That’s 1967, 50 years after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. Pope Paul VI made a pilgrimage. Nine years later, at 16 years of age, on July 12, during the evening vigil candlelight Rosary procession, unworthy though I was, I was tapped to help carry the statue, and was not replaced when others were changed out. Thank you, Mary! Thank you, Father Fox! Thanks to my sister who paid for the pilgrimage!
Dear Aussie Mum, I was able to offer Mass for you again. We’re all asking Sister Lucia to intercede for a miracle on your behalf. While we are doing that, it came to mind recently that perhaps I might ask a favor of you should you perhaps get called to heaven by Jesus before I am.
And while many have told me that saying such things is terribly presumptuous, I think we must indulge in the hope that we have been provided. Indeed, I’m convinced that it would be a sin not to have hope. As Saint Paul asks, If the Lord is for us, who can be against us?
The cowardly, say, Karl Marx, thought that such hope is the opiate of society, but I find, instead, that the hopeless do nothing except to kill as many as they can, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, Sanger, so dark, so violent…
Hope, instead, sets us on fire to do what we can also here upon earth, in the midst of our sufferings, by way of our union with dearest Jesus, Divine Son of the Immaculate Conception. And with Saint Paul we desire both to stay here for the sake of the brethren, or to be with Christ and intercede from heaven all the more. Being with the Creator of the Universe, with Love, is no opiate. It is Life and Truth. Jesus is the only Way.
Having said all that… Aussie Mum… I would like to ask a favor of you, a favor which I’ve asked countless souls, capitalizing on my being a priest, giving Last Rites to so very many. My asking of such a favor has assisted so very many, very close to death, to laugh, and joyfully give up resisting making a good Confession, so as to then receive the Last Rites, so as then to receive Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and, as I would say to them, so as to be given as a gift of Jesus to our Heavenly Father, soon, very soon.
Might you, please, Aussie Mum, upon entering the pearly gates, raucously welcomed into the everlasting habitations, as Jesus says, by all those for whom we’ve prayed to get them to heaven, to get them out of purgatory… Might you, please, Aussie Mum, after you’ve thanked Jesus humbly, saying that you only ever did what you had to do, and after you’ve interceded for family and friends so that they might be on their way to heaven, might you add one more intercession for me? Please, tell Jesus that there’s a donkey-priest down upon earth who desperately needs His special help. He will say that all priests worthy of being called His priests are donkey-priests, guarding His Little Flock. He will ask which one in particular. Then, please, begin to explain that there’s a troublemaker in the mountains, who… and as you do, all those there to greet you and bring you before Jesus will laugh, with Jesus, to your bewilderment. Jesus will then explain that I’ve sent so very many to Him with instructions to say the same thing!
Should it work the other way, whereby I die first… while I’m aiming for heaven and to go there straightaway, as Jesus is so merciful, methinks that nevertheless I will be in purgatory until the end of the world, unless someone, again, ask Jesus about a certain donkey-priest who may well be in purgatory, likely until the end of the world, who needs His special help… and I will be most grateful for this, praying for you and yours to be on your way to heaven.
This is a picture of the storefront window of a religious goods store, which sent me an advertisement trying to sell angel statues.
Why are angels, biblically always depicted as blood and guts warriors, depicted today all wispy and chiffon and pastel and effeminate, or here, simply as female niceness? I’m quite sure angels, who are all about truth and justice, with extreme intelligence with their infused knowledge coupled with the wisdom resulting from seeing God in the face, God who is love, turning intelligence into wisdom, and with extreme power to provide one way or the other for us not only for our spiritual lives but in regard to the material universe, I’m quite sure that they will not appreciate being depicted with masks holding up a mockery of Saint Pio’s saying: “Pray, hope and don’t worry.” Notice that even that placard is presented as a mask with the typical ties hanging on the sides.
Sister Lucia recounted long after the events at Fatima that the visits of the angel preceding those of our Lady impressed them with a sense that their angelic visitor, however heavenly, was carrying the weight of the glory of the justice of the Most High, with that weight of the glory of God pushing them to their knees. In Hebrew, it’s interesting that the word for “glory” and the word for “weight” are the same.
Angels have much to say to us about our CONSCIENCES. Ask your guardian angel to assist you with humility. Ask your guardian angel to help you with an examination of conscience.
I remember a priest who liked to mock what he described (I’m paraphrasing) a childish saccharine prayer to one’s guardian angel:
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide.
I see nothing with that prayer (which I say all the time) other than asking one’s guardian angel to go ahead and crush oneself under the weight of the glory of God, you know, so as to die to oneself to live for Jesus. The question is, do we want to be open to how this powerful spiritual being deals with us?
