Fatima;

The 5 Sins Against the Immaculate Heart of Mary
 

  Guido Del Rose

Mr. Guido Del Rose was the official escort for the U. S. National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, touring the United States and promoting the message of Fatima. He gave many talks on topics such as, “The Message of Fatima” and “The Five First Saturdays Devotion,” and the “Last Times Apostasy.” He was called to his eternal reward on November 22, 2004.

 Mr. Del Rose points out an often ignored aspect of the Fatima message:  That Our Lady asked for the conversion of sinners and reparation made for sins that offend HER Immaculate Heart, along with the consecration of Russia.

"My daughter, the motive is simple: there are five ways in which people offend and blaspheme against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

·        (1) Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception.

·        (2) Blasphemies against her Perpetual Virginity.

·        (3) Blasphemies against her Divine Maternity and at the same time the refusal to recognize her as the Mother of all mankind,

·        (4) Blasphemies of those who seek openly to foster in the hearts of children indifference or contempt and even hatred for this Immaculate Mother.

·        (5) The offenses of those who directly outrage Her in her holy images. 

"Here then, My Daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary [My Mother] causes Me to ask for this little act of reparation and by means of it, moves My mercy to forgive those souls who had the misfortune of offending her. As for you, try without ceasing, with all your prayers and sacrifices, to move Me to mercy toward those poor souls." ¹

Spoken by Our Savior in 1930 to Sister Lucia, these words and others given afterwards reveal to the world a most surprising truth, one replete with imperative significance for mankind. However, despite their importance, they have had little impact upon the faithful, remaining virtually unnoticed for over a half-century, a hidden gem in the vast spiritual treasure now known as Fatima. 

Concerning these sins, much evidence throughout the Fatima Message indicates that the predicted great triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the peace to follow can result only after they have been sufficiently repaired. These sins, more than all other causes, are threatening mankind with terrible punishments and are also delaying the fulfillment of God’s will as expressed at Fatima. 

An ever-spreading cancer, these offenses against the Virgin Mary are effecting among the faithful a decrease of belief in her special role as Mediatrix of All Graces, producing a correspondent dwindling of those graces. At the same time, these sins preclude the possibility that the people in large numbers will seek special, extraordinary graces from her Heart, powerful graces offered to all by our Redeemer through the practice of devotion, trust and confidence in her Immaculate Heart. The consequent decline in the flow of grace permits the forces of evil to grow in power, resulting in a massive surge of sin, both in quality and quantity.

Were this development to continue, ultimately Divine Justice would demand a severe worldwide chastisement, never before experienced by the human race. This is precisely one of the Fatima prophecies of Our Lady – to be fulfilled or avoided. 

Our Savior's Wish 

The Divine Will is clearly defined both by Our Savior and His Mother, revealed to us in the Fatima Message. The initial _expression occurred during the second apparition of June 13, 1917. Our Lady addressed the visionaries as follows:

“Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon [to Heaven]. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart.“ ²

Those prophecies have indeed been fulfilled. The two seers, Francisco and Jacinta, passed on to their eternal reward in 1919 and 1920. Years later, in 1925, Lucia became a nun in the Order of the Sisters of St. Dorothy and immediately received many visits from Our Lord and Our Lady, most of them from the Redeemer Himself. Thus, she has served as the "Apostle of the Immaculate Heart" in revealing to the world much information about the Savior's will concerning His Mother. 

A second reference to this desire of Our Lord came in the third apparition of 1917, in July, “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, 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.” ³

 After her entry into the religious order, the Savior appeared many times to Lucia, clarifying this great desire of the Holy Trinity and His own ardent wish concerning this Immaculate Heart Devotion. Since it is a wish and not a command, He did not and does not now oblige the Church collectively or individually to honor this request. He leaves our free will intact, preferring the generous offering, freely given. 

An Overview of the Problem 

By way of a brief survey, we can list a few propositions and then examine them in detail so that we can judge whether these sins are truly a most urgent matter for the human race.

·        1. Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

·        2. It is God's will that we seek unique, powerful graces from the Virgin by means of special devotion to her Immaculate Heart.

·        3. These extraordinary graces will, in turn, help remove the obstacles (the five sins) which currently restrict the ordinary flow of graces from her Heart, producing a condition which permits evil to grow at an alarming rate, plunging many souls into Hell.

·        4. This divine wish is a challenge to individual Catholics and to the Church as a whole [the Hierarchy] to exhibit a new and higher level of confidence in Mary's Office, the Divine Commission given to her by God which entails all her privileges and roles, under which can be listed her many titles.

·        5. Peace or punishment hinges upon fulfillment or disregard for this Divine Plan. 

Our Lady's role as Mediatrix of All Graces is well established in Church teachings. Not yet a solemnly defined dogma of our Catholic Faith, it has been a constant part of Church Tradition dating back to the early Christian era. In recent times, Popes, again and again in various documents, have accorded her this title.  ⁴

The Fatima Message has introduced a new dimension to this truth:  special, extraordinary graces are now being offered to all by Our Lord Himself through a two-fold singular devotion to His Mother's Immaculate Heart, which will be the successful remedy for Satan's latest and most deadly attack against the Church.  Although both Our Lord and Our Lady have referred to this devotion by using the singular rather than a plural form, we can, nevertheless, clearly distinguish its two aspects.

The Devil’s Decisive Battle

We can consider these peerless graces carefully, but beforehand it is necessary for us to appraise this challenge from hell.  We were warned about it at the moment of its inception by Our Lady of Fatima in July 1917 in her now famous prophecy:

“Russia will spread her errors throughout the world promoting wars and persecution of the Church.” ⁵

No meaningless happenstance, this prediction was given in the very year that Russia, a Christian nation, would become the first to apostatize officially, thus empowering Satan to initiate a new and all-out assault against the Mystical Body of Christ by entering into that Body for the first time in a corporate manner, working from within through the vast potential, both political and military, of the largest Christian nation.  Moreover, we have seen that forecast continue to unfold, even to the present, in the increasing number of Christian states which have followed Russia’s example and are now also formally in apostasy, their governments denying publicly the supernatural origin and destiny of their lands and their very Founder Christ as well.  Even more frightening to contemplate is the possibility that many more nations may join this growing movement of solemnly disavowing Christ until all Christendom will have rejected Him to Whom they owe their existence, their only reason for being.

