint Ignatius but have rarely shown the younger ones.
The most recent younger ones include the beatification of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati but age wise it can get even younger then that.
Those include the kids of Fatima, Banneux, Beauraing and Saint Bernadette truly incredible examples of innocence and faith.
Fatima (1917)
Saint Jacinta Marto – age 7
Saint Francisco Marto – age 9
Servant of God Lúcia dos Santos – age 10
After the vision of hell, Jacinta did not react emotionally.
She saw how Hell is real and Souls are going there.
For that reason at seven, she voluntarily chose sustained suffering hunger, thirst and illness.
This was a child thinking seriously about eternity and the salvation of soules.
Francisco, by contrast, made a different but equally profound judgment. He understood that while souls needed saving, God Himself was being offended.
So he chose silence, contemplation, and reparation.
He said he wanted to “console God.”
Such shows that even though they were both so young they understood something many adults never do but only years later understand the reality of sacrifice and love of one’s faith to save souls.
Banneux (1933)
When Mary appeared to Mariette (11), she did not deliver a complicated message.
She asked for prayer.
She asked for perseverance.
She asked that a chapel be built.
She identified herself simply as “the Virgin of the Poor.”
Mariette did not try to expand the meaning of those words or translate them into something more impressive.
She did not ask what the title implied or what should be made of it.
She repeated it exactly as she heard it.
She endured ridicule, disbelief, and ecclesial hesitation without defending herself or reshaping the story to make it more convincing. When pressed to clarify or embellish, she refused as she knew the message was not hers to manage.
At eleven years old, she understood something many adults struggle to accept: that a message from God does not need interpretation in order to have weight.
Her task was only to pass it on. When God or the Virgin Mary give us a task we must follow it even if it may seem so simple and easy at times when we may try to search for more explanation on why we should listen or even follow it. That’s why no doubt it was passed on to such a young child as herself.
Credits: Miracle Hunter
Beauraing (1932)
Fernande Voisin (15)
Gilberte Voisin (13)
Albert Voisin (11)
Andrée Degeimbre (14)
Gilbert Degeimbre (9)
They all described the same thing: the Virgin Mary appearing in the garden, gentle and silent at first, later showing them her Heart of Gold, and asking for prayer, conversion, and love.
“Do you love my Son? Do you love me?” “Pray, pray very much.”
Fernande specifically had the most interesting story as on the last apparition she didn’t appear to him but instead only to the 4 other kids.
He decided to stay in the garden afterwards and pray to see her. She appeared but tested his faith "Do you love my son [Jesus Christ]?" Then after Fernande replied "yes" Mary asked "Do you love me? Fernande said "yes" again. Mary's next words were: "Then sacrifice yourself for me."
Such shows the innocence and openness to faith children hold that sometimes can be out of sight by adults and older folks. In this case it’s the most true as most older folk in the village were faithful but quite afraid of the following apparition.
Saint Bernadette
Saint Bernadette Soubirous – age 14
Bernadette was questioned for months by priests, doctors, civil authorities, and theologians many of whom knew far more theology than she ever would.
Yet she never tried to sound knowledgeable.
She spoke only of what she had seen and heard: the Lady asking her to pray, to do penance, to drink from the spring, to build a chapel, and finally identifying herself with words Bernadette herself barely understood at the time: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
When asked what the Lady meant by it, Bernadette answered simply that she did not know. When asked why she had been chosen, she said she had no idea.
When pressed to draw conclusions, explain doctrine, or persuade others, she refused.
And when the pressure became relentless, she repeated the same sentence again and again: “I was asked to tell you, not to make you believe.”
Like the others at such a young age she knew what was true and didn’t feel the need to prove its truth. For many older people it can be hard to accept how someone younger and so innocent could be worthy of such a grand miracle.
Why This Still Matters
Each of these lives, Bernadette, the children of Fatima and Beauraing, Banneux, reveals the same quiet truth:
God and the Virgin Mary show themselves to those who are most innocent, and humble hearted which is why in these cases she chose children.
They were not from a very successful family from a city like New York or London. Instead they came from much more humble abodes and lifestyles and were also very young meaning they were not yet taken in by the world.
As said in 1 John 2:15–17:
“Do not love the world or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
The same principle applies today.
As much as there aren’t any children attending our events (at least yet) we believe in that curiosity young people have and wanting to do good from their hearts.
At the high-school and university level, young students are forming both their intellect and their moral compass.
They think boldly, ask real questions, and are open to responsibility and the deeper meaning of what faith is.
As open and curious they are, they often are financially constrained.
Without access, they simply remain outside the room where serious conversations and example of leadership, faith, and vocation are happening. Where you find out that you can follow your heart and actually do good.
That’s exactly why our student sponsorship program exists for one reason:
to ensure that cost is not what prevents the next generation from losing curiosity and interest in the faith.
Inspired by initiatives such as The Wings Club’s Future Aviation Leaders tables and The Economics Club of New York, we bring Catholic students into direct contact with real-world leaders in entrepreneurship, finance, policy, and public life people who are actively shaping Wall Street, civic institutions, and the Church’s witness in the modern world.
Such as the saints above we hope we can create a better world by focusing on the future of the young led by these exact messages from the Virgin Mary.
Thanks to sponsors like Truthly, we are building real momentum.
Our goal this year is to raise $30,000 for our Student Formation & Access Fund, allowing an estimated 12 students per event to attend free of charge.
Five students attended our most recent gathering, a clear sign that the program is already taking root.
Over the course of the year, this means dozens of young men and women future founders, investors, and leaders will gain direct access to mentors and role models actively shaping Wall Street, entrepreneurship, and the Church’s public witness.
Your support helps ensure that financial constraints never prevent a young Catholic from being formed at a critical stage of their life.
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