The Age of Mary and the Lost Meaning of Conversion

In these latter days of the Modern Age, Our Lady has appeared on earth more than in any other time in history.[1] As the spiritual war between good and evil intensifies, the Mediatrix of All Graces pleas with us to pray and do penance, even as She continues to intercede for us before the throne of God. In the ongoing epic battle for souls, each true Marian apparition in modern history is another chapter intended to remind all peoples – from practicing Catholics to those separated from God in diverse ways - of the lost meaning of conversion.

Just over one hundred years ago, the Catholic Encyclopedia provided four definitions to conversion, as follows: “a moral change, a turning or returning to God and to the true religion, in which sense it has passed into our modern languages. (For example, the "conversions" of St. Paul, of Constantine the Great, and of St. Augustine.) In the Middle Ages, the word conversion was often used in the sense of forsaking the world to enter the religious state. Thus St. Bernard speaks of his conversion. The return of the sinner to a life of virtue is also called a conversion. More commonly do we speak of the conversion of an infidel to the true religion, and most commonly of the conversion of a schismatic or heretic to the Catholic Church.” [2]

Already lost was the fifth and most crucial definition of conversion: the three ages of the interior life. Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, author of The Soul of the Apostolate, defined the interior life as “the state of activity of a soul who strives against its natural inclinations in order to regulate them and endeavors to acquire the habit of judging and directing its movements in all things according to the light of the Gospel and the example of Our Lord.” [3]

As Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange emphatically taught, “The interior life is for all the one thing necessary. It ought to be constantly developing in our souls…The interior life is lived in the depths of the soul…it is important to us not only as individuals, but also in our social relations; for it is evident that we can exert no real or profound influence upon our fellow-men unless we live a truly interior life ourselves.” [4]

True Conversion in Three Stages
“Scripture often recalls, even to those who are in the state of grace, the necessity of a more profound conversion toward God,” explained Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange. [5] Our Lord, Who desires not the death of the sinner, wills that every soul should travel the path of the three conversions. This is the secret to which the lives of the Apostles and all the saints attest: In all the labors of life, that of the interior life is the most important.

The three stages are transitions or conversions, known as the Purgative Way (beginners), the Illuminative Way (proficients), and the Unitive Way (the perfect). Very simply stated, the three interior conversions might be called an increase in the life of sanctifying grace, which is a gratuitous gift from God and which we will lose when we lack humility, a spirit of mortification, confuse our pride or cowardice with virtues, etc.

The life of grace, said Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, “is there, hidden within you, like the grain of mustard seed, like the leaven which will cause the whole of the meal to rise, like the treasure hidden in a field, like the source from which gushes a river of water that will never fail.” [6]

He also taught, “We are thus able to appreciate something of the importance of true conversion, by which a man passes from the state of mortal sin to the state of grace.” [7]This is the important first step of conversion, “the entrance into the kingdom of God, where the docile soul begins to reign with God over its own passions, over the spirit of the world and the spirit of evil.” [8]

A great crisis in the soul - which may or may not issue from a crisis in practical life – is the defining mark of transition from one stage to another. St. John of the Cross speaks of the imperfections being winnowed out, especially in the first two stages. Yet not all souls progress when the crisis comes. Many fall back, either by giving up the struggle or in becoming complacent and quite satisfied with Self.

Conversion is neither a one-time matter, nor is it enough to live the exterior life of a practicing Catholic nor even, perhaps, to be involved, even in small ways, in any apostolate. The signs of an advancing interior life have nothing to do with zealous activity, even for a good cause.

Necessary for any Catholic, including those leading or participating in an apostolate, is “to fight against an excessive exteriorization through good works” [9]or, to phrase it another way, to reject “love of action for action’s sake.” [10] The interior life is one of inner recollection of God’s Presence at every moment of the day.

Conversion is an ongoing process; thus, we will recognize how the five meanings of conversion are directly connected to the five ways of sanctification and salvation. St. Louis Marie de Montfort reminds us that these five means are “are laid down in the Gospel, explained by the masters of the spiritual life, practiced by the saints, and necessary to all who wish to be saved and to attain perfection. They are: humility of heart, continual prayer, mortification in all things, abandonment to Divine Providence, and conformity to the Will of God.” [11]

Our Lady: The Means of True Conversion
Ninety-two years ago, in October - the month of the Holy Rosary - God deigned to give the peoples of the world another incentive toward conversion when the Virgin came to Fatima. Through the hands of Our Lady of the Rosary came the marvelous and unprecedented sign, the Great Miracle of the Sun. While the complete Fatima message, the Great Secret, and the Miracle reveal many dogmatic and doctrinal themes, Fatima’s thesis is true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, by which many souls will be converted and saved.

“Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, chose the incomparable Virgin Mary from among all creatures to be His Mother and deigned to be nourished and governed by her,” St. John Eudes explained. “In His infinite goodness, He also gave her to us to be our Queen, our Mother and our sure Refuge in all our needs. He therefore wishes us to honor her as He honors her and to love her as He loves her.” [12]

He continued, “According to the Apostle Saint Paul, Christ is the Head of His Mystical Body, the Church, and we are the members. [13] We must therefore be animated by His Spirit; we must follow His inspirations, walk the path He has traced, and continue, as it were, His life on earth by practicing the virtues which were His Own. It follows that our devotion to His Holy Mother must be a continuation of His devotion to her.”

Understanding that the “human will is not, however, moved to love a fellow creature unless the intellect first knows what renders it worthy of respect and esteem,” St. John Eudes immediately noted, “The infinite zeal, with which the Son of God is inflamed for all that concerns His dear Mother, has urged Him to reveal to us through the inspired words of Sacred Scripture and through the writings of the Fathers some small measure of the perfections with which He has enriched her. The reality far surpassing our knowledge of her in this vale of darkness will be revealed only in Heaven, the land of unclouded light.” [14]

Particularly compelling is the saint’s initial selection from Sacred Scripture, a passage which he describes as “a compendium of all the great things that can be said or thought of our marvelous Queen.”[15] Moreover, according to the general law of preparation, [16] we who live in the Modern Age may receive a glimmer of understanding in how the saint’s explanations from this passage (and others) apply to the Immaculate Heart as She manifested Herself at Fatima (brighter than the sun) and the sign She gave (the Miracle of the Sun).

To illustrate the Lord’s revelations about His Virgin Mother, St. John Eudes first chose Apocalypse, Chapter 12:1, “A great sign appeared in Heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

“What is this great sign?” the saint queried. “Who is this miraculous woman? Saint Epiphanius, Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, and many other holy doctors agree that the woman is Mary, the Queen among women, the Sovereign of angels and men, the Virgin of Virgins. She is the woman who bore in her chaste womb the perfect Man, the God-Man. ‘A woman shall compass a man.’ [17]”

The “woman” [a woman clothed with the sun] of Apocalypse is a figure-type of the Church, but the eternal Church is herself a type of Mary, Who is “the woman” prophesied in Genesis 3:15. In explaining how Apocalypse Ch.12:1 pertains to Our Lady, St. John Eudes outlined the passage’s meaning, of which the following is a brief synopsis:

• The woman appeared in Heaven, because She comes from Heaven; She is Heaven’s masterpiece, its Empress, its joy and glory. [18]

• “She is clothed with the eternal sun of the Godhead and with all the perfections of the divine essence, which surround, fill and penetrate Her to such an extent that She has become transformed, as it were, with the power, goodness, and holiness of God.”

• “She has the moon under her feet to show that the entire world is beneath Her.” Save the Lord God Himself, none is above her.

• “She is crowned with twelve stars that represent the virtues which shine so brightly in her soul.”

• “But why does the Holy Ghost call Mary ‘a great sign’? It is simply to tell us that everything in her is wonderful, and that the marvels that fill her should be proclaimed to the entire world…”

“Mary is truly admirable in all her perfections and in all her virtues. But what is most admirable in her is her virginal heart. The heart of the Mother of God is a world of marvels, an abyss of wonders, the source and principles of all the virtues which we admire in our Glorious Queen: ‘All the glory of the king’s daughter is within.’ ” [19]


The Immaculate Heart: Path of Conversion
St. Bernardine of Siena once said that “to be the Mother of God is the miracle of miracles.” At Fatima, Our Miraculous Mother promised, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the path that leads you to God.”

Total consecration to Jesus through Mary paves the path of the three interior conversions. It is a shorter way, so to speak, to make the ascent of Mt. Carmel. At each modern-day apparition and in different ways, the Lady stressed this truth Herself, especially the necessity of conversion. It also seems that the “character” of each successive visitation had much to do with the world’s response or rejection of Her previous message.

• Mary, Conceived Without Sin: As mentioned in last month’s article, [20] with the first two apparitions of the Modern Age (Paris, 1830 and LaSalette, 1846), the emerging theme is clear – conversion through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Who always brings us to Her Divine Son, Jesus Christ.

• The Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1840, the Virgin Mary appeared many times in Blangy, Paris, to another Sister of Charity, Sister Justine Bisqueyburu. Our Lady was clothed in a long white robe, over which hung a blue mantle. Her head was unadorned, Her hair falling loosely over Her shoulders. In Her right hand, She held Her Immaculate Heart surrounded by flames, with the top of the Heart issuing beautiful rays. In Her left hand, She held a badge, a single piece of green cloth suspended from a string of the same color.

On one side of the badge was a miniature replica of the Blessed Virgin, as She revealed Herself to Sister Justine. On the other side was a Heart pierced by a sword, surmounted by a cross, and surrounded by an oval inscription: “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” Sister Justine described a “heart all ablaze with rays more dazzling than the sun and transparent as crystal” – amazing words which prefigure the description of Our Lady Herself at the Fatima apparitions.

This “Badge of the Immaculate Heart,” which became known as “the Green Scapular,” was given “for the conversion of those who had no faith and, above all, to procure for them a happy death.” [21] The Blessed Virgin said the badge must be properly blessed by a priest. It can be worn, or placed in the clothing, on the bed, or simply in the room of the person for whom we are asking the grace of conversion. The prayer on the badge should be offered daily, if not by the one wearing it, then by the one giving it. Graces would be given, She said, in proportion to the confidence in which the favors were asked.

