The Immaculate Conception: Mother of God, Mother of Men

Since the foundation of the world, God bound together Our Lady and Her Divine Son. It is, therefore, entirely fitting that in December the entire Church commemorates two of salvation history’s greatest events - the Immaculate Conception and the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior.

The first mystery of Christ is His Virgin Mother, She Who is the Immaculate Conception. This dogma reminds us of St. Paul’s teaching in regard to God’s plan for the Redemption: “All things are done for your sakes”[1] to which St. John Eudes adds, “If He created the world, it was for us, if He became Man, it was for us. If He was born in a stable, it was for our sake…For our sake, He died on the Cross, ascended into Heaven, established Holy Church, confided the sacraments to her care and especially the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar where He resides for us…In a like manner, if He willed to have a Mother on earth, it was for our sake.”[2] To the words of the saint must be added, “And if He created His Mother as the Immaculate One, it was for our sake.”

The Divine Revelation that Mary is the Immaculate Conception remains the dogma which is most misinterpreted, misconstrued, and belittled. In treating of the confusion and resulting rejection of this most wondrous truth, an early 20th century Jesuit priest and author, Fr. P.J. Chandlery, S.J., recognized that “amongst the chief reasons why even ‘learned and devout men,’ outside the Church, do not understand the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is because they misunderstand the doctrine of Original Sin. Not knowing the rule, they cannot realize the exception to the rule; not recognizing the penalty, they cannot see the privilege. In other words, not appreciating what we mean by the stain and guilt of Original Sin, they do not and cannot know what is meant by exemption from it.”[3]

“Great indeed was the injury entailed on Adam and all his posterity by his accursed sin,” wrote St. Alphonsus de Liguori.[4] God had bestowed upon our first parents His sanctifying grace, “a gift to which, by nature, they had no claim. Through the sin of Adam, in which Eve bore her share, this gift was lost for all Adam’s children.”[5] In throwing away the gift that would have been his supernatural inheritance, Adam “also forfeited all the other precious gifts with which he had originally been enriched.”[6]

When through his own fault, Adam lost Original Justice, Original Sin took its place, affecting both body and soul. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that while in the state of justice, “the whole body was held together in subjection to the soul” but, with the fall of Adam, all “the powers of the soul were left, as it were, destitute of their proper order, whereby they are naturally directed to virtue,” and this “destitution is called a wounding of nature.”[7]

Barred from the Tree of Life and wounded by the four chief effects of his sin (weakness, ignorance, malice and concupiscence), the first father Adam could bequeath to all of his descendents only his fallen human nature, sullied with the Original Sin.

The New Adam and the New Eve
“But from this general misfortune,” wrote St. Alphonsus de Liguori, “God was pleased to exempt that Blessed Virgin whom He had destined to be the Mother of the second Adam – Jesus Christ – who was to repair the evil done by the first.”[8]

A fundamental doctrinal theme of St. Paul’s is that Our Lord is Adam’s archetype by way of contrast, for Jesus came to undo the work of Adam and to open the gates of Heaven, long closed to the first man’s posterity as a consequence of the Original Sin.[9] St. Paul speaks of “Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come…But not as the offense, so also the gift. For if by one man’s offence, death reigned through one; much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ.”[10]

The Teaching of the Catholic Church explains, “A man led to our loss of the sanctifying grace of God; a Man gave us back the gift. Death reigned in the race of Adam; through one born of Adam’s race true Life was restored to men. Death was the punishment decreed for our first father’s sin; when the Redeemer died, death was found to be the one efficacious remedy for our loss.”[11]

The corresponding doctrine that the Blessed Virgin is the archetype of Eve is the teaching of all antiquity, and it was for this reason that St. Ephrem wrote, “Those two innocents, those two simple ones, had been equal the one to the other, but afterward, one became the cause of our death, the other of our life.”[12] Our Lady is “rightly called the second Eve in the same sense that Her divine Son is rightly called the second Adam…”[13]

As Adam and Eve were created with sanctifying grace, so were the New Adam and Eve. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam and the Son of Mary, was always sinless in virtue of the hypostatic union of His sacred humanity with the Person of the Word. The hypostatic union is the mystery of the Incarnation of God; it is the reason for the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the mystery of the perpetual virginity and sacred Motherhood of Mary, and the mystery of the redeeming Cross.

