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SISTER LUCY, THE CATECHIST OF OUR LADY I: The calls of the Angel to make one’s way to God through prayer and the Sacraments. II: The calls of Our Lady of the Rosary to offend God no longer.
Mgr Jean-Louis Papin, former superior of the Seminary of Nantes, today Bishop of Nancy, Vice-President of the French episcopate, is convinced of one thing: « The Gospel must be proclaimed in a radically new manner. » Nevertheless, the debate among the bishops at Lourdes was acrimonious, and their plenary meeting did not succeed in coming to an agreement. « I feel the brakes, explains Mgr Papin. Some are “scared to death” of losing what little remains and of frightening the catechism teachers. » (La Croix, 10-11 November 2004) What an admission of bankruptcy, twenty-five years after Pierres vivantes of which our bishops forbade all criticism and ten years after the supposed Catechism of the Catholic Church (CEC)! On the other hand, « as for the Bishops of Quebec, they came to an agreement » announces Brother Pierre in the Renaissance Catholique (no 124, January 2005). Under the title “Jesus Christ, a Path of Humanisation”, they published catechetical guidelines that are summarised in this directive: « Open up to the encounter with Christ, path of integral humanisation for persons and for the world. » Brother Pierre remarks that it diabolically perseveres in the error of the CCC, denounced by our Father as « a catechism of pride, a catechesis of deceit » in a Book of Accusation taken to the Vatican on 13 May 1993 by two hundred and fifty representatives of the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the Twentieth Century. The error, « of a great simplicity » and « ingenious in its new synthesis of divine Revelation », consists in granting « to man, to every man, to every woman as well, without distinction, and to each of us, poor sinners », what God the Father wished to give to Jesus and Mary alone. Quite simply! It is so flagrant that Mgr Sandri admitted to me that « if we began to examine, that in itself would mean you are right; we cannot do that » (infra, p. 19). Today we have the consequences of this dereliction of duty: it took only ten years for the supposed “catechism” to bear the venomous fruits that could be expected. The complaint of the Prophet Jeremiah resounds throughout the world: children are asking for bread and there is no one to give them any, to teach them catechism.
Nevertheless, the impasse in which our bishops have found themselves for four years now does have a solution. The book of Sister Lucy recapitulating the “Calls from the Message of Fatima”, which we translated and commented on during the past year and a half (He is Risen no 12, August 2003 - no 25, September 2004), offers them a doorway of light, which corresponds to the promise of Our Lady: « In Portugal the dogma of the faith will always be preserved » Assuredly, while it is being lost in Rome and at Lourdes, the dogma of the faith is shining at Coimbra in the ardent soul of Sister Lucy, the messenger of Our Lady of Fatima. Her book is proof of this. It offers material for a complete catechism that we could entitle “The Immaculate Heart of Mary, a path of divinisation” By mean of « questions and answers », it would use the answers of Sister Lucy to the questions of her correspondents, all of whom she considers to be « pilgrims », whether they have the Faith or whether they do not have « the happiness of possessing this gift of God ». In the introduction, it would be easy to explain why such a catechism is based on the authority of Sister Lucy. We have remarked how she does not hesitate to exhort her readers with the terms and the authority of St. Peter himself in his first Epistle (1 Pt 2.11), saying that « we are all pilgrims who are advancing towards eternity, whether we are aware of it or not. The letters that you address to me are countless and they contain numerous requests and many questions. » « I really would have liked to be able to reply to each one separately, but as it is impossible for me to do so, I am replying to all in a general way with the “Calls from the Message of Fatima”, which it has pleased God to entrust to me for all men. » By these last words, she claims to enjoy a universal magisterium, a claim that no one is able to contest because it is based on well established historical facts, recognised by the authority of the Church: the apparitions of the angel and of Our Lady of Fatima. This is why Sister Lucy can present herself most truly, like Abraham to whom she does not fear to compare herself, as « a benediction » for « all the families of the earth » (Gn 12.3), mediatrix of a renewed covenant, in favour of the souls « who are making their way to God » like Moses approaching the Burning Bush, according to the vision of the Third Secret. Thus, she frees us from the modernist subjectivism of which our bishops remain prisoners, and brings us back to the objective purity of the Catholic faith, based on the historical facts related in the Gospels. The catechism of Sister Lucy reposes on the reality of Fatima, closer to us and even more verifiable than the Gospel, taught to children who are born and raised in a world given over to a « diabolical disorientation ». The first lessons of this catechism, a path of divinisation, would have us hear the voice of the Angel of the Third Secret, recalling the ultimate goal of our existence. A single “question-answer” and all is said: • WHAT IS THE AIM OF ALL OUR WORKS? • THE AIM OF ALL OUR WORKS IS TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE OUR WAY TO HIM BY MEANS OF THE SACRAMENTS AND PRAYER. From the outset, we must go back to the picture of the « families of the little shepherds » painted by Sister Lucy in her first chapter, in order to teach how « all homes must be the first schools where children learn to know God and to make their way to Him by means of the sacraments and prayer ». This chapter of Sister Lucy alone offers a perfect « set of guidelines » capable of meeting with the approval of all our bishops desirous of making catechesis an « experience » of Christian life. Sister Lucy portrays restored creation, after the Fall, by the hand of God « covering the bodies that had stripped themselves, through sin, of the garment of grace ». Thus the Christian life already appears entirely expressed in the simple and poor way of life, in which clothing is not « an adornment in the service of human vanity and frivolity », but a gift from God to defend us against sin, « a sign of penance and of punishment for sin committed, as well as a reminder to us of the laws of God that we are all obliged to obey » The first of these laws to which we are subject, « rich and poor, learned and ignorant, superiors and inferiors », is that of work carried out « in a spirit of reparation for our sins and charity for the salvation of our neighbour ». It seems that this thought of the salvation of souls, the primary “orientation” of all catechesis, new or old, was absent from the preoccupations of our bishops at Lourdes. In any case, no communiqué divulged this concern, expressed in this exclamation of Sister Lucy laden with pathos, capable of touching the most hardened hearts: « Dear pilgrims, if by the work we do, and the lives we lead, we can offer salutary penance to God; if we can by this means merit Heaven and win salvation, why would we want to be lost? » In fact, what our pastors cruelly lack is to take seriously the cry of the Angel with a flaming sword of the Third Secret of Fatima, revealed on 26 