13 May 1981, when Mehmet Ali Ağca , Soviet puppet, pulled the trigger, our Lady of Fatima redirected the bullets. Saint John Paul II survived. Where were you at the time? I was a seminarian and at that moment I was just outside of Rome, looking back at the City. The panorama is burned into my mind.
This was just five years after I had the privilege to be one of the Cadets of our Lady of Fatima who were chosen to help carry her statue for the main candlelight procession during the vigil of the July apparition, the night of 12 July, 1976, amidst a crowd of 2.1 to 2.2 million souls, when I was sixteen years old. My sister had introduced me to the scapular and rosary and the Blue Army when I was only six: 1966. She’s the one who paid for the trip when I was sixteen, something like $350. That must have been subsidized. I thank her for the great Catholic formation I received on this pilgrimage with Father Robert J Fox. Anyway, on that same trip with many other cadets, we went to Coimbra and met Sister Lucia.
It seems that the more you know about Fatima the more you realize you know pretty much nothing about Fatima, for instance, about the third secret.
Here’s what we know: The powers that be are scared to death to publish that secret. That opens up a raft of more questions.
Craig provides an amazing tour of world history relative to the Fatima Century. This was slightly revised and republished by Father Gordon MacRae, and is now on his newly revised site: Beyond These Stone Walls.
There are two conditions for the conversion of Russia and a period of peace being granted to the world: (1) the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary [✔] AND (2) the Five First Saturdays.
I’d like to see all the major Catholic websites and (arch)diocesan websites and newspapers right around the world making a push for the Five First Saturdays. While those running such websites might not look at that as a necessity because those involved already did the Five First Saturdays as kids and assume that everyone else did as well, I’d say that not everyone has heard of them much less done them, or even had the opportunity to do them. Do all Catholic parishes still have Saturday confessions or even ever have confessions? Are the Five First Saturdays preached up anywhere? A parish here or there, maybe, but…
In this tiniest of parishes in North America, Holy Redeemer in Andrews, NC, which is at least as remote as Fatima was in the Santarém District of Portugal back in 1917, we’ve added a Saturday morning 9:00 AM Holy Mass specifically for the Five First Saturdays, not just for the next five first Saturdays, but for as long as we can, until I’m transferred or die. Here’s our clever way of doing things:
Holy Mass with a homily at least 15 minutes long accompanying our Lady meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Our first go at this included the mysteries were the Finding of Christ Jesus in the Temple and the Agony in the Garden, speaking about what the accompaniment of Jesus was with His dear Mother. I hope I recorded that. I’d like to put that up in another post. Tears were flowing.
Holy Communion, of course.
Confessions were available before and after Mass, as always. We also have two more sessions of confessions later in the day on Saturday. By the way, this condition can be fulfilled anytime from eight days before that first Saturday of the month until eight days afterward.
After Mass there is a third part of the Rosary together (itself a condition for a plenary indulgeance).
I make sure to tell everyone to do all this in reparation for the outrages and sacrileges committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which, you have to know, are very directly outrages and sacrileges committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We also had a retreat for the youth of the parish on this first Saturday. They had the opportunity for the fulfillment of the Five First Saturdays. We made sure that their schedule included what was needed. A really wonderful day in the parish altogether. Very consoling.
Meanwhile, an anecdote is in order, as always. 12 July 1976, vigil of the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in which the three children saw the souls of sinners falling like snowflakes into hell during a blizzard, I was a Fatima Cadet at 16 years old and had the privilege that night of helping to carry the statue of the Cova da Iria from the far side of the old location of the pillar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus all the way to the Cova (with me not being changed out by the gentlemen in charge of cycling the – I think twelve – bearers when he saw how eager I was to continue). Back in the day, there were no barricades. The crowd was pressing in, and it was not motorized. In 1976, there was an unusually large crowd present, even for back in the day, 2.2 million pilgrims. Here’s a modern video of the “Ave”.
I was still trying at that time – brat that I was – to do the Five First Saturdays, I thought unsuccessfully.
