“Calls from the Message of Fatima” 

IN the second part of her work, entitled “Calls from the Message of Fatima”, Sister Lucy writes by way of an introduction:

« I want now to go back over the Message which the good God, through his most holy Mother, entrusted to the humble little shepherds of the Cova da Iria, in order to convey once again his perennial calls to the people of today, and in particular to those who come on pilgrimage to Fatima.

« To say “pilgrims of Fatima” is the same as saying “pilgrims of peace”; I am told that there is a language in which the word “Fatima” means peace.

« At all events, we are all pilgrims of peace. We all desire and long for peaceful days, to be able to live in peace. » (Calls, p. 59)

It could be taken for a speech of John Paul II! And we would expect to hear: But this peace, will not be reached as long as we do not take Human Rights as the rule and guide of our actions.

But no! The phraseology only closely follows that of John Paul II so as to better contradict it. For God, it is not a question of “a new evangelisation”, but of a renewal of « his perennial calls to the people of today » For « this peace will not be achieved until we use the Law of God as the norm and guide of our steps. Now the entire Message of Fatima is a call to pay attention to this divine Law. For this reason, we will go through it step by step and it will point out for us the way we are to go. »

For Sister Lucy, this « way » is well marked out since the 13 June 1917 when Our Lady said to her « My Immaculate Heart will be the way that will lead you to God. » Sixty years later, she reflects on the « way » that she has traversed in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She recognises therein the Law of perfection, the Divine Law:

« When the Apparitions took place, she continued I did not really know this Law; I only had a limited and very vague idea about it, no different from that of any other simple ignorant child – such as I was then – unable to read and write, and living in a place such as my home village, so far removed from education and culture. Moreover, in spite of having later lived in more educated circles, I confess that I only acquired this knowledge very slowly, through the light that God gave me. »

« In fact, only long after those events took place, and after I had written about them, was I allowed to read Sacred Scripture. Only then did I understand the true meaning of the Message, although it had been given to me to understand it earlier, but in a less concrete way. » (Calls, p. 59)

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN

The first “Calls” are a commentary of the prayer of the Angel who called himself « the Angel of Peace », during his first apparition.

« It was the Spring of 1916... At least, I think it was, because at that time, being a child, I did not bother my head with dates, and might even not have known what date of the month it was!

« One day, then, about that time, when the three little Fatima shepherds were on the slope of the hill known as the “Cabeço”, beneath a rock called the “Loca”, they saw, some way off, a young man approaching them who seemed to be made of light. When he reached them, he said: “Fear not! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me!”

« He knelt on the earth, and bent down with his forehead touching the ground, saying three times: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, who do not adore, who do not hope, who do not love Thee.” He stood up and said: “Pray thus; the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications”.

« The first Call which God addresses to us through His Messenger is thus a call to faith: My God, I believe!

« Faith is the basis of the entire spiritual life. It is by faith that we believe in the existence of God, in His power, His wisdom, His mercy, His work of redemption, His pardon and His fatherly love. » (Calls, p. 60)

Without faith, there is no spiritual life. Without the Catholic faith, the soul is as though dead: « I believe in God, the Father Almighty », but Sister Lucy adds to the « Almightiness, » the « wisdom » and « mercy », that were revealed to her by the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, according to the words of the Angel at his second apparition: « The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. »

From this wisdom and this mercy results the Redemption, the redemptive work, the pardon and love with which the Father surrounds us.

In the style of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Chapter 11), Sister Lucy then sings of the ardent lamp of the faith that blazes in her heart:

« It is by faith that we believe in God’s Church, founded by Jesus Christ, and in the doctrine the Church transmits to us and by which we shall be saved.

« It is the light of faith that guides our steps, directing us along the narrow way that leads to Heaven.

« It is by faith that we see Christ in others, loving, serving and helping them when they are in need of our assistance.

« And it is also our faith that assures us that God is present within us, that his eyes are always upon us.

« They are eyes of Light, almighty and immense, which extends everywhere, sees everything, and penetrates all things with the unique purity proper to the Divine Sun alone, as compared with which the sun which we see and which shines on us is no more than a pale reflection, a fragile spark emanating from the Light of the immense Being which is God.

She hastens to add: « What I have just said to you is nothing new », with abundant scriptural proofs to support it. Nevertheless, if she were free, she would add: « But I tell it the way I saw it. » For she had seen the brightness of the « sun which we see and which gives us light » diminish during the apparition of the Immaculate Virgin surrounded by the « immense light that is God ».

She continues:

« St. John had already said it at the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything came about through Him, and without Him nothing that has happened would have come about. In Him is life, and the life is the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness could not stifle it.” (Jn 1.1-5).

« In this passage, St. John speaks to us of the eternal Being of the Word of God; he tells us that everything was created by Him; that everything received from Him the being that it possesses. In His power, goodness and infinite wisdom, God bestows on everything that exists all the gifts it needs for its subsistence. Hence, everything depends on Him and without Him nothing can continue to exist.

« St. John also speaks to us of the light of God, telling us that this light is our life: “in Him is life, and the life is the light of men”. Hence, our life is a spark from the Light of God shining within us.

This magnificent summary of the entire Bible and of all wisdom expresses a mystical experience felt by three children of ten, eight and seven years of age!

« It came from God and must return to God [ exitus, redditus: the entire theology of St. Thomas Aquinas ] unless sin drives it away. These truths open up paths of light before us. »

These « paths of light » are not a poetic metaphor. The seers contemplated them when Our Lady opened Her hands and communicated to them « the reflection of that immense light » which Lucy described in her Memoirs: « In this light, we saw ourselves immersed as it were in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose towards Heaven, whereas I was in that part which illuminated the earth. »

« It is up to us to choose whether or not to follow them. » continues the Calls. As a matter of fact, Our Lady asked the « poor little ones » if they truly wanted to embark on this way; they replied with fervour and generosity: « Yes, we are willing. »

« Everything that exists is a manifestation of God, of his provident and redeeming creative work. » (Calls, p.61)

This “Franciscan” affirmation does not come from a study of the theology of St. Bonaventure or of Duns Scotus in Sister Lucy’s case. Rather, it is an infused light communicated by Our Lady, « as though by a reflection that emanated from Her, related Sister Lucy in her Memoirs, a light so bright that, penetrating into our heart and into the depths of our soul, She made us see ourselves in God, who was this light, more distinctly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors. » (JPI, p. 479)

THY KINGDOM COME

She then turns with authority towards scientists:

« In our day, when science has made such progress, when daring men have walked on the moon, and the world rejoices in so many advances, let none of the wise men of today forget the name and greatness of the Artificer who created all these worlds which they so much long to explore.

« Let me tell you about something that happened to me a few years ago. We had heard the news about two astronauts on their way to the moon who had not managed to reach their destination.

« I went out into our garden with the intention of going as far as the statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which we venerate there [photo on page one].

« As I went out through the door, I paused for a few moments to watch the bees from a hive in front of it. They were furiously busy! Then I noticed an ant crawling up one of the filaments of a spider’s web, in an attempt to get from there to the hive. But a bee returning to the hive loaded with pollen knocked against the filament and broke it, and the ant fell to the ground, its aim frustrated.

« Then I thought about the two astronauts who were lost in space and was sorry for them; and I thought: this ant falls to the ground and the bee enters triumphantly into the hive with the fruit of its labours! The two are an image of human power and knowledge set alongside the power and knowledge of God.

« How much study, how many calculations, how much energy and sacrifices have men put into the effort of setting foot on a star which God created with a single act of His will, His wisdom and His power. Being almighty, He placed it there and keeps it there, always in the same position, always following the same path which God has marked out for it for as long as God wills. And not only the moon. The same is true of all the other stars, too, known and unknown, which travel round in space where men can never dream of going. Here we have, side by side, the greatness of God and the powerlessness of men. » (Calls, pp. 61-62)

We also have in this observation of Sister Lucy, an example of an act of worship rendered to God, Creator and Providence of the universe. Here now is the cult of man celebrated in a “hymn to the glory of man” uttered by Pope Paul VI on the occasion of a successful interplanetary voyage in 1971:

« What is Man, this atom of the universe, incapable of doing!

« Honour to Man!

« Honour to his thought; honour to his scientific knowledge;

« Honour to his technical skill; honour to his work;

« Honour to human endurance;

« Honour to that combination of scientific activity and organisation by which man, unlike the other animals, can invest his spirit and his manual dexterity with instruments of conquest;

« Honour to Man, King of the Earth, and today Prince of the Heavens!