From all the substantial evidence available in verification of this threat, we can cite two samples.  An updated report of the critical nature of this onslaught, the warnings of Sister Lucia are a sober depiction of the Church’s dilemma.  In a 1957 interview with the vice-postulator of the Causes of Jacinta and Francisco, Fr. Augustin Fuentes, she made an urgent appeal to the faithful:  “The good continue in their life of virtue, but without paying any attention to the message of Fatima.  Sinners keep following the road of evil, because they fail to see the terrible chastisement that is about to befall them.  Believe me, Father, God is going to punish the world, and very soon.  The chastisement of heaven is imminent.  .  .  . Our Lady has said repeatedly: Many nations will disappear from the face of the earth, and Russia will be the instrument of heaven’s chastisement for the entire world, unless you obtain the conversion of that poor nation.”

“Father, the devil is carrying on a decisive battle with the Virgin Mary.  He sees that his time is getting short, and he is making every effort to gain as many souls as possible.  He wants to get hold of consecrated souls.  Our Lady did not tell me that we are living in the last epoch of the world, but she did give me to understand that, firstly, we are going through a decisive battle, at the end of which we will be either of God or of the evil one:  there will be no middle way; secondly, that the last means God will give to the world for its salvation are the Holy Rosary and the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and thirdly, when God in His providence is about to chastise the world, He first uses every means to save us, and when He sees we have not made use of them, then He gives us the last anchor of salvation, His Mother.” (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose) ⁶

This interview, revealed to the world at a press conference in 1958 by Fr. Augustin Fuentes, the vice-postulator, should be a trumpet call for the faithful, telling them that the great battle has indeed begun.

A second sample of evidence is also very much to the point.  An even more recent testimony, the Apparitions of Our Lady of Akita in Japan are indeed part of that effort which God makes to save us through His Mother.  Approved officially in 1984 by the bishop of the Nigata Diocese, after consultation with the Holy See and eight years of study, these apparitions are, as the bishop himself indicated, basically a repetition of the Fatima Message.  Given in Japan by Our Lady on October 13, 1973, a Fatima anniversary date, this Message, in part, confirms Lucia’s grave warnings.

“If men do not repent and amend their lives, the Father is going to inflict a terrible chastisement on all mankind.  It will be a chastisement more serious than the Deluge, such as no one has ever yet seen.  A fire will fall from the heavens and will annihilate a great part of humanity.  .  .  .  The only arms which will remain to you then will be the Rosary and the Sign which the Son has left.  Pray the Rosary every day for the Pope, the Bishop, the priests.  The action of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church.  .  .  .  There will be many in the Church who will accept compromises.  The demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.  He will rage especially against souls consecrated to God.  The thought of the loss of human souls makes me sad.  Already the cup overflows.  .  .  .”  ⁷

So simple and so stark a warning!  The choice for us is clear.  Either we will offer up to God a sufficient amount of “voluntary” reparation for sins and lost souls, or in due time, it will be forcibly required of us through “involuntary” reparation in the way of tragic, cataclysmic sufferings for the human race, the likes of which can be found in the Apocalypse.

Surely, a continued disregard for this Immaculate Heart Devotion requested by Our Lord would permit the forces of evil to score a great victory over the Church (even if only for a brief duration). Our Lady did predict in July, 1917 that the good would be martyred. Furthermore, the last book of Sacred Scriptures may contain an affirmation of that prophecy:

 “And it [the Beast] was allowed to wage war with the saints and to overcome them.” (Apoc. 13: 7).  In his popular work The Book of Destiny,  Fr. Bernard Leonard interprets this verse in full agreement with the Fatima prophecy. ⁸

This latest full-scale aggression from Satan is of such stature that it requires exceptional graces in response, a cascading stream of mercy from the Virgin's Pure Heart, but only after the proper level of confidence in her is demonstrated by the Church both individually and collectively. We know that the amount of grace bestowed depends, to a large extent, upon the degree of belief. Consequently, new and very extraordinary graces demand a proportionate level of faith on the part of the recipients. 

Immaculate Heart Devotion

We must appreciate, at this stage of analysis, what exactly the Immaculate Heart Devotion is before considering the baneful effects of the five sins.  During the July 1917 prophecy, Our Lady stated that she would return to make TWO REQUESTS, which together would constitute this Devotion, “In order to prevent this [World War II], I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays.” ⁹

She fulfilled that promise by appearing twice, each time pleading for part of the Devotion:  the first, in 1925, was directed to individual Catholics primarily; the second, in 1929, intended for the Church hierarchy.  The earlier one, as we shall see, is the main feature of this Devotion, a plaintive appeal initiated by Our Divine Savior.

On December 10, 1925, the most holy Virgin appeared to her [Sister Lucia referring to herself in the third person].  By her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was a Child.  The most holy Virgin rested her hand on her [Lucia’s] shoulder.  As she did so, she showed her [Lucia] a heart encircled by thorns which she was holding in her hand.  At the same time, the Child said:  “Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.”  Then the most holy Virgin said: “Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.  You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist, at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.” ¹⁰

The IMPORTANCE of this First Saturday’s Devotion can be more fully appreciated when we consider that Our Redeemer returned two months later to inquire about its implementation.

On February 15, 1926, the Infant Jesus appeared to her [Lucia] again.  He asked her if she had already spread the devotion to His most holy Mother.  She told Him of the confessor’s difficulties, and said that the Mother Superior was prepared to propagate it, but that the confessor had said that she, alone, could do nothing.  Jesus replied:  “It is true that your Superior alone can do nothing, but with My grace, she can do all.”

 She placed before Jesus the difficulty that some people had about confessing on Saturday, and asked that it might be valid to go to confession within eight days.  Jesus answered:  “Yes, and it could be longer still, provided that, when they receive Me, they are in the state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”  She then asked:  “My Jesus, what about those who forget to make this intention?”  Jesus replied:  “They can do so at their next confession, taking advantage of the first opportunity to go to confession.”¹¹

Notice that He came as the Divine Child both to promulgate and insist upon the enactment of this Devotion.  Not appearing as an adult, as the Man of Sorrows, for example, He wished to impress upon us the reality of the Virgin’s Spiritual Motherhood, and that we are truly her children, having within our grasp the power to redress the appalling blasphemies and ingratitude which offend her.  Later, during the 1930’s, the Savior continued to visit Lucia, demanding this Devotion and revealing further its sublime importance in the divine plan.