Do you really want his light? If you ask him to enlighten your conscience, ask him to be gentle. He will about cut you to shreds. You want to make a good confession? Do this. Should you then see the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, when every one is being cut to shreds by the truth of how they stand before the Living God, you will have already been there, done that, and be able to hold your head high, as Jesus tells us to do. The translation of the Greek for Mt 24:30 refers to grieving because of seeing the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. The Greek has something akin to cut to shreds. Yep.
Do you really want him to guard you? He’ll do what is takes to guard you should you ask him, especially from from evil circumstances that will lead you to sin, bad friends with whom you will fall into sin… Just be sure to follow his indications. You’ll know. You gotta work together with him.
Do you really want him to rule you? He will insist. You have a conscience? He will use it. Are you good with that? Really?
Do you really want him to guide you? In our fallen human nature, we will rebel. To be led by an angel, right to heaven, we have to be the littlest of children, not thinking we know the way, but trusting in him, that angel, who already right now, Jesus says, sees the face of our Heavenly Father. Let’s see… this entails being… the littlest of children…
Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Sister Lucia
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly and I thank you for the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, that revealed to the world the riches of her Immaculate Heart. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I implore You, if it should be for Your greater glory and the good of our souls, to glorify Sr. Lucy, one of the Shepherds of Fatima, by granting us the grace which we implore through her intercession, the miraculous healing of Yvonne Cheryl Ann. Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be.”
To honor the majestic Source of Honor, Christ Jesus, tortured to death for us, all of us, you and I included, we must not be against flesh and blood with some kind of desire for vengeance wrought by ourselves in this world as if we ourselves were free from sin and did not ourselves deserve vengeance from others.
While we are in this world we must accept our Lord drawing us to Himself on Calvary as an action concomitant with our assisting others to know Jesus, who is the living unmanipulatable Truth, the many, then, rejoicing to receive the Lord’s forgiveness by way of sanctifying grace that turns to glory in heaven.
But that’s not to be unrealistic about how bad and evil things are:
Matthew 7:15-20 — “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Being cut down and thrown into the fire is vengeance and is just, but it is for the Lord and His angels in the Lord’s own perfect timing. And as for us, who are we, really? The passage continues directly:
Matthew 7:21-23 — “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you evil doers!'”
We can fool ourselves. We are not against Satan and his minions merely because we do nice stuff, you know, so as to congratulate ourselves, our Lord Himself giving us the most extreme example of those who congratulate themselves as being with the Lord because they drive out demons in His Holy Name. The demons will gladly run away from a self-righteous exorcist who has demonically fooled himself precisely by working exorcisms. That exorcist is the one, the only one, not Jesus! In such a case the demon isn’t fleeing because of the exorcism, but so as to confirm the exorcist in his arrogant pride, cutting off that exorcist all the more from the Lord: “Oh holy exorcist! You’re so holy!” And the exorcist believes the devil, the father of lies and murderer from the beginning, not the Lord, you know, because he’s conducting an exorcism. Sigh… What a crock.
Saint Paul in Ephesians 6:12 writes:
Quoniam non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principes, et potestates, adversus mundi rectores tenebrarum harum, contra spiritualia nequitiæ, in cælestibus.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Saint Paul makes it clear that, contrasted with mere flesh and blood, we do battle instead with various demons fallen away from the various choirs of angels (who may be possessing individuals in this world).
In putting our Lord’s words and those of Saint Paul together, we conclude that while doing nice stuff is good as far as it goes, all this must be wrought in the will of God, which is never exemplified by congratulating ourselves, but is always accompanied by humility, penitence, in joyful thanksgiving to God. “Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
THEREFORE, ABOUT POPE FRANCIS: We pray that he may – as Saint Paul invites all of us – we pray that he may die to himself to live for Christ Jesus. Right now he is bearing bad fruit. He may be possessed by Satan. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter concerning our prayer. We are against Satan. We are not against the person of the Pope. Jesus redeemed Pope Francis. To honor Jesus, we must desire that Pope Francis assent to being saved. All are redeemed, but only the many are saved. I, who am bad and evil on my own, want to die to myself and lived for Jesus, and be saved.
So, how is it that we are to find ourselves in a place where we can pray for Pope Francis, that he dies to himself so as to live for Christ Jesus? Well, well. To do that we ourselves are to die to ourselves to live for Christ Jesus. We are to sacramentally confess regularly and we are to thank the Lord humbly for His gifts of grace, of forgiveness. We are to pray, live in penitence, rejoicing that God is good. In doing this we are doing the will of God, one with Jesus. The will of God is the only way. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life. Jesus is the One, the only One.