(JPI, p. 252)

« In his Book of Accusation (p. 12), recalls Brother Francis, the Abbé de Nantes denounced this speech as a blasphemous parody of the Hymn to Christ the King of Ages which the Church sang every morning at the liturgical office of Prime before the post-conciliar reform. » As for Sister Lucy of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart, it is to Mary that she offers veneration:

« With these thoughts in mind, I took out my Rosary and went down to the statue of Our Lady to pray, asking her, since God had not granted to these men the grace of treading on the moon, at least to grant them the grace of returning safe and sound to their country and the bosom of their families. » (Calls, p. 62)

This show us that the truths of the faith are not compartmentalised in Sister Lucy’s life, a body of thought that may be conveniently disregarded.

« But faith does not consist solely in believing in the existence of God, in His power and in His wisdom. It has many other facets turned in other directions, and our full adherence must extend to their utmost extremities. »

Not only to sciences, but even to politics, as is shown by the seer’s intervention to inform the Bishops of Portugal in 1945 that « the Good God had chosen Salazar to continue to govern his country and that it is to him that would be granted the light and the grace to lead the Portuguese people in the ways of peace and prosperity » (JPI, pp. 175-176). Fortified by this heavenly support, Salazar foiled the conspiracy woven against him with the complicity of the adherents of the Christian Democrat movement, and governed with serenity, driven by a single ambition: « To make Portugal live from day to day. »

« Over the years, Salazar’s relationship with the seer of Fatima became more and more intimate. They spoke to one another by telephone, and he visited the Carmel of Coimbra when he went to Vimieiro, his home town, where he owned a modest country home. When he was overwhelmed with serious worries, he asked for her prayers » (ibid., p. 180).

THY WILL BE DONE

Sister Lucy is a true mystic. There are no disturbing contortions to escape from ordinary life, no condemnation of the natural order and of society to construct a new world! Her way of looking at things alone is new, and deals with this world to reveal its deep beauty, its eternal worth. God is therein, illuminating everything with His splendour.

The word of God contained in Sacred Scripture is a revelation which we cannot deny because – as Jesus Christ himself tells us in his Gospel – What I say to you I do not speak of My own accord: it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His works. You must believe when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. (Jn 14.10-11). We see that Jesus Christ draws our attention to His works, because what a person does bears true witness to what a person is, and confirms what a person says.

This remark applies to the letter to the Message of Fatima and to the « works » that were its fruits in Portugal, and which tomorrow will bear its fruit in Russia and in the entire world through the mediation of Russia once it is converted:

« Hence, when St. John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if He were the Messiah or if they were to wait for another, “Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Mt 11.4-5) As no-one other than God can perform miracles, Jesus uses them to confirm His word and His power of life: “He who hears My word and believes in Him that sent Me has everlasting life and comes not to judgement but has passed from death to life.” (Jn 5.24) »

This was precisely Portugal’s case. thanks to its consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whereas the rest of the world sunk into the hell of the Second World War.

GOD MADE MAN

Sister Lucy continues her profession of faith as an eye witness, so to speak, of each article of the Creed:

« So we see that the word of Jesus Christ is the word of God, because Jesus Christ is God, equal to the Father in all things and able to say: “The Father and I, We are one.” (Jn 10.30) »

Let us not forget, Sister Lucy saw at Tuy this unity of the Father and the Son, in two distinct Persons: on the upper part of the « Cross of light », the Father, under the appearance of « the face of a man and His body to the waist. On his breast there was a dove, also full of light, and, nailed to the cross, the body of another man. »

To Philip who said, « Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied. », Jesus replied: « Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father, so how can you say: “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? » (Jn 14.8-10) Sister Lucy had seen this mystery: « I understood that I had been shown the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and I received insights into this mystery that I am not permitted to reveal. »

She at least spontaneously finds the divine words used by St. John, as well as those of the dogma of the faith:

« Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God who became man… » Surprise! Sister Lucy uses the formula dear to our Father, although apparently Monophysite and inherited from St. Cyril of Alexandria, who definitely brought about the triumph of the dogma of the Divine Maternity of Mary at the Council of Ephesus by virtue of the « one nature of God the Word Incarnate ».

« … in the womb of the Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Lk 1.35).

« When, at the Annunciation, the Angel addressed these words to Mary, he proclaimed the divinity of the Son who was to take human flesh in her womb and be born in order to make Himself equal to us, visible to our eyes and so able to accomplish the work of our Redemption. » (Calls, pp. 62-63)

And here is the formula of the Council of Chalcedon that protects against any Monophysite heresy: « Jesus Christ, therefore, true God and true Man »…

Sister Lucy is a very sound theologian… We can apply to her the rest of her own remarks, remarks that should make the superiors, bishops and Popes who did not want to listen to her tremble, if they still had the faith:

Jesus Christ, then, is true God and true Man. His word is eternal life for those who listen to it and carry it out. To reject it is to carve out one’s own sentence of condemnation, as the Lord tells us: “If anyone hears My words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world. Anyone who rejects Me and refuses My words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. The word you hear is not My own: it is the word of the Father who sent Me and who commanded Me to say what I had to say and to make known. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I tell you, therefore, is what the Father told Me to tell you.” (Jn 12.47-50)

« He had said earlier on: “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and Life.” (Jn 6.63). The word of Christ is the word of the Father: “the Father who sent Me and who commanded Me to say what I had to say and to make known.” Thus Christ came into the world, not in order to destroy the Law of God but to fulfil it, perfect it and explain to us its true meaning and how we are to understand it and practise it. His words were: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Mt 5.17) »

Sister Lucy’s aim is to show that it is no different as far as the “Message of Fatima” is concerned. Now, the extraordinary thing is to observe that we can put the words of Our Lord into Sister Lucy’s mouth, so true is it that the “Message of Fatima” is, in itself, an updating of the Law and the Prophets through which « we shall be either saved or condemned » (Calls, p. 64).

VENERATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN, THE WAY WHICH LEADS TO GOD

« Jesus Christ came into the world as a Teacher in order to teach us, to guide our feet in the way of truth, justice, charity and life. Any way other than the one He has mapped out for us is a way that leads to eternal death. »

This affirmation condemns “interreligion” of all forms. And, in order to more certainly block every gnosis, even pontifical, which claims to find “Christ” in other religions and irreligions, she writes: « His teaching is precise and exact. But in order to carry out the word of Jesus Christ, we need to know it and to believe in Him. For how can we fulfil a Law if we do not know it, or if we do not believe in the one who promulgated it? Hence, it is necessary to acknowledge the person of Christ. »

But who will lead us to this amiable Divine Person? « My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God » These words of Our Lady were said to Lucy on 13 June 1917, but she always considered them to be a “public revelation” intended to lead souls to Jesus through Mary: « I think that this promise is not for me alone, but for all souls who want to take refuge in the Heart of their Heavenly Mother and to let themselves be lead along the ways mapped out by Her. »

On 13 July 1917, after having shown Hell to the three children, Our Lady told them that in order to stop the souls of poor sinners from falling into it, God wished to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

So must « the Laws of God » be identified with the will of this Immaculate Heart? Most certainly. But censorship is imposed on this topic! So Sister Lucy makes an immense, theologically irreproachable excursus on the submission that we owe to the Church. It is up to us to recall that the Church has a Heart, and that this Heart is none other than the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

« In the world, there are unfortunately many people who believe themselves wise, but who know little or nothing about the laws of God. Sadly, moreover, people often argue against these laws, not because they know them well, but because they see in them an obstacle to their own disordered passions, to their lack of justice and charity. And yet, it is the laws of God that we should all be most anxious to know, as it is through them that we shall be either saved or condemned.

« There are others who do, in fact, know the laws of God but who interpret them to mean quite the opposite of what Christ said, believing, in this way, that they are justifying the disorderliness of their own disorderly conduct; they thereby cause great harm to themselves and to their neighbour, whom they deceive by their bad example, their outlook and their misleading words. They are like those about whom Jesus Christ said: “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Mt 15.14). Hence, we must be on our guard where they are concerned. »

But just who are the Pharisees of our times? The answer is scathing:

« By applying the rule that Jesus Christ gave us, we can know them by their fruits: “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Lk 6.43-45).