For the sake of the Incarnation and the Passion of Christ which would offer redemption to the human race, the Lord’s Virgin Mother was conceived without sin, “redeemed in the highest way – the way of prevention – from the shipwreck that involved all the other children of Adam, all our race, in dire catastrophe.”[14]

The Redemption of the Virgin
St. Alphonsus was careful to observe, “There are two means by which a person may be redeemed, as St. Augustine teaches us: ‘the one by raising him up after having fallen, and the other by preventing him from falling,’ and this last means is doubtless the most honorable.” [15]

The sanctified state of the first man and woman prefigure the Incarnation of Christ and the Immaculate Conception. God created Adam from the virginal earth and imbued him with sanctifying grace; He then created the virgin Eve from the virgin Adam. (Here it should be noted that by virgin is meant purity not only in the material sense of the body, but also of intellect, heart and soul.)

When Adam was in the state of original justice, the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon him and took one of his ribs to form the first woman, Eve. [16] From the very moment of her existence, grace was imparted to the woman, granted by God through the stainless Adam.

In a similar fashion, the Virgin Mary (the New Eve) received at the very moment of Her existence the gift of sanctifying grace, communicated from God through the virginal Jesus (the New Adam). How was this done, when Our Lady preceded Her Divine Son in historical time?

The answer is found in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God is present to all things that are, were or shall be. What He is and does, He is and does outside of time. To Him, creatures and events which succeed each other in time are ever present. In the great mystery of the Holy Trinity, which our limited human minds cannot fathom, the three Divine Persons applied to Our Lady the foreseen merits of Jesus, the Word made Flesh. [17]

To quote the illustrious words of St. Bernard: “One man and one woman have wrought us exceeding harm; nevertheless, thanks to God, through one Man and one Woman all things are restored…and indeed Christ would have sufficed. Surely all of sufficiency is of Him, but it would not have been good for us that Man should be alone. Rather, it was fitting that both sexes should take part in our Reparation, for neither sex had been guiltless in our fall.” [18]

“I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house, and the place where thy glory dwelleth,” [19] said King David, for the Holy Ghost inspired him to speak of his future daughter Mary, the living Temple of God and Ark of the Covenant. For the glory of His name, for the sake of the Incarnation of Christ, and for our sakes, the maiden Mary was prepared for Her dignity and office as the Virgin Mother of God, both spiritually and physically, in Her soul and in Her body. Exempted and preserved from the sin which, as one of Adam’s descendants, She otherwise would have inherited as the naturally generated child of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin.

The Immaculate Conception is “the woman,” whose appearance in time commenced the fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy against the ancient serpent, the devil: “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.” [20] Created by the Holy Trinity to be the ever-Immaculate Mother of God, Our Lady “was fittingly prepared for the virginal childbearing through which was crushed the serpent’s head.”[21]

“In the Christian religion,” explained Cardinal Billot, “Mary is absolutely inseparable from Christ both before and after the Incarnation: Before the Incarnation in the hope and expectation of mankind, after the Incarnation in the worship and love of the Church. For, indeed, in the primeval prophecy [of Genesis 3:15] we were shown not only Christ, but also the Woman whose Child He is...” [22]

“The Immaculate Conception means the restoration of grace once more to the human race,” [23] wrote Fr. H. O’Laverty, author of The Mother of God and Her Glorious Feasts. “The Immaculate Conception…was the long looked-for event in the history of the world, and from this we may really trace all the good things we have received through the sufferings and death of Christ.”[24]

The Eternal Bond of the Woman and Her Seed
“A religion that separates Mary from Jesus – the Woman from Her Seed – is neither the religion of the promises and prophecies as we read of in the Old Testament, nor the religion of their fulfillment as we see it in the New,” [25] explains The Teaching of the Catholic Church.

