THE WARNING: AMENDMENT OF LIFE

Amendment of life will hasten The Triumph. "Men must amend their lives," Our Lady of Fatima declared. "They must stop offending Our Lord, who is already too much offended." We must give up sin and become imitators of Jesus and Mary if we are to bring about The Triumph sooner. Amendment of life is the central condition of the world's renewal. Unless we amend and change our lives, no amount of praying or penance will bring the Era of Peace. There will be no peace, no triumph, until we reform. The failure to heed this challenge is the reason why The Warning has finally confronted us. Sin threatens us with catastrophe. Sin must be abandoned. We must keep God's commandments and give up our wayward, selfish deeds. Destruction threatens our civilization, our security, our very lives. "Certain nations will be annihilated" if the present situation does not change. Amendment of life is the most determinative element in God's program to save us from disaster. More swiftly than anything else we can do, true repentance will avert The Punishment and hasten The Triumph. We must amend our lives, "for Our Lord is already too much offended."

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: DAILY DUTY

Daily duty is penance and reparation. Our Lord told Lucy of Fatima some years after the apparitions that the penance He now seeks and requires of us is that we embrace the daily duties before us. He demands nothing unusual, but only that we accept fully the discipline daily duty entails, and the pain it includes. Such fidelity will hasten The Triumph, since it puts into practice what has happened in the heart. We can pray and be converted interiorly, but our conversion must emerge in the fulfillment of daily duty and in responsible behavior. Love is not love until it is expressed in a human way. It must be visible in our relationships with others, if it is to become real.

There is considerable penance in our lives when we apply ourselves to daily duty. We need not look far from the demands of every-day life to discover self-sacrifice and love. The will of the Father is hidden in the ordinary responsibilities of each day. Not even Jesus Himself performed any special penance that we know of. He simply accomplished His Father's will, going about doing good. For His efforts, He was crucified, and by His pain He redeemed the world. So it is with all of us. The children of Fatima were not asked by the Lady "Will you please choose the hardest penance you can think of, to make reparation for the sins of the world?", but rather, "Will you accept all the suffering God will send you?" Into every person's life God sends suffering. The events and circumstances of each day point out to us the path of love God wishes us to follow. Our acts of penance and reparation are tied up in the little things, seemingly insignificant, that tug on us moment-by-moment, saying to us: "This way to love, that way to love." The will of the Father is evident if we are willing to embrace love and the pain it includes. Doing the Father's will in love is the perfect method to hasten "The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Era of Peace."

[To be Continued . . .]

THE WARNING: PENANCE AND REPARATION

Saint Catherine Laboure' Image via Wikipedia

Penance and reparation also hasten The Triumph. The ones who saw the Blessed Virgin were called to special ways of penance and reparation. The sufferings of Saint Catherine Laboure were lifelong, but mostly interior and hidden completely from others. Saint Bernadette went through excruciating agonies of body and mind in the last years of her short life. The children of Fatima suffered not only during the apparitions, but afterwards also. Jacinta and Francisco both embraced self-imposed penances which Our Lady approved, but which were very difficult indeed. Both of these little ones suffered terrible physical pain because of the diseases to which they eventually succumbed, first
Francisco, then Jacinta. Our Lady took them to heaven, which she had promised to do, but not without their first enduring much suffering "for sinners." She had asked them on her first meeting with them whether they were willing to accept all the suffering God would send them for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sin. All three had answered "Yes." To this Our Lady rejoined, "Then you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort." And so it happened. When she returned later to announce to them that the First World War would soon end because of their prayers, they knew they had hastened the peace. But it was prayer, penance, and reparation that had turned the tide of evil, not the arms and might of men.

None of the messages given to the visionaries is for themselves alone. They, in their experiences with their heavenly visitor, always in some way represent us. Some of the suffering they endure is exceptional; to make the point that suffering has meaning and power---power to redeem the world. We ought to understand this simply by our looking intently at Jesus crucified on the Cross, but we seem to need reminding that the lesson applies to our sufferings as well. We, the members of the Body of Christ Jesus, like the children of Fatima and the others who saw Our Lady, are called into the penance and reparation which can hasten The Triumph and bring peace to the world.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: PRAYER ALLOWS GOD TO ACT