« This is the guiding principle given to us by Jesus Christ: to examine the fruits of those who present themselves as our guides in the ways of life and see whether or not they are in accordance with the teaching of the one true Church of God founded by Jesus Christ, which possesses the gift of infallibility in recognising and declaring the Truth of Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit: “I shall ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows Him; but you know Him, because He is with you, He is in you.” (Jn 14.16-17)

« This promise made by Jesus Christ to his Church gives us absolute certainty in the ways of faith which we must tread, and which have been marked out for us by the Church of Christ, since the Church in turn is guided by the Holy Spirit; it is the Holy Spirit who speaks to us through the mouth of the Church. » (Calls, pp. 64-65)

THE CHURCH IS INFALLIBLE AGAINST ALL HERESY

« I have been asked the following question a number of times: “How are we to know the true Church of Christ?” The theologians who study these things will be better able to answer this question than I, who am poor and ignorant. » Luckily, there are not only theologians: there are also the inspired authors of Holy Scripture. « I would not even attempt to do so unless the sacred text were there to elucidate the matter for us. »

Sister Lucy replies so well that she showed herself to be the pure instrument of the Immaculate, in order to carry out what has been said of her: « The Woman shall crush the serpent’s head » and also « You alone shall overcome all heresies throughout the world. » For she continues, after having recalled Peter’s profession of faith at Caesarea Philippi, and the promise that Jesus made to him in return:

That was how Jesus Christ appointed St. Peter as Head and Leader of his Church on earth, with all the powers to govern, direct and instruct, under the guidance and with the abiding help of the Holy Spirit; and it was for this reason that the divine Master gave him the gift of « infallibility ». If this were not the case, Jesus Christ could surely not have promised that whatever His representatives did in His name on earth would be endorsed in Heaven. We all know very well how men and women, mere creatures that they are, are subject to shortcomings and liable to make mistakes. »

« Hence, it is the assistance of the Holy Spirit promised to his Church by Jesus Christ that guarantees for us its infallibility: “And the word that you hear is not My own; it is the word of the Father who sent Me. I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.” (Jn 14.24-26) »

By virtue of this divine assistance, when the Church repeats « what has been believed always, by everyone and everywhere », she enjoys what is called the infallibility of the Ordinary Magisterium, the specification « always » excludes all novelties from its field of application.

Sister Lucy continues: « And later on, reverting to the same subject, the Lord also said: « When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to You from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, He will be My witness; He will lead you to the complete truth.” (Jn 15.26; 16.13)

By this promise, the Lord announces, not the discovery of new things independent of his word, less yet in contradiction with it; rather, He promises a progressive discovery « of the whole truth ».

What is « truth »? Sister Lucy hastens to specify it: it is Jesus. She adds:

Thus the infallibility of the Church is guaranteed for us by the words of Christ who is the Truth: “I am the Way; I am the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me » (Jn 14.6). Our way is the word of Christ, entrusted to His Church, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

« The whole truth », is therefore the clarity of the intelligence and the fire of love which embraces Jesus completely, God made man, with His Body and His Blood that He gives to us to eat and drink, at the same time as His Soul and Spirit that He pours out into us. If this Truth is seriously disputed, as was the case in the sixteenth century, the supreme Magisterium resolves the question sovereignly. This is what the Council of Trent did, by appealing to its infallibility. And the same will be done tomorrow, to condemn the religious freedom wrongly proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council.

THE CHURCH IS ONE AGAINST ALL SCHISM

But your questions went further than that: “Among the various churches that call themselves Christian, which is the earliest and the true one?” »

Between « the churches that call themselves Christian » of Protestant allegiance, and the Roman Catholic Church, the appeal to infallibility settles the question. Protestants do not believe « the whole truth », since they do not, for example, believe in the Eucharist. So they cannot claim to be the « earliest and true » Church, which has always believed, everywhere, since its founding by the Apostles, in this Blessed Sacrament.

The question raised here brings us back to the Message of Fatima, and replies to the great concern of Sister Lucy: the conversion of Russia as a result of its consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As we have seen, Jesus Christ chose St. Peter as Head and Leader of his Church on earth. He entrusted to him the deposit of his teaching, for him to keep and teach, together with all those who would remain united to him in the same faith, the same hope and the same charity.

This is why Our Lord is anxious that the expected miracle of the conversion of Russia be the fruit of its consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Holy Father and by all the bishops in union with him. However, Sister Lucy is submissive to that censorship that has imposed on her not to speak of the conversion of Russia, less yet of its consecration, but only about him who will be its instrument, the successor of Peter:

St. John tells us that one day after His resurrection, Jesus Christ waited on the beach for His apostles who had gone fishing; and that He gave them a meal of grilled fish and bread when they got out of the boat. “When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these others do? He answered: Yes, Lord, You know I love You. Jesus said to him: Feed my lambs. But a second time, He said to him: Simon son of John, do you love Me? He replied: Yes, Lord, You know I love You. Jesus said to him: Feed My sheep. Then He said to him a third time: Simon son of John, do you love Me? Peter was hurt that He asked him a third time: Do you love Me? and said: Lord, You know everything; You know I love You. Jesus said to him: Feed my sheep.” (Jn 21.15-17).

Jesus Christ thus entrusted to the care of St. Peter the flock which is His Church: the lambs and the sheep, the sheep and the shepherds.

So the « early » and only « true » Church is the Roman Catholic Church, whose head is the Pope, the successor of Peter. This is why the initiative of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church is inadmissible. It declared at Balamand, Lebanon on 23 June 1993 that the Catholic Church was abandoning uniatism, that is to say the conversion of the Eastern Churches that desire to detach themselves from Orthodoxy in order to unite with Rome, and proclaimed that Catholics and Orthodox « are rediscovering themselves as sister Churches », « together responsible for maintaining the Church of God in her fidelity to the divine plan, most especially in what concerns unity ». By providing for a preliminary consultation of Orthodox bishops before any Catholic pastoral initiative, and by excluding any expansion of the Catholic Church to the detriment of “the Orthodox Church”, this infernal pact contradicts the will of the Blessed Virgin Mary to convert Russia.

For, continues Sister Lucy « the true Church of Christ is made up of all those who remain united to Peter by the same faith, the same hope and the same love, which is the love of Christ. God is “Love”, and for that reason He elicits from his Representative a triple declaration of Love.

Now, if the Church has a body, composed of various members and a head, the most necessary, the most noble of its organs is not lacking: the Church has a heart. « In truth, the Church of God is the Church of charity, of Love. » And the ardent seat of this love is the Immaculate Heart of Mary, according to the “Message of Fatima” that the authorities do not want to accept for the motive that it is a novelty. But how then, will the prayer of the Lord, quoted by Sister Lucy be fulfilled?

« “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me, that they may all be one just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave to Me, that they may be one as We are one. With Me in them and You in Me, may they be so consumed in unity that the world will recognise that it was You who sent Me and that You have loved them as You have loved Me.” (Jn 17.11; 20-23).

« We see that Jesus prays to the Father not only for the Apostles, but also for all of us who would believe in Him and in His word, which would be transmitted to us by the Apostles and their successors. And what is it that He prays for from His Father? That the members of His Church might remain so united as to be one. “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me, that they may all be one”; so “that the world will recognise that it was You who sent Me and that You have loved them as You have loved Me, and « that they be consumed in unity ».

« With these words, Jesus reveals to us the nature of the unity of His one unique Church. One single unity that does not allow of division: « I have given them the glory You gave to Me, that they may be one as We are one. ». United in the same faith, hope and charity. »

« A CHERISHED DAUGHTER OF THE CHURCH »

« Before this prayer to His Father, Jesus had spoken at length to His disciples. At one point He had said to them: “Remain in me, as I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit. For outside Me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a branch and withers; these branches are collected, thrown into the fire and burned.” (Jn 15.4-6)

In this allegory of the vine and the branches, we see that the life of the members of the Mystical Body, which is the Church, depends on their union with Christ. He is the Head of the Church in the person of his Representative, and we are its members; He is the vine and we are the branches.

Just as the branch, if separated from the vine, dries up and yields no fruit; in the same way if we, through sin, separate ourselves from the true vine which is Christ, and cease to be fed by the sap of his grace, we wither and dry up and bear no fruit, becoming good for nothing except to be thrown on the eternal fire. (Calls, pp. 67-68)

Let us not forget that Sister Lucy visited this « eternal fire » most truly, at ten years of age on 13 July 1917: « This vision only lasted a moment, thanks to our good Mother in Heaven who, in the first apparition, had promised to take us to Heaven. Had it not been for this, I believe we would have died of fright and terror. » So she goes on with an insistence which betrays her emotion not to be able to say everything:

We have here a very clear statement of the fate awaiting disoriented souls who are led astray by false ideas, by the temptations of the world, the devil or the flesh and so allow themselves to be turned aside and separate themselves from the true Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church.

What are then these unspecified « false ideas » but added on here to the Johannine trilogy of the flesh, the world and the devil (cf. 1 Jn 2.14-16), as causes of « disorientation »? It is easy for us to reply that they are « the errors of Russia », the Orthodox schism and Marxism-Leninism, « spread throughout the world » and even in the Church, thanks to a Council that refused to condemn them! But they are, above all, the « errors » of an entire hierarchy that no longer preaches Hell and forbids the Blessed Virgin from warning poor sinners of the dreadful end towards which they are heading.