Christ is Our Divine Savior, and Mary is our holy Mother. Since the first days of the Church, there have always been those who try to separate Our Lord from His Mother. Just as many who forget that the entire human was not condemned until Adam sinned are blindly inclined to point only to Eve as the reason for mankind’s fall, conversely there are those who claim to admit Christ as Lord and Savior but contemptuously dismiss Our Lady’s office in the Redemption. Just as the Lord God joined together the first Adam and Eve, whose fates were intertwined, so did He join together the new Adam and Eve in the proto-evangelium of Genesis 3:15.

To further the points of “figure-types” previously made, the historical persons of Adam and Eve can always be positively compared or negatively contrasted to their perfect archetypes, the Lord Jesus and the Lady Mary. Gathered from the Fathers of the Church, the following syllabus clarifies God’s binding of the first Adam and Eve and that of “the Woman and her seed”:

• Adam was created before Eve; the Word in Eternity - the Second Person of the Holy Trinity - Who said, “Before Abraham came to be made, I am”[26] - preceded His human but sinless mother.

• Adam was formed by God from the virginal earth; Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.

• Sanctifying grace was bestowed to Eve through Adam; Mary was conceived in grace through the foreseen merits of the new Adam.

• Eve sinned before Adam; Mary was born before Christ.

• Adam and Eve were created in Original Justice but fell from grace; Jesus and Mary were always full of grace.

• Adam and Eve were intended to be the lord and lady over all the earth; Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady Mary possess dominion over all creation.

• Mary is the cause of our salvation, even as Eve was the cause of our ruin.

• “As Eve was seduced by an angel’s word to shun God after having transgressed His Word, so Mary, also by an Angel’s word, had the good tidings given Her so that after obeying His Word she might bear God within Her.” (St. Irenaeus) [27]

• Adam, who sinned early in his life, sentenced the entire human race to death; Christ, Who died in the flower of His youth, redeemed us for eternal life.

• Both the Lady Eve and the Lady Mary became “the mother of all the living,” [28] Eve in the natural order, Mary in the order of grace – for the Mother of God is also the Mother of men.

In the third century, St. Proclus wrote of the Immaculate Conception, “Mary is the glory of virgins, the joy of mothers, the support of the faithful, the diadem of the Church, the express model of the true faith, the seat of piety, the robe of virtue, the dwelling-place of the Holy Trinity.” [29]

The Holy Scriptures relate that when the Immaculate Conception, already full of grace, gave the angelic messenger Her Fiat, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word,” [30]She was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. The Lord of all was made Man, and “the woman” became Theotokos [31] (literally from the Greek, “God-bearer,” or in a variable translation, “God’s mother”). At the moment Our Lady became the Mother of God, She also became the spiritual Mother of all mankind. From that same instant, the new Adam and the new Eve together began the Redemption of mankind.

Those who truly adore the Christ Child in the manger also honor the Perpetual Virgin who brought Him forth. In a similar manner, those who possess devotion “to Jesus through Mary” make their own the witness of St. Alphonsus: “The more we honor Mary, the more we shall honor God,” for when Our Lord came to free us all, He did not disdain the humility of the Immaculate Virgin’s womb.

“And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” [32] Born in poverty and adored only by the humble Virgin, St. Joseph, and poor shepherds, the Christ Child would later be sought by wise men from the east, following a star.

“And entering the house, they found the child with Mary, his mother, and falling down they adored him.”[33] So do all the faithful throughout time forever find Christ – always with Mary, His Mother and ours.