The second request, featuring the other aspect of the Immaculate Heart Devotion, was made on June 13, 1929, while Lucia was in a convent at Tuy, Spain.  Making a private holy hour in the darkened chapel, just before midnight, she received this vision.

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

“I understood that it was the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which was shown to me, and I received lights about this mystery which I am not permitted to reveal.  Our Lady then said to me: “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.  There are so many souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation:  sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.” ¹²

This plea concerns the Church as a whole, as a single entity, through its leaders, and bids them to exercise publicly a level of confidence in the Fatima Message which is far beyond that degree which the Church officially displays toward private revelations, even if approved.  It is certainly a challenge to the Church hierarchy to elevate its own trust in the Virgin’s promise by solemnly complying with this request, as given.

But, that is a matter not immediately of concern to the thesis we are considering.  For the time being, we must set aside this question and try to observe Our Lady’s wish that we sacrifice ourselves for this intention and pray.  However, this "Last Vision," as it is now called, made to Sister Lucia at Tuy, Spain on June 13, 1929, contains one statement by Our Lady which is an integral part of our analysis:  “There are so many souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me.” ¹³

The Five Sins

Why are these sins so serious that those who commit them are condemned in such forceful terms?  What makes them so evil as to merit an absolute anathema? 

The answer must be the connection existing between these sins and those many souls being lost to Hell.  We now know that the Immaculate Heart Devotion is God's prescription for the saving of many souls.  This Devotion, then, must counteract the MAIN CAUSE of many persons being separated eternally from Christ.  This Devotion aims at repairing the five sins committed against the Virgin.  Thus, these sins are truly responsible for many who fail to gain salvation and the Beatific Vision. 

A distinction should be drawn here between those sinners who do not attempt to block the flow of grace which is available to all and the sinners who succeed in curbing the distribution through their sins of blasphemies and ingratitude.  These latter, if permitted, would spread their poison throughout the Mystical Body of Christ.  The Immaculate Heart Devotion is the needed antidote to ensure that the faithful would become immune to the noxious effects of the five sins and be provided with new energies for mortal combat with the devil and his legions.  It demonstrates anew the constant love and mercy with which the Holy Trinity would favor that Body, Christ truly present in His members.  We are now prepared to see the mystery of iniquity at work in an analysis of the five sins and how they restrict the flow of grace through an undermining of belief in the Sacred Office of the Holy Virgin. 

While not revealed to us directly, a proper understanding of the evil can be gained by comparing and contrasting the five sins and the four acts of the First Saturday's Devotion.    In both we can detect a movement, a progression, from a more general description of her Office to a much more specific, rather developed explication.  The five sins are a complete, graduating NEGATION of that Office while the First Saturday's Devotion is a thorough, particularizing AFFIRMATION.  The five sins attack five prerogatives of Our Lady, each privilege being a further refinement of her Sacred Appointment, each sin more destructive than the previous one, in that it impedes even more the flow of grace from her Immaculate Heart and results in more souls lost. 

Taking each sin in the sequence given by Our Lord in 1930, we can trace a mounting unfolding of the Sacred Commission of Our Lady.  Each sin reveals a more direct attack against the Blessed Mother and her Mystical Child. 

The First Sin:  Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception 

The first stage of Satan's total war against the Virgin is the blasphemies committed in the denial of her Immaculate Conception.

Did God really create the Holy Virgin from the first moment of her life fully immaculate, endowed with the all-encompassing graces of that most pure conception? Does He maintain these graces in her throughout human history? If not, then all those truths which build on this one would collapse.  Mary's Sacred Office is entirely dependent upon this truth. Allowing the first sin to weaken this belief in the hearts of the faithful and even to remove it completely is to ensure the loss of innumerable souls.

This prerogative of Mary, a solemnly proclaimed dogma of our Catholic Faith, is not just a pious but unnecessary tenet of faith, nor is it of second or third-class stature as a few present-day theologians would have it.  Without this gift from God she could not have performed the role assigned to her as the "new Eve," involving all those titles and prerogatives of her Sacred Office.  She would not have been chosen to be the Mother of Christ and of His Mystical Body.

The importance of this privilege will be further highlighted as we continue to assess the other sins. In passing on, we should mark the fact that in this stage Our Lady did nothing.  She was totally passive, fully a recipient with no activity on her part. The next four phases, on the other hand, are the story of her ACTING upon the plenary graces of the Immaculate Conception, an ascending revelation of her Sacred Appointment.

The Second Sin:  Blasphemies Against Our Lady's Perpetual Virginity 

In the second stage the devil attacks her perpetual virginity.  The Virgin's perfect response to those all-powerful graces is denied here.  Her cooperation was total and complete, not one moment of let-up, not one flaw!  Although her virginity is the main feature of this mystery, her entire and matchless acknowledgment of these super-abundant graces is very much at issue.  Think for a moment of that mystery:   ALL POWERFUL GRACES FROM GOD AND AN UNBLEMISHED, ABSOLUTE EMPLOYMENT OF THEM!

This incomprehensible mystery is due to the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, effecting a perfect union with the Virgin as His Immaculate Spouse.  It is He, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, Who ensures her unqualified correspondence.  To deny this activity on the part of Our Lady is to repudiate the Holy Ghost as the Guarantor of her ineffable collaboration with Him.  Attacking her Perpetual Virginity or reducing it to a lesser position, as some modern theologians teach, is to destroy the divine plan whereby the Sanctifier accomplishes the salvation of souls in and through His most holy Spouse. 

Moreover, not only did she cooperate totally with these graces, she also had the perfect intention for them:  fully in accord with the desires of the Holy Ghost regarding the effects of these graces, namely, the Redemption of all men and the salvation of the Elect.  Her intellect and will, unimpaired and unimpeded by Original Sin, were in absolute union with her Divine Spouse. 

What would the fruit of so sublime a union be?  It is not entirely beyond our imagination.  If ordinary people can cooperate with graces and produce wonderful results, and if the great saints could respond in a more excellent way to achieve outstanding works, then what unbelievable consequences would issue forth from Mary's faultless application of these indescribable graces! 

