The Woman and the Battle of the Latter Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Virgin said, “If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated... In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and an era of peace will be granted to the world.”[10]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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