~+~+~+~

Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "The Immaculate Conception: Mother of God, Mother of Men" was published in CFN's December 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’s Magnificat! Magazine.
~+~+~+~
Notes
[1] 2 Cor. 4,15
[2] St. John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of Mary (Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, under license from Loreto Publications, Fitzwilliam, NH. Republished from the 1847 edition): p. 80.
[3] P.J. Chandlery, S.J., Mary’s Praise on Every Tongue (London: Manresa Press, 1919) at
[4] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Glories of Mary (Brooklyn, NY: The Redemptorist Fathers, 1931): p. 287.
[5] Canon George D. Smith, D.D., Ph.D., The Teaching of the Catholic Church: A Summary of Catholic Doctrine, Vol. I (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1959): p. 526.
[6] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, loc.cit.
[7] St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part, Question 85, Second and Revised Edition, 1920
[8] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, loc.cit.
[9] 1 Cor 15: 44-49
[10] Rom. 5:14,17
[11] Canon Smith, op.cit., p. 523.
[12] St. Ephrem, Op. Syr., tom.ii, p. 325. Cited by Canon Smith, op. cit., p. 531.
[13] Canon George D. Smith, op.cit., p. 524.
[14] Ibid., p. 528. (Emphasis added.)
[15] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, op.cit., p. 303.
[16] Gen. 2:21-22.
[17] Jn. 1:14.
[18] St. Bernard, Sermo de Duodecim praerogativis B.V.M., I, 2. Cited by Smith, op.cit., p. 530.
[19] Ps. 25:8.
[20] Gen. 3:15.
[21] Canon George D. Smith, op.cit., p. 526.
[22] De Verbo Incarnato, p. 401 (Rome, 1912). Cited by Smith, op.cit., p. 530.
[23] Fr. H. O’Laverty, B.A.,The Mother of God and Her Glorious Feasts (Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1987; republished from the 1908-1915 edition): p.4.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Canon George D. Smith, loc.cit.
[26] Jn. 8:58.
[27] Haer. V.19.
[28] Gen. 3:20.
[29] St. Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 446), Orat. 6, cited by P.J. Chandlery, S.J., op. cit., Section IX.
[30] Lk. 1:38.
[31] The dogma that Mary is Theotokos, because Her Son Jesus is one Person but with two natures (divine and human; the hypostatic union), was formally defined at the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.
[32] Lk. 2:7.
[33] Matt. 2:11.

Purgatory: The Dogma of God's Mercy and Justice

For the sake of souls living in an age permeated by the modernist heresy, it is not by chance that, at Fatima, Heaven highlighted the Church’s doctrines and dogmas so frequently undermined. Perhaps foremost among these ignored truths is Purgatory, a dogma pertaining to the interior life of the soul and the mercy and the justice of God.

The word purgatory comes from the Latin purgare, which means “to purify” or “to cleanse.” “The word Purgatory is sometimes taken to mean a place, sometimes as an intermediate state between Hell and Heaven,” explains Fr. Schouppe, S.J., author of Purgatory – Explained by the Lives and the Legends of the Saints.[1]

“It is, properly speaking, the condition of souls which, at the moment of death, are in the state of grace, but which have not completely expiated their faults, nor attained the degree of purity necessary to enjoy the Vision of God.” [2] Fr. Schouppe continues, “Purgatory is a transitory state which terminates in a life of everlasting happiness. It is not a trial by which merit may be gained or lost, but a state of atonement and expiation.” [3]

The dogma of Purgatory reinforces the necessity of the three conversions of the interior life, for “it forms one of the principal parts of the work of Jesus Christ, and plays an essential role in the economy of the salvation of man.” [4]

We may think otherwise, but sanctity is not impossible, for Jesus Himself encourages and instructs us, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” [5] Neither can we reach spiritual perfection by our own efforts, but “with God, all things are possible.” [6] For the living, each day of earthly life is “a time of trial, a time of merit for the soul” [7]- and at the very moment life ends, the immortal soul remains in the state in which death claimed it.

While we hope that our merits will gain us heaven, we must also remember that what we deem as only trivial faults are not small in God’s eyes. In considering Purgatory, our frail human nature frequently tends to think only of God’s mercy, simultaneously preferring to forget His Justice. Regardless of our personal opinions, God has revealed that His two attributes of Mercy and Justice are never separated.