The Third Sin: Blasphemies Against Our Lady's Divine Maternity
and Her Spiritual Motherhood of All Mankind 

The FRUIT of that UNION, that SACRED EFFORT, prompted by the Holy Ghost, constitutes the third stage of the attack against Our Lady:  the Divine Maternity and the Spiritual Motherhood of all Men.  A vicious attack against the result of this united effort, the third sin would not only rob the Virgin of her Divine Child and the Mystical Child, it would also, even more perniciously, deny her right to employ her maternal offering.  It would nullify her just claim to save them and to ENLIST her offspring as AGENTS of her Divine Spouse in fulfilling His plan of saving others. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan priest-martyr of Auschwitz, expounded so clearly this unfathomable oneness between the Holy Ghost and the Virgin of Nazareth.  He said:

"So, while their union is not of the same order as the hypostatic union linking the human and the divine natures in Christ, it remains true to say that Mary's action is the very action of the Holy Ghost.  For Mary as the Spouse of the Holy Ghost is raised to such a height of perfection above all creatures that she accomplishes in everything the will of the Holy Ghost Who dwelt in her from the first instant of her conception.” ¹⁴

Thus, the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, through His holy Spouse, could conceive, give birth to, nurture, prepare, and offer up as a sacrifice [in the past, present, and future] both the Divine Child as Head and the elect as the Mystical Body of Christ to gain redemption and salvation.  The Head and Members of the Body are so united as to form one sacrifice.  This one Sacrifice of Calvary, by being renewed and re-enacted daily on the altars of the world, merits the redemptive graces which the Holy Ghost can then apply in and through the agency of His Spouse.  It is truly the work of the Sanctifier, accomplished in and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  It is her SACRED OFFICE for which the Holy Ghost stands as Sponsor. 

Deny this truth, cause it to diminish in the hearts of the faithful, and then see the enormous harvest of souls reaped by the enemy of Christ.  For, if the amount of cooperation on the part of the Mystical Body is a most important factor, then to have them lessen this effort is to reduce the number of those eventually saved.  Since the people cannot be saved unless they will it and work for it, it is absolutely essential that they have the graces of the Redemption applied to them by the Holy Ghost working in and through the maternal womb of Mary, who distributes these graces as a proper exercise of her Sacred Commission. 

The level of these salvific graces which the Mediatrix of All Graces can bestow depends mainly upon the degree to which the faithful will, each day, become her clients, permitting her to work in and through them in the achievement of her mission.  Our Lady at Fatima specifically requested this relationship with her in the August apparition:  “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; so many souls go to Hell because there is no one to pray and to make sacrifices for them. “ ¹⁵

The situation since 1917 can not have improved.  Rather, it must surely be all the more an urgent plea.  With dolorous supplication echoing in our hearts, we should be fully aware of the pressing need for her children to become ever more consciously her eager clients in carrying out daily the wish of her Divine Spouse:  SANCTIFICATION. 

At all costs, Satan must abolish the belief that the faithful each day, through the re-enactment of Calvary at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, can offer themselves as victims too, thus becoming an integral part of that Redemptive Sacrifice.  Since the graces bestowed each day depend to a high degree upon the disposition of the recipients, then this belief is vital to the eternal destiny of mankind.

Any effort to negate or obscure this part of Mary's Divine Commission would aid and abet the diabolical assault against the Mystical Body of Christ, reducing significantly the eventual number of the elect.  THE THIRD SIN WOULD ACHIEVE THIS GOAL IF LEFT UNHINDERED.  The cure for this ailment is to have the children of Mary become so much more united with her by intellect and will, lending to her their very beings as agents of the first order. 

Until the Protestant Reformation, Satan had little success in subverting this belief.  Now the poison of Luther's “doctrine” is so widespread that many Catholics, priests included, no longer view the Mass as the Sacrifice of Calvary made present daily.  Rather, they regard it only as a commemoration of the Last Supper.  Consequently, the ever-more-frequently-heard _expression of "banquet" becomes the ESSENCE of the Mass for them.

Whatever happened to the total union of the Divine Head with His members throughout time until He comes to judge the world?  And, how would this loss of faith affect the plans of the Holy Ghost to sanctify the would-be Elect?  How will He have His holy Spouse continue to distribute and munificently apply salvific graces through her children who no longer believe that they are truly part of the indivisible Victim offered up daily and therefore can merit graces for themselves and others? 

The last two sins are an even more venomous campaign against the Immaculate Heart.  In these two stages the Evil One directly assails both the Spiritual Mother and the Mystical Child, hoping to prevent her from working through her offspring TOMORROW and to separate her from her matured children through whom she works TODAY.

The Fourth Sin: Blasphemies of Those Who Seek Openly to Foster in the Hearts of Children Indifference or Contempt and Even Hatred for This Immaculate Mother

With all the power at his command, the Archfiend must deny the Virgin this ability to use her children as agents of grace, or at least, to reduce its effects.  To gain this end, he would first render her maternal womb infertile, barren, robbing her of all future clients as conduits of grace, performing, in result, a spiritual abortion.  The summit of all evil, he would completely deprive the Holy Spirit of any future means of sanctifying the Chosen.  Now we can more readily comprehend the iniquity which is the fourth sin and the fourth stage in this latest chapter of the primordial conflict between Mary and Lucifer, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed;” (Gen. 3:15, Douay Version).

This sin is essentially a denial of Mary’s Sacred Office continuing in the future.  Removing little ones from her side before they can be nurtured into fully-developed enlistees of her cause, he would strip her of her Motherhood and divest the Holy Ghost of this agency by which He manifests and consummates His will.  By negation, this crime confirms the truth of our Faith whereby we believe that the Sanctifier does indeed save souls through the spiritual maternity of His Immaculate Spouse.  St. Maximilian Kolbe verified this belief in his typically concise manner.  “Till the end of the world it will be the task of the Holy Ghost to form the new members predestined to glory in the Mystical Body of Christ”.  And as St. de Montfort shows, “this task is carried to completion with Mary, in Mary and through Mary.” ¹⁶

For the future, how many souls cast into hell would this sin measure?

The Fifth Sin:  The Offenses of Those Who Directly Outrage Her in Her Holy Images

If the fourth stage of attack would abolish the FUTURE, the on-going performance of Our Blessed Mother’s Sacred Office, the fifth sin would deprive her of that Office TODAY.  She does have those loyal, devoted children who daily become her fit instruments, conscious and willing agents, entirely at her bidding.  These, then, are the real TARGETS, the ones he must destroy, using every weapon in his arsenal and any strategy which succeeds.  They are the “seed” (of the woman) whose enmity Satan cannot tolerate or withstand, the “heel” (the lowest part of a body) by whom this Cursed One is to be forever humbled and trod upon: 

“. . . and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Gen. 3:15, Douay Version)

Eliminate these special devotees, remove them as her agents, dispossess the Holy Ghost of this means of sanctifying souls, and then ensure a monumental victory for Lucifer.  It will certainly happen if the fifth sin is permitted to continue unbridled.