« Without following them, we must pray and make sacrifices for them so that they may return to the right path, because God does not wish sinners to perish but rather that they be converted and live. This is the reason why Our Lady urged us so insistently to pray and make sacrifices for the conversion of sinners:

« Pray, pray hard and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and to pray for them. (Fatima, 19 August 1917) »

In order to save them, pray especially to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, devotion to whom God wishes to establish by the consecration of Russia to this Immaculate Heart and by the Reparatory Communion of the First Saturdays, requested on 13 July 1917, and censored!

« Hence, by our union with Christ and with His Church, we must offer ourselves as victims of expiation and petition for the conversion of our brothers. [this is the meaning of the last vision of the Third Secret] Herein lies the essence of our charity: to love those who perhaps do harm to us, contradict or persecute us. [For example, those who contradict Our Lady of Fatima and Sister Lucy Her messenger, and who condemn the Abbé de Nantes before having heard him, for they are the same people!] Our forgiveness, offered to them in the light of faith, hope and charity, will draw them back into the arms of God.

We are a thousand light-years away from ecumenical dialogue! But very close to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

« IT IS THE HOLY FATHER »

« This is how the Church is one: one and only, united by the bonds of forgiveness, love and faith. » And « The rest is schism or heresy, vain human inventions which do not find favour with God » wrote our Father in 1973, after having recalled the dogma of « divine faith » in terms which Sister Lucy seems to repeat textually:

« If there is One Church, it means there are not two. The concept of the One Holy Catholic Church excludes by its very nature the existence of any other “Church”. » (Georges de Nantes, Book of Accusation I, p. 44)

« It is one and catholic or universal, as Jesus taught us and commanded us: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk 16.15-16).

« The Church of God is apostolic: it was entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Apostles and to their successors who received from them the faithful witness of the Redemption, with the mission of making it present and living in the farthest corners of the earth and of history: “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded to you; and I, I am with you always, to the close of the age. ” (Mt 28.18-20).

« In these words, Jesus Christ assures us not only that He is entrusting His Church to the Apostles but also that He will be with them, in the person of their successors. »

Jesus Christ is therefore absent from the self-styled “church of England” whose so-called “bishops” are not successors of the Apostles. On the other hand, He is present in the least of the members of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church:

« This presence of the Lord in His Church strengthens our faith, our hope and our charity, because the Church of God is Christ among us, it is Christ in each one of us inasmuch as we are members of His Mystical Body, His Church.

« We also say that the Church is Roman, because St. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome. Being the visible Head and Leader of the Church of Christ, he there established the Chair of the Supreme Pontiff, that is, of the visible Head and Leader of the one true Church of God, founded by Jesus Christ. Thus all those who are legitimately elected as Bishops of Rome are the rightful and true successors of St. Peter as the Representative of Christ on earth, visible Head and Leader of His Church, the Holy Father. »

One notes the insistence with which Sister Lucy gives to St. Peter and his successors their title of « bishops », Bishops of Rome, « a Bishop dressed in White ». It is « the Holy Father ». the object of the veneration and the compassion of Jacinta, ever since she saw him on 13 July 1917, « passing 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 ».

So she never ceased to pray for the Holy Father. Just like Lucy, following her example:

« For all these reasons, we unite our prayer with the prayer of Christ, asking the Father for the unity of His Church, so that the world may believe that Christ was sent by the Father and, united in the same faith, in the same hope and in the same charity, we may together form the one Mystical Body of Christ and, through Christ, we may all be saved. Thus, convinced that the true Church of God is the Catholic, apostolic Roman Church founded by Jesus Christ and kept in being by the Apostles and their successors, we must all remain united to it in the same faith, the same hope and the same charity. »

It is impressive to observe that, among the marks of the Church, Sister Lucy does not mention « holiness » during a pontificate that beats all the records for the number of beatifications and canonisations! There is not a more obvious sign of the absence of true holiness in the post-conciliar Church. To proclaim John XXIII blessed, a Pope who turned a deaf ear to the “Calls of the Message of Fatima”, is the height of « diabolical disorientation », effacing the very notion of holiness. Nevertheless, the Church is holy, we believe so firmly, and we see it… in the very person of Sister Lucy, « a cherished daughter of the Church ».

« We must all be receptive to her guidance and tread the paths she maps out for us, because the Church is the custodian of the true Law of God and the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ. »

This condemns not only the first « Reformation » of the Church, that of Luther, but also the second, that of Father Congar and the Second Vatican Council, which changed the “deposit” for which the Church is responsible.

« We must believe in the Church, trust in it, respect it, love it, pay heed to its teaching [and not reform it], follow its customs [and not invent new ones contradicting the former ones], and remain united with its Head, who is Christ in the person of the Supreme Pontiff of Rome, the one true Vicar of Christ on earth, Head of the Mystical Body of Christ of which we are all members by our faith in Christ, as the Apostle St. Paul tells us: « For by one Spirit we were all baptised into one body –Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” (1 Co 12.13-14).

« And the Letter to the Ephesians explains to us even more clearly this concept of our unity in Christ: « In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ep 1.13-14)

« Hence, we were created and chosen by God to be the praise of His eternal glory. To be the praise of His Glory: this is the highest purpose for which God could have destined us! It means that, by participation, we have within us the glory of God with which we can praise Him; that we possess the honour of God with which we can extol Him; and that we are clothed with the dignity of Christ with which we can enhance His dignity, and work for an increase of this dignity in the members of his Mystical Body, so that each one can become ever more worthy. To achieve this we must all give ourselves fully to the Lord in a life of faith, hope and love. » (Calls, p. 69)

This is why the children relentlessly repeated, to exhaustion, with their forehead touching the ground « My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. »

« HALLOWED BE THY NAME »

The fourth chapter, entitled The Call to Adoration, expresses all the disapproval of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the “spirit of Assisi”:

« The second Call of the Message: I adore. Here the Message draws our attention to the first commandment of God’s Law: “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Ex 20.2-5). And in another place, we read: “You shall serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you.” (Ex 23.25)

« By this Law, God commands us to adore Him alone, because He alone is worthy to be adored by His creatures. He forbids us to make idols out of the things that were created by Him and which are even more powerless than we are: they can do nothing and are worth nothing, which is why He forbids us to pay homage to them, or to adore them. »

Yet this is what bonzes and Tibetan lamas did at Assisi, at the invitation of Pope John Paul II. They adored their solid gold Buddha on the tabernacle of the high altar of St. Peter’s Church turning their backs on the Blessed Sacrament left in a side chapel. At the same time Our Lady of Fatima, carried all the way from Calabria, was turned back, expelled from the churches, abandoned by force out in the open (photos in CCR n^o 196, January 1987, p. 21).

It would seem that Sister Lucy had been warned of these tragic events. For she continues:

« But we must distinguish between the idols to which God refers in this commandment and the images of Christ, of Our Lady and the Saints. » The Dorothean Sisters of Tuy told us that Sister Lucy was an excellent catechist. Listen to her, as she speaks from the heart :

« We do not, nor should we, adore any of these images. We venerate them on account of what they represent and recall to our minds, in the same way as we venerate pictures of our parents, our brothers and sisters or our friends, placing them in the most honoured places in our homes so that we can see them better, and also so that the people who visit us can see them and be reminded of them too. We venerate the images of Jesus Christ, of Our Lady and of the Saints because they remind us of the people that they represent, of their virtues and of their teaching, and so encourage us to follow their example.

« Jesus Christ, who is our model in all things, refused to pay homage to anyone other than God. St. Luke tells that after He had been in the desert for forty days and forty nights, praying and fasting, He was tempted by the devil who said to Him: “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it shall be all yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” (Lk 4.6-8) »

« Thus, to adore God is a duty and a commandment imposed on us by God out of love, so that He can shower his blessings on us. »

Sister Lucy then tells a story: that of the Hebrew people making a golden calf and adoring it, while Moses was with God at the summit of Mount Sinai. Then she concludes:

« What did Moses do? He interceded on behalf of the people: “And Moses made haste to bow his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said « If now I have found favour in your sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray you, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” (Ex 34.8-9). Thus, by prostrating himself in adoration before God, Moses secured pardon for the people and a renewed alliance with God. »

If Sister Lucy was able to compare herself to Isaac, she is also Moses, interceding for an idolatrous people! From Jesus’ reply to the Samaritan: « God is a spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth. (Jn 4.19-24), she draws the lesson: « So we see that what matters is not where a person is; the important thing is for our spirit and our intelligence to recognise God in his infinite greatness, his immense power and in thus paying homage to Him, to adore Him. »

Adoration full of love, recognition, gratitude, « because we owe no one as much as we owe to God. »

Another example taken from everyday life:

« Sometimes, people express their great love for a person by saying: I love So-and-so so much I adore him! »

We would expect a severe disapproval. But no! Let us admire how the holy catechist uses it as an argument.