Like the slightest shadow which must disappear before the sun’s bright light, “no shadow of sin can endure before His Face.” [8] Souls who depart this life in a state of sanctifying grace are saved and will attain Heaven, but if there is any debt still remaining for absolved sins – any slight lack of perfect charity in love for God or neighbor – then God’s Mercy and Justice allows the saved soul to expiate its sins in Purgatory.

Purgatory: A Teaching from Antiquity
From the ancient tradition of the Jews, to the time of Christ and from the earliest days of His one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church, “the people of God had no hesitation in asserting the efficacy of prayers offered for the dead in order that those who had departed this life might find pardon for their sins and the hope of eternal resurrection.”[9]

With infallible examples from the Holy Scriptures and Tradition, the witness of the early Church, the Holy Ghost makes clear that forgiven sins can and will be atoned, either in this life or in the next:

• The Old Testament clearly states in Macabees, “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” [10] This passage tells of an offering of silver “to Jerusalem for sacrifices to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. For if he (Judas of the Macabees) had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.” [11]

• In Zacharias, the Holy Ghost speaks of the purification of souls in the next life, “I will refine them as silver refined, and I will try them as gold is tried.” [12] Gold and silver are burned in the fire to be freed from dross; similarly, souls are tried and purified in fire by the Lord.[13]

• Our Lord Himself affirms that there is a place of expiation after death, likening it to a prison: “I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing.” [14] Jesus refers not to hell, which is eternal, but teaches “distinctly of a temporary place…of purification, where the souls of the just can be freed…and purified for their entrance into heaven.”[15]

• Our Divine Savior also reveals: “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.” [16]

Repented sins can be forgiven, and expiated in this world or the next, but the sin against the Holy Ghost is the terrible exception of which Christ warned the peoples of all ages - “persistent impenitence, the sin of one who rejects conversion and dies in mortal sin. One guilty of this sin can never obtain forgiveness of God, because at the hour of death he continues to thrust God away from him.” [17] The reason this sin is not forgiven in this world or the next is only because the individual person continues to reject God, even at death! Is it any wonder why Our Lady of Fatima so often stressed sacrifice for the conversion of our fellow sinners?

• St. Paul speaks of the exact way by which souls are freed from repented sins not yet atoned: “For other foundation (sic) no man can lay, but that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus…Every man’s work shall be manifest: for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.”[18]

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) explains, “While this passage presents considerable difficulty, it is regarded by many of the Fathers and theologians as evidence for the existence of an intermediate state in which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul thus purified will be saved.”[19]

• St. John the beloved disciple, in offering hope and consolation to those who live in the valley of tears and faithfully endure all of life’s trials and tribulations, reveals: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more; nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more.”[20] In speaking of Heaven, however, St. John also reminds the elect, “There shall not enter into it anything defiled.” [21]

• St. Augustine of Hippo teaches, “That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly, in the greater or less degree in which they loved the good things that perish – through a certain purgatorial fire.”[22]

• Because the doctrine of Purgatory has been held throughout the ages, the Council of Trent declared: “Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost has, following the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils and very recently in this ecumenical council, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by the Acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar, the Holy Council commands the bishops that they strive diligently to the end that the sound doctrine of Purgatory, transmitted by the Fathers and the sacred councils, be believed and maintained by the faithful of Christ, and be everywhere taught and preached.”[23]

• Finally, in recent times, Our Lady Herself referred to Purgatory when, at the first Fatima apparition in May 1917, She was asked by the child Lucia about the souls of two young village ladies who had recently died.

The Virgin answered that the first girl, Maria das Nevas, who died when about 16 years of age, was in Heaven. But of Amelia, a young woman of 18 years at her death, Our Lady said, “She will be in purgatory until the end of the world.” [24]

The Fate of Two Souls Revealed
The latter disclosure about Amelia’s prolonged period of expiation never fails to shock and trouble those who first hear of it. While mere curiosity should not instigate the inquiry, it appears there is one immediate and common question about this revelation:

What did Amelia do? That is, what forgiven sin(s) committed by a young person (a “teenager” by today’s standards), who lived in a remote village without any modern conveniences or amusements, could lead to a Purgatory of such time and duration?