He would pry them away from the Virgin by a PERSONAL assault rather than an attack on her Office.  Knowing that these devoted children of Mary firmly believe in her, he must shift his efforts away from the OFFICE itself to the PERSON in possession of it.  A clever stratagem, he well understands that he must inject into their hearts doubt that she really qualifies to fill so exalted an Office.  Not being a direct denial of that Divine Commission, the belief which they fully accept, this ploy would cause them to be at least uncertain about it, especially concerning this particular person’s worthiness.  The result would be identical with those of the direct attacks in that a disqualification of the ONLY PERSON who could possibly satisfy that position is in effect an elimination of that position.  These stalwarts of Mary remain as the last obstacles barring him from a complete victory.

Openly destroying and desecrating holy images of Mary is Satan’s old trick, a positive sign of his weakness concerning these faithful offspring of hers.  When all else fails, he resorts to tactics of shock, fear, and intimidation, indirect attacks, proving his inability to make a successful frontal assault against them.  Wise in his evil ways, he knows that he cannot besiege them directly, for they are specially protected by the Immaculate Heart and remain beyond his power to win them over to his camp.  Not able to tempt or dissuade them from their loyal service to their Mother, he must, at the minimum, cause them to reduce their activity in her behalf and then, much later, further induce them to abandon the battle altogether.  He would cow them, jolt them into a state of near-paralysis, and sow the seeds of doubt in their hearts.  The lives of the great saints reveal this strategy on his part.  How often he has used blasphemies, loud cursing, hideous visions, false apparitions, physical violence, and other similar deceitful methods to weaken these “strong ones”, Mary’s true channels of grace!  The fifth sin is meant to dislodge these stubborn and valiant workers of hers.

The archetype of all rebels, he will surely continue in his efforts to stop wholly or to scale down considerably their offering up of prayers, sufferings, and penances:  sacrifices of all kinds in a daily “victimhood”, comparatively modest by the standards of the great saints, but nevertheless, a genuine identification with the Victim of Calvary.  Most especially is he desirous of vanquishing those persons who go even further:  a formal and solemn consecration of their very beings to her Immaculate Heart.  Oh, how profoundly they torment him!  How he rages against them!  They are, in truth, “extensions” of the holy Virgin through their full union with her and her Divine Spouse.  Once more we turn to the wisdom of St. Kolbe…“The Immaculata has left this earth; but her life has only grown deeper and richer; it grows and flourishes more and more in the lives of Christians . . . . She strives to shape them after the model, Jesus, her first-born, the archetype of all sanctity, the man-God.  ¹⁷

The ideal of our perfection is our consecration to the Immaculata, always by day and night, so that it may not be we who suffer and act, but she through us.  ¹⁸

From the apostle of true devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort:  “When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there.  He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His Spouse.”  ¹⁹

Irrevocably filled with hatred for the Mystical Body of Christ, Lucifer intends this sin to be the coup de grace, the final blow.  Now the words of Our Lady (July 1917) take on new meaning:  “You have just seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go.  To save them, 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.” ²⁰

Emphasizing the role of Our Lady is in no way to be viewed as taking away from Christ what is His due.  All of this concerning her would be impossible were it not for His Passion and Death.  Rather, the intention of this article is to increase His honor and glory by focusing on the part of the Holy Ghost working in and through His Immaculate Spouse in applying the very graces which Christ won for us.  Furthermore, it is the Redeemer Himself who came to promulgate and to insist upon the implementation of this special attention to His Mother.  We can only promote His wishes if we examine more closely these events and messages.

The analysis of the five sins concluded, the reader may well experience a feeling of helplessness, an inability to correct the evil.  This supposed impotency is easily overturned by the practice of the First Saturday’s Devotion, a heaven-sent prescription, a sure remedy for the hell-devised affliction.

The Five First Saturdays

There are four acts in this Devotion:  confession, Holy Communion, Rosary and meditation.  They correspond with and oppose the last four sins.  The first blasphemy does not attack Mary’s part in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception because she was totally passive, having no ACTIVITY or RESPONSE.  She was entirely a recipient of this incomprehensible gift.  Therefore, it is unnecessary to have an act in the Devotion which would defend her ACTIVITY in this mystery.

The other four sins, however, do concentrate on her PARTICIPATION and need four counter-balancing actions to cancel their effects.  Her activities in all the mysterious stages constitute her Sacred Office.  Each of the four steps in this Devotion is an AFFIRMATION of a stage or phase of that Office.  By practicing this Devotion we not only affirm it, we also indicate our desire to be a willing part of it, thereby magnifying and expanding it, making its effects take place in the present.  The five sins would achieve negation, disavowal, and reduction of her role, destroying the right order which should exist between the Spiritual Mother and her children.  The four acts of the Devotion would accomplish the opposite, namely, affirmation, union, and enlargement, repairing and construction that right order to the level desired by Christ.

Confession

Sacramental confession is a renouncing of Satan, removing any allegiance to him and demonstrating a desire to be united with Christ.  We reject sin and its ability to separate us from unity with Him.  In this act we assert her own Perpetual Virginity, her pure response to the graces of the Immaculate Conception, and indicate our wish to be part of that response.  It increases her ability to achieve more fully the desired effects of the mystery:  the graces to be conferred.  More than an endorsement of her activity, it is a full union with her by means of which her grace-meriting activity can be extended in time to the present day, imparting rich graces to her children.

Holy Communion

The reception of Holy Communion establishes us firmly as members of the Mystical Body, intimately united with its Divine Head and entirely disposed to be her children, a resounding acceptance of both her Divine Maternity and Spiritual Motherhood.  A straightforward rejection of the third sin, it is a magnification, a vivifying enrichment, of her Maternal Custody.  In this acknowledgment of the twofold FRUIT of the first two mysteries, we again have the effects, graces, actuated in and through us in the here and now.

Receiving Holy Communion on the First Saturdays becomes a powerful verification of our acceptance of her as Spiritual Mother and all that it necessitates.  We would build up and fortify that order which postulates her as Mother to us all by our willingness to be her “seed”.

The Rosary

The Rosary is the prayer par excellence of Our Lady’s Sacred Office, a delineation of that Divine Mandate, a spelling-out in greater detail.  The Pope of the Rosary, Leo XIII wrote several inspiring letters in praise of this “Crown of Ave’s”.  Especially in one, “Jucunda Semper”, issued on September 8^th, 1894, he revealed plainly the importance of this prayer.

The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of divine grace, being by worthiness and by merit more acceptable to Him, and for that reason surpassing in power all the angels and saints in heaven.  Now, this merciful office of hers appears perhaps in no other form of prayer as manifestly as it does in the Rosary.  For in the Rosary the part that Mary took as our Co-redemptrix is set before us, as though the facts were even then taking place.  And this affords great profit to our piety, both in the contemplation of the successive sacred mysteries, and in the prayers which we enunciate.  (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose) ²¹

The fifteen mysteries involve grace-conferring activities which are the sum and substance of her Holy Commission.  Set in a tripartition of joyful, sorrowful, and glorious actions, these meditations recall the three-fold responsibility incumbent upon the Office of Divine Maternity and Spiritual Motherhood:  PREPARATION, REDEMPTION, and SALVATION.  Although these mystical actions occurred centuries ago, their effects were intended to be realized in every age, in any day, until the end of human history.  Consequently, the graces which this loving and merciful Mother had in mind for us to receive TODAY she desired us to receive when she undertook these activities so many years ago in Palestine.

The Rosary depicts the Mother’s role in fifteen activities which altogether feature the proper harmony which should endure between the children and their Spiritual Mother, a relationship rightfully conferring upon the Mother a threefold power or authority and obliging the off-spring with a triple response.  Motherhood even in the brute and rational animal kingdoms encompasses training (teaching), governing, and nourishing the young to maturity.  With humans, children should willingly embrace the teachings, observe the rules, and grow to maturity under this obligation.  How much more should this be the situation with respect to Mary’s Motherhood – as Spouse of the Sanctifier!  We should eagerly accept the TEACHING that she is our Spiritual Mother and all that it embodies, then submit ourselves humbly to her GOVERNING authority and its demands, and finally, become SANCTIFIED with the nourishing graces by which she nurtures us and then have the effects of those graces flow outward to others in great need.  As this is done more intensely and extensively, it would mean a noticeable increase in the Virgin’s Office, even to achieving an astonishing degree of expansion and extension through conversions, thus providing her with new offspring-agents to make further conquests for her.

The Rosary magnificently reflects this threefold movement and response in the three sets of mysteries:  the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious, wherein we can profess our belief with JOY, accept the obligations which involve SORROW, and grow in the GLORY of personal holiness and conquest for the Kingdom of Christ on earth.  The Angelic Salutation, recited again and again, is the theme or key for recalling and imploring the fruit of these grace-filled actions.  The 150 “Hail Mary’s”, the prayerful praise and approval of her Sacred Office, are reminiscent of the 150 Psalms which the priests and religious pray each day in reciting the Divine Office of Jesus Christ, an activity that also effects graces.  Thus, the Rosary offers us an opportunity to actualize in the present the superabundant power inherent in the three phases of our Spiritual Mother’s Sacred Appointment, enabling her to exercise her maternal solicitude more effectively, to strengthen her Office, and to secure its FUTURE consummation.  The Holy Spirit stands behind this prayerful meditation as surety for its success since the Sacred Office of His holy Spouse is the agency by which He will sanctify the Elect.  Daily, then, we should pick up our beads and recall the Divine Mysteries of which He is truly the Author.

The Fifteen Minute Meditation

Fifteen minutes of silent meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary make this Devotion unique, the identifying mark which reveals much about the First Saturday’s observance.  It is an unequaled opportunity for us to offer a PERSONAL commitment to our Mother, a counteraction to the vilification directed at her PERSON.  Whereas the fifth sin would disengage the devoted ones from dutiful service to her, this action is a demonstration of their continuing loyalty, an even greater union with her in sharing her sorrow.  In the other three acts of this Devotion we are asked to concentrate upon the official aspects of Our Lady’s Divine Commission.  Here we are invited to engage in a rather private, individual, one-on-one approach in compassionating the great bereavement which she experiences through this sin.  Her grief is not one of self-concern, unhappiness over the attacks against her person, but one of mourning the loss of loved ones, the end result of that fifth sin.

All five sins aim at destroying or damaging severely the proper order to be maintained between the Mother and her children so that they may not receive salvific graces and communicate them to others.  The fifth sin attempts to stop this process at its terminal point:  the distributing of a final saving grace to these special children of hers, to those who otherwise would be lost.  A most diabolical maneuver, this crime robs the Mother of the just reward of her efforts, especially at a critical moment, the terminal point in the whole movement of grace.

In all four acts of this Devotion it is essential that we keep the intention of making reparation for the five sins.  The Divine Child Jesus stated this requirement rather pointedly in the February, 1929 visit to Lucia, at which time He inquired about the progress of the Devotion.  If we forget to make this intention at the time of performing one of the actions, we must do so at the next confession.  Moreover, He instructed us to take the earliest opportunity of going to confession and making the intention.  The stress, then, is upon the idea of REPARATION.  We are to REPAIR the DAMAGE inflicted upon this relationship between the Spiritual Mother and her off-spring, the impairment of her Sacred Office.  Therefore, it is most imperative that we have more children of Mary engaged in repairing and building this correct harmony so as to achieve its intended results.

The grave injustice committed against the Virgin can be illustrated by a comparison with a farmer.  A tiller of the soil must spend much time, money, and effort in plowing, sowing seed, cultivating, irrigating, fertilizing, warding off any enemies, and finally reaping the crops.  A total or even a substantial loss of his crop at any point in the process would be most unjust, but more especially if it occurs near the end.  The greatest injustice, then, would be to have it happen right at harvest time.  If we magnify or multiply that injustice many, many times over, we can have a notion of the enormity of the crime.  The fifth sin being so abominable, the fifteen minute meditation becomes crucial to the destiny of countless poor souls.  It is the finishing touch, the capstone of the Devotion, the “frosting on the cake”, the blow which sends Satan and his hordes reeling into a complete uproar.