« It is no more than an expression of affection, esteem, respect, for a person like ourselves. And ought we not to have it for God? Who deserves it more than, or as much as, God? »

But here once again is the defence and the illustration of holy images, against the iconoclasts of our times:

« It is true that in Leviticus, the Lord said: “You shall make for yourselves no idols... and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land, to bow down to them; for I am the Lord your God.” (Lv 26.1)

« But we also read in Sacred Scripture that in the desert, when the people of Israel were being attacked by a plague of poisonous serpents, whose bite was fatal, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that, by looking at it, anyone who had been bitten would not die (Nb 21.4-9). Obviously, it was not the bronze serpent that worked the miracle to save the lives of those people, but their faith in the efficacy of God’s word who had promised that it would be so; it was the faith with which they looked at that serpent, who represented Jesus Christ raised up on the wood of the Cross. » (Calls, p. 73)

How will we be judged, we who do not set great store by the Third Secret which invites us to look towards the « large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark »? There follows an exhortation for us to turn with confidence towards the Immaculate Heart of Mary, hidden under the veil of anonymity.

« It is in this way that we are to look at the images of the Saints, reminding ourselves what it is they represent, believing in what they represent, loving and respecting what they represent. “If you have faith, you will move mountains”. »

This chapter ends with three quotations from the Apocalypse, carefully chosen to make us understand that we are in the last times. The first one is a warning from the Angel of Judgement, who resembles like a brother the one of the Third Secret:

« In the Apocalypse, St. John tells us that he heard the Angel that had been charged with announcing the Good News [« for the hour of judgement has come »] to the inhabitants of the earth saying: “Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water.” (Ap 14.7) »

The second quotation is taken from the last chapter of the Apocalypse, which is also the last one of the entire Bible:

« After contemplating the marvels of Heaven which God has prepared for the elect, St. John wanted to prostrate himself in order to adore the Angel which had shown and explained these things to him, but the Angel said to him: “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” » (Ap 22.9)

Even if she never thought of adoring the “Guardian Angel”, Sister Lucy is in the same position as St. John. She could apply the preceding verses to her book: « The Lord God who inspires the prophets has sent his angel to reveal to his servants what is soon to take place. I am coming soon! Blessed are those who keep the prophetic message of this book. » (Ap 22.6-7)

And as well: « I Lucy am the one who heard and saw these things. » (cf. Ap 22.8)

The third passage is the canticle of thanksgiving of the Elect. It follows the vision of the Angel who « set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of Gods anger, outside the city, where it was trodden until the blood that came out of the winepress was up the horses’ bridles as far away as sixteen hundred furlongs. » (Ap 14.19-20)

In the Third Secret, it is not a « huge winepress », but « crystal aspersoriums » into which the Angels collect the blood of the martyrs « beneath the two arms of the Cross ».

In the Apocalypse, the sea of blood was followed by « a sea of glass mingled with fire » which is the divine Presence. It is this passage that Sister Lucy quotes. The « sea of glass », she is familiar with it! At the Cova da Iria it was « an immense light »:

« Again it is St. John who describes for us the following vision: “And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass” » They are « the souls that were making their way to God » of the Third Secret.

« They accompanied themselves with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, « Great and wonderful are your deeds. O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the ages!

« Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgements have been revealed.” (Ap 15.2-4) »

At Fatima, as in the Apocalypse, the liturgy of justice and of vengeance, prophesised by St. John, contemplated by Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta in the vision of Hell, transforms itself into a liturgy of mercy by the ministry of « 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 the canticle of our adoration before God. We adore Him with faith, because we believe in Him. We bless Him with hope in the conviction that all good things come to us from Him. We give Him thanks because we know that it was out of love that He created us, that it is for the sake of love that He keeps us in being, and that it was for love that He destined us to share in His divine life. Hence, our adoration must be a hymn of perfect praise, because, even before we came into being, God was already loving us, and was moved by this love to give us our being.

« Ave Maria! »

HOPE THAT CANNOT BE CONFOUNDED

« I believe, I adore, I hope » the seers repeated, bent down with their foreheads touching the ground, imitating the “Guardian Angel”.

« The third Call of the Message: I hope. »

This chapter is crystal clear in its teaching. It would be easy to compare it, point by point to the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes. But it is perhaps better to forget this fatal Council, following Sister Lucy’s example. She only mentions it once at the end of her book, and we will see that it is to condemn this Council.

Let us rather listen to her relate what she saw, in the midst of a generation that does not accept her testimony:

« All our hope must be placed in the Lord, because He is the one true God who created us with eternal love and redeemed us by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who suffered and died for our salvation. »

Sister Lucy quotes the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: « You are a Teacher in Israel and you do not understand this? »

There are many Nicodemus’ among us.

« Truly, truly, I say to you that we speak what we know and we testify what we have seen; but you receive not our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him may have everlasting life. For God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved by Him. He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. » (Jn 3.10-19)

This sacred text spells out for us the basis of our hope: « so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him may have everlasting life. » If the Israelites who had been mortally wounded were healed by looking at the serpent which Moses had nailed to a post, how much more we, if we can contrive, with faith and confidence, to lift our eyes and gaze on Christ, raised up on the wood of the cross [a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark]; if we can unite our own daily cross with His, our work, our toil, the things that go wrong, our pains and anxieties, with deep repentance for our sins and a firm resolution not to commit them again, our confidence will be rewarded as Christ promised: “whosoever believes in Him may have everlasting life” » (Calls, p. 75)

Sister Lucy yearns for this life everlasting where Francisco and Jacinta are waiting for her, without underestimating the « diabolical orientation » of the present world, but finding therein another reason to hope »:

« In order to show you how great must be our confidence in Christ, let me remind you of the time that the Apostles were crossing the lake after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. Jesus had told His disciples to get into a boat and cross to the other side of the lake opposite Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. “And after He had taken leave of them, He went into the hills to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and He was alone on the land. And He saw that they were distressed in rowing, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw Him, and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said: Take heart, it is I; have no fear. And He got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognised Him, and ran about the whole neighbourhood and began to bring sick people on their pallets to anyplace where they heard He was. And wherever He came, in villages, cities, or country, they laid the sick in the market places, and besought Him that they might touch even the fringe of His garment; and as many as touched it were made well.” (Mk 6.46-56)

« This episode in the life of Jesus Christ teaches us the kind of confidence we must have, both by the behaviour of the apostles battling with the waves of the lake, and by the attitude of the people of Gennesaret who brought their sick to Jesus to be healed.

« The Evangelist tells us that all those who touched even the fringe of His garment were made well, because they touched Him with faith and confidence. This is the condition that must be fulfilled if we are to obtain grace: we must approach Christ with faith, trusting in His goodness and His love. »

A SERAPHIC LOVE

« The fourth Call of the Message: I love Thee », in response to the love that God has for us from all eternity:

« There can be no doubt that, of all creatures, Our Lady is the one who has been most loved by God. Nevertheless, from all eternity, we have all been equally present in the mind of God, and part of His creative design. Moreover, He created all other things for love of each one of us, because we have always been present to Him and loved by Him. We have an eternal debt of love to pay to God, a debt which can only be repaid as the centuries follow one another, though it can never be fully repaid because the love of God came first, and continually increases in intensity. Hence, no one and nothing is as deserving as God is of a return of our love.

The commandment that he gave us to love him is, moreover, a supplementary proof of his love. And we are sure of pleasing Him:

« We are very small before the immensity of God, but we give Him what we have: our love! It is a bit like what happens with children who, cradled in the arms of the father from whom they receive everything, repay him with a hug and a kiss, symbols of their love. And the father smiles happily and is satisfied, because the child has given him a return of love. » (Calls, p. 81)

The conclusion that flows from this spirit of childhood is demanding, but full of promise:

« But our love must be sincere, cheerful and self-sacrificing. Take the case of a good son who loves his father and does everything that he knows will please him. Even if he has to deny himself in doing so, he will do so cheerfully because it pleases him to see his father happy; on the other hand, his father’s pleasure will in turn benefit the son because the father, being pleased with his son, will take him in his arms, heap good things on him and do everything for him. »

However, this need for sacrifice is especially apparent in conjugal love which Sister Lucy now gives to us as a model:

« Our love for God must also be like that of husband and wife. When their love is genuine, the wife willingly sacrifices herself in order to see her husband happy, and the husband sacrifices himself for his wife so that she, too, may be happy. It is the familiar mutual exchange of love, which requires immolation, gift and surrender. And the fruit of this exchange is peace, joy and well-being.

« Our love, too, must also be self-sacrificing. To begin with, we must avoid whatever might cause us to sin grievously against God … »

as Our Lady entreated on 13 October 1917, « since He is already too greatly offended »,

... « or our neighbour; in other words we must not disobey God’s law in any grave matter. Then, we must also deny ourselves anything that might cause us to offend God or our neighbour in less serious matters, in other words by venial sin. »

In the end, love carries us away to unbounded reciprocity of services, in a divine circumincessant charity:

« In order that our faith, our adoration, our hope and our love can be true and pleasing to God, they must reach out to our brothers and sisters through our prayer, our good example, our words and our deeds. » (Calls, p. 83)

« This is the way that leads to life. And, in this way of life which we are to follow, the light is Christ », as Sister Lucy saw Him, on the Cross of light, at Tuy. She does not have the right to speak of this, but she thinks of it unceasingly. This is why she passes from the light which is Christ, to the water of which He is the living source, « the water of grace » that she saw running down from above the altar, into which He immersed us so as to become, in turn, the source, « in order to refresh the parched souls of our brothers and sisters and lead them to the fruits of eternal life. »

« FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES »

Sister Lucy concludes the commentary of the first part of the prayer taught by “Guardian Angel” at his first apparition in the spring of 1916, by what she calls the « fifth Call of the Message: I beg pardon ». So that this prayer not be that of the Pharisee, who thought himself to be righteous, for the Publican « who does not adore », she writes: « The fact is that we all need to obtain God’s pardon: for our lack of faith, which is often so fragile, for our hope which is often so weak, for our charity which is often so cold and insensitive, and for our adoration, which is often so languid. We ask pardon for those who do not believe, for those who do not adore, for those who do not hope and for those who do not love; and very often we ourselves are among this number!

« For this reason, in what we call the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus Christ taught us to ask: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt 6.12). As we see, we cannot obtain God’s pardon unless we ourselves first forgive our brothers and sisters. It follows that we must not harbour resentment, ill-will, dislike, and still less a desire to avenge any offence, whether great or small, that one or other of our neighbours may have committed against us. Our forgiveness must be generous, complete and self-sacrificing.

« In the sense of overcoming ourselves, it will be necessary to silence within us the cry of revolt, to calm excited nerves, to keep a firm grasp on the reins of our own temper and keep a lid on the heat of our wounded self-love which, whether rightly or wrongly, feels bruised and irritated.

« It is in just such circumstances that we are called upon to forgive our neighbour when he or she comes to ask our pardon: “So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent.” (Mt 5.23-25)

Sister Lucy insists: « Our forgiveness must be generous, sincere and from the heart, and also clearly manifested so that God can forgive us, too, in the same way » so that we do not resemble « the Jews who were content with seeming to be good in the eyes of others without bothering whether they were or not in the eyes of God who, through His messengers, was constantly calling on them to repent and change their way of life, by the voice of His Apostles ».

Today we are in the same position as this unbelieving generation, we who refuse to hear the triple call to “penance" of the Angel with the flaming sword. Sister Lucy, at the time she wrote, did not have the right to speak about it, but it is already contained in this first prayer of the “Guardian Angel”.

« PRAY, PRAY HARD! »

« This is the sixth Call of the Message. » Sister Lucy begins by recalling the circumstances of the second apparition of the “Guardian Angel” during which she heard it:

« The poor children were sitting on the side of the well in the grounds attached to my parents’ house. The heavenly Messenger appeared and asked them this question: “What are you doing?” Then, without waiting for a reply, he went on: « Pray, pray hard! The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Constantly offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High. 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. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you”

« Supernatural revelations are ordinarily accompanied by a special grace which clarifies their meaning. In fact, however, at that time, the three children were very far indeed from understanding its full meaning, as we [Sister Lucy] can understand it better today and transmit it to souls, as it is God’s will that I should, and it is for this that He continues to keep me here at his disposal. »

Thus, we understand that God has kept Sister Lucy to the advanced age at which we see her today, in order to teach us once again how to pray:

« At the time, the children could not begin to imagine that this call to prayer was not only for them, but for the whole of humanity. Today, I look upon this call as a pointer to the way marked out by God for his creatures since the beginning of creation. » (Calls, p. 90)

So it is not a “private” revelation, but a public revelation, with all due respect to Cardinal Ratzinger! Not only that, it is the bringing back to light, an urgent rediscovery of Divine Revelation, kept in the dark by forty years of aggiornamento:

« In fact, in both the Old and the New Testament, which contain the Word of God, we find the path God mapped out for humanity very clearly marked. Unfortunately, however, human beings have, on the whole, disregarded the end for which they were created. They ignore the existence of God their Creator; they do not know the holy name of God, Whom they have never called Father; and they do not know the way they are to follow in order to be happy one day in their Father’s House. »

A picture of humanity follows which has lost nothing of its topicality at the beginning of the third millennium –on the contrary!

« Thus the greater part of humanity is the victim of ignorance, seeks happiness where it is not to be found, and sinks ever deeper into misfortune and unhappiness. Let us take a brief look at the world we live in! What do we see? What picture appears before our eyes? Wars, hatred, ambition, kidnappings, robberies, vengeance, fraud, murder, immorality, etc. And, in punishment for all these sins: accidents, sickness, disasters, famine, and every kind of pain and suffering beneath which humanity groans and weeps.

« Men who consider themselves wise and powerful continue to plan more wars, death, wretchedness and misery, more shedding of blood into the sea of blood in which whole peoples are already drowning – the very people whom those so-called wise men ought to be helping to live and to help themselves. »

« And all for what purpose? In order to drag humanity down and destroy it in waves of hatred, ambition, revenge, immorality... and to damn themselves into the bargain.

« Yes, because before long they, too, will be turning to ashes in the tomb! Where, today, are their predecessors who fought and lived in the very same way? In many cases, it is not even known in what way they met their deaths. And where will their souls be for all eternity?

« Their bodies have, of course, returned to the earth from which they were taken, as it is written:

« “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gn 3.19). And the souls which gave life to those bodies for a time? They too have returned to the place from which they came – the eternal Being which is God. In fact, the soul, which is spiritual, was created by God in the likeness of God: “The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Gn 2.7) It was this breath of life from the lips of God which gave life to our soul, creating it in the likeness of God, immortal.

« Ever since Adam sinned by disobeying God’s orders, all his descendants have incurred the pain of bodily death. Our soul, however, continues to live; it returns to God, if it is in a state of grace; if, on the other hand, it is in a state of sin, this very sin drives it away from God and carries it off to eternal punishment. » (Calls, p. 91)

Sister Lucy confided to Father Fuentes, in 1957, that Our Lady had not told her that we are in the last times of the world, but She made her understand this. As a faithful messenger of Our Lady, Sister Lucy does likewise. Quoting St. Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians, she writes:

« A little later, in the same Letter, St. Paul says concerning the last day: “So I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (1 Co 15.51-52). So we have to make sure that this transformation will take place in us, in accordance with God’s grace which, in his mercy, will be granted to us in return for our own effort of humble fidelity; and not according to the misfortune of whatever sin we may have incurred! »

The seer places us in the situation of those still alive on the last day and who, according to St. Paul, will be changed: « So we have to make sure that this transformation will take place in us… »

She warns us in this manner that the coming of Christ is close at hand.

In the midst of a world that no longer believes in His coming, she utters her “cry” « Let us not think that all this is a kind of utopia; it is a proven reality. » By the miracle of the sun on 13 October 1917.

« If our incredulity were to lead us into such an error [to believe that « all this is a kind of utopia »], we are lost! Truth does not cease to exist simply because unbelievers deny it! What was true yesterday remains true today and will still be true tomorrow, because « Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. » (Heb 13.8).

« All of this shows our great need for prayer, for making our way to God through prayer. » (Calls, p. 92)

A brief treatise on prayer follows, which is a pure masterpiece (cf. our insert).