The only answer upon which we can assuredly rely comes from Sr. Lucia when, years later, she was asked by Fr. Thomas McGlynn, O.P, about certain details regarding Amelia. Sr. Lucia’s charitable, prudent, and brief response was befitting of a Servant of God: “Amelia was eighteen years old, Father, and, after all, for one mortal sin a soul may be in Hell forever.” [25]

“Just” one mortal sin! Was Lucia’s response a delicate hint that it was one mortal sin, obviously repented, for which Amelia would endure a Purgatory incomprehensible to our minds? Did Our Lady make this known to Lucia? If such is the case, it still remains that we do not know the details of Amelia’s solitary mortal sin - but neither do we need to know.

Instead, we should consider the reasons why Our Lady allowed to be made public the state of two souls, one who was already in Heaven (a revelation which many overlook) and one who would be in Purgatory until the end of time.

“What is certain is that Our Lady wanted us to know this for our instruction, and it would be foolish presumption to pretend to dispute the judgments of God,” observes Fatima historian, Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité. “He alone, Who intimately knows each soul, the abundance of graces He has given to it, the degree of knowledge it had of its fault and the quality of its repentance, is the judge of the gravity of sin.” [26]

Frère Michel also wisely notes that we may rarely think about Maria das Nevas, the young soul of whom Our Lady said so simply, “She is in heaven.” No, we are not inclined to ponder much about Maria, for today we are misled to believe that Heaven is our natural “right.” Perhaps, too, we make light-hearted jokes like, “Well, at least in Purgatory, I’ll be with friends.” Yet the sufferings of Purgatory are not objects of jest, especially because the straight and sure path to Heaven is made known to us: Pick up your cross daily and follow Me.[27]

Should we not first contemplate the teenaged Maria, if only for a few moments, and wonder: How did she fulfill God’s Commandments? What heroic virtues did she practice? Did she endure Purgatory at all – or was her soul taken straight to Heaven? Were inquiries ever made about the details of her life or death? Is there anything really known about this young lady, other than her name and age? Or was her hidden and humble interior life - in which (as it seems) no one showed interest, even when her glorious state in Heaven became known - meant as a lesson in itself?

Since it appears no questions about Maria were ever asked, we have no details. What we do have, however, is Our Lady’s word that Maria is in Heaven, and that is enough to tell us two simple and beautiful things about Maria – “she was a good girl and a good Christian.” [28]

Out of the Depths I Have Cried to Thee, O Lord…
But we do not forget Amelia, who died in the state of grace and is saved, nor should we forget her. It is, after all, our “sacred duty to pray for and make sacrifices on behalf of the Poor Souls in Purgatory.” [29]

We call these souls “poor” because they can do nothing for themselves, relying always on our charity offered on their behalf; we call them “holy” because there is no question that they are among the saved. Cherished by God and assured of their salvation, they can and do intercede for us with their prayers.

However, while the poor souls can pray for us but no longer gain merit for themselves, and since the saints in Heaven pray for them but cannot acquire any indulgences for them, those who languish in Purgatory rely on the charity of the living.

This is the beautiful “secret” regarding Purgatory, as St. John Chrysostom reminds us, “Not by weeping, but by prayer and almsgiving are the dead relieved.” [30] It is only we, the Church Militant, who can obtain many indulgences (plenary and partial) for the faithful departed. [31]

We have three central means at our disposal to offer them relief and deliverance: The Holy Mass, the Holy Rosary, and almsgiving (fasts, penances, and sacrifices). For the benefit of our own souls and those in Purgatory, there exist many other highly indulgenced prayers and practices, including but not limited to:

The Brown Scapular of Mt. Carmel: To those who wear this Scapular with devotion, Our Lady promises, “Whosoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.” Too, a pious kiss given to the Brown Scapular offers 500 days’ indulgence, which we can offer for the Poor Souls.

