Tag Archives: Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Fatima and the Rosary – October 2, 2022

One overlooked aspect of Our Lady of Fatima is in the final October 1917 apparition is a trifold vision of the three mysteries of the rosary.  As most of the tens of thousands of onlookers witnessed the “dancing of the sun,” the three children Lucia, Francisco, and Marta witnessed visions of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  More precisely, Lucia saw a mystical triptych in the sky of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the rosary.  Lucia describes the vision of the first scene of the Joyful Mysteries and the Holy Family:

“We beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun.  St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands.”  

In the next scene, Lucia alone saw the Sorrowful Mysteries represented by Our Lady of Dolors:

“I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Sorrows.  Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done.” 

In the final scene, Lucia witnessed the Glorious Mysteries represented by Our Lady of Mt. Carmel:

“and I saw Our Lady once more this time resembling Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary had foretold to the shepherd children a month before in September that they would see this threefold vision of mysteries of the rosary:  “In October, Our Lord will also come, as well as Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, to bless the world.”  

Joyful Mysteries

In the first vision of the Joyful Mysteries, Mary and Joseph are present with the Christ Child—the Holy Family.  Heaven is emphasizing the dignity of marriage and family life.  Family life is one of the central messages of Fatima.  Heaven calls us to sanctify marriage and our families.  St. Joseph is present as the father figure and husband who blesses the world.  This shows the critical importance of the role of fathers and the family as a whole, especially in our age of endemic broken families and absentee fathers.    

Sorrowful Mysteries

In the second vision of the Sorrowful Mysteries, Lucia sees Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows.  Heaven shows that we must be willing to take up our daily Cross and follow after Christ.  This involves daily penance and reparation for our sins and the sins of others.  The Blessed Virgin Mary told the shepherd children in the August 13 apparition to: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.”  The central message of Fatima is prayer, penance, and reparation for sin in order to save souls.  

Glorious Mysteries

In the third and final vision of the Glorious Mysteries, Lucia sees Our Lady of Mt. Carmel—Mary as the Queen of Heaven.  Our earthly lives of struggle and death are not the end of us.  We have the glorious hope of attaining salvation and the heavenly crown of eternal life.  Sister Lucia described Our Lady of Mt. Carmel as emblematic of total consecration to God.  As Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Mary came bearing the brown scapular offering it to us to wear it as a sign of our consecration to her Immaculate Heart.      

Sister Lucia would later affirm, according to Carmelite priest Fr. Howard Rafferty in an interview on August 15, 1950 that: “The rosary and brown scapular are inseparable. You cannot have one without the other.” 

It was not by accident that in each monthly apparition at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary asked the children to pray the rosary every day. This daily recitation is part of our path to Heaven.  In the October apparition, she also described herself as: “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

Years later, in Pontevedra, Spain on December 10, 1925, Jesus and Mary again appeared to now Sister Lucia.  The Blessed Virgin Mary showed Sister Lucia her Immaculate Heart covered with thorns “which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment.”  She asked Lucia to make reparation for these offenses by fulfilling the Five First Saturdays devotion.  The Blessed Virgin Mary promised her:

“I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess [their sins], receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”  

This is an amazing promise!  October is a time to re-consecrate ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary through daily prayer of the mysteries of the rosary, wearing the brown scapular, and making the first Five Saturdays devotion. Heaven deemed these practices of eminent importance for the salvation of souls to have emphasized these truths in one of the most miraculous apparitions in Church history.  Surely, these holy practices are beneficial for our salvation.   

Our path to Heaven is through prayer, penance, sacrifice, conversion, Confession, and worthily receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.  The mysteries of the rosary are our daily help to bring us step-by-step, and bead-by-bead, to our Heavenly home.  Our Lady of Fatima promised us.    

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Our Lady of Fatima and Communism – August 15, 2021

In 1917, it seems the woman crushing the head of the serpent and the serpent lying in wait of her heel played out in real time.  

The Mother of God came to Portugal in 1917 just as the seed of the serpent was unleashed in Mother Russia. 

MARCH-APRIL: In March 1917, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne, and Lenin returned from exile in Switzerland in April.  Lenin came back to Russia to solidify the Bolshevik Revolution that was exploding across the country.  The errors of Russia were happening in real time.  The Russian monarchy was falling quickly and the Communists were taking over the country.  

MAY:  It was at the very same time that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared from Heaven to three simple peasant children in Fatima.  She came to warn the world about “the errors of Russia.”  Mary first appeared to Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta on May 13, 1917.  

JUNE-JULY:  In July, there was a failed uprising in Russia against the Communists, as the Mother of God appeared again to the children showing them a glimpse of hell.  

AUGUST: In August, Russia continued its descent.  While on August 13th, the Blessed Virgin Mary again appeared to the shepherd children in Portugal telling them, 

“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.”  

In September, there was a failed coup, again, in attempt to stop the Russian Revolution.  While on September 13th the vision of the Mother of God came to the shepherd children urging them to pray the Rosary daily and to prepare for a miracle the next month.  

Finally, in October 1917, the Bolsheviks took over control of the government of Russia.  It was the red “October Revolution.”  Socialism and Communism had arrived upon the world scene.  At this very same time, the Blessed Virgin Mary came in her final dramatic appearance at Fatima on October 13, 1917 with the “Miracle of the Sun.”  The battle between the woman and the serpent, heaven and hell, was revealed plainly for all to see.  

In this last visit of the Mother of God she imparted the message that “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”  She continued, “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”  To sin is to offend God, which leads one’s soul to hell.  The Miracle of the Sun, too, was perhaps an augur of a great chastisement upon the world if we did not repent and change our ways.  It was a great miracle and blessing but also a warning.   

