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Friday, May 13, 2016

On the 99th Anniversary of the First Apparition of Mary at Fatima...

...Let us reflect on her messages.

To help us reflect, here are a few articles with excerpts:

Alice Von Hildebrand Sheds New Light on Fatima
After Pope John Paul asked him to begin a new Pontifical Institute for studies on marriage and the family, [Monsignor, now Cardinal] Caffarra wrote to Sister Lucy, simply requesting her prayers for this venture. He has recently made known his surprise at receiving “a very long letter with her signature. . . . In it we find written: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be contended and opposed in every way, for this is the decisive issue.’ And then she concluded: ‘however, Our Lady has already crushed its head.’” 
This reassurance is encouraging, because fifteen years after Sister Lucia wrote that letter, Cardinal Luigi Ciappi (1909-1996), personal theological adviser to five popes, made a stunning disclosure about that part of the Fatima secret that the Vatican has never released (and which is evidently referenced by the enigmatic word “etc.” in the published part of Our Lady’s message). His Eminence, one of the few persons who had seen the complete secret, wrote in a 1995 letter to Professor Baumgartner of Salzburg: “In the Third Secret it is predicted, among other things, that the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.” [Be sure to click on the link and read Alice Von Hildebrand's letter.]
99 and counting
The oldest of the shepherd children of Fatima, Lucia explained the message of Fatima to Father Fuentes years later:
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world, but She made me understand this for three reasons. 
“The first reason is because She told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Also, from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility." 
“The second reason is because She said to my cousins as well as to myself, that God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.” 
“The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with certain fear the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with certain fear because if you despise and repulse this ultimate means, we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven, because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Ghost. This sin consists of openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers.
“Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit that we offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. We have recorded through many centuries of Church history the obvious testimony which demonstrates by the terrible chastisements which have befallen those who have attacked the honor of His Most Holy Mother, how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the honor of His Mother.”
The message of Fatima is then that we are now in a life or death struggle, even though most people are oblivious. As Sister Lucia warns us, “we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.”
Sad to say, my husband and I overslept this morning and did not make it to Mass. To make up for that omission, I intend to pray all twenty decades of the rosary. I'm also going to read Lucia's memoir on the first apparition. Each month from now until October, I will read Mary's messages on the 13th of the month. We are in serious times, indeed. Many of our own family members are in danger of hell and many of those called to lead us to salvation are wolves working for our destruction. God have mercy on us!

Do we believe in the reality of hell, the vision shown to the children? Does it spur us to pray and sacrifice? What then will we offer to save souls and bring as many as possible to Christ through Our Lady? "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee." 

6 comments:


  1. This always confuses me as both St. Pope John Paul II said that the consecration was made and Sister Lucy said that the Holy Mother told her the way the pope did it was acceptable according to many reports and Catholic books, yet there are those who still say the consecration was not done properly and not acceptable.

    I did the First Fridays and Saturdays years ago (in the 1970s), and made the consecration to Our Lady a few years ago, but there was never any mention of having to do the First Fridays and the Saturdays over and over again.

    It is all so confusing. Did Pope John Paul lie, or are these other people just too scrupulous about the whole thing? Who knows whom to believe, and it is consuming the faithful.

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  2. I agree. It is confusing and disheartening. We would like to believe that everyone in a Roman collar is holy. Sadly, that is not the case. Personally, yes, I believe some people at the Vatican lied, Cardinal Bertone for one. Antonio Soccie makes a good case for it in his book, The Fourth Secret of Fatima. He believes the third secret was separated with Lucia describing the vision in her notebook and writing Our Lady's words interpreting the vision on a separate single sheet of paper. That actually would allow those saying they revealed the whole secret to engage, perhaps inadvertently, in claiming the entire secret was revealed when only Lucia's description of the vision was. http://www.fatima.org/news/newsviews/051607socci.asp

    I have to say that I could never accept the interpretation of the vision as accurately meaning the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II.

    Which brings me to this point. Pope John Paul II himself indicated that he knew the consecration hadn't been done as Our Lady asked. When he visited Fatima in 1984, he said, "Enlighten especially the peoples of which You Yourself are awaiting our confiding." Why on earth wold he say that if he knew the consecration had been done as Our Lady asked in 1982?

    During the Synod on the Family we saw high level prelate Cardinal Walter Kasper deliberately lie about comments he made that were reported by Edward Pentin. Had Pentin not recorded those comments his journalistic career would have been seriously damaged. Yes, there are liars among the hierarchy and why should we not believe also among prelates at the Vatican? The history of the Church is filled with liars, politicians (is that redundant?), and conspirators. Joan of Arc could tell us all about it.

    Being disillusioned is a good thing because there is nothing virtuous about living under the umbrella of illusions. When we face the hard truth and it reveals evil, we can put on the armor of God and fight it.

    Lucy herself made the five first Saturdays perpetually. She wrote to her mother describing how she did it. (I wish I could remember which book I read that in.) She began by meditating on the Joyful Mysteries starting with the Annunciation on the first Saturday of the series, etc. I hope to do that myself. If each of us makes it a perpetual practice how pleasing that would be to Our Lady.

    God bless you and cling to your rosary taking heart from Padre Pio's admonition to "pray, hope, and don't worry." God wins!

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  3. Thank you for your answer, Mary Anne.

    Also, I meant to type "confusing the faithful" instead of "consuming the faithful" in the last line of my last post, although the latter phrase is true in some sense too.

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  4. Confusion does end up consuming doesn't it? It consumes clarity and truth. I think it was a Providential slip.

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  5. Mary Ann: I think your comments are insightful, The promises of Mary - peace in the world etc. are conditional. They are dependent not only on the consecration of Russia, but also on the rosary and First Saturday Mass and devotion. Sadly, I think we have not fulfilled her condition. I think are focus should be on what she asked as much, if not more, on which she promised. bob

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