• “I am the Immaculate Conception.” In 1858, Our Lady came to Lourdes, France, appearing to St. Bernadette Soubirous. The Virgin was veiled and clothed in white, with a blue cincture around Her waist, each of Her bare feet adorned with a single golden rose. She carried with Her a magnificent Rosary of large white and widely-spaced beads and golden links. Her message for all was as simple as it was direct: “Pray for sinners,” and “Penitence! Penitence! Penitence!”

It was at Lourdes that the Queen of Heaven offered to the people of the Modern Age a “concession,” as it were, since She emphasized the daily Rosary, which is only one-third of Our Lady’s Psalter.

Centuries before, Our Lady had said to St. Dominic, “Preach my Psalter.” By these words, She meant the Angelic Psalter of 15 decades, with each decade - comprised of one Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s - prayed while meditating on the 15 Mysteries from the Incarnation to the Coronation of Our Lady.

Why was there, at Lourdes, a surprising emphasis on the Rosary of five decades, rather than the Psalter of fifteen? Was it a matter of great significance in Mariology - or had the Merciful Mother of God made allowances for the spiritual sloth of the Modern Age? Perhaps both inquiries are correct because, many decades later, Sr. Lucia of Fatima would reveal “...the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary…There is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.” [22]

For the sake of our own ongoing conversions and that of our fellow sinners, may we heed Our Lady’s many requests for prayer and sacrifice. As the modern-day battle for souls increases in intensity, it shall certainly be as Sr. Lucia once said, “…the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will arrive when a sufficient number of people have fulfilled the message.” [23]

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Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "The Age of Mary and the Lost Meaning of Conversion" was published in CFN's October 2009 issue. All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine.
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End Notes
1. Don Sharkey, The Woman Shall Conquer (Kenosha, WI: Prow Books/Franciscan Marytown Press, 1976): p. 5.
2. Benedict Guldner, "Conversion," The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 4. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908)
3. Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O., The Soul of the Apostolate (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1961): p. 34.
4. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life (Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1977. Reprinted from the original, copyright 1938 by Burnes Oates & Washbourne Ltd.): p. 1.
5. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Volume Two (Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers. Reprinted from the original, copyright 1948 by B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis and London): p. 21.
6. Lagrange, op. cit., p. 15.
7. Ibid., p. 16.
8. Ibid., p. 17.
9. Chautard, op. cit., p. 28.
10. Ibid., p. 42.
11. St. Louis Marie de Montfort, The Secret of Mary (Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, Revised Edition 1993): p.11.
12. St. John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of Mary (Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, under license from Loreto Publications, Fitzwilliam, NH): p. 3.
13. 1 Cor. 12, 27; Eph. 5, 30. Cited by St. John Eudes in The Admirable Heart of Mary, p. 3.
14. St. John Eudes, loc.cit.
15. Ibid, p. 4.
16. This law refers to the way God provided Divine Revelation to make ready the human race for His “undoing of the awful consequences of Original Sin, taken in conjunction with man’s response to God’s overtures.” Rev. Denis Fahey, C.S. SP., B.A., D. PH., D.D., The Kingship of Christ: According to the Principles of St. Thomas Aquinas (Palmdale, CA: Christian Book Club of America, 1990 republication. First published in 1931): p. 33.
17. Jer. 31:22.
18. St. John Eudes, loc. cit., p. 4.
19. Ibid, p. 5.
20. Marianna Bartold, “The Age of Mary: Lessons from Our Lady,” Catholic Family News, September 2009.
21. Sharkey, op. cit., p. 25.
22. Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima, Vol. III (Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, Revised Edition 2001): pp. 507-508.
23. John M. Haffert, Russia will be Converted [Washington, NJ: AMI Press - publishing arm of The Blue Army, 1956].

The Age of Mary: Lessons from Our Lady

When the true religion permeates every branch of study, as the Church’s educational doctrine[1] insists, Catholics have a greater chance of acquiring what historian-apologist Hilaire Belloc coined “the Catholic conscience of history.” [2] This conscience, which grasps the truth that historical time centers on Christ’s Incarnation and His Second Coming, knows that all epochs between these two Events fall within the realm of what St. Bonaventure called “the general law of preparation.” At this juncture in time, those who possess the Catholic conscience of history recognize that the past 500 years of Western Civilization’s decline is like a second Advent, a trial-by-preparation for a wondrous age soon to come, “The Age of Mary.”

“The Catholic conscience of history,” as Belloc defined it, is “an intimate knowledge through identity – the intuition of a thing which is one with the knower.”[3] Maintaining that there is no such thing as “The Catholic Aspect of History” (sic) or what today is phrased as “the Catholic perspective of history,” Belloc considered such terminology a blind acquiescence and an unwitting contribution to the pervasive errors of our age. As he firmly stated, “This talk of ‘aspects’ is modern and therefore part of a decline; it is false, and therefore ephemeral (i.e., fleeting): I will not stoop to it…The Catholic sees Europe from within. There is no more a Catholic ‘aspect’ of European history than there is a man’s ‘aspect’ of himself.” [4]

Why the specific mention of Europe? In the Catholic mind, Europe’s history takes principal place because the Catholic Church formed Western Civilization, which is Roman and European. This historical fact is more often omitted or twisted in modern history texts, which are full of a “succession of theories, self-contradicting and often put forward for the sake of novelty, which has confused and warped modern reconstructions of the past.” [5]

Of the material decline of the ancient Roman Empire, its hastening is often blamed upon the early Christians’ presence in Rome. “That is bad history,” Belloc asserted. “Rather, accept this phrase and retain it: ‘The Faith is that which Rome accepted in her maturity; nor was the Faith the cause of her decline, but rather the conservator of all that could be conserved.’” [6]

“The Religion which informed and saved it was then called, still is called, and will always be called ‘The Catholic Church,’” he firmly stated. “Europe is the Church, and the Church is Europe.” [7]

“Europe must return to the Faith, or she will perish,” was Belloc’s conclusion in his book, Europe and the Faith, a finale formed by the same Catholic conscience of history which he so strongly defended. His was the only true solution to reverse the decline of Western civilization and, with it, the seeming decline of the Church’s human element, which results in the loss of so many souls.

The Lady vs. the Tiger of Revolution

When Belloc wrote, “Europe must return to the Faith, or she will perish,”[8] he summarized the authentic Marian messages of the Modern Age, which will usher in “The Age of Mary.” Of that anticipated era, God surely inspired St. Louis Marie de Montfort, the apostle of true devotion to Jesus through Mary, who once wrote, “That Thy kingdom come, let the reign of Mary come!”

It is in our own age that the Secret of Mary is coming to fruition. “It was through Mary that the salvation of the world was begun,” St. Louis Marie noted, “and it is through Mary that it must be consummated. Mary hardly appeared at all in the first coming of Jesus Christ, in order that men, as yet but little instructed and enlightened on the Person of Her Son, should not remove themselves from Him in attaching themselves too strongly and too grossly to her…But in the second coming of Jesus Christ, Mary has to be made known and revealed by the Holy Ghost in order that through her Jesus Christ may be known, loved, and served. The reasons which moved the Holy Ghost to hide His spouse during her life, and to reveal her but very little since the preaching of the Gospel, subsist no longer.” [9]

St. Montfort’s inspired prophecy was written in the early 18th Century, in a Europe still reeling from the Protestant Revolt, in a Europe soon to experience the French Revolt against the altar of God and the Catholic throne. The “Catholic conscience of history” understands the series of conflicts were not spontaneous, random events but purposeful advancements of the Great Revolt against God, the Revolt which began in the 1500’s and continues to this day.

The Virgin of Paris: “She Shall Crush Thy Head”
The “Catholic conscience of history” recognizes that, in every instance, the Great Revolt which carried into the 19th Century afflicted Catholic European countries. Simultaneously, the same conscience understands why Our Lady chose the 19th Century to so often make Her Presence known: In these latter days of the Modern Age, in which the Church Militant is desperately besieged by every heresy, the Holy Ghost is revealing Mary, according to the “general law of preparation,” so that “through her, Jesus Christ may be known, loved and served.”

Our Lady Mary first came to Paris, formerly the very heart of the French Revolt where the forces of hell had struck at Her heel. She appeared to a postulant of the Daughters of Charity on July 18, 1830, the eve of the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, co-founder of the community. The Lady allowed the postulant – whom we know as St. Catherine Labouré – to kneel before her and rest her clasped hands on Her lap, just as a young girl would do with her mother. During the 2½ hour visit, the Virgin spoke of the evil times and foretold coming calamities which took place within the next 40 years – as they did.

“But come to the foot of the altar. Here great graces will be poured out upon all who ask them with confidence and fervor. They will be bestowed upon the great and small.”

“My eyes are ever upon you. I shall grant you many graces. Special graces will be given to all who ask them, but people must pray,” [10] were Our Lady’s concluding words at the end of the first apparition.

The message was clear: The Virgin turned the eyes of Her children to the Blessed Sacrament, where God so patiently waits. All we have to do is turn to Him and ask Him for His help with “confidence and fervor” because He wants our love and trust. Furthermore, God is no respecter of persons; the graces distributed are not given according to social status, as the spirit of the world thinks. Finally, the Lady made clear that She Herself watches and guards over us and, as the Mediatrix of All Graces, She also promises graces but with a condition – “people must pray.”

During Her second visit in Paris, where 40 years prior the godless revolutionaries replaced the Madonna’s statue in the Notre Dame Cathedral with the shameless “Goddess of Reason,” the Lady emphasized both a Marian doctrine, which would be defined as a dogma 24 years later,[11] and Her intercessory power before God. It was in Paris that She gave to the world the Medal of the Immaculate Conception (the Miraculous Medal).

Our Lady appeared over the high altar, standing on a globe – Her feet crushing a serpent, which immediately calls to mind the proto-evangelium of Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and her seed; She shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

The Virgin held a smaller globe with a small cross on top, which She held out as if offering it to God. The Lady explained to Catherine that the ball represented the world, adding, “I am praying for it and for everyone in the world.”

Beautiful rays of many colors and lengths shone from what looked like gems on Her fingers. The Virgin said, “The rays are the graces which I give to those who ask for them.” The stones from which no rays came, She said, represented the graces waiting to be bestowed but for which no one asks.

This Vision then changed and an oval frame appeared around Our Lady. She lowered her arms and stretched out Her hands, graces pouring in the form of light. Around the oval frame appeared words in gold, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

“Have a medal made according to this picture,” the Virgin said to St. Catherine Labouré. “All those who wear it when it is blessed will receive many graces, especially if they wear it from the necks.”