In retrospect, the Blessed Virgin Mary came down from heaven just as the scourge of Socialism and Communism was unleashed upon the world.  This was not a coincidence.  Mary came to warn the world of the errors of Russia and their Communist doctrine.  

And, what were the errors of Russia?  Atheistic materialism.  An authoritarian state of centralized government.  Suppression of God and religion.  Destroy tradition and re-write history.  Decriminalization of abortion.  Attack the family and enactment of no-fault divorces.  Radical sex education.  Restriction of freedoms.  Silencing of dissent.  False imprisonment, and the mass killing of millions of people.  

The errors of Russia sprang primarily from the writings of Karl Marx, whose ideology is a perverse screed, some may say satanic, that dehumanizes the person and deifies the state.  A human being endowed with a soul and the image of his Creator is reduced to a mere material creature, a “worker” for the state.  That’s enslavement, not freedom or utopia.  Mary came down to warn us not to follow his errors.  

Militaristic Marxism came in a more insidious form, too, in Cultural Marxism.  This came out of the Frankfurt School in Germany, and entered into the education system primarily as a way to undermine the Western history.  It went mainstream as Critical Theory.  Their main efforts have been to critique and deconstruct Western Civilization, along with the Bible and the Church.  Critical theory deconstruction has now gone viral in America and in the West.  The battles we are fighting now with “cancel culture” sprang from the roots of Russia’s errors. 

As the Blessed Virgin Mary came to stop the spread of the errors of Russia and Communism, what did she ask us, as the faithful, to do?  Pray the Rosary daily.  Receive the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  Fast and offer spiritual sacrifices.  Wear the brown scapular.  Do the First Five Saturdays Devotion in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Then, there is also the question of the worldwide consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary done by the Pope and all the Bishops.      

Our Lady of Fatima is just as relevant today in 2021, if not more so, as she was in 1917.  We are a world plunged into the errors of Russia.  This is perhaps related to the Third Secret of Fatima that was likely was only partially revealed.  Our Lady’s probable commentary on the third vision, like in the first two parts, has never been disclosed.  Thus, most likely the Third Secret has yet to be fulfilled and it probably involves the errors of Russia spread throughout the world.  The battle between Our Lady and the serpent continues to rage on in America and the West, but as Our Lady of Fatima declared, “But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”  

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The 100th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

This spring will mark 100 years since the Fatima apparitions, and an opportunity to reflect deeply again upon their message. The Angel of Peace appeared three times to the shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, beginning in the spring of 1916 in Fatima, Portugal. These visitations prepared the way for the six apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima the following year. The message of Fatima may be lost sometimes in the mysterious and the spectacular: the apparitions; the “three secrets;” the “dancing of the sun.” Yet, the main entreaties from Heaven concerned our day-to-day earthly activities and how these will forge our eternal destiny. The everlasting consequence of unrepented mortal sin is Hell; knowing this, we should live our lives according to the laws of God, in obedience, purity and virtue. The central message of Fatima was an urgent plea to stay on the narrow path to Heaven.

Fatima calls us to conversion, and a daily turning away from sin. In order to convert the unrepentant, the Angel first taught the children the great value of intercessory prayer. Underscoring the importance of our intercession, the only thing the Virgin Mary requested at all six appearances was for us to pray the Rosary, every day. She told them that our prayers can help save souls, “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.” It is not only intercessory prayer, but also our intercessory sacrifices and sufferings that are efficacious. By virtue of our Baptisms, we are all brought into the Body of Christ and partake in His priesthood, as part of the common priesthood of the faithful. Acting in our priestly role, we can offer ourselves up as “spiritual sacrifices” acceptable to God and in atonement for sins. (CCC 1141)

Further linking us to the Body of Christ, the Angel and the Virgin Mary said we should seek to console God through worthy reception and adoration of the Eucharist. While the idea of consoling an all-powerful God may seem counterintuitive, we are reminded by Pope Pius XI that “we can and ought to console that Most Sacred Heart,” which is continually wounded by our sins (Miserentissimus Redemptor, 13). In a similar way, the Angel offered the children holy Eucharist to make reparation for sins and to “console your God.” This was later echoed in Our Lady’s Eucharistic prayer: “O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!” The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life (CCC 1324), and the Fatima apparitions remind us that worthily receiving Jesus in Communion has the grace to save our souls and console our God.

The Virgin Mary also asked us to make reparation through the “First Five Saturdays” devotion. Our Lady promised Sister Lucia, “to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation” those who will practice this devotion of Confession, Eucharist, recitation of the Rosary, and meditation upon its mysteries. The Church rightly honors the Mother of God, because it was through her, and in consent of her freewill, let it be done to me, that the Savior was born into the world. (Lumen Gentium, VIII) This is what we proclaim in the words of the Rosary: the moment of the Incarnation of God. As Pope Paul VI issued in his 1967 Apostolic Exhortation, Signum Magnum, on the 50th anniversary of Fatima, it is fitting that we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as the spiritual Mother of the Church, for her mediatory role in the salvation of the world.

Now, on this 100th anniversary of Fatima, we are reminded again to contemplate its message and embrace its devotions. Although the Angel of Peace and Our Lady of Fatima appeared during the carnage of World War I, the divine messages are perhaps even more relevant today, in an age of nuclear weapons and renewed militancy across the globe, rampant atheism, materialism and loss of faith, a diminishing Church in the West, and a rapidly growing permissive society. As faithful disciples, we are called to be holy, and intercessors for each other. Fatima was a wake-up call. In it, Jesus’ last words from the Cross come alive “Behold, your mother.” (Jn. 19:27) In the midst of a passing world, we need to get right with eternal things: by penance, Confession, the Eucharist, prayer, especially the Rosary. Our Lady of Fatima renews this call again, to stay on the narrow path to Heaven.

 

 

 

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