“But Father George! Father George! You don’t understand! Let me repeat so you can get it through your thick skull! Pope Francis worships idols, smashes down the world and the Church with Hegelian dialectic of synodality, exchanging Sacred Revelation for idiot fallen human democratic opinion! He encourages blessings of same-sex sex with his blessings of same-sex couples! He scandalizes the Church and whole world! Hundreds of millions of souls are at eternal risk!”
Yes. I understand. You know how I know I understand? Because I’m the worst sinner. I’ve crucified the Son of the Living God with my sins. And, by the way, so have you. And without Jesus, and without bringing other souls to Jesus, we’re all going straight to hell. So, let’s pray. Let’s pray the Rosary, every day. We gotta make it to heaven. We gotta bring others with us. I’m gonna try to bring Pope Francis. It may be too late for the good of the world and the Church should he, in fact, convert, though such a conversion may bring others to convert. That’s what we want.
But there is this from the Apostle John; what a fright…
1 John 5:16-17 — “If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and He will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.”
There are two ways to interpret this:
One is that the deadly sin to which John refers is sin against the Holy Spirit, such as not wanting to be forgiven. One cannot be forgiven for that because one doesn’t want forgiveness.
The second is that we’re not in a position to be able to judge whether someone is just that lost, so we can pray for them, but John is warning us. Scandalizing the entire world and the Church, it seems to me, objectively speaking, is deadly sin. Does John, the Holy Spirit inspiring John, forbid us to pray for such a brother? No. It’s just an aorist subjunctive. We may pray for such a brother, but we have been given fair warning in the Holy Spirit that if we do that, there may well be consequences for us. We are allowed to pray for such brethren, but we ourselves may well be attacked by the evil one because of this. Prayer and penance go together. If we do the prayer and offer little penance, our angels may well assist us not only with prayer but also with penance. In my experience, it’s like clockwork, lockstep. Our Lady of Akita bids us pray for the Pope (of whatever time), the bishops, (of whatever time) the priests (of whatever time). I’m good with that.
“But Father George! Father George! This one? He’s not even the Pope!”
I wasn’t there to see what went on, say, with what can only be described as electioneering. And recall that Pope Francis himself has mentioned repeatedly his pre-conclave conversations with Cardinals, how he promised to do what they were telling him to do should he get elected. Such conversations might well invalidate the election. But here’s the deal: the next time he speaks about this he may well give more details, such as the Cardinals with whom he was speaking in such manner are all Cardinals over the age of 80 at the time and not eligible to vote in the Conclave. In that case, no electioneering took place. I don’t know if Pope Francis is Pope or not. But he seems to be Pope, n’est-ce pas?
Which brings us to the third secret of Fatima. We might not have the explanation of the apocalyptic vision that Cardinal Bertone had published on the Vatican website. We might not have the entire apocalyptic vision. But for the point of this post, there is this:
“At the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in white; ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father.’ Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross, he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”
Many have commented that the phrase “we had the impression that it was the Holy Father” means that it was not the Holy Father they were seeing. Let’s take the worst case scenario for the sake of argument: it’s not the Holy Father, but a usurper, an anti-pope. Well, well. In this case, he has seen the great sign of the Son of Man in an immense light in the skies, and he is moving toward it, actually praying for the souls of the corpses he met, and is then martyred. And this good example is followed by others who are also martyred with him.
I ask you: is that not precisely the reason why the angel is there to bid us to do penance, penance, penance? I think it is. The Church bids us to pray for the Pope. All good. But you’ve been given fair warning. Hail Mary… Let’s throw Tucho in there as well: Hail Mary…
The following is a comment from another post that I’ve transferred here in hopes that many more will see it. It’s put together by Aussie Mum. The history of this little shepherd boy who heard the angels sing is of great inspiration to me. Thanks, Aussie Mum, for such a great Christmas gift. ///
Father Byers said, “The Rosary leads to the Most Blessed Sacrament”, and the life of Saint Francisco of Fatima attests to this. His many, many Rosaries led Francisco to make many, many Holy Hours.
In response to Our Lady’s 1st apparition (May 1917), when he was still 8 years old (born 11th June 1908), he crossed his hands over his heart and exclaimed, “Oh, my dear Our Lady! I’ll say as many rosaries as you want!”
