"In the End, My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph." Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

Does your heart sometimes cry out..."When?...When, Mary, will your Immaculate Heart triumph? In the midst of wars and terrorist attacks and the martyrdom of so many Christians around the world...when, O kind Mother, will your Immaculate Heart triumph?"


Have you ever considered that perhaps Mary's triumph depends, to a large degree, on each of us examining his conscience and seeing how our own actions (or inactions) either help to build the kingdom of God or thwart it by throwing obstacles in the path.

Is Jesus Christ the king of my heart? Is Mary Immaculate my queen? Have I, like a loyal subject of the heavenly court, listened and obeyed the call to prayer and penance? Is my response lukewarm? Do I go so far and no further?

St.Bernard once gave a talk to his community saying, "There are more people converted from mortal sin to grace, than there are religious converted from good to better." In his book Deep Conversion Deep Prayer, Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. writes:

What Bernard said of religious unfortunately is true in all states of life: bishops, priests, married men and women....Bernard was saying that there are more men who give up serious alienation from God, mortal sin, than there are people who give up small wrongs, willed venial sins. And there are even fewer who grow into heroic virtue and live as saints live. If we are not saddened by this realization we ought to be....A large part of the sadness is the expectation that anyone who basically loves another (real sacrificing love, not mere attraction)...would naturally go on to love [the other] in smaller ones.....Most of us would like to think that this person would go on to prove his love further even to the point of total self-giving, even under the duress, hardships and sacrifices entailed in persevering in heroic holiness. But everyone knows that such is unhappily a rare occurrence in the human family. Something is amiss -- and on a large scale. Yes, if everything were normal in society, deep conversion would be common, and life would be incomparably happier for everyone.

The triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart begins with each of us and our response to her call to become saints, special friends of God eager, like the young prophet Samuel, to jump out of bed saying, "Hear I am; You called me!"

Today is a good day for all of us to look deeply into our hearts and honestly assess whether we are helping to bring about the triumph and reign of Mary's Immaculate Heart or are helping the prince of this world build his satanic kingdom on earth by refusing to hinder his evil plots. It isn't only mortal sin that destroys, but the silence, casual indifference, and cowardice of the "good."

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Our Lady of Fatima, convert my lazy, indifferent, and lukewarm heart.