Prayer allows God to act in the world. It is our world because He has given us dominion over it. But He wants us to invite Him in turn to be Lord over it, so that His dominion and ours will be shared, as between Father and Son. He will never act in us coercively, but only with complete respect for our freedom---the gift that makes us fully human and most like Him. If He is to act in our hearts, then we must give Him that freedom by our surrender, in faith, to His reign. The kingdom will come on earth only when we let it in, for the reign of God is a rulership over hearts which are free. Only prayer so liberates our hearts that we can give them over completely to Him and His reign. Mary understands this well because she experienced it all in her own Heart, an Immaculate Heart having no resistance in it to God. She is full of love, given over completely to the reign of God. She is like this not only because God gave her the grace to become so, but because she prayed, and let the Father always do with her as He willed. "Be it done unto me according to your word," she told Him. She knows, because it happened to her, that God pours His love abundantly into the hearts of those who open to Him in prayer. She understands from her own life that prayer is the answer to all the ills of the world. So she recommends it to us. She often commanded the visionaries of Garabandal to pray the Rosary, the childlike, earthy prayer which symbolizes the need we have for littleness. She reveals to Lucy of Fatima that God has endowed the Rosary with special power in modern times; that when we pray with the Rosary, she will hear our prayers. The Rosary is the central item on the prayer-program the Blessed Virgin urges upon the world. But it is not the only form of prayer that she recommends. Of the children of Fatima, Francisco is rapidly drawn into deep contemplation during and after the apparitions, and given the task of "consoling God"; Jacinta is almost obsessed with a divine passion to intercede for sinners and for the Holy Father; Lucy remains on earth for a lengthy contemplative-like apostolate of keeping the message of Fatima alive and of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Heart. They all pray the Rosary, but other forms of prayer emerge as well in their spiritual life. It is not so much a special kind of prayer that makes the difference (although Mary does insist on the Rosary), but prayer itself that is most important.

[To be continued . . .]

FROM MARK MALLETT - SPIRITUAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT -

Mark has posted a new writings concerning The Warning (Illumination), which we have been reading about these past few weeks in the booklet "The Warning"! I post it here for your perusal.

Vision of our Times

Painting of the "last vision" of Sr. Lucia

IN what has become known as the "last vision" of Fatima seer Sr. Lucia, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament, she saw a scene which carries many symbols for the period which began with the Virgin’s apparitions up to our present time, and the times to come:

Suddenly, the whole chapel was illuminated by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side. These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart. (It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames.) Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: "Grace and Mercy." —June 13th. 1929

CROSS OF LIGHT

First, Sr. Lucia sees a "Cross of light reaching to the ceiling." This signifies that God’s love is poured out on the world through the sacrifice of the Son on the Cross. It also proclaims that every Mass is a re-enactment of the sacrifice on Calvary. In addition, it may be a symbol of the Illumination which is going to come upon the whole earth, when we see our souls as the Father in Heaven sees them (accompanied, say some Catholic mystics, by an illuminated Cross in the sky.) This will be a gift from the Heavenly Father—a final act of mercy before the world enters her most painful purification. Hence, Sr. Lucia sees the Father who is Love over top of the Cross.

MINI-PENTECOST

With the Illumination of consciences, there will also be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to equip the Church for the "final confrontation" with the powers of darkness of this era and their minions who refuse the grace of the Illumination. This outpouring will increase until the culmination of this purification, when the Spirit will come like fire to renew the face of the earth. And thus, the Spirit is also pictured above the Cross.

PASSION OF THE CHURCH

But what of this Cross? I believe what Sr. Lucia saw was a prophetic image of the Church about to enter her own Passion, symbolized by the offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass in the chalice and Host. The Blood which fell came from "the Face of Christ." And we, the Church, are indeed the face of Christ to the world.

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, 677

OUR LADY

The Blessed Virgin stands beneath the right arm of the Cross. In traditional royalty, the King holds the Staff or Rod that represents his power in his right hand. It’s this staff that is used to execute judgment or mercy. But Mary has held back this judgment through the intercession of Her Immaculate Heart (see Times of the Trumpets — Part IV ).

She, who is also a symbol of the Church, holds out her heart which carries the crown of thorns to indicate that the Church must now wear the crown of her Lord. It is set aflame with the fire of the Holy Spirit, who is Love, to indicate at once both the Triumph of Our Lady, and the Triumph of the Church, which will be an action through the Third Person of the Trinity.

THE TWO TIMES

The words "Grace and Mercy" are to indicate the two distinct periods we are in, which began at different times, occur simultaneously, but end differently.