Lucia tells us that “from then on, he made a habit of moving away from us, as though going for a walk. When we called him and asked him what he was doing, he raised his hand and showed me his rosary. If we told him to come and play, and say the rosary with us afterwards, he replied: ‘I’ll pray then as well. Don’t you remember that Our Lady said I must pray many rosaries?’” (p. 143)
Alongside those many rosaries grew-up a desire to be alone with Our Lord. For example, just a few days after Our Lady’s 1st visit, when the three children arrived at the place they would pasture their sheep that day, Francisco climbed up a steep rocky incline and called down to the the girls:
“Don’t come up here; let me stay here alone.”
“All right.” And off Lucia (aged 10) and Jacinta (aged 7) went chasing butterflies while the sheep grazed.
Later, when it was time for lunch and Francisco had not returned, they called him:
“Francisco, don’t you want to come for your lunch?”
“No, you eat.”
“And to pray the Rosary?”
“That, yes, later on. Call me again.”
When Lucia went to do so, he said:
“You come up here and pray with me.”
The girls did as he requested and climbed up to where he was. There was scarcely room for three to kneel but they managed and Lucia asked him:
“But what have you been doing all this time?”
“I am thinking about God, Who is so sad because of so many sins! If only I could give Him joy!” (p. 144)
Since Francisco desired solitude to pray and contemplate Our Lord, I tend to think he may have become a hermit if he had lived to adulthood. I think a hermitage like Father Byers had would have suited him very well.
Nine year old Francisco was speedily advancing in holiness and the devil unsuccessfully tried to put a stop to that. It was sometime after Our Lady’s 3rd visit in July. The girls were playing as the sheep grazed and as usual Francisco sought a secluded place. He found it in a hollow between some rocks and settled in. He had been there immersed in prayer and thinking about God for some time when the girls heard him shouting, and crying out to them and Our Lady.
“Where are you?” the girls called back.
“Here! Here!” Francisco answered.
Lucia describes the scene when they found him: He was “trembling with fright, still on his knees, and so upset that he was unable to rise to his feet.”
“What’s wrong? What happened to you?”
“It was one of those huge beasts that we saw in hell,” Francisco replied, “He was right here breathing out flames!” (p. 158)
All three children suffered much but only Francisco, as far as we know, was threatened by the demonic in person.
Then, in August, Our Lady’s 4th visit to the children was delayed by a few days because they were imprisoned by Portugal’s anti-Catholic government officials, and threatened with being boiled in oil if they did not deny the apparitions or tell the secret Our Lady had given them. They refused. Francisco was calm and courageous throughout. He did his best to comfort little Jacinta who wanted her parents and when she was taken away for interrogation he said to Lucia:
“If they kill us as they say, we’ll soon be in Heaven! How wonderful! Nothing else matters!” Then after a moment’s silence he added, “God grant that Jacinta won’t be afraid. I’m going to say a Hail Mary for her!” (p. 148)
All three children were finally allowed to return home. Even so, their lives and that of their parents and siblings continued being disrupted as a growing number of people – the pious as well as the curious – descended upon them.
Lucia’s father was the brother of Francisco and Jacinta’s mother, and their two families lived across the road from each other in Aljustrel, a hamlet just over a mile/2km from Fatima. Their homes were regularly invaded by people looking for the children, and crops were destroyed at the Cova da Iria (part of Lucia’s family’s farmland) as the crowds walked through the fields to see and some to pray where Our Lady had appeared. The constant intrusions negatively impacted the life and livelihood of both families. One result was that Francisco and Jacinta’s family sold their sheep.
Once the apparitions ended (October 1917) and with the three children devoid of a flock to shepherd, they were sent to school but Francisco did not always reach there due to his burning desire to be alone with Our Lord.
Lucia tells us that sometimes on their way to school, upon reaching Fatima, Francisco would say:
“Listen! You go to school, and I’ll stay here in the church, close to the Hidden Jesus. It’s not worth my while learning to read, as I’ll be going to Heaven very soon. On your way home, come here and call me.” (p. 156)
Francisco drew so close to Our Lord that his intercession gained miracles. One such miracle happened after Lucia was approached by her sister Teresa to appeal to Our Lady to save a woman’s son facing punishment for a crime he did not commit. The three children discussed the matter on their walk to school. When they arrived in Fatima, Francisco said to Lucia:
“Listen! While you go to school, I’ll stay with the Hidden Jesus, and I’ll ask Him for that grace.”
Meeting back up with Francisco after school, Lucia asked him:
“Did you pray to Our Lord to grant that grace?”
“Yes, I did. Tell your Teresa that he’ll be home in a few days’ time.”
And he was! (p. 161)
In October 1918, around the 1st anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, Jacinta fell ill with influenza. Francisco soon followed yet continued his Holy Hours for as long as he could.
