Immaculée Ilibagiza

Immaculée Ilibagiza (b. c. 1972) is a Rwandan author and motivational speaker. She is also a Roman Catholic and Tutsi. Her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (2006), is an autobiographical work detailing how she survived during the Rwandan Genocide. She was featured on PBS on one of Wayne Dyer's programs, and also on a December 3, 2006 segment of 60 Minutes (which re-aired on July 1, 2007).

Left to Tell recounts how Immaculée Ilibagiza survived for 91 days with another seven other women during the holocaust in a damp and small bathroom, no larger than 3 feet (1 m) long and 4 feet (1 m) wide. Immaculee speaks all over the world and is the recipient of the 2007 Mahatma Gandhi Reconciliation and Peace Award.

Prayer

Many don't realize that there were Marian apparitions that occurred in Rwanda from 1981 to 1989, and Immaculee retells the story of her personal experiences with the visionaries and the apparitions in her second book, Our Lady of Kibeho . This prayer was handed down directly from the Blessed Mother and Immaculee is living out the wishes of Mary by spreading this beautiful prayer all over the world.

The prayer begins with the sign of the cross and a prescribed introductory prayer:

My God, I offer You this rosary for Your glory, so I may honor Your Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin, so I can share and meditate upon her suffering. I humbly beg You to give me true repentance for all my sins. Give me wisdom and humility so that I may receive all the indulgences contained in this prayer.

Then an act of contrition is made and three Hail Marys are said in honour of Our Lady's tears. At the beginning of the first septet of beads (and of each subsequent septet) a brief prayer is said, "Most merciful mother, remind us always about the sorrows of your son, Jesus. After this the Sorrow is announced and an lengthy meditative prayer is said, followed by seven Hail Marys, and the sorrow is closed on the Lord's Prayer. This is repeated for each of the seven septets. At the close of the last sorrow, after the Lords Prayer, the brief "Most merciful mother..." prayer is again said, followed by a concluding prayer, three invocations, and the sign of the cross:

Queen of Martyrs, your heart suffered so much. I beg you, by the merits of the tears you shed in these terrible and sorrowful times, to obtain for me and all the sinners of the world the grace of complete sincerity and repentance. Amen.
Repeat three times:
V. Mary, who was conceived without sin and who suffered for us
R. Pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Books

Ilibagiza, Immaculée (with Steve Erwin) (2006). Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Hay House. ISBN: 1401908969.
Ilibagiza, Immaculee (with Steve Erwin) (2008). Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide. Hay House, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-4019-1887-3
Ilibagiza, Immaculee (2008). Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa. Hay House, Inc. ISBN-10: 140192378X