This « call to prayer » made to a generation of apostates, ends on a pathetic tone: « Our faith has grown dim, and so its light ceases to illuminate our footsteps: thus our life becomes slack, our prayer without fervour, and our intimate union with God gets forgotten and fades away. In order to respond to this call to prayer which God addresses to us by means of the Message, we must intensify our life of faith, so that it will lead us to practise the degree of renunciation required to avoid offending God and so remain in his grace. » (Calls, pp. 99-100)

Now, prayer which is not accompanied by sacrifice is ineffective. This is why the « seventh Call of the Message », which concludes the commentary of the second apparition of the “Guardian Angel” is a call to sacrifice: « Constantly offer prayers and sacrifices to the Most High. »

Sister Lucy begins by noting that this call to sacrifice is so frequent in Holy Scripture that « it may seem superfluous to repeat it again here ». Yet, the Angel requested it with insistance:

« 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. » (Calls, p. 101)

« Yes, to pray and make sacrifices so that our whole life may be a holocaust offered to God on the arms of our day-to-day cross [« a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks »], in union with the Cross of Christ, for the salvation of souls, co-operating with Him in His redemptive work as members of His Mystical Body, the Church, which works, prays and suffers in intimate union with its Head for the redemption of humanity. » (Calls, p. 103)

The reminiscence to the “Third Secret” is obvious here. After having named « several sorts of sacrifices which we can and must offer to God, for example, that of gluttony, which in many cases is obligatory » so that we not fall into sin, Sister Lucy gives us a marvellous spiritual direction in which everyone can find what he can and must do (cf. our insert).

« GIVE US THIS DAY OUR HEAVENLY BREAD »

The holy Carmelite arrives at the third apparition of the “Guardian Angel”: « Eighth Call of the Message: “Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged… ” »

This chapter is a precious pearl. After having soberly, but precisely recalled the dogma of our faith according to which Jesus Christ, dead and risen becomes our life and our resurrection by the communion with His Body and Blood offered to the Father in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in expiation for our sins, she adds:

« Enclosed within our tabernacles, offered on our altars, our Saviour continues to offer Himself to the Father as a victim for the remission of the sins of all human beings, in the hope that many generous people will wish to be united to Him, to become one with Him by sharing in the same sacrifice, so that with Him they can offer themselves to the Father as victims in expiation for the sins of the world. In this way, Christ offers Himself as a victim, in Himself but also in the members of His Mystical Body which is the Church. It is the call of the Message: offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Christ the Victim in reparation for the sins with which He himself is offended, as the Angel taught the three children to pray:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly, and I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He Himself is offended. Through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ask of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.”

« And what are these sins?

« They are the insults and sacrileges, the indifference and ingratitude of those who receive Him unworthily, of those who insult Him, of those who persecute Him, of those who do not know Him, and of those who, knowing Him, turn their backs on Him and do not love Him. It is the coldness and hardness of other Judases, who place their hand with Him in the dish, after which they go off and betray Him in exchange for their own condemnation, thus rendering fruitless in relation to themselves the fruits of the Redemption which Christ achieved and offered to the Father.

« In prayerful silence in the solitude of our churches, He continues to offer Himself unceasingly to the Father as a victim on our behalf forgotten, despised, ill-treated, humble and poor, He remains a prisoner in our tabernacles. And the Message continues to call on us to offer to the Most Holy Trinity the Victim on our altars in reparation for all the sins by which He is offended.

« And our own contribution?

« It is our humble prayer, our poor little acts of self-denial which we must unite with the prayer and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation, and for the salvation of our brothers and sisters who have wandered away from the one true path that leads to Life. » (Calls, pp. 113-114)

EUCHARISTIC HEART TO HEART

Because the prayer taught by the Angel refers to « the infinite merits » of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Lucy seized the occasion to speak of what is close to God’s Heart: devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that he wishes to establish in the world in order to save it.

« At this point, I ask myself. » Until now, she replied to the questions of the “pilgrims of Fatima”.

Actually, the objection comes from Father Dhanis.

« Why is it that, since the merits and prayer of Jesus Christ are sufficient to make reparation for and to save the world, the Message invokes the merits of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and calls on us, too, to pray, to make sacrifices, to offer reparation?

– I have to say that I do not know! Nor do I know what explanation the theologians of the Church would give me if I were to ask them. »

The truth is that the good “pilgrims of Fatima” never put into doubt the power of intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, unlike the « theologians » tagging along behind Father Dhanis, an exact replica of the “scribes” who confronted Jesus.

In February 1946, Father Jongen, a Dutch Montfort father, had a discussion with Sister Lucy, then a Dorothean Sister at Tuy, to clarify the doubts raised by the Belgian Jesuit Dhanis.

« Did the Angel really say: “I offer Thee the Divinity of Jesus Christ? »

– Yes.

– Some people say that this is an innovation in the manner in which the Church speaks. In their opinion, you must be mistaken on this point.

– It is perhaps the Angel who is mistaken”, said the sister with a smile. »

A reply worthy of St. Joan of Arc and St. Bernadette. It is all that « the theologians » deserve. But Sister Lucy does not forget that she is still on earth to make known and loved this Immaculate Heart. So she goes on most seriously:

« But I have meditated on, and thought about this question… »

Here is the masterly result. Let us read it at one go, before commenting briefly on it:

« I open the Gospel… » There are many « theologians » who would not think of opening the Gospel. And even many exegetes… who « do not read the text », as the late Father Trinquet deplored. Sister Lucy is neither an exegete nor a theologian. But she heard Pope John Paul II, at Fatima, in his homily of 13 May 1982, say that « if the Church welcomed the message of Fatima, it is, above all, because it contains a truth and a call which, in their fundamental contents, are the truth and the call of the Gospel itself. » So, with docility, she opened the Gospel.

« In the beginning »: of the Gospel? or of the world? It could be both. For from the first page of the Bible, the Mother of the Saviour promised to our first parents is « united to his redemptive work ».

But here, the beginning of which Sister Lucy speaks is the instant of the conception of the Divine Word in the womb of Mary ever Virgin, on the day of the Annunciation.

The « theologians » have no grounds to be offended: Jesus Christ retains the entire personal responsibility as the unique Saviour. But it was precisely His intention, right from the womb of His Mother, to « unite Her to His redemptive work », after having chosen Her for Mother even before being conceived in Her. The roles are completely reversed: it is the Child who chooses His Mother!

However, Mary’s consent was required, handing herself over « like a slave », writes Sister Lucy with a deep understanding of the « dispositions of God’s will », which she most certainly acquired in her own meditation of Biblical revelation, but enlightened by her intimate familiarity with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The word “slave” is used by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians to describe the self-abasement of the Son of God. By applying it to the response of the Virgin to the Angel of the Annunciation, Sister Lucy interprets the word « handmaiden of the Lord » in the sense of « servant of the Lord », which describes as well the Messiah of Whom she will be the Mother. Announced in the Book of Isaiah by the four “Songs of the Servant”, He will redeem the world by His suffering and will merit to receive a posterity without number.

This is how, « to begin with, the entire work of redemption passed through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, through the bond of her close intimate union with the divine Word ». The entire revelation of the Bible could not be better summed up: from the protevangelium (Gn 3.15) to the Apocalypse (Ap 12), including the first Isaiah, prophesying the virginal birth of Emmanuel (Is 7.14), and the poem of the Suffering Servant (Is 53).

Right from the first instant, the colloquy began between this Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They both beat together, and at the same rhythm only for the Father and for poor sinners. Both are « victims offered up for the salvation of mankind »: Jesus « by offering the Body » and by shedding « the Blood received from Mary ».

« Under the appearances of bread and wine »: if He came to suffer, it was in order to give His Body to eat, His Blood to drink, « this same Body and this same Blood, received from Mary » So there is a mysterious understanding between the Hearts of Jesus and Mary in the confection of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Several years ago, our Father preached to us an entire Eucharistic week on this theme, saying: « The small seed deposited in the womb of the Virgin Mary culminates, not at the Cross, not at the Ascension, not at Pentecost, but at communion every morning, and even at the spiritual communion of every moment. »

Is this to say that the culmination of this great mystery of God’s love for his creature is only the union of Jesus with each one of us? No, indeed, « for all of us are members of that one same Body of Christ received from Mary, made divine in the Word, offered on the Cross, present in the Eucharist, constantly growing in the members of the Church. » To express this mystery of our belonging to a single Body in which circulates the same Blood coming from the same Heart, St. Augustine said: « You are grapes from the same cluster. » Sister Lucy does not use this figure. She sees us as children from the same womb: « Since she is the Mother of Christ and of his Mystical Body, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is in some sense the Heart of the Church. »

Going beyond the third apparition of the “Guardian Angel” in 1916, she tells us what she saw at Tuy, in 1929: « Under the right arm of the Cross stood Our Lady with Her Immaculate Heart in Her hand… It was Our Lady of Fatima with Her Immaculate Heart in Her left hand, without a sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames », that is to say, adorned with the emblems of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The crown of thorns is the noble diadem, twisted into a crown by the soldiers of Pilate for the noblest of kings, after having heard Him proclaim His kingship before the Roman procurator. At Fatima, Our Lady revealed that Our Lord wanted Her to be the Queen of the world. Twelve years later, the theophany of Tuy is a demonstration of this real queenship: Mary carries the marks of this in Her hand, to show that « Grace gushes from the Divine Heart of Jesus upon us all, by passing through your motherly hands », in St. Maximilian-Mary Kolbe’s words.