These special children of Mary through this meditation express in a dramatic fashion their steadfastness and union, now become greater than before this Devotion was revealed to them.  They withstand the tactics of shock, intimidation, obscenity, and whatever else Satan may attempt.  They hold their ground; more than that, they strengthen it and extend it.  They stand at her side in a posture of total surrender to her will and full commiseration with her in sorrow.

The Current Situation

Surely, if enough of her children would practice this Devotion on first Saturdays, the victory would be here.  Obviously, we have not reached that point.  Can we prevent the “scales of justice” in heaven from tipping against mankind?  Are there enough practicing this Devotion to ward off the punishments predicted?  The persons who sin against the Immaculate Heart of Mary are the ones who do most to merit chastisement for the human race because they are responsible for most of the lost souls.  These children of Mary, now become renegades in opposition to her, must be converted to her side as zealous and devoted servants of hers.  We have it in our power to do something about it, through the mercy of Our Divine Savior.  Let us recall Our Lady’s words about them (June, 1929)

“There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me . . . “22

Even though the long-desired triumph eludes us, we have the sure knowledge and the consolation of complying with the will of Our Redeemer.  Destruction brings re-construction; sin invites reparation; the five sins demand the Five First Saturdays.  We are surely engaged in a most holy mission for Our Savior in working for the fulfillment of His wishes.

“. . . and not too long ago I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making that consecration.”  The reply:  “Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that this devotion may subsequently be spread so as to place the devotion to this Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.” (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose.)  ²³

In addition to the First Saturday’s Devotion can we do more to forestall that dreadful judgment?  Can we gain more time while we seek to add more devotees to our cause?  The answer, again, comes from the Fatima Message.  Each day we can attempt to save the souls who will die and possibly be consigned to hell forever, irrevocably removed from their Redeemer.  Through our prayers, especially a daily Rosary, and the sacrifices which our daily duty imposes upon us, we can offer up to Our Lady the means for her to grant powerful graces, even last-minute repentance, to the souls who are “most in need of Thy mercy”. ²⁴  These are solemnly given to the Virgin by wearing her Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel, with which she appeared during the October 13^th Miracle of the Sun, and which is an official consecration cloth in that the wearing of it with this intention effects the consecration.  While this does not unlock the torrent of grace being withheld by the five sins, it does win time for us because it delays the full demand of divine justice and gains much needed favor and mercy for future efforts. 

This daily practice to convert sinners and save souls derives from Our Lady’s six Apparitions of 1917 during which she always pleaded for the Rosary each day and the offering of our sufferings, penances, and all sacrifices for conversion.  This consecration has been officially formalized and organized in a written enrollment in the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, a signed pledge which commits the enrollee to praying the Rosary (five decades) each day, offering up to the Immaculate Heart of Mary each morning the sacrifices of the day, and the wearing of the Brown Scapular in solemn consecration.  We refer here not to the organized groups of Blue Army persons in the different dioceses throughout the land, but of the daily consecration to Our Lady with the signed pledge being sent to Fatima for formal enlistment and burial near the spot where Our Lady appeared.  Let us offer a fervent prayer that this daily “voluntary” reparation will succeed in preventing the imposition of the “involuntary” kind.

For the Future?

And yet how slowly it moves!  When will we rejoice in the sweet victory of Our Lady?  Part of the answer is found in a letter from Lucia to her confessor, a Fr. Goncalves, dated April 24, 1940.   “If He [Jesus] wants to, He can hasten that cause [Our Lord’s wishes].  But to punish the world He will let it go slowly.  His justice, provoked by our sins, wants it that way.  Sometimes He becomes annoyed not only at grave sins, but also at our laxity and negligence in attending to His requests.” ²⁵

This being sufficient reason for the long delay, Our Lord has yet a further motive:  to achieve an even greater conquest, a fact also revealed in another letter of Lucia to the same Fr. Goncalves in August of 1940.  “. . . but He takes this opportunity to punish the world with justice for so many crimes, and to prepare it for a more complete turn toward Him.  The proof that He gives us is the special protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary over Portugal due to its consecration to Her.”  (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose.)  ²⁶

That most blessed moment will arrive, but first a few hard lessons are in order.  However, since we have the firm assurance that it will take place, we must work to have it occur sooner and before the punishments are inflicted, doing all that we can to make this Message known and living it each day.  Fatima is essentially an appeal from heaven to convert sinners.  FIRST and foremost among them are the renegade children of Mary, launching an assault of fivefold sin against her, having become cancerous cells in the Mystical Body of Christ.  NEXT is Russia the renegade nation, akin to a major organ fully malignant and spreading its virulence to all other organs and systems of the Mystical Body (Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, etc.).  The third kind of sinner to convert is the person who will die today in a state of mortal sin, full separation from Christ.  The first two kinds of sinners are the real problem.  The third kind needs to be converted and saved, but he does not attack the Mystical Body of Christ directly, whereas the other two aim at total extermination of Christ present in the world in His Members.  The further along they proceed in their work of evil, the greater will be the ensuing chastisement to follow, “The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.” (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917)

Our Lord reaffirmed that prediction in a rather disquieting communication to Lucia which she reported to her confessor in early February of 1938:  Our Lord also said to me, “Ask, insist again on the reparatory Communion in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the First Saturday being made public.  The moment is approaching when the rigor of My justice will punish the crimes of several nations.  Some will be annihilated.  Finally the rigors of My justice will fall most heavily on those who want to destroy my reign in souls.”  (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose)  ²⁷

Notice how Our Savior connects the First Saturday’s Devotion to the impending punishments?  That direct tie between the two can only suggest that the five sins are, in reality, “blasphemies committed against the Holy Ghost”, the sins which Jesus Christ so severely condemned.

“Therefore I say to you:  Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven.  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.”  (Matt. 12: 31-32, Douay Rheims Version)

About these sins, further insight is provided by the footnote to verse 31 in the Douay Rheims Version.

“Now this kind of sin is usually accompanied with so much obstinacy, and such willful opposing the Spirit of God, and the known truth, that men who are guilty of it, are seldom or never converted:  and therefore are never forgiven, because they will not repent.  Otherwise there is no sin, which God cannot or will not forgive to such as sincerely repent, and have recourse to the keys of the church.”  (Footnote, Matt. 12: 31, Douay Rheims Version)

Judas-like in character, these blasphemers of Mary reveal their hardheartedness by unmasking their perfidy in all its innate iniquity.  And, still Our Lady longs to have them restored to her Heart, a desire which her Divine Son concedes to her by granting this Devotion to those children of hers who love her most fervently.  This fact alone should inspire and encourage us with faith to move mountains.

A sign of Victory

Oftentimes, those who yearn for a future event will look for signs or omens of assurance or comfort, a risky venture at best.  Yet, it is in the nature of the human being to try anticipating the future.  If we dare to search for a token or pledge of tomorrow’s tidings, then let the “Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima” and the dove which so often accompanies it be the blessed portent of the future and the solemn avowal that the Holy Ghost Dove and His Immaculate Spouse are at work now and will assuredly achieve that great conquest which she predicted, “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 will be granted to the world.”  (Our Lady of Fatima, July 13, 1917)

A most heartening sign for us, the “Pilgrim Virgin Statue” is, in a real sense, the “presence” of Our Lady of Fatima, not coming a few times in 1917 and afterward only to depart the arena of conflict, but a continuing appearance among us giving us the important Message from her Divine Son and bestowing graces, so frequently in the company of the dove, the almost constant companion of the Pilgrim Virgin.  Her special presence is not one of body and soul but of grace whereby the effect is almost identical with a real presence, a fact expressed by no less an authority than Pope Pius XII in his “Radio Message to the Fatima Pilgrims, October 13, 1951”.

“.  .  .  another vision, no less comforting, fills Our spirit.  Not only the Angel of the Lord, but the Queen of Angels herself goes forth in the form of her miraculous images.  .  .   And as she goes along, God’s blessings are pouring down, and the miracles of grace are so multiplying that we can hardly believe Our eyes.  Not only are the good and obedient children of the Church redoubling their fervor, but the prodigal sons also, overcome with a longing for maternal tenderness, are returning to their Father’s House.”  (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose)  ²⁸

A true blessing from heaven, this prodigy has now been extended throughout the world as official Pilgrim Virgin Statues travel here and there “multiplying the miracles of grace”.  The Pilgrim Virgin Devotion, then, is the concrete sign of our hope for triumph, for that official replica of Our Lady of Fatima is the auspicious foretoken of the hallowed peace to come, the glorious vanquishment of Satan and his forces, the predicted triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The many, many miracles of grace which always attend the travels of the statues are the attestation of that claim.  Fr. A. Martins, S. J. described this phenomenon so accurately with these thoughts:

“Experience shows that a visit of the statue of “Our Lady of Fatima” in the diocese results in a true shower of graces.  Any priest who doubts this need only volunteer to sit in the confessional during one of the visits of Our Lady’s statues.  You cannot do better than to promote the diocesan and parish visits of “Pilgrim Virgin Statues” as a way to draw all to the devotion of the Rosary and the First Saturdays.”  ²⁹

We have powerful, convincing evidence that the long-awaited overthrow of evil may occur soon.  These promising tokens of victory cannot be intended for a far-distant future.  Confident in the coming triumph, we cannot relax our efforts; rather, we must double them and more so.

A Flood of Graces

The five sins primarily and Russia, too, are holding back the graces intended for us in these crucial times.  If we can raise an army of souls willing to observe the requests given to us by Our Lady in behalf of her Divine Son, we can succeed in releasing a flood of graces from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Sacred Repository of Graces, which will convert sinners by the thousands and millions, convert Russia and other apostate nations, and bring peace to war-torn earth.  Jacinta Marto, the youngest of the three Fatima visionaries, just before her death, gave Lucia this command:

“It will not be long now before I go to heaven.  You will remain here to make known that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  When you are to say this, don’t go and hide.  Tell everybody that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; that people are to ask for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side.  Tell them also to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God has entrusted it to her.”  (Emphasis by Guido Del Rose)  ³⁰

Eventually a truth will be forced upon us that has been ignored and rejected:

FATIMA IS…THE HOPE OF THE WORLD!

For further information regarding the writings and work of Guido Del Rose that is available you may contact:  FatimaInfo1917@yahoo.com

FOOTNOTES

1.                  Lucia Speaks, Memoirs and Letters of Sister Lucia, (Wash., NJ:  AMI Press, 1976), p. 238.

2.                  Ibid.,  198.

3.                  Ibid.,  200.

4.                  Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Redemptoris Mater, (Boston, Mass.:  Daughters of St. Paul, March 25, 1987, Vatican Translation), devotes an entire section, Part III “Maternal Mediation” to the role of Our Lady as Mediatrix of All Grace.

5.                  Lucia Speaks, 200.

6.                  Joaquin Maria Alonso, C.M.F., The Secret of Fatima, Fact and Legend, (Cambridge:  The Ravengate Press, 1979), pp. 109-10.

7.                  John M. Haffert,  “A Terrible Warning”.  Soul Magazine,  Jan.-Feb.  1987,  p. 6.

8.                  Bernard F. Leonard,  The Book of Destiny,  (Bellville, IL:  Buechler Publishing Co.,  1955), Book II,  p. 76.

9.                  Lucia Speaks,  200.

10.              Ibid.,  230.

11.              Ibid.,  231.

12.              Ibid.,  234.

13.              Ibid.

14.              Fr. H. M. Manteau-Bonamy, O. P., Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, (Kenosha, WI:  Franciscan Marytown Press, 1977), p. 91.

15.              Lucia Speaks, 202.

16.              Manteau-Bonamy, 91.

17.              Ibid. 98-99.

18.              Ibid.,  112.

19.              St. Louis De Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, (Bay Shore, NY:  Montfort Publications, 1967), p. 23.

20.              Lucia Speaks, 200.

21.              Papal Teachings:  Our Lady selected and arranged by the Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, (Boston, MA:  Daughters of St. Paul, 1961), p. 125.

22.              Lucia Speaks, 234.

23.              Ibid. 234.

24.              Ibid. 201.

25.              Ibid., 244.

26.              Ibid., 245-46.

27.              Hell and the Immaculate,  (Wash., NJ:  The Blue Army of Our Lady),  p. 43.

28.              Papal Teachings:  Our Lady,   335.

29.              Francis Johnston,  Fatima:  The Great Sign, (Wash., NJ:  AMI Press, 1980), p. 124, quoting Soul Magazine, Jan.-Feb.  1978.

30.              Lucia Speaks, 137.