June 2000, the very year that they decided to open their “workshop” on catechesis: « The Angel, pointing to the earth with his right hand cried out in a loud voice: “Penance, Penance, Penance!” » It is indeed this cry that needs to be made heard at the moment of implementing this Marian catechesis of the third millennium! At the time that she was writing, before 1974, Sister Lucy was not authorised to speak of it. But she is unable to detach her thought from it. Therefore, she resorts to Holy Scripture, quoting the Angel Raphael approving the penance of Tobias: « The Angel Raphael said to Tobias: “When you prayed, it was I who presented and read the record of your prayer before the Glory of the Lord; and I did the same thing when you used to bury the dead.” (Tb 12.12). » It is the biblical illustration of the vision that continues the Third Secret, « of the Holy Father praying for the souls of the corpses he met on his way » Throughout her book, Sister Lucy demonstrates a thorough knowledge of Holy Scripture. Therefore, the catechism that would take its inspiration from it would respond very exactly to one of the concerns of our pastors voiced at Lourdes, according to La Croix: « Some bishops asked that the Word of God contained in the Bible be given a greater role. » They also wished « that the notion of “Christian community” might be clarified, a notion touched on » in the so-called guidelines entitled Going to the Heart of the Faith, published in 2003 « after an already painful labour ». The remainder of this first chapter of Sister Lucy specifically replies to this concern by a heavenly picture of the family atmosphere, the fruit of such “penance”. After that, the catechism would respect the chronological order followed by Sister Lucy in The Calls from the Message of Fatima in order to expound and comment on them, from the first prayer of the Angel, revealed in the spring of 1916, to the last prayer of the beautiful Lady who finally said Her name on 13 October 1917: « I am Our Lady of the Rosary », and She entreated: « Do not offend the Lord Our God any more for He is already too greatly offended! » MARIAN CATECHETICS The first nine “Calls” prepared the seers to receive the Virgin Mary. For us, they are a veritable apprenticeship of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that God wants established in this world in order to snatch souls from Hell in the other, and to obtain peace for them here below as well. During his first apparition in the spring of 1916, the envoy of Heaven said to them: « Fear not! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me! » Then he taught them the prayer that obtains peace: « My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, who do not adore, who do not hope, who do not love Thee ». War, therefore, is the retribution for impiety. This is the first lesson of this first “call”, and the second is that it is possible to make reparation capable of obtaining the end of the war, for the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of our supplications.
I. THE CALLS OF THE ANGEL TO MAKE ONE’S WAY • WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC FAITH? • THE CATHOLIC FAITH IS THE TRUTH OF GOD TAUGHT BY THE ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH, WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE CAN BE SAVED. The first word of this « supplication » is: « I believe ». Where the Catholic faith does not yet exist or where it no longer does as a result of apostasy, there is no peace, but war of all against all, as we can see more and more from one day to the next. Is there a lesson more firmly rooted in “everyday life”? This is why « the first Call that God addresses to us here through His Messenger is a call to faith: “My God, I believe!” » Sister Lucy received the infused grace of this Catholic faith through the opened hands of the Virgin Mary that reflected « the Light of the immense Being who is God ». In order to awaken or re-awaken it in the hearts of our children, it would suffice to enlighten them with what Sister Lucy, a true glowing lamp in our present night, says. This light, « penetrating into our hearts and even into the depths of our souls », reveals to us not only the existence of God, but also His will for the whole of creation of which He is the Master, and in which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man in the womb of the Virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit « in order to teach us, to guide our feet in the way of truth, justice, charity and life. Any way other than the one He has mapped out for us is a way that leads to eternal death » In these few lines, Sister Lucy settles the question raised by the Jesuit Bernard Sesboüe in his latest book: “Outside the Church, No Salvation. History of a Formula and Problems of Interpretation”: 396 pages designed to convince us that the reform of the Second Vatican Council is not in contradiction with what the Catholic Church taught in an irreformable manner prior to it, because behind these contradictions that this Jesuit calls “historical ruptures”, is concealed, according to him, « the continuity of the intention of faith ». At the same time, he shows that he has lost the dogma of the Faith by attributing to Christ a mediation more universal than that of the Roman Catholic Church. Sister Lucy forcefully protects us from this very error by recalling that « the Church of God is one: one and only, united by the bonds of forgiveness, love and faith. It is one and Catholic or universal, as Jesus taught us and commanded us: “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mk 16.15-16) » That being the case, the « second call of the Message: I adore », the subject of the fourth chapter of Sister Lucy, brings to light the idolatry of which Pope John Paul II is guilty by inviting bonzes and Tibetan lamas to adore their solid gold Buddha enthroned on the tabernacle of the high altar of St. Peter’s Church, at Assisi, on 27 October 1986. In the light of this scandal, we understand the « offence » made to God by ecumenism and interfaith enterprises, fruits of a heretical and schismatic Council; we understand as well that an Angel of Heaven descended from Heaven in order to prepare the way for the universal mediation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the last remedy for this universal apostasy. • WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC RELIGION? • THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IS A LOVE. From faith springs hope. The « third call from the Message: I hope », is illustrated by an example taken from the Old Testament, but this is done in order to turn our eyes towards the vision of the Third Secret: « If the Israelites who had been mortally wounded were healed by looking at the bronze serpent that Moses had nailed to a post, how much more we, if we can, with faith and confidence, lift up our eyes to Christ, raised up on the wood of His cross. » Here once again, the “Third Secret” is hinted at by depicting for our eyes « a large Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with its bark ». From faith and hope spring the « fourth call from the Message: I love Thee ». Sister Lucy is a nun for whom the Catholic religion is a love. This is what must be taught today, but without forgetting that love is proved by sacrifice. « Our love must be sincere, joyful and self-sacrificing, like the love of a good son who loves his father and does everything that he knows will please him. Even if he has to deny himself in doing so, he will do it with joy because his happiness is to