It turns out that I was being quite scrupulous. I made my intention on those Saturdays to fulfill the conditions for a First Saturday, particularly the one about reparation. But, sure enough, when it came to actually making my confession I would forget about that intention while confessing. Of course, such immediacy of intention is not required in the least. As the months went by I even convinced myself that during the confession I had to tell the priest that I was doing this confession also in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But that’s totally unnecessary. That detail would always bring confusion to the priest. When I realized that saying such a thing was a good instruction for the priest, I would entrench in saying this, though with a bit of timidity, as it might cause a whole other conversation with the priest somewhat tolerating this, or not very well tolerating this, or with him even becoming a bit impatient.
But five consecutive first Saturdays? Did I complete them consecutively? Did I do them correctly? I honestly can’t remember. I’m sure our Lady appreciates another go at it, you know, making it a lifelong practice. It can be done. For example, just the other day, the first Friday of the month, a gentleman just finished nine consecutive First Fridays. Nine. But that’s another post for another day.
Long story short, Jesus and His dear Immaculate Mother want to get us to heaven.
This picture above was taken a few hours after the Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary this past Friday, 25 March 2022, while getting ready for Adoration and Confessions and Rosary. The flowers are gone now. It’s Lent.
Meanwhile, what was happening in Ukraine at that time:
That building was literally defaced by, surely, a thermobaric bomb. Those are not forbidden, but when used on population centers, on campuses of buildings such as hospitals and apartment complexes, then those ordering their use can be tried for war crimes.
The fellow in the picture above was home when the bomb went off. These bombs vaporize human beings. Do you notice something in that picture? Let’s take a closer look:
These bombs have been around for very many decades, but are always more developed. One of the chief developers showed up, of course, in our little mission church a few years ago. All these guys show up here because we’re the most out of the way place ever. There’s a proper use in war, but there’s also a criminal use in war. Either way, war is such a hell in this world.
Meanwhile, the deliverer of those bombs showed up yesterday at our little airport here in Andrews, NC, something like this MC-130J Commando II:
It’s a smaller world than we think. One thing that makes the world very small indeed is prayer. For instance we can say a prayer for the fellow pictured in his destroyed apartment/office up top, and for all those suffering, both living and dead, and have an immediacy of impact, much more than any thermobaric bomb, and this time for the good: Hail Mary…
What’s worse than seeing bad people fall into hell?
Wrong question. First of all, it’s not a bad thing at all to see bad people falling into hell. It’s devastating, surely, for us here while we’re still on earth. I get it. The saints speak about being wrecked after having seen a vision of hell. Just look at the Fatima kids after they saw a vision of hell. They’re wiped out.
But remember what Jesus answered to Saint Teresa of Avila when she asked how she could be happy in heaven when she knew that her relatives were in hell: You will be happy to praise my justice. Yep. That’s right. Because those in hell want to be hell. They wouldn’t come out of hell if they had the chance to go to heaven. They are so filled with arrogance and hatred that they want to be in hell to spite God. So, good riddance. I want to go to heaven (and it’s a good and holy thing to rejoice in the hope we are given), and I don’t want all of hell torturing me in heaven. Nope. They can go to hell if that’s where they want to be. While they are here on earth I will pray that people convert and don’t go to hell. Great! But if they’re already in hell, well, I will respect God’s justice. The Fatima kids didn’t lament that people were in hell, but that there were so few to pray that the living don’t end up in hell, so much so that they were falling into hell like snowflakes in a blizzard.
So, what’s the worst thing ever?
In this world, there are terrible emotional sufferings, terrible physical sufferings, terrible spiritual sufferings as one is dragged through the dark nights as Saint John of the Cross describes them. But we can recognize that we’re with Jesus, that He has us, through all of that.
So, what’s the worst thing ever?
Could it be that I would think that if I myself went to hell that that would be the worst thing ever? No. That wouldn’t happen. Those in hell want to be there. And they would immediately start up to add to the aggression of what is actually the worst thing ever.