One day, when they were leaving for Fatima and school, Lucia noticed that Francisco was walking very slowly.
“What’s the matter?” she asked him. “You seem unable to walk!”
“I’ve such a bad headache, and I feel as though I’m going to fall.”
“Then don’t come. Stay at home!”
“l don’t want to. I’d rather stay in the church with the Hidden Jesus, while you go to school’.” (p.161)
Eventually, Francisco became so ill that he had to stay home but when Lucia dropped by on her way to school he would remind her:
“Look! Go to the church and give my love to the Hidden Jesus. What hurts me most is that I cannot go there myself …”
One day, Lucia walked home with a group of children from school. Stopping at Jacinta and Francisco’s home, she said goodbye to her companions and went in to to spend some time with her cousins. Having heard all the noise outside Francisco asked:
“Did you come with all that crowd?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Don’t go with them, because you might learn to commit sins. When you come out of school, go and stay for a little while near the Hidden Jesus, and afterwards come home by yourself.”
Another time Lucia asked him:
“Francisco, do you feel very sick?”
“I do, but I’m suffering to console Our Lord.”
On another occasion he said to Jacinta and Lucia when they entered his room:
“Don’t talk much today, as my head aches so badly.”
“Don’t forget to make the offering for sinners,” Jacinta reminded him.
“Yes. But first I make it to console Our Lord and Our Lady, and then, afterwards, for sinners and for the Holy Father,” he said.
When one day Lucia found him looking very happy when she arrived, she asked:
“Are you better?”
“No. I feel worse. It won’t be long now till I go to Heaven. When I’m there, I’m going to console Our Lord and Our Lady very much. Jacinta is going to pray a lot for sinners, for the Holy Father and for you. You will stay here, because Our Lady wants it that way. Listen, you must do everything that she tells you.” (p.157)
It was early morning when Francisco’s sister Teresa came urgently looking for Lucia:
“Come quickly to our house! Francisco is very bad, and says he wants to tell you something.”
When his family left his room at his request he said to Lucia:
“I am going to confession so that I can receive Holy Communion, and then die. I want you to tell me if you have seen me commit any sin, and then go and ask Jacinta if she has seen me commit any.”
“You disobeyed your mother a few times,’’ Lucia answered, “when she told you to stay at home, and you ran off to be with me or to go and hide.”
“That’s true. I remember that. Now go and ask Jacinta if she remembers anything else,” he directed her.
Jacinta thought for a while, then answered:
“Well, tell him that, before Our Lady appeared to us, he stole a coin from our father to buy a music box from José Marto of Casa Velha; and when the boys from Aljustrel threw stones at those from Boleiros he threw some too!”
When Lucia conveyed this message from his sister, Francisco replied:
“I’ve already confessed those, but I’ll do so again. Maybe, it is because of these sins that I committed that Our Lord is so sad! But even if I don’t die, I’ll never commit them again. I’m heartily sorry for them now.”
Then joining his hands, he prayed: “O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.”
Then he said to Lucia: “Now listen, you must also ask Our Lord to forgive me my sins.”
“I’ll ask that, don’t worry,” Lucia replied before adding, “If Our Lord had not forgiven them already, Our Lady would not have told Jacinta the other day that she was coming soon to take you to Heaven. Now, I’m going to Mass, and there I’ll pray to the Hidden Jesus for you.”
“Then, please ask Him to let the parish priest give me Holy Communion.”
“I certainly will,” Lucia assured him.
When Lucia next visited she “found him radiant with joy. He had made his confession, and the parish priest had promised to bring him Holy Communion the next day.” (pp. 164- 165)
Francisco received Holy Communion. The end was near and Jacinta and Lucia stayed by his bedside much of that day, praying the Rosary for him as he had asked. Realising Francisco could be dead before morning, Lucia said her goodbyes to him that night before going to her own home. He survived the night and died the next day, 4th April 1919, of complications due to the influenza he caught 6 months before. He was two months short of his 11th birthday. Jacinta would follow him 10 months later, also due to complications arising from influenza.
Note: All the page numbers given can be found at the link above containing Lucia’s memoirs.
In the life and death of Francisco (and Jacinta) Marto we see Our Lady’s promises fulfilled to those who pray the Rosary devoutly and apply themselves to the consideration of its sacred mysteries.
Wishing Father and everyone reading here at his website a happy and holy Christmas, and all the best for the New Year.
/// Having put up two Christmas posts early this morning, 25 December 2023, methinks I had better continue prayers lest Francisco throw a stone at me from heaven! Happy Christmas to all. Father G
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…
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 