The "time of grace" began to flow like water with Our Lady’s apparitions at Rue de Bac to St. Catherine Labouré. Our Lady appeared standing on a globe to indicate the global significance of her visitations. She appeared with her hands covered in rings and jewels from which light shone toward the globe. She tells St. Catherine that "These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The jewels which give no rays symbolize the graces that are not given because they are not asked for." She asks St. Catherine to have a medal struck which illustrates her as the "mediatrix" of all graces. God in His mercy has given the Church two centuries to receive these graces to prepare, in particular, for the time of mercy.

The "time of mercy" began when an angel with a sword, who appeared in a vision to the children of Fatima, was about to strike the earth with a chastisement. Our Blessed Mother suddenly appeared again with light emanating from her. The angel’s punishment was postponed as he cried out to the earth, "Penance, penance, penance!" We know this began what Jesus called the "time of mercy" when He spoke to St. Faustina sometime later.

I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]…. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy… He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice. —Diary of St Faustina, 1160, 848, 1146

What is the difference? This time of grace is a period in which, through our Mother’s intercession, she is drawing great graces upon the Church to prepare her for the final confrontation with the powers of darkness in this present era. The Woman-Mary is laboring to give birth to the "full number of Gentiles" who will form the heel which will crush Satan. This will prepare the way for the Woman-Church to give birth to the "whole Christ", both Jew and Gentile, in the Era of Peace. This present time of grace, which is drawing to a close, is the period in which the oil of faith is being poured into those hearts who are "open wide to Jesus Christ." But there will come a time when this period of grace will end, and those who have refused it will be left without enough oil for their lamps—just the false light of a delusion that God will permit to deceive those who are unrepentant (2 Thess 2:11).

The time of mercy will continue through the chastisements which will follow (even if few accept His mercy) until God purifies the earth of all wickedness, thus beginning a "period of peace."

Those who refuse His mercy must pass through the door of His justice.

Published in: DAILY JOURNAL, TIME OF GRACE | on February 9th, 2009 |

THE WARNING: PRAYER HASTENS THE TRIUMPH

Prayer hastens The Triumph. It accelerates the transformation of the heart. Only prayer can bring about the process that produces in the heart the kind of holiness found in the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Prayer alone opens the heart to the transforming love of the Father. Even Jesus, the very Son of the Father, equal to Him in all things, had to pray. He prayed so well that His whole human life became a prayer. Because He prayed perfectly, the Holy Spirit formed His Sacred Heart into the glorious vessel of Divine Life that we know it now to be. The same Spirit is working in our hearts continually by His grace, according to the degree that we open to Him in prayer. As we pray, He acts with power and love in our hearts to make them more like the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Triumph is hastened in us personally by prayer. Our Lady always reminded us of this most fundamental activity when she visited us in her apparitions. She never failed to insist on prayer, calling the visionaries who saw her to prayer and conveying to us through them her demand that we return to prayer. There is no other way to reach God. We are surrounded by the inexpressibly merciful love of the Father. We are immersed in the being of Him who is love itself, yet we can somehow still remain entirely unaware of His presence, if we do not pray. Prayer opens the mind to realities around us that are the source of eternal life and bliss. It acknowledges that we are creatures who can have a profound love-relationship with God when we turn to Him in prayer, and admits our need of His friendship in order to gain happiness. It accepts not only the possibility, but the necessity of God giving us salvation, and surrenders to the truth that we cannot save ourselves. By prayer we assert that we are not alone, and that we do not want to be alone. We are responsible to another Who loves us and Who is our God. To be with God and to let Him be with us is not only the purpose of prayer, but the very point of our existence.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE TRIUMPH HAS BEEN DELAYED.

Chapter Seven

What will hasten the Triumph?

The Triumph has been delayed. Even in the very beginning of this century, an age of wars and great suffering, Our Lady tried to make it clear that peace would come quickly if people would only heed her requests: "If people do as I ask, there will be peace;" if not --- calamity! The Triumph could have occurred in 1917, had we listened and heeded.
Again, in 1929, she came and asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, saying "now is the time." That was over fifty years ago. Repeatedly, she has pleaded with us, and as yet, The Triumph has not come. It has been delayed, held back, kept at a distance.

But if it can be delayed, surely it can be hastened! It must be hastened, for time is running out. At Garabandal Our Lady of Mount Carmel asserted that "You are now receiving the last warnings." We must hurry and persuade others to hurry. The Warning impels us. Many are in danger of "perdition." They are our brothers and sisters. We must help them by doing the most we can to bring about the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart quickly.

[To be continued . . .]