Do you want to know where the heart of a priest is concerning the worst possible thing? Let’s jack up the stakes here. Let’s talk about bad sins, really bad, say, of a Pope. That’s what my interrogator, a layman, did. Could it be sexual abuse? Could it be desecration of the Blessed Sacrament? Could it breaking the seal of Confession? Could it be idol worship? Could it be abortion, abortifacients, infanticide, euthanasia, promoting an abortion-tainted “vax”? Could it be leading others into sin on a world scale? Fill in the blank. He did, with many more entries.
If we want to know what the worst thing ever is, perhaps we should ask Jesus. What He thinks is important, right? He had a discussion about all this with His Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember that? When He was in His agony, when He was sweating great drops of blood, when His human nature was shaken, when the will of His human nature was tempted to be diverse from the will of His Heavenly Father, so much so that He had to insist, out loud: “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
Was His passion and death, being tortured to death, you know, the pain of it all, the worst thing ever? After all, this is God. He’s innocent. This is the sin, right? But that’s us proclaiming that, like an answer to an academic question. But, as I say, let’s go to the heart of a priest, the Sacred Heart of The High Priest, Christ Jesus, to find our answer.
For Himself, Jesus couldn’t care less about the pain and sufferings of such a death. He said He longed to be baptized with the baptism for which He came, that baptism in His own blood. He’s a man’s Man, Divine. He just want’s to get the job done, standing in our place, the Innocent for the guilty, having the right in His own justice to have mercy on us. He laid down His life for us with enthusiasm, while we were yet sinners. All sins will be forgiven against the Son of Man, he proclaimed.
But the sin against the Holy Spirit? No. For instance, if someone sins all the way to hell while arrogantly, blasphemously presumptuously despairingly mockingly shrieking that ♬ God forgives everything ♬ even the rejection of His forgiveness ♬ Ha ha ha ha hah. ♬, well, that person will not receive forgiveness because they don’t want that forgiveness. They just want to continue sinning with the purpose of not being forgiven. That’s a sin against the Holy Spirit.
But is the unforgivable sin the worst thing possible?
Perhaps the worst thing ever, unbearably too awful for mankind to bear, is the truth, what some have somehow started to call a manifestation of conscience. It’s too awful for mankind to witness their sins as they are. We would all be crushed by the truth of it.
But that’s not the worst thing ever.
Again, let’s ask Jesus what He really thinks is the absolute worst thing.
I think it’s His dearest Immaculate Virgin Mother having to see Him, her dearest Son, tortured to death right in front of her. Her Immaculate Conception (see Genesis 3:15 and Luke 1:28) gave her such agility of soul, such purity of heart, such clarity of vision, such profundity of understanding, such a super-abundance of love, that she would see such an offence for what it truly is, all of the sin from Adam until the last man is conceived vomited out on her Son, her Innocent Son. She would crushed more than any of us and all put together could possibly be crushed by knowing our sin. We are so obtuse.
To see His Mother suffer because of Him being tortured to death right in front her, that’s the worst possible thing.
The Two Hearts, one in solidarity with the other, entirely.
Today’s the great Feast of the Annunciation.
Today’s the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Let’s review:
Briefly, Genesis 3:15: The Woman, not Adam’s wife, is the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the Redeemer, for it is “her seed,” without the intervention of any man, but of God. If she had original sin, it would be the seed of Adam. But it is hers.
Briefly, Luke 1:28: The verb of the angel’s greeting to Mary, changing her name, is κεχαριτωμένη, perfect participle passive, with the perfect in Greek, unlike any other language, being perfect always in it’s action from the start and continuing perfectly in it’s action perfectly. The verb is about “grace,” not fluidity of movement but as in one’s standing before God. As a perfect participle passive what this means is this:
She was utterly transformed in grace perfectly from the moment this perfect action started until now and continuing perfectly into the future. In context, this action started when she first received her vocation from before the foundation of the world to be the Virgin Mother of God, that is, from the first moment of her conception.