TRINITARIAN THEOPHANY

All the ecclesiastical censors would be incapable of preventing the vision of Tuy from being present in the « ninth Call of the Message » taken from the first words of the prayer of the “Guardian Angel” : « Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. »

Sister Lucy begins with a lesson of catechism:

« We are dealing here with a mystery that has been revealed to us and which only in Heaven will we be able to comprehend perfectly. We believe in it, because God revealed it to us, and we know that our limited understanding is very far removed indeed from the power and the wisdom of God.

« In the work of creation, which issued from the creative power of God, we see so many marvellous things concerning which we also do not understand how they came about, so we can look upon them as a figure of the Mystery that is placed before us by God for our consideration.

It is impossible to express in fewer words a deeper communion with the essential mystery of the works of God.

« I once heard a specialist, who had just finished examining a patient, saying: “We doctors have studied a great deal, and medicine has made great progress. Nevertheless, there are many mysteries in the human body which we have not yet managed to unveil”. What the doctor said about the human body we can apply to the whole of creation: in everything God has placed a mystery which is not within the range of our limited understanding. And the reason for this is that human understanding constitutes only a tiny fraction of the divine Intelligence.

« For us, the whole of nature presents itself to us as if wrapped in mystery, and it also appears to be a revelation of the mystery of God in three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and one true God.

Examples abound: the rosebush rooted in the ground and from which it draws the nourishment that sustains it and which produces in its season « the lovely roses which delight our eyes and our sense of smell »… and so many other marvels. But Sister Lucy does not dwell on them. She sets aside poetry and metaphysics, in which she nevertheless excels, in order to come to the “scriptural proofs”, as in an easy theological work, exempt from any modernist contamination:

« But it is above all Sacred Scripture that speaks to us of, and reveals to us in different places, this mystery of the Most Holy Trinity as, for instance, when St. Luke describes to us the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, “Son of the Most High.” To answer the difficulty raised by Mary, the Angel says to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1.35). All three divine Persons are mentioned in this passage: the Holy Spirit who comes down upon the Virgin; the Most High, Whom Jesus Christ, the “Son of the Most High” called Father, who begets the Word; and the Son who is to be born and, as the Angel said, “will be called the Son of God”.

« Begotten by the Father from all eternity, Jesus Christ is conceived and born, in time, of the Virgin Mary. As man, He began to exist at the moment He became flesh in the womb of His Virgin Mother; as God He was always in existence together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. St. John tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1.1-2; 14).

« On various occasions in the Gospel, Jesus Christ speaks of all three – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – and He refers to Himself as the Son: “Whatever you ask in My name I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you” (Jn 14.13; 26). In another place, He says: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. » (Jn 3.35), and a little further on « For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.” (Jn 5.21) » (Calls, p. 119)

When Sister Lucy describes this « life » given by the Son « to whom He will », it is an act of munificence, and it is apparent that she is speaking from experience.

What is supernatural life?

« It is to possess God and be ourselves immersed in God; it is the love of God in us, communicated by the presence of the three divine Persons, which will transport us to live immersed in the ocean of supernatural life, always following the path pointed out for us by the light of the word of God. And it is thus that the love of God is manifested in us, transforming us and identifying us with the three divine Persons through our complete union with Jesus Christ: « On that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you. Whoever holds to My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father and I shall love him and reveal Myself to him.” (Jn 14.20-21)

« Hence, it is love that transforms us into living temples of the Most Holy Trinity, because God is love and communicates to us the life of His love, which is the life of God in us: “I will reveal Myself to him” It is the life of Christ in us, as He prayed to the Father: “Just Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. I have made Your Name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.” (Jn 17.25-26). The materialistic world does not know God, does not understand the spiritual life of the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity in us. And not only does it not understand it. It actually despises it and even persecutes it; but it persecutes it because it does not know it, and is unaware of the countless treasures and intimate riches which are contained in it.

« Knowing this, Jesus Christ wished to put us on our guard, saying: “If the world hates you, you must know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you. Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.” (Jn 15.18-20) »

The seer is identified to such an extent with Our Lord, that she quotes the sacerdotal prayer as if it were her own prayer of thanksgiving:

« Holy Father, keep those You have given Me true to Your name […] to share My joy with them to the full. […] Consecrate them in the truth: your word is truth […] And for their sake I consecrate Myself so that they too may be consecrated in the truth. I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me, that they may all be one. Just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave to Me, that they may be one as We are one. With Me in them and You in Me, may they be so consumed in unity that the world will recognise that it was You who sent Me and that You have loved them as You have loved Me. » (Jn 17.11-23)

It is surprising that Sister Lucy omits the terrible words of Christ against Judas, « son of perdition » (v. 12), against the world (v. 14), against the Evil One (v. 15) even though she is quite capable of saying vigorously how much the latter is « against the Message », however, she is quite capable of saying. She even wrote in the sixth Memoir that this « diabolical struggle » is the sign of God’s presence: « Where God is there appears the devil, raising quarrels, strife and contradictions. This is the sign of God’s presence. If [the Message] were not of God, the devil would not fear losing his victim. »

Here one can imagine the hand of the censor erasing the words which annihilate the entire programme of Vatican II. Already, when Mgr Le Couëdic, the Bishop of Troyes, returned from the Council, he censored the Abbé de Nantes because he preached « contempt for the world » (v. 9). As for Mgr Le Couëdic, he announced: « The Church has espoused the world »,… and he struck our Father with a suspension a divinis, who was guilty of having protested against this appalling adultery.

Truncated in this manner, the drift of Our Lord’s words seems to aim directly at « joy », Gaudium et spes, without a fight.

« We see that Jesus asks the Father that we may be united with the Most Holy Trinity: “Just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be in Us.” It is this which is our supernatural life, because to be in God is to live the life of God: God present in us, and ourselves immersed in God. This life of intimate union with God has at times been presented as something difficult and sad, whereas in fact it is simple, joyful and happy, as Jesus Christ Himself tells us: “So that they may share My joy to the full”. The joy of doing God’s will, of being pleasing to God, keeping and observing His Word: “They have kept your word. Now at last they have recognised that all You have given Me comes from You. For I have given them the teaching You gave to Me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from You.” (Jn 17.6-8). We believe in God, we receive His word and we have within us the fullness of divine joy. We are, as St. Paul says, temples of God: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Co 3.16) »

Sister Lucy gives free rein to her joy at the thought of having been chosen as the dwelling place of the Living God:

« In the Gospel, we are told that we have been specially chosen by Christ: “You did not choose Me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last.” (Jn 15.16). Now, to be chosen by Christ is unquestionably to be chosen by God for the life that never fades, for the love that never dies, for happiness that never comes to an end. Whatever God takes for Himself and identifies with Himself becomes one with God through its intimate union with Christ: “On that day you will know that I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you.” (Jn 14.20).

« We see the same thing stated in the Letter to the Ephesians: “You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.” (Ep 1.13-14).

The seer quotes once more the Apocalyse, as the scriptural reference most suitable for conveying the insights received at Tuy into the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that she is not permitted to reveal:

« In the Apocalypse, St. John tells us that he saw no temple in the City of God, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Ap 21.22-23). »

This is really what she contemplated in the chapel of Tuy on 13 June 1929: « Suddenly, the whole chapel was lit up with a supernatural light, and on the altar there appeared a cross of light which reached to the ceiling. »

The nun even saw the Lamb, « nailed to the Cross »:

« The Lamb is Christ; the light of Christ is our life, and we live immersed in this light, and thus we are a praise for the glory of God, we walk in the light of His glory and through it we are transformed into a temple of God.

« We are temples of God, and God is our dwelling place; we walk in the light of the glory of God, we were chosen by God, and God called us and knows us by our name:

« “The shepherd (...),calls his own sheep one by one and the sheep follow because they know his voice (...) I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father ; and I lay down My life for My sheep.” (Jn 10.2-4; 14-15). It was for this that He came into the world: “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from My hand. My Father, who has given Me them, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of the hand of My Father.” And where the Father is, there is the Son and the Holy Spirit. “The Father and I, We are one.” (Jn 10.10b; 11a; 28-29)

« Our greatness is immense: we were chosen by God, we are kept by God, we are sanctified by the presence of God for the praise of His glory, we are living tabernacles where the Most Holy Trinity dwells, we are the House of God and the Gate of Heaven!

« O Holy Trinity, whom I adore, whom I love, whose eternal praises I am to sing! In me you are light, you are grace, you are love! Plunge me into Yourself and I plunge deeply into the love of your Being. Ave Maria! »

Taken from He is Risen n^o 12, August 2003, p. 10-34