Suddenly, the entire Vision seemed to revolve. On the back of the oval, which denoted the reverse side of the Miraculous Medal, St. Catherine saw the letter “M,” surmounted by a cross with a crossbar beneath it. Below the crossbar were two Hearts, one encircled by thorns and the other pierced by a sword. Surrounding the “M” were twelve stars within a golden frame.

The symbolism of the two Hearts emphasizes that the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are inseparable; the “M” underscores the truth that Mary is the cause of our salvation, for it with Her cooperation that God became Man. The symbolism also emphasizes the Marian doctrine that the Mother of God is the Co-Redemptrix of the human race. The cross and crossbar remind us of the Passion, while the 12 stars within the golden frame symbolize the 12 Apostles commanded by Christ to spread the Gospel and baptize all nations. The 12 stars also symbolize the 12 virtues of Our Lady, and they may also be a divine hint to Apocalypse, Ch. 12: 1, which begins, "A great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun..."

Lessons from LaSalette

Sixteen years later, on Saturday, September 19, 1846 - the eve of Our Lady of Sorrows – the Virgin Mary came to LaSalette, France, there to grant a one-time appearance to two shepherd children. The apparition occurred between two and three in the afternoon, a time of great significance because on this day and during this exact hour, the Divine Office prayers were being offered to the Virgin of Sorrows.[12]

Eleven-year old Maximin Giraud and fifteen-year old Melanie Mathieu were tending cows when there suddenly appeared a globe of dazzling light. The globe opened and they saw a woman seated on stones. The Lady’s elbows rested on Her knees, Her face was buried in Her hands, and She was weeping.

The Lady wore a crystal-white, floor-length gown, its long, broad, and straight sleeves reaching beyond Her fingertips. A golden apron descended to the bottom of her dress. Over the gown, the Lady wore a white cape bordered with roses. On Her feet were white shoes, encircled by roses. Her head-dress, too, was white, crowned by a royal diadem, wreathed with roses of many-colored hues.

Around the Lady’s neck hung a golden chain and golden crucifix, with a hammer on one side and a pair of pincers on the other, clearly emphasizing the Passion of Jesus.

Each sentence of the known LaSalette Message (for there are still Two Secrets never officially revealed) is intended for all of the Church’s children, regardless of age.

Consider the evident lessons taught (although there are many more) in even a quick examination of Our Lady’s opening words, reproduced below in exact order:

• “Come near, my children, be not afraid; I am here to tell you great news.”

• The Lesson: Our Lady reveals Her desire that we approach Her in trust, as children approach their Mother.

• “If my people will not submit, I shall be forced to let fall the arm of my Son. It is so strong, so heavy, that I can no longer withhold it.”

• The Lesson: When the Virgin spoke of “my people,” She spoke as did the queens of old. At the same time She revealed Her intercession as the Queen Mother before Her Son, Whose arm is raised to punish. The Lady warns the people to submit – that is, to give Her Son the love and honor which He rightly deserves as Our Savior.

• “For how long a time do I suffer for you! If I would not have my Son abandon you, I am compelled to pray to him without ceasing; and as to you, you take not heed of it. However much you pray, however much you do, you will never recompense the pains I have taken for you.”

• The Lesson: Although the blessed in Heaven can no longer suffer, Our Lady uses these words to display the gravity of our sins in God’s eyes. Again, She refers to Her Son – implicitly revealing Her own identity. Once more, She speaks of Her prayerful intercession, for which we have been ungrateful. No mere human being can ever offer enough love and gratitude to Her Son in His Passion, by which we were bought at a great price, or to His Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows.

• “Six days I have given you to labor, the seventh I have kept for myself; and they will not give it to me. It is this which makes the arm of my Son so heavy.”

• The Lesson: Here is a great mystery, for Our Lady did not say, “The Lord our God gave you six days to labor;” rather, She spoke in the first person. Her words were a discreet reminder that She is the Perpetual Tabernacle of the Holy Trinity; God chooses to speak through Her in these latter days. The Lady had referred to the Third Commandment, “Keep holy the Sabbath day,” which means attending the Sacrifice of the Mass and receiving the Sacraments on Sundays and holy days. This commandment also forbids missing Mass through one’s own fault, unnecessary servile work, public buying and selling, or court trials on the Sabbath.

• “Those who drive the carts cannot swear without introducing the name of my Son. These are the two things which make the arm of my Son so heavy.”

• The Lesson: Our Lady warned of Our Lord’s severe anger when people break the Second Commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” All should use reverence when speaking of God and holy things or matters, and keep oaths made in the name of God. Blasphemy, irreverent or disrespectful use of God’s name, false oaths, and breaking of vows offend against this Commandment.

In essence, while the Virgin of LaSalette spoke of many other matters, She made clear that the only remedy is conversion – of which the true definition is almost lost in this age. Christ must be the life of the soul.

"Europe must return to the Faith, or she will perish," Belloc once wrote. We who live in these waning days of Western Civilization have our own parts to play in keeping and spreading Our Lady's messages, for this Age is only the Introduction to the approaching and glorious story, “The Age of Mary.”

“Well, my children, you will make this known to all my people.” (Our Lady of LaSalette)

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The article above was published under the original title, "The Age of Mary and the Catholic Conscience of History: Lessons from Our Lady" in the September 2009 issue of Catholic Family News (CFN). All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II, available from Neumann Press). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine.
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End Notes

1. Pope Leo XIII, Militantis Ecclesia (On St. Peter Canisius, August 1, 1897): para. 18.

2. Hilaire Belloc, Europe and the Faith [New York, The Paulist Press 1920. Retypeset and republished in Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1992]: Introduction, p. 13.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid, p. 15.

6. Ibid., p. 13.

7. Ibid, p. 17.

8. Ibid, p. 185.

9. St. Louis Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary: Article 3, #49.

10. Don Sharkey, The Woman Shall Conquer [Kenosha, WI: Prow Books/Franciscan Marytown Press, 1976]: pp. 16-17.

11. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined in 1854 by Blessed Pope Pius IX.

12. The Seven Sorrows (Dolors) of Mary, once celebrated in the Church twice a year, are symbolized as seven mystical swords piercing the Immaculate Heart. In 1727, the feast day was added to the Roman Calendar on the Friday before Palm Sunday. It was also commemorated on the third Sunday of every September, until 1913 when Pope St. Pius X moved the feast to September 15, immediately following the Feast of the Holy Cross on September 14th, emphasizing the connection between Our Lord’s Passion ad Our Lady’s Sorrows.

Christ in the Family: The Christian Education of Youth

“The family received from God a threefold mission: The care of the material life, the spiritual life and the supernatural life,” St. John Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, once said.[1] Recognizing that each human soul needs instruction in that which is good, the saint continued, “For this reason, it is, above all things, necessary that he should know the means that are indispensable for him to this end – and this is the knowledge of the commandments of God or, in one word – Religion.” [2]

With those words, the saint echoed the Church’s doctrine on Christian education and its threefold purpose, a doctrine reinforced in the 1929 encyclical Divini Illius Magistri, on the Christian Education of Youth: “In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to obtain the sublime end for which he was created…there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education.” [3]

In using the term “Christian education,” Church tradition makes clear that the words Christian and Catholic are synonymous. As we know from the Acts of the Apostles (11:26), it was in 1st century Antioch that Jesus Christ’s followers were first called Christians. It was also in 1st century Antioch that the term Catholic Church [i.e., universal Church] flowed from the pen of St. Ignatius, the bishop-martyr known as the Apostolic Father because he was a “hearer” of St. John the Evangelist, as well as the third bishop of Antioch, following St. Evodius who was himself the immediate successor of St. Peter.[4] While more proof could be offered, these two examples from both Scripture and Tradition firmly establish that a Christian is a follower of Christ and a member of the Catholic Church, which bears four infallible marks – one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. It follows that we can say with gentle confidence that Christian means Catholic, and Christianity means Catholicism.

Once these very important terms and their definitions are accepted for the truth they are, the last sentence quoted from the encyclical Christian Education of Youth translates to “there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Catholic education.”

What Catholic Education Is and Isn’t

“Now in order that no mistake be made in this work of utmost importance, it is necessary to have a clear and definite idea of Christian education in its essential aspects…” [5]

First, it should be said that a Catholic education is not one in which a religion class is “tacked” onto the rest of the curriculum. We know this because the Church’s doctrine on education teaches: “For the mere fact that a school gives some religious instruction (often extremely stinted) does not bring it into accord with the rights of the Church and of the Christian family, or make it a fit place for Catholic students.”[6]

What is it, then, that makes education Catholic? The encyclical Militantis Ecclesiae proclaimed, “Religion must not be taught to youth only during certain hours, but the entire system of education must be permeated with the sense of Christian [meaning Catholic] piety. If this is lacking, if this holy spirit does not penetrate and inflame the souls of teacher and pupil, small benefit will be derived from any other sort of education; instead damage will be done.”[7] Finally, this same encyclical clearly states, “Religion must permeate and direct every branch of knowledge.”[8]

Catholic Education at Home

The Church’s doctrine on Catholic education applies not only to the Catholic school but also to the private Catholic home. Home education has existed since the dawn of creation and, therefore, throughout the Church’s history.

While the phrases “home education” or “homeschooling” will not be found in any Church document, the Church has always recognized and upheld the natural law that parents are responsible for their children’s education. Since the time that God became Man and elevated marriage to a sacrament, the natural necessity of children’s education became supernatural.

Now, more than ever, parental rights and obligations in the Christian education of youth remain necessary. As heretofore stated, the Church is very clear that Catholic education prepares man for three things: “for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created.” What he must be refers to the development of the child’s character and the interior life of the soul; what he must do here below refers to an individual’s purpose in life, which is to know, love and serve God, regardless of any aspirations about state in life; and the sublime end for which he is created refers to the eternal happiness of Heaven which God gives to those who have lived a life of faith and good works.

The objective mind, however, understands that Catholic education – whether at school or within the home - is no guarantee of sanctity, for one must not forget “the free will factor,” given by God to every person. St. Jean Marie Vianney was clear on this point when he said, “Christian fathers and mothers, if you wish to have pious, good children, you must first of all yourselves be God-fearing and lead good lives. As the tree, so will the fruit be, says an old proverb, and the divine word verifies this. A good tree brings forth good fruit, a bad tree fruit like itself” to which the saint wisely added, “We know that now and then, even in good Christian families, there are to be found degenerate sons or daughters, but the rule is as our Savior says…”[9]

The Four Pillars of Catholic Education

“The home, therefore, must be in accord with the Church,” the Curé of Ars taught, “so that all harmful influences must be withheld from the souls of children. Where there is true piety in the household, purity of morals reigns supreme, and every agreeable virtue finds a home therein. I turn to you, dear parents, and implore you: To imitate the Holy Family of Nazareth!” [10]

To follow this saintly advice and to keep the home in accord with the Church, we must adhere to the four pillars of Catholic education, which are as follows: 1) teaching, 2) organization, 3) teachers, and 4) syllabus and textbooks. The Church highlights the necessity of these four pillars in Christian Education of Youth, which declares “…it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, and its teachers, syllabus and textbooks in every branch, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that Religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth’s entire training, and this in every grade in school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and higher institutions as well.” [11]

• The First Pillar - Teaching the Mind, Training the Will: Teaching consists of the instruction of the mind and the training of the will. In fact, teaching instructs the mind in order to motivate the will. As most parents eventually discover, teaching the mind and training the will are essential to all education; a plethora of books could (and have) been written about how to motivate a child’s will toward the good, but ultimately teaching and training centers on the virtue of religion, which elevates the mind and soul to God, the Source of All Good.

• The Second Pillar - Organization: As taught in Christian Education of Youth, organization is addressed in two distinct parts, comprising the following whole: the establishment or the society of the school and its order, design or way of implementation. The organization of the Catholic home and school does well when it imitates those excellent examples traditionally provided by the Church throughout the centuries.

“Accordingly that education, as a rule, will be more effective and lasting which is received in a well-ordered and well-disciplined Christian family; and more efficacious in proportion to the clear and constant good example set, first by the parents, and then by the other members of the household.” [12]

Organization, as it pertains to the establishment or the “society” of the home led by the parents, is founded on one, multi-faceted motto of Catholic Action: Pray, Study, and Act. The organization of family life is firmly founded on daily prayer by parents and children, daily duty of study and work in the Catholic spirit of charity, and regular reception of the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion.

“It requires care, a great deal of care, to conscientiously fulfill the obligations of a father or mother,” St. John Marie Vianney noted. “The parents are a mirror to their children; and the children constantly look into this mirror. Be careful therefore that only the good, and what is worthy of imitation is perceptible in you and graven upon your hearts.” [13]

“Watch particularly over your children when they have grown up,” is another counsel of the saint’s. “Do not allow them to associate with irreligious persons.” [14] This important advice addresses the interior life of “teens,” for there are three periods of the spiritual life, which are compared to the three stages of physical life: childhood, youth, and adulthood.

In general, conscience or “aware” childhood commences at the dawn of reason, about the age of seven but sometimes before, and lasts until the age of puberty. Youth, or adolescence, spans the years of fourteen through twenty. Then follows adulthood, “in which we may distinguish the period which precedes full maturity, about the age of thirty-five, and that which follows it, before the decline of old age sets in.” [15]

“The period of puberty,” explained Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., “is characterized by a transformation not only organic, but also psychological, intellectual and moral. The youth is no longer content to follow his imagination, as the child was; he begins to reflect on the things of human life, on the need to prepare himself for some career or occupation in the future. He has no longer the child’s attitude toward family, social and religious matters; his moral personality begins to take shape, and he acquires the sense of honor and of good repute. Or else, on the contrary, if he passes unsuccessfully through this difficult period, he deteriorates and follows evil courses. The law of nature so ordains that the transition from childhood to youth must follow a normal development; otherwise, the subject will assume a positive bias to evil, or else he will remain a half-wit, perhaps even a complete idiot, for the rest of his life. ‘He who makes no progress loses ground.’” [16]

Those sober words explain why the Church insists that Catholic education must continue throughout the adolescent years and beyond. To accomplish this most important task, parents must themselves continue in the habit of prayer, to study the Faith, and to act by practicing the virtues, while gently and firmly expecting the same of their children.

The second meaning of organization addresses the order, design or way of implementation of Catholic education. When it comes to formally teaching religion, reading, arithmetic or math, science, history and geography, the Church’s traditional practice in instruction is systematic, methodical and cyclical. Such instruction eschews “child-led” learning which means allowing the child to choose what, how and when “subjects” shall be learned. Of course, authentic Catholic education does not preclude helping children develop their God-given talents and interests, but even this path must be tread with care so as to avoid self-indulgence.

“Bring up your children simply, withhold all luxury from them, discourage a too great desire of pleasures, and let them learn only that which is good, useful, and practical,” advised the saintly Curé of Ars. “See to it, that in their childhood, as well as when they are older, they frequent the Sacraments regularly.” [17]

• The Third Pillar – Teachers: Parents are the primary educators of their children, a natural law which the Church recognizes and upholds in Divine Law. The begetting and education of children is the primary end of the marriage sacrament. As Christian Education of Youth elucidates, “Parents are under a grave obligation to see to the religious and moral obligation of their children, as well as to their physical and civic training, as far as they can, and moreover to provide for their temporal well-being.” [18]

The Fourth Pillar – Catholic Text and Syllabus: A priest who understands the purpose and aim of Catholic homeschooling once told me, “Many parents today have no notion of Catholic textbooks and if they do not have that experience, it is a gaping lacuna [hole or gap] in their formation as Catholics.” The selection of materials to study religion and the other subjects must also assist the parents in ensuring that the Catholic religion permeates the curriculum. This is often a daunting task, since for many years too many books considered “Catholic” are doctrinally diluted and, even worse, are peppered with the seeds of modernism, the synthesis of all heresies.

A century ago, the Church warned against “pernicious books” that have “now grown to such an extent that it is hardly possible to subject them all to censure. Hence, it happens sometimes that the remedy arrives too late, for the disease has taken root during the delay;” [19] the Church further warns against books bearing an Imprimatur which “may have been granted through carelessness or too much indulgence or excessive trust placed in the author, which last has perhaps sometimes happened in the religious orders.” [20] This warning is even truer today.

The Secret of Catholic Life

Despite the many obstacles placed before Catholic families, God provides the spiritual and material necessities, a truth of which the Curé of Ars reminded us when he said, “What are the means to renew the family life in the spirit of Christ and the Church? I answer: Keep the commandments of God, and follow the infallible teaching which God has placed in that haven of salvation, the Holy Catholic Church, so that you may walk in the right path which leads to the inheritance of the Saints. If you wish, Christian married people, to imitate St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother of God, you must sanctify yourselves; you must practice the virtues which shine out to us from the life of this most holy couple. Matrimony is a great sacrament, as St. Paul says, but only in Christ and His Church.” [21]

“As long as Our Lord is first served,” St. Joan of Arc was wont to say, in beautiful words that summarize the secret of Catholic life. The Catholic family must be grounded upon the Cornerstone, of Whom St. Jean Marie Vianney rightly exclaimed:

“Christ must come back into the family! Christ must remain in the family! Let this be your motto. Then, with the help of God, a devout, chaste generation will spring up to the joy of the parents and of the Church.”[22]

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Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "Christ in the Family: The Christian Education of Youth" was published in CFN's August 2009 issue. All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II, available from Neumann Press). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine.

~+~+~+~+

Endnotes
[1] St. Jean Marie Vianney, Sermons of the Curé of Ars (Long Prairie, MN: The Neumann Press, 1995]: p. 87.
[2] Ibid, p. 88.
[3] Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (On the Christian Education of Youth, December 29, 1929; also known as Rappresentanti in Terra): para. 7. [Emphasis added]
[4] St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, ca. 110 A.D.: “Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” Cited by William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. I [Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1970]: p. 25.
[5]Pope Pius XI, loc. cit., para. 10.
[6] Ibid. para. 80.
[7] Pope Leo XIII, Militantis Ecclesia (On St. Peter Canisius, August 1, 1897): para. 18. Here it must be noted that, sometime after 1995, recent English translations of encyclicals have been re-edited, especially those currently available on the Net. See the article “Encyclicals: A Matter of Translation?” at www.keepingitcatholic.blogspot.com
[8] Ibid.
[9] St. Jean Marie Vianney, op. cit., p. 91.
[10] Ibid., p. 90. [Emphasis in the original]
[11] Pope Pius XI, loc. cit.
[12] Ibid, para. 71.
[13] St. Jean Marie Vianney, loc. cit.
[14] Ibid., pp. 91-92.
[15] Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., The Three Conversions in the Spiritual Life [Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, Reprinted in 1977 by arrangement with Burnes & Oates, London]: p. 26.
[16] Ibid., pp. 26-27. [Emphasis added]
[17] St. Jean Marie Vianney, op. cit, p. 92.
[18] Pope Pius XI, op. cit., para. 23.
[19] Pope St. Pius X, Pascendi Dominici Gregis (On the Doctrines of the Modernists, September 8, 1907): para. 51
[20] Ibid.
[21] St. Jean Marie Vianney, op. cit, p. 91. [Emphasis added]
[22] Ibid., p. 92. [Emphasis in the original]

Hilaire Belloc, Red Flags, and Those Catholic Bones

Something Hilaire Belloc wrote about the great heresies brings to mind "Red Flags" - a topic I've not written about for quite some time, but which is addressed at length in my books on Catholic home education (the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guides).

Originally, the "Red Flag List" was intended to assist Catholic homeschooling parents, who buy their curriculum at conferences or via "educational catalogs." However, "Red Flags" in books, television shows, movies, etc. (as in ad nauseum) abound for Catholics everywhere and in every state of life (single, married, young parent or grandparent, priest or nun). Now, unless we live on a desert island, we must be on guard against "the spirit of the world" which is much worse than "The Blob" (in the old "B" movie), a dangerous and seeping entity that literally consumed everything in its path.

At any rate, the primary reason for constructing the "Red Flag List" was a simple but important one: Dangerous novelties (in the form of books) were quickly becoming the "fashion" in Catholic home education, and the alarm had to be sounded.

The main problem began oh-so-innocently, of course, and for a variety of reasons. It started with allegedly "Christian" books that were, in fact, of heretical origin. Much could be said, and has been, on tolerating a few such sources within the home study curriculum (under certain circumstances), so that issue won't be discussed again in this article.

As time passes, the "novelties" become even worse with "fashionable" resources that present themselves as Catholic, are even "hailed" as Catholic (though they are chock-full of subtle phrases or ambiguous terminology), and are then found in Catholic catalogs (for homeschoolers or of general interest to all Catholics).

The problem continues with "catholicizing" heretical books and implementing new or "resurrected" educational methods (Dewey comes to mind, but there are many other educational 'reformers' to avoid). Too, many people still refuse to believe that educational method is simply the means of bringing a philosophy to life.

It is only because we tolerate such errors that such "novelties" are still with us and grow even stronger as they are thus passed onto the next generation. The basic formula to error, which must be recognized in order to avoid its use (especially in Catholic education), might be expressed this way:

"Novelties" + "Fashions-in-contemporary-thought" = "Errors" (Heresies)

A "Red Flag" is (and always has been) the Catholic instinct alerting us that something we've read or heard or are urged to do is not quite right. We may not yet be able to explain the uneasiness, but it is - to paraphrase Hilaire Belloc - something we know in our Christian bones.

Feelings, of course, cannot be trusted, since they are not the same as the Catholic instinct, that sensei fide that makes us wonder about the why's and wherefore's to the questions arising in our minds. Sensei fide keeps nudging at us to pay attention with our reason, illuminated by Divine Revelation. That "sense of the Faith" is what is meant by a "Red Flag"...and when the instinct is particularly strong, the Red Flag is waving!

As for Hilaire Belloc (and to conclude this purposely brief post), ponder - if you will - this observation from none other than the famous Catholic historian and apologist himself:

"Now against the great heresies, when they acquire the driving power of being the new and fashionable thing, there arises a reaction within the Christian and Catholic mind, which reaction gradually turns the current backward, gets rid of the poison and re-establishes Christian civilization. Such reactions begin, I repeat, obscurely. It is the plain man who gets uncomfortable and says to himself, 'This may be the fashion of the moment,
but I don't like it.' It is the mass of Christian men who feel in their bones that there is something wrong, though they have difficulty in explaining it. The reaction is usually slow and muddled and for a long time not successful. But in the long run with internal heresy it has always succeeded; just as the native health of the human body succeeds in getting
rid of some internal infection."

-Hilaire Belloc, The Great Heresies

The One Thing Necessary

July 13 marks an important date in salvation history. It is the date when, in 1917, Our Lady addressed essential matters of Divine Revelation in a way never before known in the Church’s chronicles. With the third stage of the Great Revolt against God already commencing,[1] the Virgin Mary came to Fatima to remind each person throughout the world of the one thing necessary: the salvation of our individual souls through devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

Fatima: The Promises and the Prophecies
“In the whole cycle of the apparitions, that of July 13 is unquestionably the most important,” wrote Fatima historian Frère Michel. “It is the central apparition which the two previous ones prepared for and the three subsequent ones were to confirm.” [2]

As a battalion within the Church Militant advances the Rosary Crusade for the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, we cannot forget the details from whence issues our cause. As we pray, study, and act in this Crusade of authentic Catholic Action, we must remain focused on this central July apparition at Fatima because, as Frère Michel observed, “The history and the content of this extraordinary message is unprecedented in all the history of the Church...”[3]

Our Lady chose the third apparition in July - the month in which the Church especially honors the Most Precious Blood of Jesus shed for our redemption - to disclose four matters of import: 1) a three-fold promise for October, including a miracle which, when fulfilled, occurred in three stages, 2) the prophecies of the Great Secret, comprised of three distinct parts, 3) a prayer of sacrifice, with three pleas to Jesus, and 4) an addition after each Rosary decade, a prayer of three entreaties to Our Savior.

The Three-fold Promise: “In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe.”[4] The Lady made this promise a mere moment before revealing the Great Secret.

The Miracle, as Frère Michel notes, “would guarantee the divine origin of the secret, as well as the fulfillment of this prophetic secret. Thus the great miracle of October 13 was closely associated, by the Blessed Virgin Herself, not only with the whole of Her message, but especially with the prophetic text of July 13.”[5]

The Sacrifice Prayer with three intentions: The Lady, who from the beginning of the apparitions displayed consistent concern for sinners, said: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[6] In this brief offering, we recognize three points: A prayer addressed to Jesus which speaks of love for Him, offers sacrifice for the souls of others, and makes an act of reparation for sins.

The First Part of the Great Secret: In speaking those last words, Our Lady opened Her hands…from which “rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire,” Sr. Lucia wrote. “Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, 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 repellant likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent, like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady…”[7]

Unexpectedly, the very first part of the Great Secret, given to three young children, was a momentary but soul-searing glimpse of hell. Terrifying as it was, the Vision of Hell was truly one of Heaven’s last recourses of mercy to a world already steeped in sin. This frightening vision further transformed the increasingly holy interior lives of the three Fatima children, who would valiantly fulfill their roles as faithful witnesses and selfless victims of reparation. The children’s unswerving fidelity to the Lady and the entire Message of Fatima, and their great sacrifices for the sake of others, testify to the reality of eternal hell - a reality which Heaven saw fit to reveal to them in the First Part of the Great Secret.

The Second Part of the Great Secret: “If What I Say to You is Done…” Our Lady then gave the Second Secret, “You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them [poor sinners], 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 reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light,[8] 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.”

“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. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace [era of peace, in another translation] will be granted to the world.”[9]

The Third Secret begins with the words, “In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.”[10] While at least a part of the Third Secret Vision is now known, the Virgin’s Message relating to it remains yet concealed. Pope Benedict XVI, however, knows the words Our Lady spoke in the “Third Secret” of Fatima, for he read them when he was known as Cardinal Ratzinger.

In an article written last October on the Great Miracle of the Sun, it was noted, “In 1984, after admitting he [Cardinal Ratzinger] had read the Third Secret, he was asked why it was still not released. His response revealed that the Third Secret possesses the following “six themes” (mysteriously correlating with the same number of times Our Lady appeared at Fatima): 1) It is in accord with Divine Revelation, 2) It demands a radical call to conversion and penance, 3) It refers to the absolute importance of history, 4) It alerts the Church and the world to the dangers threatening the faith, the life of the Christian and therefore the world, 5) It is integral to the importance of the last times, and 6) Although it could be mistaken for sensationalism, it is nevertheless a religious prophesy corresponding to Scripture and confirmed by many other Marian apparitions.” [11]

“Might these six themes of the Third Secret direct our attention to one or more of the ‘six signs’[12] of the last times, given by Christ Himself? They, too, fall within the realm of ‘the absolute importance of history,’ for ‘salvation history’ centers on two things: The Incarnation of Christ, when Our Lord came to offer Redemption and Mercy, and His Second Coming, when He will come as Just Judge.”[13]

The Rosary Decade Prayer, with three intentions: To return to the sequence of events during the July apparition, it was at some point after revealing to the children the Third Secret - either after its Message or Vision - that Our Lady said, “When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those with the greatest need of Thy Mercy.”[14]

Of the latter part of this prayer – “especially those with the greatest need of Thy Mercy” - Sr. Lucia would years later humbly explain “that Our Lady was referring to the souls in the greatest danger of damnation.” [15]

In October, the Lady kept all three of Her promises. With her first sentence, She revealed two of three things She wanted, as well as Her title: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in My honor, for I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day.” [16]

Those unadorned words verify the Virgin’s statement in June that Her Immaculate Heart leads us to God - for every Catholic chapel contains the Hidden Presence of Jesus. By praying the Rosary every day, we cultivate the practice of prayer and meditation on the lives of Christ and His Virgin Mother, we gain all 15 promises Our Lady gave to those faithful to Her Rosary, we grow further confident in Jesus and Mary, and we may gain a daily plenary indulgence (under the proper conditions).

The final desire of Our Lady of the Rosary - given just before opening Her hands to initiate the Great Miracle of the Sun – was made known in the form of a most solemn and grieved command: “People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended.”[17]

A Mystical Doctrine
“Fatima is indeed a mystical doctrine or, so to speak, a devotion completely centered on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the consecration and reparation due it. It is also the fully traditional conception of religion and theology, completely oriented toward the last ends without any compromise with the world, or the idle dreams of Christian progressivism…it is a politics of Christendom which invites the Church to stand up resolutely to the gravest peril of the hour…” [18]

The whole Message of Fatima, including the Great Secret and the Great Miracle of the Sun, plumbs oceanic depths of the Faith which this brief essay must merely outline:

• The Lady’s gentle but insistent command to the Pope to consecrate Russia, in union with the world’s bishops, to Her Immaculate Heart is intended to save the Church’s human element, convert sinners, and remind the Vicar of the dignity, the authority, and the duties of his high office. As reigning Steward of the Catholic City, the Pope’s role, which safeguards the Deposit of Faith, is intended for the salvation of souls.

• The Virgin Mother of God also wishes the Vicar of Christ to universally promulgate the Five First Saturdays of Reparation for the blasphemies made against Her Most Amiable Heart. With her specific requests to the Pope, Our Lady desires that the Vicar of Her Divine Son’s Church recalls his solemn obligation to preserve the Faith, whole and intact, in “restoring all things in Christ.”[19] As Steward, he is guardian of the Church. As such, it is the Pope’s honor and duty to obey the Queen of the Catholic City, just as He must obey the King, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

• The Virgin’s insistence that the bishops must join the Holy Father in the Collegial Consecration reminds the princes of the Church that their offices, while elevated, remain subordinate to the Holy Father; they, too, must obey his lawful commands. With the Pope – whose responsibility is even greater than theirs - they are accountable to God for the souls placed under their care.

• Finally, the Blessed Mother stated succinctly, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart” – a devotion to the Mediatrix of all Graces, the final recourse to save “poor sinners” from hell. Decades have passed since the Virgin Mary uttered those words, and still we do not see this devotion universally practiced, much less promulgated by the Church’s pastors.

While we cannot be certain which will come first – the Collegial Consecration of Russia or the worldwide devotion to Our Lady’s Heart - we do know that we should follow Our Lady’s other five requests, addressed to each and every one of us, from the Pope in Rome to the least of God’s little ones.

The five things for which the Lady of the Rosary asked of us are as straightforward as they are profound. Intended to sanctify us and keep us on the path of ongoing conversion (the secret of the interior life), these five practices must be well-memorized, shared with others and, above all, practiced. They are as follows: the daily Rosary, faithful accomplishment of daily duty (as Catholics and also in our states in life), sacrifice for the conversion of sinners, the wearing of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, and our devotion to the Five First Saturdays of Reparation.

In heeding these five requests of the Mother of God, we shall deepen devotion to the Immaculate Heart in our own lives and that of our families, hopefully make further steps in the three conversions of the interior life, assist God (Who usually acts through people) in the conversion of our fellow sinners, and attain salvation.

The “Business” of Salvation
In its entirety, then, the Fatima Message is given for the sake of all who must battle for their souls in the most dangerous of times – the age of the great apostasy. The Message, Miracle and Secret rest on a central theme of salvation in three parts. First is the salvation of souls; second is the salvation of the nations and of Christendom, the peace of the world; and third is the preservation of the Catholic Faith and the salvation of the Church.[20]

“Truly, it is the greatest of errors to neglect the business of eternal salvation,” said St. Eucherius, a truth upon which St. Alphonsus de Liguori further elaborated by saying “it is an error that exceeds all others, for to lose the soul is a mistake without a remedy.”[21]

“One thing is necessary,” wrote St. Alphonsus as he emphatically quoted the Gospel of St. Luke, “the salvation of our souls…For this God has placed us here: not to acquire honors, riches, or pleasures, but to acquire by our good works the eternal kingdom that is prepared for those who, during this present life, fight against and overcome the enemies of their eternal salvation.”[22]

“Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge, and the path that leads you to God.” [23](Our Lady of Fatima)

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Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "The One Thing Necessary" was published in CFN's July 2009 issue. All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine
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Notes
[1] Marianna Bartold, “Fatima’s Miracle of the Sun: The Meaning of the Great Sign,” Catholic Family News, Oct. 2008.
[2] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: Science and the Facts, Vol. I [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989]: pp. 185-186.
[3] Ibid., p. 187.
[4] Ibid, p.181.
[5] Ibid., p.187.
[6] Sister Mary Lucia of the Immaculate Heart, Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words: Sister Lucia’s Memoirs [Fatima, Portugal: Postulation Centre, 1976]: p. 165
[7] Ibid., p. 167.
[8] “This was the aurora borealis on the night of January 25-26, 1938, which was unusual, and always regarded by Lucia as the God-given sign which had been promised.” Cited in Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words by editor Fr. Louis Kondor, SVD: p. 190.
[9] Sister Mary Lucia, loc. cit.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Bartold, loc. cit.
[12] Lk. 21: 10-11, Mt 7: 7, 11, 14. The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version. [Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1899 edition photographically reproduced].
[13] Bartold, loc. cit.
[14] Sister Mary Lucia, loc. cit., pp. 167-168
[15] Frère Michel, op. cit., footnote 29: p. 212.
[16] Sister Mary Lucia, op. cit., p. 172.
[17] Frère Michel, op. cit., p. 291.
[18] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: The Secret and the Church, Vol. II [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989]: p. 770. [Emphasis in the original]
[19] Ephes. 1:10
[20] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, op. cit., pp. 9-10.
[21] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Way of Salvation and Perfection [Brooklyn, NY: Redemptorist Fathers, 1926]: p. 254.
[22] Ibid., p. 42.
[23] Sr. Mary Lucia, op. cit., p. 163.

The Dominion of the King and Queen

Since veneration of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart honors Our Lord’s Sacred Heart, it is probably no coincidence when at Fatima the Virgin Mary first chose to reveal Her Immaculate Heart, cruelly pierced by a circle of thorns, during the second apparition in the month of June, the month of the Sacred Heart. With this singular symbolic imagery, the Queen’s Immaculate Heart identified with that of Her Son, Savior, and King. Pope Pius XII expressed the depths of these mysteries of the King and Queen in the following way: “Jesus is King of the Eternal Ages by nature and by right of conquest; through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest and by singular election. And her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion.” [1]

Jesus, King of the Eternal Ages
“We lisp like children when we speak of things divine,”[2] especially when we speak of the very nature of God. Still, because our faith teaches that Divine Revelation is a world of mystery but not of contradiction, we believe all that God has revealed to us, including the truths about Himself.[3]

Jesus is King of the Eternal Ages because in His Divine Nature, He is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Alpha and Omega. In the Old Testament, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was not formally revealed but only foreshadowed, in accordance with what St. Bonaventure called “the general law of preparation.” This law refers to the way God provided Divine Revelation to make ready the human race for His “undoing of the awful consequences of Original Sin, taken in conjunction with man’s response to God’s overtures.”[4] This “law of preparation” applies to all the truths of Faith, including the Revelation of the Holy Trinity as well as the Lord’s plan of Redemption.

The first implicit hint of the Old Testament’s “law of preparation” for the revelation of the Triune God appeared in the history of creation when the Lord said, “Let us make man to our image and likeness.” [5] St. Augustine noted similar utterances from God about His plurality: “Behold, Adam is become as one of us,”[6] and “Let us go down, and there confound their tongue.” [7] The triple Sanctus of Isaias, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of Hosts,” and the triple blessing recorded in Numbers,[8] are also opaque heralds of the sublime mystery of the Holy Trinity, but there are many others.

The law of preparation is also heard in paradise lost, with the Lord’s veiled promise of “the woman…and her seed.” [9] In His curse upon the serpent, the Lord God uttered the first prophecy, recorded in Genesis 3:15 and known as the proto-evangelium (the first good news): “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”[10]

Although our first parents could not know that four thousand years would pass before the fulfillment of the Lord’s words, much less understand their full meaning, this first prophecy foretold the Virgin Mary (“the woman”) and Jesus Christ (“her seed”). In the proto-evangelium, God bound together Mother and Son, the Mediatrix and the Redeemer of the human race.

Christ is King by Nature as God and Man
Before His Passion, Jesus made clear His Divine Nature when He said, “Before Abraham was made, I am.”[11] In the Holy Trinity, He is “the Word,” the Eternally Begotten, consubstantial with the Father. St. John the beloved Evangelist phrased this mystery very simply: “In the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[12]

“It has long been a common custom to give to Christ the metaphorical title of ‘King,’ because of the high degree of perfection by which He excels all creatures,”[13] explained Pope Pius XII, affirming what the Church has always taught: “Christ - our Teacher, our Priest and Redeemer - is our King by reason of His eternal Divinity, but he is also King as man.”[14]

When Christ chose to assume a human nature, the Word Incarnate received from the Godhead the royal dignity as the rightful attribute of His humanity.[15]

As the Church also teaches in Quas Primas (Pope Pius XI's Encyclical on the Kingship of Christ), Christ is King by right of nature as Man because He gave His Life to offer us Redemption. Accordingly, He has the right to rule in the hearts and the wills of men because He has purchased us “with a great price.” [16] It is "by His grace and inspiration He so subjects our free will as to incite us to the most noble endeavors." [17]

“He is the King of hearts, too, by reason of His ‘charity with surpasseth all knowledge.’ (Eph. 3:19)…But if we ponder this matter more deeply, we cannot but see that the title and power of King belongs to Christ as Man in the strict and proper sense, too. For it is only as Man that he may be said to have received from the Father ‘power, and glory, and a kingdom’ (Dan. 7:14), since the Word of God [Jesus]…has all things in common with Him, and therefore has necessarily supreme and absolute dominion over all things created.”[18]

Christ is King also by right of conquest: “But he is King of men by a special title, for we are His subjects by right of conquest. Under the domination of Satan, reduced to the servitude of sin from that fatal moment in which Adam sinned, involving us all in his ruin, we have been freed by Christ from captivity, and we are now justly subject to his salutary rule.”[19]

“The Son of God, Who made us, was made one of us: and He rules us as Our King, because He is our Creator, Who made us,” said St. Augustine. “As King, He fought for us, as Priest He offered Himself for us…In Him, let us rejoice.”[20]

Christ’s Kingdom, As it Should be on Earth
The Kingship of Christ is, above all, spiritual in character and, as Pope Leo XIII declared, it is exercised “by truth, by justice and, above all, charity.” [21] Jesus said His kingdom is “not of this world” but it is both spiritual and temporal. On earth, His Kingdom is the Catholic Church, the One Supernatural, Supra-national Society. The Lord’s Kingdom reigns within each of the Church’s members who live in (or return to) the state of sanctifying grace: “For lo, the kingdom of God is within you.”[22]

Christ’s Temporal Kingship is also intended to be shared by the rulers of natural governments, because God “wants order in the works of His hands. So the world is meant to mirror forth, however imperfectly, the unity of the Mystical Body in heaven, for the social life [of Heaven] of which we are meant to prepare here on earth,” as explained Fr. Fahey. “Accordingly, the history of the world…turns around the social acceptance and rejection of the Kingship of Christ, and thus the attitude of States to the one supernatural society and to the Indirect Power of the Catholic Church is the keystone of the arch of the world’s social order.” [23]

“We lost supernatural life by original sin and we need Divine Grace that we may live an ordered life,” as Fr. Fahey reminds us, “yet this society proclaims that one can be a good man and true while utterly indifferent to the source of grace, Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Divinity.”[24]

In giving our complete fidelity to Christ, we cooperate with His work because “… it is for Jesus Christ as King, in virtue of the work of Redemption which He must accomplish, to conquer His Kingdom and defend His faithful subjects against the enemies who strive to overthrow His reign here below.”[25] Christ’s authority in the temporal order “is not here a question of commanding and legislating in view of conducting human society to its common good in the natural order, which belongs to the civil power, but of opposing everything that could hinder the progress of the supernatural life and the social order consonant with it, and of obtaining from the rulers in the civil order the cooperation necessary therefore. This power forms part of the attributes of the Spiritual Kingship, for it is at its service and is, so to say, its instrument.”[26]

His Spiritual Kingship is also “militant and the struggle against moral evil must go on as long as men remain here below exposed to suffering and death, to corruption and sin. Only in eternity shall the triumph be complete, by the victory of the good and the defeat of the wicked…; [but] we must keep in mind the twofold aspect of Christ’s Headship: the negative aspect of His combat against sin and His warring down of evil, which belongs to His Kingship, and the positive one of uniting souls to God, which is the function of His Priesthood.”[27]

Upon Christ, therefore, Who is Mediator, Prophet, Priest, Savior and King, all things converge. All creatures are subject to Him, and He offers His Sacred Humanity and Divinity as King and Priest to the Father. “All things are put upon Him,” says St. Paul, “…and when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”[28]

Why Mary is Queen
Our Lord also gave to the Church and each individual soul His Mother, the Queen of Heaven and the Help of Christians. As Pope Pius XII stated, “Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest and by singular election. And her kingdom is as vast as that of her Son and God, since nothing is excluded from her dominion.”

• Our Lady is Queen by grace because, through the foreseen merits of Her Son and Savior, She was preserved from Original Sin from the first moment of Her existence. She is the Immaculate Conception, Who never committed the slightest actual sin. Our Lady was not only conceived in sanctifying grace, but that grace grew abundantly as Her life progressed; it is for this reason that the angel Gabriel saluted Her, “Hail, full of grace.”

• She is Queen by divine relationship because God chose Her to be His Mother, the cause of salvation. The central and primary truth of Christianity is the fact that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”[29] That God would become Man was the great secret, “hidden from ages and generations,”[30] until it was manifested at Bethlehem when the Christ Child was found “with Mary his Mother.”[31]

Our Lady’s relationship to each Person of the Holy Trinity explains Her divine relationship. She is the first adoptive daughter of God the Father, Who created Her highest in grace because She was chosen to be the Virgin Mother of God the Son. She is the Virgin Bride of God the Holy Ghost, Who “infused into her soul the gifts of grace merited by the Son [Rom. 5:5] and miraculously brought about the conception of the Divine Word in Her womb.”[32]

• She is Queen by right of conquest and by singular election because Our Lady, the New Eve, gave free consent to Her office in the mystery of the Incarnation and in the work of Redemption. The Genesis 3:15 prophecy of “the woman…and her seed” commenced with the Virgin’s Fiat, “Be it done to me according to Thy Word.”

Of the natural and supernatural unity between the Savior and His Mother, Pope Benedict XV wrote, “To such extent did Mary suffer, and almost die with her suffering and dying Son; to such extent did she surrender her maternal rights over her Son for man’s salvation, and immolated Him – insofar as She could – in order to appease the justice of God, that we may rightly say She redeemed the human race together with Christ.” [33]

Pope Pius XI stated, “From the nature of His work, the Redeemer ought to have associated His Mother with His work. For this reason, We invoke her under the title of Co-Redemptrix. She gave us the Savior, She accompanied Him in the work of Redemption as far as the Cross itself, sharing with Him the sorrows of the agony and of the death in which Jesus consummated the Redemption of mankind.” [34]

For all these reasons and more, Our Lady’s Kingdom is as vast at that of Her Son’s. “She shares in His kingdom,” says St. Albert the Great, “because she shared in His suffering for the human race.”

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. echoes the same truth: “Mary was associated with Christ’s victory over Satan, sin and death by her union with Him in His humiliations and sufferings. She is, therefore, really associated with Him in His Kingship.” [35]

Pope Pius XII declared: “It is certain that only Jesus Christ God and Man is King, but Mary as Mother of King and associated to Him in work of divine redemption participates in His royal dignity.”[36]

The Immaculate Heart, Pattern of the Sacred Heart
It is in Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart that Divine Love “gathers all the perfections of His divinity…and brings them together in the heart of the august Queen of all angels. It is fitting that, having chosen Mary to be His Mother and having become Her Son, Our Lord should establish such a perfect resemblance between Mother and Son.”[37]

As St. John Eudes taught, “In His infinite goodness, He also gave Her to us to be our Queen, our Mother and our sure Refuge in all our needs. He therefore wishes us to honor Her at He honors her and to love Her as He loves her.” [38]

Finally, there is another sublime consideration of Our Lady’s Queenship: It was from the Immaculate Heart that the Sacred Heart drew its own Likeness. As St. John Eudes stated, “His divine love most perfectly draws its own image in His Mother’s amiable heart.”[39] What a beautiful truth upon which to contemplate – that Christ traced His very Heart after the Mother He created.

Since Jesus is King of All Hearts, it follows that Mary is Queen of All Hearts because They are united in all things. And since the Kingdom of Jesus Christ belongs to Our Lady, it is the one and only Immaculate Heart who still says to us today, “Whatsoever He shall tell you, do ye.”[40]

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Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic (http://www.keepingitcatholic.org/), is the author of "The Age of Mary" Catholic, Internet-Based Study Guides, and "The Return of the King" (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is also the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II, available from The Neumann Press and other Catholic booksellers), the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda Magazine, and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family's Magnificat! Magazine.

The article above, "The Dominion of the King and Queen," was published in the June 2009 issue of Catholic Family News. All Rights Reserved Worldwide by the author.
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Notes
[1] Pope Pius XII, Radio Message to Fatima, May 13, 1946, Bendito seia, AAS 38.266. [Emphasis added]
[2] Canon George D. Smith, D.D., Ph.D., The Teaching of the Catholic Church: A Summary of Catholic Doctrine, Vol. 1. [New York: The MacMillan Company, 1959]: p. 41.
[3] Charles George Herbermann, The Catholic Encyclopedia, an International Work of Reference [Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913. Original from the New York Public Library, digitized August 15, 2006]: p. 219. [http://books.google.com/ books?id=FmgQAAAAIAAJ]
[4] Rev. Denis Fahey, C.S. SP., B.A., D. PH., D.D., The Kingship of Christ: According to the Principles of St. Thomas Aquinas [Palmdale, CA: Christian Book Club of America, 1990 republication. First published in 1931]: p. 33.
[5] Gen 1:26 [Emphasis added]
[6] Gen. 3: 22 [Emphasis added]
[7] Gen. 11:7 [Emphasis added]
[8] Num. 7: 24-26
[9] Gen. 3:15
[10] Ibid.
[11] Jn. 8:58 [Emphasis added]
[12] Jn. 1:1
[13] Pius XI, Quas Primas (On the Feast of Christ the King, December 11, 1925): para. 7.
[14] Canon George D. Smith, op. cit., p. 63 [emphasis added]
[15] Ibid. [Emphasis added]
[16] Pius XI, Ibid.
[17] Loc cit.
[18] Loc cit. [Emphasis in the original]
[19] Canon George D. Smith, op. cit., p. 64.
[20] St. Augustine’s Commentary on Ps. CXLIX.
[21] Pope Leo XII, Annum Sacrum, cited by Canon George D. Smith in The Teaching of the Catholic Church: A Summary of Catholic Doctrine, Vol. 1 [New York: The MacMillan Company, 1959]: p. 64.
[22] Lk. 17:21
[23] Rev. Denis Fahey, op cit., pp. 34-35.
[24] Ibid., p. 88.
[25] Ibid., p. 22.
[26] Ibid., p. 25.
[27] Ibid., p. 23.
[28] 1 Cor 15: 28
[29] Jn 1:14
[30] Matt. 2: 11
[31] Lk 2:16
[32] Father Paul A Duffner, O.P., “The Queenship of Mary,” The Rosary Light & Life, Vol. 45, No. 4, July-Aug. 1992 [http://www.pacifier.com/rosary-center.org/ll45n4.htm]
[33] Apostolic Letter “Inter Sodalicia,” cited by Father Paul A. Duffner in “The Queenship of Mary”
[34] Pope Pius XI, Allocution to Pilgrims from Vicenza assembled in Rome for the Jubilee of the Redemption, Nov. 30, 1933.
[35] Ibid.
[36] “The Queenship of Mary,” TIME Magazine, November 8, 1954 [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857668,00.html]
[37] St. John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of Mary [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, under license from Loreto Publications, Fitzwilliam, NH]: p. 107
[38] Ibid., p. 106
[39] Ibid., p. 3
[40] Jn. 2:5

The Woman and the Battle of the Latter Days

Now and in the days ahead, the Church Militant must not place its faith in mere human means to restore the Church. “Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future,” said St. Maximilian Kolbe. “The conflict with hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever. The Immaculate alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan.”[1]

Those words echo the revelations of the Queen of Heaven, Who came to Fatima, revealing in essence that Christ reserves to Her the final triumph in the battle of the latter days. In that combat, all that the children of Mary need do is heed the requests of Our Lady – it is as simple as that.

To quote the character of Lord Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, “This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world; small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”[2]

Two Handmaidens to Sanctity
When events and circumstances leave us feeling helpless, we may find ourselves saying, “There is nothing I can do but pray,” momentarily forgetting that prayer and sacrifice are the lot of the elect. Prayer and sacrifice are the two spiritual handmaidens to sanctity; they are always the conditions required by God Himself to obtain favors.

Our Lord foresaw that, for the faithful of the Modern Age, daily life would become burdensome. Throughout our sacred history, it is always the same story – an age of increased sin, affecting not only the sinner but everyone. The difference between our age and former times is that mortal sin is prevalent, endorsed by almost all governments and, tragically, encouraged and committed even by those within the Church.

Our Blessed Mother’s constant intercession for this sinful age is the reason Heaven made clear that the prayer of our times must be the Rosary. It seems nothing can stop the madness, for the Church’s human element is infiltrated with the sins of modernism – and that reality explains why Our Lord said that life as a faithful Catholic would be our true penance.

When on a great scale mankind abandons God and tempts Him to turn His face from us, Our Lady’s continual intercession is the last means to save souls; that is the reason why God wishes to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart. When we are tempted to think we have nowhere to go for help, we cannot forget Our Lady of Fatima’s consoling words, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge, and the path that leads you to God.”

Our Mother, Our Mediatrix, Our Queen
Numerous are the battlefronts in the great spiritual war of the latter days. The world news worsens with tragic reports - martyrdoms of the faithful, scandals, murders, terrible accidents, thefts, and increasing revolts against the Church and the Holy Father. Too, the number of “natural” cataclysms like earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions seem to be rising.

The faithful may continue to fight the good fight, declaring their outrage against the persecutions of their fellow faithful, signing petitions in support of the Holy Father, writing letters of protest against all kinds of scandals, joining marches in defense of morality, and engaging those who ardently resist the Tridentine Rite’s restoration in every parish and diocese. Still, despite our best efforts, we must admit that, as Blessed Pius IX once declared, “up till now reasonable demands and repeated protests have availed nothing to remove these evils.”[3]

Our Lady also wants conversions, which includes advancement in the interior life of the soul. The Rosary prayers and the sacrifices of the faithful have not yet been enough to bring worldwide devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Only that devotion, with the collegial consecration of Russia to the same Pure Heart, will bring the era of peace to all mankind and the conversion of Russia, who has spread her errors throughout the world.

Our own efforts are not enough, perhaps due not only to our lack in numbers but also to our lack of confidence. As Our Lady said at Akita, “Those who place their confidence in Me will be saved.”[4] We must have confidence, because---

She is Our Mother and Mediatrix: “With a heart that is truly a mother's does she approach the problem of our salvation,” wrote Blessed Pope Pius IX, “and is solicitous for the whole human race; made Queen of heaven and earth by the Lord…standing at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she intercedes powerfully for us with a mother's prayers, obtains what she seeks, and cannot be refused.”[5]

She loves us and desires our salvation: As Pope St. Leo declared, “It has been her unremitting concern to see to it that the Catholic Faith stands firmly lodged in the midst of the people, there to thrive in its fertile and undivided unity.”[6]

She is the cause of salvation: Pope Pius XII quoted St. Irenaeus in saying, “she has been constituted the cause of salvation for the whole human race.”[7]

She is the Virgin Queen Mother of the King: “Because the virgin Mary was raised to such a lofty dignity as to be the mother of the King of kings,” held St. Alphonsus Liguori, “it is deservedly and by every right that the Church has honored her with the title of ‘Queen.’”[8]

She is the Queen of Peace: As Blessed Pius IX urged, “Whoever, therefore, reverences the Queen of heaven and earth - and let no one consider himself exempt from this tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let him invoke the most effective of Queens, the Mediatrix of peace; let him respect and preserve peace…to its safeguarding and growth the gentle urgings and commands of the Virgin Mary impel us.”[9]

Our Lady came to Fatima as Mother, Mediatrix and Queen, there to affirm the Church’s central doctrines. With a supreme and royal dignity, She also gave commands in the gentle way befitting our true Lady and Queen.

The Virgin’s specific requests, while simple, give us frequent opportunities to practice the virtues we need most: 1) The daily Rosary, 2) daily duty as true penance, 3) sacrifice for the conversion of sinners, 4) the Five First Saturday devotions, and 5)the faithful wearing of the Brown Scapular.

There is also the sixth request, comprised of two parts. For the Holy Father and the bishops of the world, God Himself commands the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The request’s second part is the universal establishment of the Communion of Reparation (the Five First Saturday Devotion), which is founded on Confession, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Rosary and meditation on the Psalter’s mysteries in reparation for blasphemies against Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.

The solemn act of consecration will bring the era of peace and world-wide conversion, because it will firmly establish true devotion to Our Lady’s Pure Heart. No one but the Holy Father can order the bishops to join him in that solemn act, so we must always pray and sacrifice for that intention. As for the Five First Saturdays of Reparation, we ourselves can make this devotion every month of the year for those who do not – as Sr. Lucia did all of her life.

The Virgin said, “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. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and an era of peace will be granted to the world.”[10]

To save souls from hell, the Lady revealed that God “wills to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart…To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise salvation; those souls will be cherished by God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne…If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” [11]

The Immaculate Heart devotion has long been willed by Christ. Almost seven centuries ago, the Sacred Heart made clear to St. Mechtilde that He Himself is “the herald of this devotion [to His Mother’s Heart], which He teaches to us both by word and example.”[12] In modern times, Our Lord told Sr. Lucia the reason why the solemn, public collegial consecration of Russia to the Virgin’s Heart is His Will: “Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that Consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that it may extend its cult later on and put the devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart…”[13]

The Woman of the Apocalypse
Many saints have insisted that devotion to the Sacred Heart is itself a sign of the last days. As St. Gertrude once said, “The love of the Incarnate Word as exemplified by His Divine Heart is reserved for the last ages to be made known, so that the world, carried away by follies, may regain a little of the warmth of early Christian charity by learning of the love of the Sacred Heart.”[14]

The Fatima revelations are also a sign of what Sr. Lucia, Servant of God, called “the last times of the world.” Some too easily dismiss Fatima as merely a “private revelation” in which we are not obligated to believe. Is that claim true, in the strictest sense of the phrase? It is not hard to see with eyes of Faith that Scriptural prophecy came to pass at Fatima when “a great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” [15]

In the Apocalypse, “a woman” is a symbol of the Church while, in Genesis 3:15, “the woman” is the Virgin Mary, foretold by God Himself. It was the Woman who appeared at Fatima as the apocalyptic sign that the greatest battle of our own age, the one between “a woman clothed with the sun” (the Church) and the dragon (Satan), had begun. That spiritual battle is one we will never win by our own efforts or designs, but only when all we do is “with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.” [16]

The Woman of Genesis, Who came to Fatima, was even brighter than the sun, clad in a white gown and veil, the veil trimmed in gold. Here it must be noted that white is considered “the color of mourning” worn only by Catholic queens, while gold is recognized everywhere as the color of royalty.

The Lady wore two ornaments, one a long yellow necklace from which dangled a bright orb or jewel, symbolizing Her bridal attributes as reigning consort of the Divine Spouse. Her other ornament was the Star of Esther, symbol of the Old Testament’s virgin queen who saved the entire nation of the elect from annihilation.[17]

Queen Esther is Our Lady’s figure-type and, as St. John Eudes explains, “Mary’s peerless heart is a fountain of light, that was foreshadowed in the person of Queen Esther, who is represented in Sacred Scripture as a small fountain that becomes a great light and is turned into the sun. ‘The little fountain which grew into a river and was turned into a light, and into the sun…’ It is the fountain of the sun, fons solis, mentioned in chapters fifteen and seventeen of the Book of Josue.” The saint continued, “Truly the heart of Mary is the foundation of the sun, because Mary is the Mother of the sun of justice, and this divine sun is the fruit of Mary’s heart.” [18]

At Fatima, Our Lady yet gave another sign - the Great Miracle of the Sun - so that all would believe and again turn to God, thus avoiding the greatest sin threatening mankind, final apostasy.

In his commentary on St. Luke’s eschatological discourse of the great apostasy, St. Ambrose interpreted the symbols of sun, moon and stars in this way: “Many apostatizing from Christianity, the brightness of the Faith will be dimmed by this cloud of apostasy: since the heavenly Sun grows dim or shines in splendour according to my Faith. And as in its monthly eclipse the moon, by reason of the earth coming between it and the sun, disappears from view, so likewise the holy Church, when the vices of the flesh stand in the way of the celestial light, can no longer borrow the splendour of His divine light from the Sun of Christ. And in the persecutions, it was invariably the love of this life that stood in the path of the Divine Sun. Also the stars - that is, men surrounded by the praise of their fellow Christians - shall fall, as the bitterness of persecution mounts up; which must however come to pass, until the number of the faithful be made up; for so the good are proved and the weak made known.”[19]

The Example of St. Joan of Arc
If we genuinely know the whole truth of Fatima, why is there any doubt that Fatima is truly the fulfillment of prophecy from Divine Revelation? Why is it that all the faithful are not following Our Lady’s counsels to restore the Church, but instead fight the battle in ways we prefer?

How much would God be pleased should we imitate St. Joan of Arc, the virgin of Orleans, who was another figure-type of Our Lady.

“To St. Joan’s mind the coronation and anointing of the King of France were ever present, because that anointing did homage to the universal Kingship of Christ,” wrote Fr. Denis Fahey.” [20]

Like Our Lady Who, by God’s will, leads the army of the Church Militant, St. Joan also led an army by God’s command. Like Our Lady, St. Joan insisted that her soldiers stop offending God, avail themselves of the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist, pray often and do well their daily duty.

In our turn, we must be like St. Joan, our minds ever fixed on the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, because it will restore the Social Reign of Christ the King. What each one of us need to do – every day - is heed and promote every request of Our Lady of Fatima.

“Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith.”(Gal. 6:10)

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Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic (http://www.keepingitcatholic.org), is the author of "The Age of Mary" Catholic, Internet-Based Study Guides, and "The Return of the King" (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is also the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II), the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda Magazine, and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family's Magnificat Magazine.

The article above, "The Woman and the Battle of the Latter Days," was published in the May 2009 issue of Catholic Family News. All Rights Reserved Worldwide by the author.
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Notes
[1] Don Sharkey, The Woman Shall Conquer [Kenosha, WI: Prow Books/Franciscan Marytown Press, revised 1976): Backcover
[2] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring [New York: Ballantine Books, published by arrangement with the Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982]: p.323.
[3] Blessed Pius IX, bulla Ineffabilis Deus (The Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1854). Cited in Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginum (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary, Oct. 11, 1954), para. 50. [Emphasis added.]
[4] “Our Lady of Akita,” Holy Mother Mary website. [http: www.holymothermary.org/apparitions/akita.htm]
[5] Blessed Pius IX, Ibid., para. 42.
[6] Pope Leo XIII, Adiutricem (On the Rosary. Sept. 5, 1895), para. 11.
[7] Pope Pius XII, Ingruentium Malorum (On Reciting the Rosary, Sept. 15, 1951), para. 6.
[8] St. Alphonsus Liguori, Le glore de Maria (The Glories of Mary), p. I, c. I, §1. Cited by Blessed Pius IX, Ad Caeli Reginum, para. 25.
[9] Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginum (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary, Oct. 11, 1954), para. 51.
[10] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: Science and the Facts, Vol I. (Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, Revised edition 2003): pp. 182-183.
[11] Ibid. p. 182
[12] St. John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of Mary [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, under license from Loreto Publications, Fitzwilliam, NH]: p.101
[13] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: The Secret and the Church, Vol. II (Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, Revised edition 2003): pp. 543
[14] Rev. R. Gerald Culletion, The Prophets and Our Times [Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1974. Originally published by the author in 1941 and 1943]: p. 151.
[15] Apoc. 12:1.
[16] St. Louis Marie de Montfort, The Secret of Mary [Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1993): p. 35.
[17] Marianna Bartold, “Hidden Revelations: The Star of Esther and the Secrets of Fatima,” Catholic Family News, May 2008. Also available on the Net [http://www.keepingitcatholic.blogspot.com/]
[18] St. John Eudes, op. cit., p. 42.
[19] St. Ambrose, cited in The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers [http://books.google.com/books?id=MCX6nTwu8U8C]. Also see SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Mission [http://www.saintspeterandpaulrcm.com/weekly_bulletin.htm] Emphasis added.
[20] Pope St. Pius X, Discourse on the Beatification of St. Joan of Arc. Cited by Rev. Denis Fahey, C.S. SP., B.A., D. PH., D.D., The Kingship of Christ: According to the Principles of St. Thomas Aquinas [Palmdale, CA: Christian Book Club of America, 1990 republication. First published in 1931]: p.164.