Mary had such purity of heart, agility of soul, clarity of vision, profundity in understanding that she understood perfectly who and what she was looking at with her Divine Son being ripped to shreds in front of her, tortured to death in front of her. Jesus, her Son, was taking on the punishment of the sins of all mankind, from Adam until the last man is conceived, thus having the right in His own justice to have mercy on us, to forgive us. She understood perfectly what we needed for our redemption, for our salvation. She was perfectly able to intercede for us all. She was in perfect solidarity with her Son, her Immaculate Heart with His Sacred Heart.
The moment we give ourselves to Mary we are given to Jesus. It’s just thanking her for her maternal intercession for us.
You gotta know that Russia, before 1917, was the most Marian nation on earth. Icons of our Lady, shrines, chapels, churches dedicated to her, the great Virgin Mother of God. Russia belongs to Mary. Jesus wants all to know of her maternal intercession for Russia, for those in Russia who were so dedicated to her, some of whom still are, some of whom will be.
The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I burst with joy. Thank you Jesus, for giving Russia to Mary! She brings us all right to you so that you may have the joy with her when you bring us as a gift to our Heavenly Father.
“Pope Francis can’t be the one to do the Consecration because, like, he’s been to Confession before and like that means he confessed stuff and like that, so he’s unworthy forever, because, like, yeah, you know?”
And Pope Benedict can’t have been the one to do the Consecration because, like, he resigned or abdicated maybe for, like, stuff, and so he’s unworthy forever, because, like, yeah, you know?”
“And Pope John Paul II can’t have been the one to do the Consecration because, like, well, anyway, there must be something, like stuff and like that, so he’s unworthy forever, because, like, yeah, you know?”
“And Pope Paul VI can’t have been the one to do the Consecration because, like, well, anyway, there must be something, like stuff and like that, so he’s unworthy forever, because, like, yeah, you know?”
“And Pope Pius XII can’t have been the one to do the Consecration because, like, well, anyway, there must be something, like stuff and like that, so he’s unworthy forever, because, like, yeah, you know?”
So, obviously, I’m making parody of those who point out not the matter and form of the consecrations but rather the worthiness or unworthiness of the individual Pontiffs, as if that made a difference.
I’ll tell you what, it would be very beautiful and for the greater honor and glory of God if the worst of all sinners were brought to do something for the good.
“Hah! Father George! We caught you out! You’re calling Pope Francis the worst of all sinners! We hope you’re removed from the priesthood! Good riddance!”
No, no. I’m saying that I’m the worst of all sinners and that by the grace of God I am what I am now, and please God, that’s someone who thanks God for the grace of forgiveness in Baptism and Confession. I’ve crucified the Son of the Living God with my sins, my terrible sins. And Mary had to suffer for that as well.
And this is true for all of us. It is the Donatist heretics who held that no one who ever did anything bad could ever do anything good. What does that say about such heretics? Do they deny forgiveness? Do they deny mercy? Do they therefore think that Jesus was a fool to be crucified, because, like, there’s no forgiveness anyway?
I don’t know the intentions of Pope Francis with the use of the phrase Heaven’s Earth. I wasn’t the author of this. I’m in the remote back-ridges of Appalachia. But let’s take up some hypotheses:
I remember as a little kid in the back end of a station wagon going on the all American iconic two-week family vacation. We were trying to hit all the States. My dad really loved the mountains. When we would come out of a tunnel high up in the mountains and come upon a stupendous view of the mountain ranges below and far and wide dad would exclaim, “God’s country! This is God’s country!” We were so close to heaven over such a beautiful creation of God with this earth! I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it. And I love hearing my dad say this. This lifted heart and soul. And I was only like four years old. But this means the same thing: “Heaven’s earth!” When you apply that to Mary it speaks to her as being Immaculate, as being transformed in grace from the first instant of her conception. Her very earthly body (and that not being bad and evil) belongs to heaven, for she is to be the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God Incarnate, Jesus, He who is also “Heaven’s earth” for also His body is holy, sacred, not bad and evil just because it is made of the earth. It is God’s wisdom and joy to make the dust of the earth belong entirely to heaven, “Heaven’s earth.”