The Sabbatine (Saturday) Privilege, also granted to those who wear the Brown Scapular: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whosoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them unto the holy mountain of life everlasting.”

A Thousand Souls (the Prayer of St. Gertrude), by which Christ revealed He would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory, each time the prayer is offered: “Eternal Father, I offer thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all of the Masses said throughout the world today – for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those within my own home and within my own family. Amen.” [31]

Since God’s generosity can never be out-done, He not only allows all of our offerings to help the souls in Purgatory, but He also grants that these same actions “gain us merit, an increase in sanctifying grace, a higher degree of charity, closer union with God, and thus a higher degree of glory in Heaven for all eternity.”[33]

There is much more that Our God has revealed about Purgatory, but what is most important is to follow the charitable advice of the eternal Church, and which is so beautifully summarized by St. Augustine: “Forget not the dead and hasten to pray for them!”[34]

~About this Article and its Author~
Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). "Purgatory: The Dogma of God's Mercy and Justice" was published in CFN's November 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's Magnificat! Magazine.

~Notes~
[1] Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J., Purgatory - Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints [1893 original edition republished in Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1986.]: p.6
[2] Ibid., p.7. (Emphasis in the original)
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., p. 3.
[5] Matt. 5:48.
[6] Matt 19: 26.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J., op cit., p. 4.
[9] Edward Hanna, “Purgatory,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 12. [New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911] Accessed Sept. 15, 2009 at
[10] 2 Mach. 12:46.
[11] 2 Mach. 12:43-45.
[12] Zach. 13:9.
[13] “Sermons for the Feast Days of the Year,” anonymous contributor. Included in The Sermons of the Curé of Ars [1901 original republished in Long Prairie, MN: The Neumann Press, 1991]: Part II, p. 10.
[14] Matt. 5: 26.
[15] “Sermons for the Feast Days of the Year,” op. cit., Part II: p. 11.
[16] Matt. 12: 32.
[17] My Catholic Faith: A Manual in Religion [Reprinted from the 1954 edition in Kansas City, MO: Sarto House, 2003.]:p. 151.
[18] 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15. [Emphasis added.]
[19] Hanna, loc. cit.
[20] Apoc. 21:4.
[21] Apoc. 21: 27.
[22] St. Augustine of Hippo, cited by William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. 3. [Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1979]: p. 149.
[23] Decree Concerning Purgatory, The Council of Trent, Session XXV (December 4, 1563). Also see Denzinger, "Enchiridon", #983.
[24] Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words: Sr. Lucia’s Memoirs [Fatima, Portugal: Postulation Centre, 1976]: p. 161.
[25] John J. Delaney (editor), A Woman Clothed With the Sun [New York: Image Edition, published by Doubleday, 1990]: p. 184. [Emphasis added.]
[26] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth about Fatima: Science and the Facts, Vol. I [Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, English translation copyright by the author, 1989]: p. 128.
[27] Lk. 9:23, Matt. 16:24, Mk. 8:34. (paraphrased)
[28] Frère Michel, op. cit., p. 129.
[29] Fr. F. X. Schouppe, op. cit., Publisher’s Preface, p. xxviii. [Emphasis in the original]
[30] My Catholic Faith, loc. cit. p. 159.
[31] An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. A plenary indulgence remits all punishment; a partial indulgence remits some part of it. That the Church has the power and authority to grant indulgences is a matter of faith, defined at the Council of Trent, Session XXV, December 4, 1563.
[32] Approval and recommendation signed by M. Cardinal Pahiarca at Lisbon, Portugal, March 4, 1936.
[33] Fr. F. X. Schouppe, op. cit., Publisher’s Preface, p. xxix.
[34] “Sermons for the Feast Days of the Year,” op. cit., Part II, p. 13. [Emphasis in the original]

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]

~+~+~+~
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.
~+~+~+~
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.

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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.