Fatima
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Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima
From May 13 to October 13, 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima Portugal culminating with the miracle of the Sun witnessed by more than 70,000 people.
She gave the visionaries a secret with three parts to be revealed on specific dates in the future, at just the right time to get us in the game and do our part because we have a necessary role to play to alter the events revealed in the secrets.
In her memoires Sr. Lucia relates the First Part of the Secret of Fatima: “Our Lady opened her hands once more…The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the fire, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves…amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear…The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals...”
Lucia relates: “Terrified and as if to plead for help, we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us, so kindly and so sadly: ‘You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go.”
The first part of the Secret of Fatima confirmed the sad reality of Hell and the tragic possibility of going there by rejecting God though unrepentant sin. One month later, on August 19, 1917 Mary said to the children: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.”
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The Second Part of the Secret of Fatima
In response to the vision of souls in hell Our Lady then said:
To save them, (that is, to save people from going to hell) God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.
The war (WWI) is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius Xl. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
Then she tells us what to do so that it all might be prevented.
“To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
God’s plan to save souls and bring world peace is be establishing in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary which means: consecration to Mary; 1st Saturdays of Reparation; and the daily Rosary.
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Third Part of the Secret of Fatima – Not revealed until the year 2000 because it is for our time.
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…a Bishop dressed in White (the Pope) along with Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross…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…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.”
The angel with the flaming sword represents the threat of self-destruction that looms over the world.
The double force opposed to self-destruction is
· The power of the Mother of God
· Her children who pray and do penance
o Are you answering the call?
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On June 26, 2000, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger revealed publicly the third part of the secret of Fatima and explained its meaning. The most important phrase from the 1st and 2nd part of the secret is “to save souls;” the three-fold cry for “penance, penance, penance” is the key to the 3rd part of the secret. He then explained:
“The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment that looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword.”
“The vision then shows the power that stands opposed to the force of destruction – the splendor of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image that the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed.”
“Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore, we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the secret…Rather, the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them.”
The vision the Mother of God gave the children of Fatima and revealed in the year 2000 is meant to mobilize the forces of change!
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Cardinal Ratzinger makes it clear:
God does not punish the world. Man punishes himself. God gives man freedom. Good consequences come from good choices and bad consequences come from sinful choices. The punishment is the consequence that follows from our sinful choices. As sin rises in the world the consequences that come as a result become worse and worse, war, famine, persecution of the Church and the martyrdom of countless many. The worst consequence is that souls are eternally lost in hell.
The whole point of the vision is to mobilize the forces of change, to get us into the game, onto the battlefield with Mary to help her save souls and alter world events.
The weapons we are offered to fight by her side are
· Consecration to her Immaculate Heart,
· The Rosary,
· First Saturdays of Reparation.
Our Lady comes on a Rescue Mission. She is asking us to help her save souls and change world events.
Will you answer her call?