see his father happy; on the other hand, his father’s pleasure will in turn benefit the son because the father, being pleased with his son, will take him in his arms, heap good things on him and do everything for him. » Can a better way of teaching catechism be imagined? When reading Sister Lucy, everyone rediscovers the soul of a child. It is on this condition that the « fifth call from the Message: “I beg pardon” », will not find us deaf, « for we all need to obtain the pardon of God ». The first preparation for confession is linked to the forgiveness of injuries taught by Our Lord: « According to the “Our Father”, we cannot obtain pardon from God unless we ourselves first forgive our brothers. It follows that we must not harbour resentment, ill-will, dislike, and still less a desire for vengeance. Our forgiveness must be generous, complete and self-sacrificing. » Precisely, « the sixth and sevenths calls from the Message » urge old and young, by the voice of the Guardian Angel, to offer constantly to the Most High « prayers and sacrifices » as proofs of true charity. This is the principle and foundation of the “new,” although very ancient, catechesis: « It is only today that I understand that in this way, God has brought our attention back to the path that He had decided on for His creatures from the beginning of creation. » • HOW SHOULD WE PRAY? • WE SHOULD PRAY CONSTANTLY, ADDING SACRIFICE TO PRAYER. Sister Lucy then offers to catechism teachers a brief treatise on prayer that is a pure masterpiece, exhorting all souls not only to set aside a few moments in order to « make their way to God », but also to remain constantly in His presence « We must consider that God and our Guardian Angel are close to us, and that they see what we do and with what intentions we act. We must, therefore, sanctify our work, our rest, our meals, our wholesome leisure activities, as though they were a continual prayer. Knowing that God is present, it is enough to call Him to mind and from time to time say a few words of love to Him: “I love You, Lord” » Nevertheless, prayer that is not accompanied by sacrifice is ineffective. This is why the « seventh call from the Message », which concludes the commentary on the second apparition of the “Guardian Angel”, is a call to sacrifice: « Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. » Learning to make sacrifices concerns adults as much as children studying catechism: « Making sacrifices enriches us with grace, strengthens us in faith and charity, makes us more worthy of the esteem of God and of our neighbour, and frees us from temptations to egoism, greed, envy and self-indulgence. » This is how a catechism recopying Sister Lucy would reply to the great concern of our bishops, namely, assisting parents and catechism teachers. • HOW SHOULD WE RECEIVE COMMUNION? • WE SHOULD RECEIVE COMMUNION IN A SPIRIT OF REPARATION IN ORDER TO CONSOLE THE GOOD GOD. It was during the third apparition of “the Guardian Angel” that the children heard the « eighth call from the Message »: “« Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God. »” Ever since this extraordinary event, without any precedent other than the encounter at the beginning of sacred history between Abraham and Melchizedek who « brought bread and wine » (Gn 14.18), the Gospel must be proclaimed in a radically new manner. Sister Lucy explains why: « This call is quite explicit in the Gospel, but it is poorly understood, forgotten, brushed aside, and what is even sadder, outraged. » Many profanations of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ could be mentioned; however, following the example of Sister Lucy, an incomparable catechism teacher, we will begin by instilling in children positive faith in the Holy Eucharist, in which Our Lord becomes « our spiritual food, our daily Bread that nourishes the supernatural life within us ». We could then make them weigh up the offensive indifference shown « by ungrateful men » towards this divine sacrament, and inspire a shiver of concern at the thought of the fate that awaits them: « Christ truly shed His Blood for all humanity, for all, without excluding anyone. Nevertheless, it is also true that not all take an interest and strive to welcome Jesus Christ, the price of their redemption, and they exclude themselves from Redemption. How can we not think of so many people who do not know, or who do not want to nourish themselves with His Body and His Blood? What will become of them? » God, however, is good! Nevertheless we must recognise the hand of His Providence where it acts, for example, by lending an ear to the “calls” that the Angel makes heard on earth through the “catechism” of Sister Lucy. She begins by pointing out that, notwithstanding the abandonment in which « ungrateful men » leave Him, our Saviour, « enclosed within our tabernacles, offered on our altars, continues to offer Himself to the Father as a victim for the remission of the sins of humanity, in the hope that many generous people will wish to be united to Him, to become one with Him by sharing in His sacrifice, in order to offer themselves with Him to the Father as victims in expiation for the sins of the world. » Like « the Bishop dressed in White » of the Third Secret, of whom Sister Lucy did not have the right to speak when she wrote her book, who « was killed by a group of soldiers », as well as « the Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people, men and women of different ranks and positions » In them, « Christ offers Himself to the Father as a victim, in the members of His Mystical Body, which is the Church. This is really the meaning of this call from the Message that asks us to offer to the Most Holy Trinity the merits of Christ the Victim, in reparation for the sins by which He Himself is offended, as the Angel taught the three children to pray: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. Through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ask of You the conversion of poor sinners.” » • WHY DO WE OBTAIN SALVATION BY MEANS OF THE MERITS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY? • WE OBTAIN SALVATION BY MEANS OF THE MERITS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT GOD HAS ORDAINED. The commentary on the first words of the prayer to the Holy Trinity is the « ninth call from the Message ». Before explaining it, however, Sister Lucy asks a question: « We know that the merits and prayer of Jesus Christ are sufficient to make reparation for and to save the world; why then does the Message invoke the merits of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and ask us to join to It our prayers, our sacrifices, and our reparation? » – I have to say that I do not know! Nor do I know what explanation the theologians of the Church would give me if I were to ask them. So, I meditated and thought. I took the Gospel and I saw that from the very beginning Jesus Christ united to His redemptive work the Immaculate Heart of Her whom He chose to be His Mother. The work of our redemption began at the moment when the Word descended from Heaven in order to assume a human body in the womb of Mary. From that moment, and for the next nine months, the blood of Christ was the blood of Mary, since it issued forth from Her Immaculate Heart; the Heart of Christ beats in unison with the Heart of Mary. « We can think, too, that the aspirations of the Heart of Mary were completely identified with the aspirations of the Heart of Christ; the ideal of Mary had become the same as that of Christ Himself, and the love in the Heart of Mary was the love in the Heart of Christ for the Father and for all men; from the beginning, the entire work of Redemption passed through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, thanks to the bonds of Her close and intimate union with the divine Word. As St. Pius X said, « Could not God have given us, in another way than through Mary, the Redeemer of the human race and the Founder of the Faith? Since, however, it has pleased Eternal Providence that the God-Man should be given to us through the Virgin, and since She, having conceived Him by the productive power of the Holy Spirit, actually bore Him in Her womb, what remains except that we received Jesus from the hands of Mary » (Ad diem illum, 2 February 1904) We only have to follow Christ, our unique Saviour, who decided, from the very womb of His Mother, to « unite Her to His redemptive work », after having chosen Her as Mother even before being conceived. For the normal course of affairs is totally upset: in this one case, it is the Child who chose His Mother! He associates Her so closely to His redemptive work that all grace comes to poor sinners « through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary », both « victims for the salvation of men », wrote Sister Lucy: Jesus offering the Body and shedding the Blood received from Mary, in order to give them to eat and to drink « Under the appearances of consecrated bread and wine ». The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are therefore inseparable even in the confection of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, as Sister Lucy saw it in the Eucharistic and Trinitarian theophany of Tuy: « Beneath the right arm of the Cross, there stood Our Lady with Her Immaculate Heart in Her hand… It was Our Lady of Fatima with Her Immaculate Heart in Her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames », that is to say, adorned with the emblems of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The explanation of this vision offers the occasion for an admirable catechesis on God, under the title of the « ninth call from the Message ». • HOW SHOULD WE ADDRESS GOD? • WE SHOULD ADDRESS GOD BY SAYING TO HIM: « MOST HOLY TRINITY, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT. » In order to expound on the difficult mystery of one God in three Persons, Sister Lucy does not begin with an abstract explanation of the words “Trinity” and “Person”. She brings us into the presence of God, as “the Guardian Angel” did with the three seers in 1916, by addressing this prayer to Him: « Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. » It would be good if the catechism teacher would imitate the Angel by not hesitating to kneel on the ground, and bow down with his forehead touching the ground while repeating this prayer. Then comes the catechism lesson: « We are dealing here with a mystery that has been revealed to us and that we will only be able to comprehend perfectly in Heaven, writes Sister Lucy. We believe it, because God revealed it, and we know that our limited understanding is very far from comprehending the power and the wisdom of God. » After having taken examples drawn from creation and Holy Scripture, Sister Lucy describes what she knows from experience: « The presence of the three divine Persons, Who will draw us ever further into the depths of the supernatural life if we always follow the path pointed out for us by the light of the word of God. » The chapter ends as it began by a prayer of the holy nun, an ardent prayer bursting forth from the heart of the greatest saint of the twentieth century. « O Holy Trinity, Whom I adore, Whom I love, Whose eternal praises I am to sing! In me You are light, You are grace, You are love! I enter into You and I am engulfed in the love of Your Being. Ave Maria! »
II. THE
CALLS OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY The 13 May 1917 is a memorable date in the history of humanity. On that day « the three poor children from Aljustrel » heard for the first time the « call to the daily recitation of the Rosary » in order to obtain peace in the world and the end of the war, a call repeated month after month until 13 October by Our Lady in person, come down « from Heaven » where She resides in the flesh… For Heaven exists, and Purgatory also. • HOW DO WE GO TO HEAVEN? • WE GO TO HEAVEN BY RECITING MANY ROSARIES. « The thought that I was talking to someone who had come from Heaven, Sister Lucy writes, prompted me to ask whether I, too, would have the joy of going to Heaven. – Yes, you will. » – And Jacinta? – She, as well. – And Francisco? – He, as well, but he must say many Rosaries. » Being a good catechism teacher, Sister Lucy hastens to extend this recommendation made to Francisco to all human beings. « It is not that saying many Rosaries, as such, is an indispensable condition for going to Heaven, but that it is essential to pray. » Now, the Rosary is the prayer that is the most accessible to all. It is not less necessary to prepare ourselves for going to Heaven by means of purification, in this world by sacrifice and self-denial, or in the other world by a stay in Purgatory, a place of expiation. Sister Lucy heard Our Lady tell her that a girl that she knew who had recently died would remain there « until the end of the world ». Here Sister Lucy points out that sacrifice is necessary for all men, « even for those who do not have the happiness of possessing the gift of faith. They, too, are confronted with sacrifice, because the whole of humanity is marked by the sign of the redeeming Cross of Christ, even the men who do not know it or do not wish to benefit from it. In order to express it and make it understood, Sister Lucy, perhaps inspired by the vision of the Holy Father « praying for the souls of the corpses he met on his way », formulates very briefly the whole mystery of Redemption: « Sin brings with it the weight of the cross » Nevertheless, « for the Cross of Christ to be of benefit to us, each of us must take up his own cross with faith and love and carry it after Christ and in union with Christ » This is why Our Lady asks us all, Sister Lucy insists, what She asked of Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta on 13 May 1917: « Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners? » If truly this « Message » is « for all », as Sister Lucy says, it is enough to revitalise a “new catechesis”, in the light of the words of Our Lady punctuating the « poor and humble “yes” of the children with a promise of the help of grace: “Then you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your consolation.” » « Oh! how enlightening these words of Our Lady are, Sister Lucy exclaims. For us, they are a brilliant beacon! We are aware of our own weakness and we know that, of ourselves, we are not capable of producing the fruits of eternal life unless we are united to Christ, as He told us in the Gospel: “He who remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit. For without Me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15.5). « This is why our Heavenly Mother promises us the consolation of the grace of God: that is to say strength to assist our weakness and a grace to console, encourage, help and protect us. This certainty engenders in our hearts an inspiration: we must place our trust in God. « Bearing the sacrifices that come up daily transforms our life into a slow martyrdom that purifies us, elevates us in the supernatural life and prepares the encounter of our soul with God. This is where incomparable treasures of spiritual life are to be found! He who has understood these things is filled with Light. He lives in this Light, which is not that of the sun or of the stars, but which flashes out of the source from which all other light emanates and receives its being. It is a living Light, which sees and penetrates at the same time as it enlightens, and makes us see what it wishes to show us. Such is the living Light of God. » I ask you, could you imagine a more direct manner of « going to the heart of the Faith »? • WHY DOES OUR LADY ASK FOR THE DAILY RECITATION OF THE ROSARY? • OUR LADY ASKS FOR THE DAILY RECITATION OF THE ROSARY BECAUSE THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD. It is significant that Sister Lucy did not think of posing this question to Our Lady, for the good reason that we explained last time, following the thought of the Abbé de Nantes: in the eyes of the seers, the requests of the beautiful Lady, so beautiful, so beautiful! were orders. The Blessed Virgin said: the Rosary must be said every day. Why? Because She said so. And that is all there is to it. « Why did She not say to attend Mass? » Lucy begins by admitting that she did not think of asking for explanations. She does not refuse, however, to give some, on her own responsibility: « I realised that God is Father, and since He is our Father He adapts Himself to the needs and possibilities of His children. Now, if God, through Our Lady, had asked us to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion every day, a great many people could have said, quite rightly, that this was not possible for them to do: some, on account of the distance separating them from the nearest church where Mass is celebrated; others on account of their occupations, the duty of their state in life, their job, the state of their health, etc., which prevent them. » These are altogether prosaic reasons: « On the other hand, the Rosary is accessible to all, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, great and small […]. Since we all need to pray, God asks of us, as a kind of daily measure, a prayer that is within our reach: the prayer of the Rosary. We can recite it either in common or in private, either in Church in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or at home, with the rest of the family or alone, when travelling or while walking quietly in the fields. A housewife can say the Rosary while she rocks her baby in the cradle or does the housework. Each day has twenty-four hours... It is not asking a great deal to set aside a quarter of an hour for the spiritual life, for our intimate and familiar converse with God! » But here are more lofty considerations: « On the other hand, I believe that, after the liturgical prayer of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the recitation of the Rosary or of the chaplet, in view of the origin and sublime nature of the prayers that compose it, and of the mysteries of the Redemption that we recall and on which we meditate, is the prayer the most pleasing to God, and the most advantageous to our souls. If such were not the case, Our Lady would not have asked for it so insistently. This is so true that Sister Lucy adds this: « Even those people who are able to attend Mass every day should not neglect to say their daily Rosary. » Why? Because « such people can consider praying the Rosary as a way of preparing themselves to participate better in the Eucharist, or as an act of thanksgiving made during the day. » • WHY DOES GOD WANT TO ESTABLISH IN THE WORLD DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY? • GOD WANTS TO ESTABLISH IN THE WORLD DEVOTION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY IN ORDER TO LEAD SOULS TO A TOTAL CONSECRATION. « The eleventh Call from the Message: “Jesus wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart”. « Establishing in the world the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Lucy explains, means bringing people to a total consecration. » And what is a « total consecration »? « We all know what the heart of a mother represents in a family: it is love! It is truly love that causes mothers to give such care to their babies in the cradle, it is love that presses them to sacrifice themselves, to devote themselves to them, always to rush to their assistance. All children trust in their mother, and they all know that they have a place of special affection in her heart, which loves them deeply. It is the same with us and the Virgin Mary. » Calling to mind the promise that Our Lady made to her: « My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God », Sister Lucy steps into the background in order to make this “private revelation” a Message of utmost urgency addressed to all men: « Hence, the Heart of Mary is for all Her children the refuge and the way that leads to God. » In actual fact, there is nothing more traditional and more ancient than this novelty! « God proclaimed this refuge and this way to all humanity immediately after the fall of original sin. Thus the Lord said to the Devil, who had tempted the first human beings, and had induced them to disobey the divine order they had been given: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your offspring and Hers. He will crush your head while you will lie in wait for His heel.” (Gn 3.15). The new generation that would be born of this Woman foretold by God will triumph in the battle against the progeny of Satan, to the point of crushing its head. Mary is the Mother of this new generation, as if She were a new tree of life, planted by God in the garden of the world so that all Her children can be nourished by Her fruits. » Thus, in the most innocent manner but also the most indisputable, is established the dogma of the universal Mediation of Mary, so disparaged and finally rejected by the Second Vatican Council! Here, therefore, is a radically new manner of proclaiming the Gospel. This catechism will be a total catechism, which will not merely teach students the dogma of the Faith, but will also teach them how to live it. It involves a radical conversion, which is precisely what the « total consecration » to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is: « Thus we see that devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be established in the world by means of a true consecration, which is conversion and total self-giving, as, in the Consecration, the bread and wine are converted into the Body and Blood of Christ, which He drew, along with His entire human being, from the Heart of Mary. Hence it is that this Immaculate Heart will be for us the refuge and the way that leads to God. » The next three calls are the pure echo of the three parts of the great “Secret” entrusted by Our Lady to Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta on 13 July 1917. They literally form a “short path” as they say, allowing the person who takes it to follow this « way that leads to God », without veering to the right or to the left. • DOES HELL EXIST? • YES, HELL DOES EXIST AND I COULD FALL INTO IT. Those who stray from the road that leads to God, that is to say, from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, fall into Hell. The children saw this with their very eyes… and heard, on 13 July 1917: « Cries and groans of pain and despair that were horrifying to hear and made us tremble with fright. » And everyone must say to himself: I could fall into it. Is there a task more urgent than to make this « Call to reflect on eternal life » heard throughout the entire world, in order that souls do not fall into Hell? For this vision of Hell given to three children reminds our generation, forgetful of this eternal truth, that it is a bitter struggle, a battle between « two progenies that are at enmity with each other. Thus they are drawn up one opposite the other: the progeny of Satan and that of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Satan leads his own into the way of sin; Mary, as the Mother of the children of God, leads them in the way of truth, justice and love. Because God is Love, and all His children are characterised by love! And whereas the children of God ascend by the way of love to the possession of eternal happiness in the Kingdom of God, their Father, the sons of Satan, dragged down by their turpitudes, descend into the abyss of eternal punishment. « There is no shortage of unbelievers in the world who deny these truths, but it is certain that they do not cease to exist because of the fact that they deny them! Their incredulity will not deliver them from the pains of Hell if their lives of sin should lead them to it. » All of Holy Scripture teaches this, for two thousand years now, but « at Fatima God sent us His Message as further proof of these truths, bringing them to our minds so that we do not allow ourselves to be deceived by the false teaching of unbelievers who deny them, and of those who have left the true path, and who distort these truths. » This final comment targets modernists in particular, distinguished from the « unbelievers » because they pretend to profess these truths in order to remain in the Church, but they distort the meaning of the Scriptures. • ARE THERE SOULS IN HELL? • YES, MANY SOULS GO TO HELL BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO ONE TO MAKE SACRIFICES AND TO PRAY FOR THEM. Sister Lucy relates the « thirteenth call from the Message » to the apparition of 19 August at Valinhos. But this “Call to the apostolate” is already contained in the second part of the great “Secret” of 13 July, revealing that the only “apostolate” capable of snatching souls from Hell is the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is why this chapter is full of the sole concern for the conversion of sinners, without the slightest allusion to ecumenical or interfaith “dialogue”, or to Catholic Action. It is only a question of the « apostolate of prayer »: « The essential condition for all apostolate, and the only way to make it bear fruit, is our union with Christ, which we will obtain through prayer. By both vocal prayer, which places us in the presence of Christ, and the prayer of sacrifice whereby we immolate ourselves with Christ in His sacrifice, and also the prayer of love, which is the gift of ourselves to the Father, with Christ, for the conversion of our brothers. » For it is as a family that we will be saved: « The true apostolate consists in this union of the children with their Father in Heaven. » The supreme mark of this fraternal devotion is the forgiveness of injuries: « Let us reflect that God has made the granting of His pardon to us precisely dependent on the degree to which we ourselves have forgiven those who have offended us. » And devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? Sister Lucy, who never ceases to think about it, comes back to it surreptitiously at the end of this chapter, as though to link to it all that she has just said: « A few years ago, the Archbishop of Cizico said to me in conversation: “Do you know, Sister, the meaning of those litters which Our Lady told you to have made with the gifts that the people used to leave in the Cova da Iria? They prefigured the litters used for the Pilgrim Virgin as she goes around the world, and the one used for the statue in the Chapel of the Apparitions.” » This reflection had the gift of charming Sister Lucy. This is, she concludes, the new apostolate that Our Lady in person « came to bring to earth ». Travelling throughout the world, She Herself goes « to meet people in order to lead them to God », fulfilling in this manner the prophecy that came from Her lips when She sang Her Magnificat: « For behold, henceforth all generations will call Me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for Me, and holy is His Name. And His Mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation (Lk 1.48-50). » The “new evangelisation”, it is that or it is nothing. • WHY DOES THE BLESSED VIRGIN ASK US TO CONTINUE TO RECITE THE ROSARY? • THE BLESSED VIRGIN ASKS US TO CONTINUE TO RECITE THE ROSARY IN ORDER TO OBTAIN THE END OF THE WAR. The « fourteenth call from the Message » is of 13 September 1917: « Clearly, at the time, Sister Lucy wrote, the Message was referring to the World War then afflicting humanity. » Today, it is urgent to teach children to have recourse to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by reciting the Rosary. When she wrote her “Calls”, around 1970, Sister Lucy could not speak of the Third Secret, obstinately kept under a bushel basket by the Vatican authorities. We know, however, since its divulgation on 26 June 2000, that this third part of the Secret entrusted to the children during the third apparition on 13 July 1917 put the spectacle of war before their eyes: after the vision of Hell, and the will of God revealed by the Blessed Virgin relative to the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta saw « at the left of Our Lady and a little higher up an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; it flashed and gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire ». The rest of the vision leaves no doubt that these flames are the symbol of war, with its « great city half in ruins », its « corpses » on the road, its « group of soldiers » killing the Holy Father, then all Christians, « one after another », from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy. • WHAT DOES GOD WANT? • GOD WANTS US TO OFFEND HIM NO LONGER, FOR HE IS ALREADY TOO GREATLY OFFENDED. On 13 July, the Apparition had promised. « In October, I will say who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle that all will see in order to believe. » On 13 October, She kept Her word: « What does Your Grace want of me? » asked Lucy. – I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in My honour. I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Do not offend the Lord Our God any more for He is already too greatly offended! » Having reached this point, our catechism teachers should not fear to explain what Sister Lucy had to omit in her commentary on the « fifteenth call from the Message », heard on 13 October 1917: how the Blessed Virgin stated Her name of « Our Lady of the Rosary »; in other words, Our Lady of Victory not only against Islam, as at Lepanto on 7 October 1571, but Our Lady of Victory against all impiety (Our Lady of the Rosary… excluded! He is Risen no 15, November 2003, p. 9). For it is indeed She! While the crowd witnessed the miracle of the sun zigzagging down upon it, then re-ascending to the zenith, the seers saw in the sky manifestations of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of the Rosary, represented by three successive tableaux: the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, « Call to the sanctification of the family »: then a second tableau showing Our Lord, « the Perfect Man », and the Blessed Virgin, « Our Lady of Sorrows », (Call to perfection in the Christian life) ». Finally, a third tableau showed Our Lady of Mount Carmel, « Call to the Religious life », with its three vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, a call to holiness in all states of life in order to go to Heaven, « the only goal of all our works », as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus used to say. Sister Lucy does not say otherwise, since the original arrangement of her book ended on a twentieth and last « Call » that recapitulates all the others: « Call to follow the road to Heaven », in order to reach eternal life. • WHAT MUST WE DO IN ORDER TO STOP OFFENDING GOD? • IN ORDER TO STOP OFFENDING GOD, WE MUST IMITATE THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, JOSEPH. « In the Message of Fatima, the reason why God calls on us to turn our eyes to the Holy Family of Nazareth, into which He chose to be born, to grow and to sanctify Himself was in order to present to us a model to imitate, as our footsteps tread the path of our pilgrimage from earth to Heaven. » To illustrate this assertion, Sister Lucy recalls the fifth joyful mystery of the Rosary: « After having related how Jesus Christ, already an adolescent, went up to the Temple of Jerusalem where He lost His parents, who found Him there three days later, the Evangelist St. Luke, adds: “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them; and His Mother kept all these things in Her Heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in grace before God and man.” (Lk 2.51-52) » « Parents who do not instil a knowledge of God and of His commandments into their children from an early age, teaching them to keep them in mind and to observe them, are failing to fulfil the duties of the mission entrusted to them by God. It is a law that God has prescribed for His people: « “These words which I command you this day shall be written upon your heart! You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise.” (Dt 6.6-7) « Parents who disregard this law of the Lord make themselves responsible for the ignorance of their children and for any disorders that may result from it. Very often, this is the cause of the disordered lives of those children who torment the declining years of their parents’ lives, and are themselves lost. » • WHAT DOES THE APPARITION OF THE HOLY FAMILY AT FATIMA TEACH US? • THE APPARITION OF THE HOLY FAMILY AT FATIMA TEACHES US UNION AND FIDELITY OF SPOUSES. « Very often nowadays, the form in which God established the family is misunderstood and it is assailed by doctrines that are erroneous and contrary to the end for which the divine Creator instituted it. Did not God wish to remind us, by means of this apparition, of the purpose for which He established the family in the world? « God entrusted to the family the sacred mission of co-operating with Him in the work of creation. This decision to associate His poor creatures with His creative work is a great demonstration of the fatherly goodness of God. It is as if He were making them sharers in His creative power; He wills to make use of His children in order to bring forth new lives, which will flower on earth and are destined for Heaven. « Thus the divine Creator wished to entrust to the family a sacred mission, that makes two beings become one in a union so close that it does not admit of separation between them. It is from this union that God wills other beings to be born, as He generates flowers and fruit from plants. « God established Matrimony as an indissoluble union. Once they have received the Sacrament of Matrimony, the union between the two spouses is definitive and does not admit of division. It is indissoluble as long as the two spouses remain alive. It was thus that God ordained it to be. • WHAT DOES JESUS CHRIST TEACH US IN HIS PUBLIC LIFE? • IN HIS PUBLIC LIFE, JESUS CHRIST TEACHES US THE HUMILITY OF A GOD MADE MAN. Regarding the second apparition of 13 October in which « Our Lord appeared as the Perfect Man and Our Lady as Our Lady of Sorrows », Sister Lucy writes: « In my own humble opinion, this apparition is a call to the practice of the Christian life as Jesus and His Mother lived it here on earth and, by Their example and Their teaching, They teach us to follow in Their footsteps. » That is why this « seventeenth call from the Message » is a « call to the perfection of the Christian life », of which « the first step consists of a life of faith; to believe in the Son and in the Father who sent Him, to believe in His word and follow it. » Now, what does this « word » teach us? « “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and humble of Heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.” (Mt 11.28-30) » The remedy for the idolatry – for it is one! – of man who makes himself God is this humility of God made man, of a Son of God become Son of Mary. Sister Lucy recalls how, during the Last Supper, « the Lord Himself, contrary to all the customs and norms of the time, took a basin of water and washed the feet of His disciples, wiping them with a towel which He had fastened round His waist. » It is in this way that He, the Master and Lord, became servant and slave, prefiguring the redemption that He would bring to us by being raised up on the Cross, after a life of obedience and work. Now Jesus accomplished all this in order to do the will of His Father. It is, therefore, by being perfectly a Son that Jesus offers us the model of the « Perfect Man ». Thus, He remedies the pride of all, parents and children, overthrowing the « cult of man » and restoring the cult of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. • WHY MUST WE SUFFER? • WE MUST SUFFER OUT OF LOVE. Sister Lucy concludes the chapter dedicated to the « seventeenth call from the Message » by recalling that Our Lady appeared beside Our Lord as the Lady of Sorrows, in order to move us to compassion, « because She suffered in Her Heart the martyrdom of Christ, with Him and by His side. » Since Jesus gave Her to us for our Mother before dying on the Cross, « we are the children of the suffering and bitterness of the Heart of Jesus Christ, and of the Heart of His Mother and ours. » Thus, it is a need of our heart to unite our suffering to that of our Mother for the salvation of our brothers, of all our brothers, if such is possible: « Love is the magnet which draws souls, and it is for them that we offer to God our sacrifices, our acts of self-denial, our infirmities, our difficulties, our sorrows, and our physical and moral sufferings. For them, we offer our entire consecration to God, and it is for them that our prayer is lifted up to Him at the foot of His altar. Thinking of them, we wish to be able, like Christ and with Christ, to say to the Father: “I have kept in Your Name those You have given Me […] and not one has been lost, except the son of perdition.” (Jn 17.12) This was because Judas withstood Your grace, was unfaithful to Your call and despised Your Fatherly Love. If it is still possible, Father, save him! » • WHY DO BROTHERS AND SISTERS HAVE RELIGIOUS HABITS? • BROTHERS AND SISTERS HAVE RELIGIOUS HABITS BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPLETELY CONSECRATED TO GOD. The « eighteenth call » is unequivocal: « In my view, the apparition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel signified total consecration to God. By showing Herself clothed in a religious habit, She wished to represent all the other religious habits by which those who are totally consecrated to God can be distinguished from ordinary secular Christians. » A brother, a sister in a religious habit at school, in the street, in prisons or hospitals, is a light that attracts attention and brings hearts to the praise of the Glory of God, according to this word of Our Lord quoted by Sister Lucy: « “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 5.14-16) » The « good works » of religious are the fruit of the three vows of obedience, chastity and poverty practiced by the brothers and sisters. • WHAT IS THE VOW OF OBEDIENCE? • THE VOW OF OBEDIENCE IS THE PROMISE TO DO ALWAYS THE WILL OF GOD AND NOT OUR OWN. « Jesus Christ gave us the most excellent example of this obedience when He said: “He who sent Me is with Me, and has not left Me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.” (Jn 8.29) Every consecrated person has also both accepted and promised, in imitation of the Saviour, to do always what is pleasing to our Father in Heaven, that is, to do the will of God as manifested to us by those who represent Him to us. » • WHAT IS THE VOW OF CHASTITY? • THE VOW OF CHASTITY IS THE PROMISE TO RENOUNCE THE RIGHT TO MARRY IN ORDER TO FOLLOW CHRIST. « The fact that the Lord requires virginity and celibacy does not mean that marriage is a bad thing in itself. On the contrary, it is an institution created by God, which Jesus Christ raised to the level of a Sacrament. Likewise, it cannot be inferred from these requirements that it is less pleasing to God to have a wife or husband and children, since these are the fruit of the Sacrament and a blessing from God. It only means that, for those who are chosen and called to a life of total consecration to the service of God, the Lord has other requirements and other gifts, because He reserves for them a different destiny. » The principal object of the vow of chastity is to « free us of earthly cares so that we may be able to consecrate ourselves more perfectly to the service of the Lord, and to love Him, and Him alone, in a more pure manner, with the purity of our hearts, our affections and our bodies, so that we may live more fully in intimate union with Christ. » • WHAT IS THE VOW OF POVERTY? • THE VOW OF POVERTY IS THE PROMISE NOT TO POSSESS PERSONAL PROPERTY. « Those who wish to follow Jesus Christ more closely must be aware that He does not want people attached to worldly goods, because these goods blind them and prevent them from consecrating themselves to a life of the apostolate, and of total and exclusive dedication of themselves to God. » • WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE VOWS OF OBEDIENCE, CHASTITY AND POVERTY? • THE PURPOSE OF THE VOWS OF OBEDIENCE, CHASTITY AND POVERTY IS TO MAKE US HOLY. Finally, the apparition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is « a call to holiness » that is addressed to all men. Not that they all must become monks or nuns, no! All, however, must become saints, and men and women religious show them the way, by means of the grace of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: « Our Lady sanctified Herself as a pure and Immaculate Virgin by corresponding to the graces that God granted to Her in that state. She sanctified Herself as a faithful and devoted wife by fulfilling all the duties of Her state in life. She sanctified Herself as a loving mother in caring for the Son that God entrusted to Her, rocking Him in Her arms, raising Him and educating Him, then by helping Him and following Him in the accomplishment of His mission. » « With Him She travelled the narrow way of life, the steep road to Calvary. » Since she contemplated this « steep mountain » in the vision of the Third Secret, Sister Lucy knows that we – « bishops, priests, men and women religious, and various lay people, men and women of different ranks and positions » – climb it, everyone at his own pace, some rapidly, others slowly, each according to his heart, but also according to the extent of the gift made to him within the mysterious divine predestination. All begins with the submission of servants to the commandments of the divine Law, and all culminates in the ultimate filial adherence to the will and inspirations of God, Whom alone the perfect soul desires to please, especially in the religious state. It is therefore well established that the goal of life, « for all men », is not the “construction of the world”, but holiness. • WHY DID GOD CREATE US? • GOD CREATED US IN ORDER TO LEAD US TO HEAVEN TO BE WITH HIM. The twenty-first and last « call from the Message », which recapitulates all the others, is « a call to follow the road to Heaven, to walk in such a way as to succeed in attaining eternal life. « In the times in which we live, there is no shortage of people who dare to deny the existence of Heaven. It might be that they do not have the Faith, or that they do not want to submit to following the narrow path that leads to Heaven. But they are mistaken. » Sister Lucy proves the existence of Heaven by means of passages taken from not only the New Testament but even from the Old Testament. However, Jesus is the first to have spoken of it as an unimpeachable witness because He came from Heaven and He returned there, promising those who would suffer something for Him to bring them there: « The Lord declares that we shall be blessed if we are persecuted for His sake, because the prophets before us were already persecuted thus. But why is it that those whom God has chosen for a special mission and with whom He is in more direct contact, are persecuted and oppressed? It is the continuation of the mystery of the Cross that carries us along the road to Heaven. » In our times of apostasy, dominated by Modernism that distorts the interpretation of Scripture, the testimony of the Gospels no longer suffices. This is why Our Lady descended « from Heaven » where She lives in order to teach to all men, « pilgrims of Fatima », through the voice of Her messenger, a prayer to recite at the end of each decade of the Rosary, asking God to bring all souls to Heaven. For « The great preoccupation of God and of Our Lady is that souls should be saved and go to Heaven; and since Heaven is the dwelling place prepared by God for eternal life, unless we follow the road that leads to it, we shall never get there. » • WHAT IS THE ROAD THAT LEADS TO HEAVEN? • THE ROAD THAT LEADS TO HEAVEN IS THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY. In this Immaculate Heart « we hear the echo of the word of the Father, because God enclosed His eternal Word in the Heart of Mary ». Thus it is from there that Jesus says « I am the Way, the Truth and the Life », because « God wants our devotion to take root deep in this Heart. For if He poured so much love into it, it was for us, in order that Mary may have the Heart of a Mother for the entire universe and that She may consecrate and transform all Her progeny into the Body and Blood of Christ, Her First-born, the Son of God, the Word of the Father. » • WHAT MUST WE DO TO FULFIL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LAW OF GOD? • TO FULFIL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LAW OF GOD, IT IS NECESSARY TO KNOW HIM. Sister Lucy recalls how we know God ever since He « manifested Himself to His people on Mount Sinai in order that they recognise Him as the one true God ». Then she adds: « We were there, represented by the Israelites. God manifested Himself to us also and addressed us His word. » We must therefore, in our turn, look at and listen to this revelation of God such as it was received by the Israelites: there is no other. « Practicing Jews, our Father wrote, still today, hold the Law of Yahweh to be the primary Constitution for their people in Israel. They demand of their legislators and governors that this Decalogue be their fundamental Law, which they must keep to the letter in order to maintain its spirit and to impose and protect its practice. And what about us, the Church, the new Israel? It was the same in what is called the Ancien Régime. » