The Three Secrets of Our Lady

ON May 13, 1917, Heaven descended to earth, at Fatima, in the person of “a Lady all dressed in white, more brilliant than the sun.”

On June 13, this Lady showed, in front of the palm of Her right hand, a Heart surrounded by thorns that seemed to be piercing It.

On July 13, when Our Lady opened Her hands the reflection of the light that emanated from them seemed to penetrate the earth, “and we saw what looked like a vast ocean of fire. Plunged in this fire we saw demons and souls of the damned.

“The latter were like transparent burning embers, black or bronzed, having human form. They were floating in this fire, lifted up by the flames that issued from within themselves, along with clouds of smoke. They fell back on all sides, like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid cries and groans of pain and despair that were horrifying to hear and made us tremble with fright. It must have been this sight that caused me to let out the cry that the people around me heard.”

This is the terror of damnation, the horror of definitive, irremissible sin for which there is not an ounce of mercy. It is a sin that pits itself against God, hinders Him, offends Him and eternally defies Him.

“On the evening of Good Friday when Jesus had crossed the veil of this life and left the world’s scene behind, He hastened to descend into Hell with the Good Thief, not wishing to be separated from Him, following close behind. And what about the Bad Thief? Did Jesus and the Good Thief come to shake his hand and laugh saying: ‘Come on now, it is all over, let’s be reconciled!’ Inconceivable comedy. Did they let him fall into the Abyss without as much as a look? Or worse: Depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire! Impossible tragedy. What then?

“There are those who do not accept it and those who have resign themselves to Hell... the Hell of others.”●

The first group listen to Our Lady saying “kindly and sadly” to Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta, after having promised them Heaven: “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.

“If what I am going to say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end. If, however, they do not cease to offend God another, a worse one, will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated with an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, famine, and persecutions against the Church and the Holy Father.

“To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation of the first Saturdays of the month. If My requests are heard, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and many nations will be annihilated?”

Will France be annihilated? That might have taken place, but it did not thanks to God and by virtue of the “secret” entrusted by the Immaculate Heart of Mary because in France, there is “Orleans in the Pays de Loire.” That is where Joan of Arc conducted her temporal war, delivered Orleans and led her King to Reims for his coronation, in order that Christendom remain free of barbarism. The passion of Joan wherein she was configured to Jesus, the spiritual agony that took place in Rouen are the pledge of the renewal of the covenant of Reims: this shameful death, this descent into agony and dereliction are the means whereby the Gates of Hell must be vanquished and poor sinners set free.

Then, for the salvation of France, after Joan of Arc and as her disciple, there is Saint Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face who is still carrying on the struggling from Heaven above and gives our hope the incoercible, utopian energy to fight in order that the Name of our Heavenly Father be hallowed, that His Kingdom come, that His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And in Hell? “Ah! Let us struggle against Hell, but let us no longer question God about the work of His First and Eternal Sorrow!”●

In the twentieth century, this struggle against Hell was the “great affair” of Georges de Nantes, the founder of the Little Brothers and Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart, in religion Brother Georges de Jesus-Marie.

IN THE EXPECTATION OF HIS RETURN

In December 1957, Sister Lucy confided to Father Fuentes that we were “in the last times of the world,” but that in the “decisive battle that the Devil was currently waging against the Virgin” – oh, what a mystery – the hierarchy was no longer fulfilling its duties:

“Father, we should not wait for an appeal to come from Rome, on behalf of the Holy Father, calling on the whole world to do penance. Nor should we wait for it to come from our bishops in their dioceses or from the religious congregations. No. Our Lord has already made frequent use of these means and the world has taken no notice. That is why each of us must now begin his own spiritual reform. Each person must not only save his own soul, but also all the souls that God has placed on his path.”

That same year, our Father wrote the “Provisional Rule,” under which, we, the Little Brothers and Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart have accomplished our noviciate since 1958 so as to one day be worthy of canonical recognition, at the hour that God will chose.

This Rule is ‘provisional,’ as is all that is earthly, while awaiting the return of the Lord. Such is the vocation proper to this “new religious family that is turned towards the end of time in order to welcome Christ with lit lamps in their hands and with inflamed hearts, when He returns.” This had been the thought of the author of the Letters to My Friends, for already over a year:

“Conserve, however, the inner serenity that confidence in the victory of the Lord of Glory confers. He will return at the moment when all seems lost, when the elect themselves may be seduced [...]. The profound life of humanity is the prayer of the Church.”

“A soul hidden in God, whose will is fully united to the divine Will in mutual love, is recognisable by his peace [...]. His whole life is the touching adventure of a lost child who has found the road back home.”

LOST CHILDREN.

On September 15, 1958, for the centenary of the birth of Father Charles de Foucauld, we sang the office in the stalls of the church of Villemaur, so permeated with prayerful atmosphere. Father de Nantes became its parish priest: “You will bury yourselves there, Bishop Le Couëdic, of Troyes, had told them “and later on something will sprout.”

After five years of fruitful ministry, in his three rural parishes of Villemaur, Palis and Planty, rhythmed by a happy, hard, effective labour, during which Bishop Le Couëdic had clothed us in the monastic cowl on August 6, 1961, the parish priest of Villemaur received the order to leave his parishes and diocese within fifteen days.

On September 15, 1963 our Community of Brothers settled, as lost children of the Church, into our “Saint Joseph’s House” (Maison Saint-Joseph), which we had acquired thanks to the generosity of our friends.

Nevertheless, the rebuff was profitable for us:

“It is good to be humiliated; we were driven into this monastic life of prayer, work and silence, which we had so long desired.” Furthermore, it was providential for “I was going to be able to follow more attentively the events of the Council, at the moment when the Council was taking its decisive orientation and when the Pope was about to reveal his Grand Design for the Church.”

“The First Session of the Council may not have compromised anything, but a deplorable, redoubtable “Evil Spirit” became evident within the Assembly itself and in its appendages: press, radio and the various parties.

“During the Second Session, on October 30, when the famous orientation votes took place, the Council underwent what Father Congar was bold enough to call its ‘October Revolution’!●

“From then on the worst was to be envisaged; there was no further hope of restoration except through the Pope, whom I called ‘Paul VI the Wise.’ ”●

“In the Spring of 1964 I went to Rome, not to seek any help or favour, but simply to learn what we could hope for from this new pontificate. Paul VI had not yet shown his hand and one hesitated to class him in any particular camp which, to me, seemed to bode well. The Pope must be above all parties in order to be their sovereign judge. I saw him at that time and was struck by the steely blue look in his eyes. I was also impressed by his Wednesday Allocution on May 27 when he spoke on the Blessed Virgin and again by his Corpus Christi Allocution, which he gave on May 31, at the Circolo Massimo. This conjunction of Pope, Our Lady and the Holy Eucharist dispersed my anxieties and I came back to France full of confidence in Paul VI. Letters 173-174 bear witness to this and it is well that it should have been so. It provides indelible proof that there is no systematic hostility or passion on my part.”

AGAINST PAUL VI, AGAINST VATICAN II.

“It was the Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam of August 6, 1964, which made me see things clearly and definitively. That was the Charter for this Pontificate and it announced a bold and resolute Progressivism. After John XXIII, who had been a sort of debonair Louis XVI, we were now to have a Napoleon, determined to save and consolidate the Revolution. Is there anything worse than a revolution coolly led by Supreme Authority? The Progressivists took time to realise that they had cause for rejoicing and that they would be able to use the Pope’s Charter to manipulate him. The Integrists, on the other hand, felt reassured and were happy to know that they were once more being firmly governed. Vital awareness but fidelity to the Pope: Reform but Tradition: Dialogue but proclamation. Everything was a carefully balanced: ‘Yes, But,’ giving the one side all they were asking for and leaving the other side with fine sounding words. My opposition to Paul VI’s Grand Design dates from that August 1964: it is in my Letters 180-181,● not one word of which I have had to change over the past twelve years.

“Bishop Le Couëdic hailed the Encyclical with enthusiasm in the Semaine Religieuse de Troyes (a weekly diocesan bulletin):‘The Church has in some way espoused the world which is dear to her.’ I immediately asked whether this was bigamy, divorce or adultery! (Letter no. 182) I thought that this time, I would lose the greater part of my 6000 readers, as there were then. Although I was denounced and disavowed by the traditionalist newspapers and bulletins, which all expressed satisfaction with the Encyclical by retaining only those parts regarded as restoring the doctrine of Pius XII himself, I slowly convinced my readers, and in the process lost very few. We began to distinguish ourselves from that form of Integrism which was still pledged to a blind and intransigent papism.

“The Third Session saw the Reformist wave unfurl to the extent of shaking the Church’s dogmas and structures. My criticisms were then marked by a vehemence which was called for by the scope of the drama.● I ask you what other theologian or master could present you today with such credentials dating from that period?

“I claimed the right to denounce a prevaricating Pope, who was even then leading the Church to Her ruin, just as Father Pie had taken upon himself to criticise the liberal Pius IX before the events of 1848 converted him! More significantly, however, and reaching further back into the past, I claimed to act as Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem had done with regard to Pope Honorius, who was later anathematised by another Pope at a future Council.● 

“It was far from easy. Paul VI had firmly restricted the already considerable damage to the final hours of the Council session. The Left were furious with him (the idiots!); the Right were gloating and made me conscious of their victory (idiots also!). For this palinode was only a peripeteia. As a realist, Paul VI restrained this movement that was getting dangerously out of control, but only enough to better negotiate the bend and thus take everyone seamlessly where he intended. The Progressivist mafia were determined to have Religious Liberty proclaimed as a Human Right on December 8, 1964 to mark the centenary of the execrated Syllabus, which their new dogma would have contradicted and trampled underfoot. Paul VI obliged them to delay and they missed the date, which infuriated them but delighted all the “bien pensants”. It, however, was only a manoeuvre that was to prevail one year later to the day, in a solemn proclamation by the whole teaching Church of this false, revolutionary, Masonic dogma, the concrete basis of the ‘Cult of Man.’

“From then on everything precipitated. I think that I wrote my most lucid and important Letters (no. 193-219) during this storm. There one saw conciliar reformism in action and how Paul VI governed it and led it to its appalling conclusion. The conclusion is masdu a hideous word to denote a tragic reality: the Movement for the Spiritual Animation of Universal Democracy. It is a ‘conglomeration of all the religions working to construct the modern Tower of Babel,’ insidiously substituted for the Church of Jesus Christ. From February 22, 1965 I saw that this was the goal consciously being sought throughout this entire Reformation and I denounced its Satanic foundation.

“Because he is the Pope, Paul VI encountered no obstacle in his path: everyone is filially, even servilely, submissive to him. All believe in his absolute and unlimited infallibility. I then expounded the heresy reigning in the Conciliar Church by means of a threefold anathema, which I reiterate today (Letter no. 211). I showed the dogmatic reasons why it is that the Acts of this Council and the Discourses of this Pope are bereft of that infallibility expected of their Magisterium: but both the Council and the Pope refuse to exercise this infallibility while, from the beginning, they appropriated an inspirational, apostolic charisma of inerrancy and indefectibility, which is truly exorbitant and related to the purest Modernism. This Letter no. 212 dated September 15, 1965 has never been contested nor refuted; it was not even taken up ten years later by the Integrists when they wanted to justify their anticonciliar rebellion!

“The Fourth Session saw the near annihilation of the traditionalist opposition and a permissive forsaking of everything. The Pope’s visit to the UNO, his attitude, his Masonic speech, his imposing of the dogma of Religious Liberty on the Council by this speech, the promulgation of these most daring Acts of the Council were denounced day after day in the Letters to My Friends (213-219). When Paul VI professed before the entire Catholic Episcopate “We more than anyone else have the Cult of Man,” which they applauded, it was clear that we no longer had the same religion as them!

“In my Letter no. 209 of July 22, 1965, I formulated our Non Possumus. It remains, but a tree does not stop the wind that blows in the plain.

Yet, had the Pope published the Third Secret of Our Lady, the small holm oak on which She had set foot would have stopped the wind in the plain. Today, more than ever, our Hope, which is supernatural, thus certain, is based on this promised victory:

“In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted and a certain period of peace will be given to the world. In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be conserved.”

The end of this great ‘Secret’ entrusted on July 13, 1917 announces under what circumstances:

“At the left of Our Lady and a little higher up we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; it flashed and gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they were extinguished on contact with the brilliant light that Our Lady radiated against them with Her right hand; pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice:

‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’

“And we saw, in an immense light that is God, ‘something similar to the image a mirror reflects when a person passes in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White – ‘We had the impression that it was the Holy Father.’

“Several other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious were climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark. Before reaching there, the Holy Father passed through a large city half in ruins and, half trembling, with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the summit of the mountain, falling on his knees at the foot of the large Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. In the same way there died one after another the Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people, men and women of different ranks and positions.”

“Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels, each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”

This is how the great Secret ends.

Our Lady added: “Do not tell this to anyone. Francisco, yes, you may tell him. When you recite the Rosary, say after each mystery: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins! Save us from the fires of Hell! Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have the greatest need of it.’”

WHAT GOD “WANTS”

No new world or any transformation of the Church can resist. The pandemic warns us today as in 1917 when the war was dragging on. Pope Francis unsuccessfully multiplies diplomatic moves and proposals for reforms to establish a universal fraternity in the world, through ‘synodality.’ This is like Benedict XV in 1917, who was attempting to establish peace through negotiations.

The voice of Heaven answers that of the Vicar of Christ. What does this heavenly voice say? “Pray, and pray much; make sacrifices for sinners for many souls go to Hell because there is no one to sacrifice or pray for them.”

The greatest evil is not the pandemic or war, but sin, which leads poor souls to Hell and unleashes here on earth wars and revolutions. The Message of Fatima invites men to repentance, without which the calamities here below are but the prelude to eternal chastisements. Such is the Queen of Heaven’s firmest and wisest lesson, “like the piercing cry of a mother on seeing her children approach an unfathomable abyss.”

The worst war is the one that men wage against God. True peace is the one that they enjoy when they obey God’s commandments. The greatest evil is neither illness nor poverty, but sin which kills more than the body; it kills the soul for eternity. Out of pity for themselves, let men first cease to outrage the divine Majesty and let them submit to His Law. Then God will grant a little peace and prosperity to this earth. That is what the children of Fatima understood so well. Sin is the only absolute evil!

“Many serious sins are committed in the world” said Jacinta shortly before dying. “If only men knew what eternity is, they would do all in their power to change their lives. Men are lost because they do not think sufficiently of Our Lord’s death and they do no penance.”

One day when the Blessed Virgin appeared to her sadder than ever, She said:

“The sins that lead most souls to Hell are the sins of the flesh. Men must make amends and must not persist in sin as they have done up to now. Great penance is indispensable.”

From then on the children gave themselves up to penance without limit, repeating the prayer they had been taught by the Lady:

“O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Your mercy.”

And the Great War? As the pandemic today, it served God’s designs and lasted as long as necessary for the good of souls. This nightmare led them back to reality. In their misfortune people began to pray again.

“It is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary that you must ask for peace,” Our Lady said. By 1917, however, the chastisement had already been sorely felt by all peoples and the gift of peace would not be long in coming. On July 13, the Blessed Virgin announced to the children: “The war is coming to an end…”

The sign of God’s peace with men was not long in coming; it was the Armistice of 1918, like that of 1871 after Pontmain.● Was this the universal and definitive peace, announced by so many? No, because the world would return to the evil devouring it: sin. As in 1871, after Pontmain.

What sin? We do not have to look for social sins or collective crimes; the Blessed Virgin had nothing to say about those. It is personal sin, those well-known to each one of us. We must repent and mend our ways, without waiting for the world to be reformed or some general, Soviet-like, Synodal orders. It is not a question of condemning certain peoples, or one class of men, or “other people.”

Our Heavenly Mother has shown us that it is our own sins, which are the certain and proximate cause of the ills suffered by human society. We must “not offend the Lord Our God any more, for He is already too greatly offended!

‘Do you want anything more of me?’

‘No, I want nothing more of you.’

‘Then neither will I ask anything more of You.’”

THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN.

“She is going!” Lucy suddenly shouted. “She is going! Look at the sun!”

“Then, opening Her hands,” Lucy relates, “Our Lady made them reflect on the sun, and as She ascended, the reflection of Her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself. That is the reason why I cried out to look at the sun. My aim was not to draw the attention of the people in this way, because I was not even aware of their presence.”

Ti Marto, the father of Francisco and Jacinta relates: “Then we were able to look at the sun perfectly without the least inconvenience. It seemed to flicker on and off, first one way and then another. It shot rays here and there and painted everything in different colours – the trees, the people, the ground and the air. People were exclaiming: ‘Look! Look how beautiful it is!’ What was most extraordinary was that the sun did not hurt our eyes at all.”

THE FALL OF THE SUN.

Suddenly, the sun jolted and it began to turn on itself at a dizzying speed. It stopped and twice began to twirl again. “It produced different colours,” Maria Carreira relates, “yellow, blue, white; and it shook, shook in such a way! It seemed a wheel of fire which was going to fall on the crowd. They shouted: ‘O Jesus! We shall all be killed! O Jesus! We are all going to die!’ Others shouted: ‘Our Lady, help us!’ And they recited the Act of Contrition. There was even a lady who made her general confession, and said in a loud voice: ‘I have done this, I have done that… and that still!’”

Finally, the sun seemed to detach itself from the sky. “It appeared to grow in volume, plummeting and falling towards the earth, as if to announce something both happy and frightening. It seemed to descend towards us, manifesting the miracle, and greeting the Queen of Heaven and the universe Who had spoken to the three shepherds.

One of the countless witnesses recounts:

“Seeing the sun falling on us, I cried out: ‘I'm going to die!’ I got on my knees on the pebbles, folded my hands, and asked the Lord forgiveness for all my faults.”

As soon as the sun rose to the zenith, there was an explosion of joy. The promise of Our Lady had been fulfilled to the letter: all, that is, the seventy thousand people gathered at the Cova da Iria, among whom were many sceptics, atheists and anticlericals, had seen the miracle.

“Now,” the mother of Lucy said, “it is impossible not to believe it, because no one can touch the sun.” No one, except the Immaculate Blessed Virgin.

People’s clothes, soaked in the rain, had dried in an instant.

THE VISION OF JESUS, MARY, JOSEPH.

While the throng was terrified by the fall of the sun, the little shepherds were sent into heavenly raptures by seeing three successive tableaux:

“After Our Lady had disappeared in the immensity of the firmament, we saw, next to the sun, Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle. Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, tracing the sign of the cross with their hands.”

Our Lady had just given Her name: “I am Our Lady of the Rosary,” before recommending: “Continue to say the Rosary every day.” This vision of the Holy Family blessing the world invited everyone to contemplate the joyful mysteries of the Rosary.

“Shortly afterwards, this apparition having disappeared, I saw Our Lord, and Our Lady Who gave me the impression of being Our Lady of Sorrows,” because She was wearing “a purple mantle.” As for Our Lord, dressed in purple as in the scene of the derision, “He seemed to bless the world in the same manner that Saint Joseph had.” Sorrowful Mysteries.

“This Apparition disappeared, and it seemed to me that I saw Our Lady once again under the appearance of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, because She had something which was hanging from her hand.”

This “something” was the Scapular of Mount Carmel given to Saint Simon Stock, in the 13^th century, by the Virgin Mary Who was accompanied by a multitude of angels: She held in Her hand the scapular of the order and She said to him: “This is the privilege that I give to you and to all the children of Carmel. Whoever dies wearing this habit will be saved.” Glorious mysteries.

As soon as the extraordinary cosmic phenomena ended, many enthusiastic pilgrims rushed to the seers. Nevertheless, Lucy maintained her composure.

Mr. Mendes, PhD in law, who wanted to free her from this crowd that could have smothered her, and had taken her in his arms, said: “The extraordinary fact was that she tried to climb further up onto my shoulders, which thus became the first platform from which she preached the message that Our Lady of the Rosary had just confided to her. With great faith, she shouted in a loud and confident voice:

“Do penance! Do penance! Our Lady wants you to do penance! If you do penance, the war will end.”

“Her energetic, warm, enthusiastic attitude, as though she were carrying out a mission, impressed me deeply. She appeared inspired. Her voice had intonations like the voice of a great prophet.”

REDEMPTIVE COMPASSION.

In 1916, Our Lady’s precursory Angel caught Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta by surprise playing during the torrid hours of a July afternoon.

“What are you doing? Pray, and pray much! The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Constantly offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High.

‘How are we to make sacrifices?’ Lucy asked.

‘Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. In this way, you will draw down peace on your country. I am its Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings that the Lord will send you.’”

Later, in autumn, when he brought them Communion, the Angel would say to them: “Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”

In 1917, the Virgin Mary would speak to them in the same words. On May 13, She asked them:

“Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?

‘Yes, we are willing.’

‘Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.’

“As She pronounced these last words, Our Lady opened Her hands for the first time and communicated to us, as though by a reflection that emanated from them, a light so intense that it penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors.

“Then, moved by an inner impulse that was communicated to us, we fell to our knees, repeating in our hearts: ‘O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the Most Blessed Sacrament.’”

Thus, Heaven revived through the words of a ten-year-old child the most mysterious and the most moving part of our holy religion, that of the Communion of Saints in sacrifice.

Whilst everyone is called upon to do penance for his own sins and to change his behaviour and whilst the world ought not to hope for peace before having merited such a benefit through sincere conversion, here the Blessed Virgin is appealing to Her devout children to pray and to sacrifice themselves through love, in place of sinners, assuring them that such charitable reparation will merit eternal salvation for many souls in peril, and for the world it will merit the benefit of peace even before the world itself has given any satisfaction. This compassion and co-redemption comes to temper and even change the rigours of Divine Justice. Thereafter who would be able to forecast the eternal fate of sinners and the future of the world? On the one hand so many crimes deserve chastisements and damnation: the fall of the sun is the very certain “harbinger” of this. As in the past, when “the Temple of God in Heaven opened, and its Ark of the Covenant appeared in the Temple and there came flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and great hail.” (Ap 11:19)

On the other hand, the Sorrowful Hearts of Jesus and Mary let themselves be touched and moved by so many innocent victims sacrificing themselves for their brothers.

“A great portent appeared in heaven: a Woman! She is clothed with the sun, with the moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Ap 12:1)

The sun rose back to its place. Hope springs anew, and leads us, in a burst of enthusiasm, no longer to moan, but to enter into this great salutary movement, each according to his vocation, without being concerned to know whether the others would follow suit.

Prayer! Penance! It may even be that our humble addition to the treasury of the Saints will merit the world’s salvation! Such is the admirable perspective of grace opened before us in the beautiful sky of Fatima.

“TO THROW FLOWERS”

What is being asked of us? Hardly anything!

First, to recite the Rosary. Its joyful mysteries of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, appeared in the sky as a source of blessing on the world, then the sorrowful mysteries by which the vision of the sorrowful Virgin invites us to commiserate on the outrages suffered by Her Divine Son, for the conversion of sinners; while the scapular of Mount Carmel is a ticket to Heaven!

Sacrifices, however, must be made. This is what Saint Thérèse called “throwing flowers.” In 1916, the Angel prepared the children for their vocation as reparatory victims. All those who enter deeply into the spirit of Fatima will experience the same call. They will no longer distinguish between the penance they must do for their own sins and the penance they add to them on behalf of poor sinners. The great impetus that carries them in the footsteps of the little seers, is that of consoling and reparatory love. God suffers from so many outrages, sacrileges and such indifference! Let us console His Heart! So many sinners are in danger of falling into Hell. Let us make reparation for them… “So many people fall into Hell! So many people!” exclaimed Jacinta. “Oh! If only we could close the gates of that terrible furnace forever, with our sacrifices! If only we could see to it that all sinners go to Heaven!”

Such thoughts as those, gave the children an ardent desire to suffer: “Let us give our snack to the sheep. To go without a snack, that’s a fine penance.”

This “snack” was their midday meal! Soon they would give it to poor children. In the heat of summer they deprived themselves of drink. They rubbed themselves with stinging nettles. They made themselves a cilice with a cord. It made Jacinta weep tears of pain, but when Lucy told her to take it off, she replied: “No! We have to suffer in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners.”

Yet it is touching to hear the Blessed Virgin tell Lucy on September 13: “Our Lord is pleased with your sacrifices, but He does not wish you to keep the cord on in bed. Wear it only during the day.”

The motive was to suffer for sinners, but even more “to console Jesus and Our Lady,” these children said. “What pleases you most,” asked Lucy, “to console Jesus or to convert sinners so that they don’t go to Hell?”

‘If I have to choose,’ answered Jacinta, ‘I would prefer to console Our Lord. Did you notice how sad the Blessed Virgin became again last month when She asked that Our Lord, Who is so much offended, be offended no more?’ ”

The sorrow of the Blessed Beings in Heaven, Their desire to be consoled and the joy procured to Them by the suffering offered by innocent or penitent creatures, are mysteries beyond our understanding. Yet these children saw with their own eyes, what they have translated into this kind of language and human sentiment, namely that the most intimate and profound mystery of all is God’s love for us.

“To console Our Lord Who is so afflicted on account of our sins,” to be moved by the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin that appeared to Lucy surrounded and wounded by a crown of thorns, this is the sublime work requested of fervent and loving souls. The Virgin Mary Who had appeared to Saint John in the sky of Patmos was suffering and crying out in the pains of childbirth, as we can read in the Apocalypse and as he had seen Her at the foot of the Cross, where She remains every day, Her Heart pierced with that of Her Divine Son for the mysterious birth of souls to eternal life!

This mystery of the Passion of the Divine Hearts and of the compassion of faithful Christians governs another mystery: God can refuse nothing to His children when they seek to console His Heart in such a touching and deserving manner. At this sight, His Justice changes into Mercy and the chastisements decreed give place to the world’s salvation.

CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY.

“You will see Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus ready to give peace to the world,” Our Lady announced on August 19. However, on one very precise condition: the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the consecration of Russia to this Immaculate Heart by the Pope, so that through the example it sets, the whole human race may be converted. This is what God wills! Here, our Father pointed out, we have reached the most decried aspect of our religion, that of God’s good pleasure, whereby He decides sovereignly the worship the Church should offer Him, to be pleasing to Him and to merit His graces.

Thus, God wills that the Virgin Mary, His Mother, be exalted. He wills that a magnificent, manifold, popular, traditional, public and universal cult be rendered to Her. Our Lady cherished the ribbons that decorated the holm oak tree on which She appeared at the Cova da Iria, the rustic arch set up by the good Maria Carreira and its lanterns that burned there night and day. Our Lady desired a chapel to be erected and two processional litters to be made in order to solemnise the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. She made an abundant spring gush forth from the desert plateau, where it pleased Her to see great throngs gather in Her honour.

The Mother and Her Son have the same thoughts, the same tastes! She desires a devotion entirely like that requested by the Heart of Jesus, 350 years before at Paray Le Monial. Let Christians observe five first Saturdays of the month by confession and a Communion of Reparation and abundant graces will be given to them at the moment of death. Let the world be consecrated to Her and there will be peace! This is the “secret of the Secret” entrusted to Lucy by Jacinta before dying:

« You must tell the whole world that God wishes to accord His graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that men must have no hesitation in asking them of Her, and that the Sacred Heart of Jesus desires to be venerated together with the Heart of His Mother; that men must pray for peace to this Immaculate Heart because God has entrusted it to Her.”

World Peace and salvation is thus in the hands of the Church. She only has to develop and intensify the cult and devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary instead of profaning herself in the service, the cult and love of Man and of the World. Christendom would be reborn if the Church were to turn away from this illness that has been consuming her for sixty years, and if the Pope were to go to Fatima to accomplish the prophetic vision that the Queen of Heaven confided in the great Secret on July 13, 1917, to three little children under the age of ten. She did so to warn, in due course, the Church and the world of the punishment incurred because of the hierarchy’s persistence in disobeying Her Demands. Whilst awaiting this renaissance, Christendom today is reduced to “a large city half in ruins,” through which the Holy Father, “half trembling,” passes “with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow,” while praying “for the souls of the corpses he met on his way.”

MARTYR “DRESSED IN WHITE. ”

Pope John Paul I, “a new saint Pius X without knowing it,” was martyred on September 28, 1978, as a victim of holocaust to merciful Love.

Pope John Paul I was determined to obey Our Lady of Fatima: “If I live, I shall return to Fatima to consecrate the world and particularly the peoples of Russia to the Blessed Virgin, in accordance with the instructions She gave to Sister Lucy.” Thus, the Holy Father entered into this divine plan with childlike docility.

“If I live…” He was thus warned of the martyrdom announced in the vision of the “Third Secret” that Our Lady of Fatima confided to Lucy on July 13, 1917: Sister Lucy had either revealed the Secret to him, or she had only given him to understand that he would be the next Pope.

John Paul I fulfilled the prophecy, although he was not “killed by a group of soldiers” but murdered by his brothers, like Jesus crucified on “a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark” Thus, one cannot accuse Sister Lucy of having written a false prophecy forty years before the event! Nevertheless, it is indeed true that, after thirty-three days of pontificate, he was the victim of this attack when he had “reached the summit of the mountain, falling on his knees at the foot of the large Cross.”

While “beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels, each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”

The adage is ancient: “Sanguis martyrum semen christianorum.” It summarises the first centuries of the Church, and it announces the last times we are living in, which were inaugurated by the Revolution.

Brother Bruno of Jesus-Mary.