The lost to their cynicism nay-sayers say that what Pope Francis surely meant was Pachamama, you know, that demon idol who is said to be mother of the earth. But this is exactly, precisely NOT the case. Pachamama is from below, entirely, only: that’s the point with Pachamama, the most self-referential demon idol ever. It’s all about her, the ultimate “Karen”: EARTHLY EARTH. Entitled brat. Nothing to do with heaven. That’s not “Heaven’s earth.” It’s not. That’s just stupid and an assault on the Little Flock of Jesus to say that. Think for one second and you know that this is no reference to a demon idol. Pfft.
Others have seen very telling inferences, references recalling the great traditions of the Eastern Rites in their great hymns about the Virgin Mother of God. There’s lots of earth references with heaven. And I think this is also correct, as with the first point above. In this Consecration of especially Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary we want to give a nod to the profound and absolutely correct liturgical culture of the East. This is essentially helpful to conversion of Russia and Ukraine. Get it?
Look. We mustn’t be afraid of the material creation or our bodies made from the dust of the earth. The beauty of creation and our bodies is that such lowliness can belong entirely to heaven.
No! the naysayers shriek:
The world and the flesh go along with the devil always and in every case! Bad! Evil! Mary is bad and evil because she has a body! Jesus, the Word Incarnate is evil because He has a body. The Eucharist is bad and evil, too!”
Here’s how bad it is. Prepare to be scandalized. Jesus died and was laid in a tomb. Dead. Mary appeared among pig-sh#t in the grotto of Lourdes.
But then Jesus rose from the dead. Mary was brought to heaven.
Warning: language in the video above. /// In the analogy, just this scene totally out of context from the rest of “Lawless” (I never saw it), I’m the Sheriff who’s complaining about illegal activities and trying to stop them with a warrant. Meanwhile, I’m smacked down by the ne’er-do-wells for trying to uphold the law. So, what’s the analogy?
I say that one can and should consecrate oneself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary which I did as a seminarian, almost having memorized the entire True Devotion of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. I wore that book out. That was back in 1980-81. And although I’ve already done this, I say that it’s good to renew this consecration. I’ve done this a zillion times (with shorter forms) throughout my life, even very many times a day.
This is a joy for me. Today, the Annunciation, I was awakened by this joy. I immediately went before the Most Blessed Sacrament in the little chapel in the rectory, carried along by this joy, and renewed my consecration to Jesus through Mary, a great joy, like I was being blessed by heaven, so peaceful.
But now I see so many on the interwebs who play “Howard” in the video above, shrieking:
“Once a consecration is made, that’s it, never again! They are fools who repeat a consecration! It’s like baptism! You cannot re-do it! To ‘re-do’ any consecration is to negate, insult any previous consecration! To re-do any consecration is to waste the time of Mary, of Jesus! It is criminal! spittle spittle spittle“
In other words, even if a consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was made many times and that was, as any prayer offered in good faith, acceptable to heaven, that consecration can and should be made again. Why not? Why not have the whole world, not only the Pope and bishops, but all the priests and laity throughout the world do this? That would be great! Every day! Beautiful!
Enter “Howard” once again. Bam!
Goodness… Calm down, “Howard.” You’re such a “Karen.” Join us in the Consecration.
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Basilica of Saint Peter 25 March 2022
/// the service starts at 5:00 pm Rome time. The consecration will be done at 6:30 pm. ///
O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you. As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you. Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence! You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home. We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters. We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves. Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!
Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life. He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity. By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.
We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart. We are your beloved children. In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion. At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort. Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?” You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times. In you we place our trust. We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.
That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs. To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded. We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace. We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness. How greatly we need your maternal help!
Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war. Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world. Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness. Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons. Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love. Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity. Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts. May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew. Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace. May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs. May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land. May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.
Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26). In this way he entrusted each of us to you. To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27). Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history. At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ. The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.
Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.
Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.
Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days. Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God. May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts. In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion. You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace. Amen.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 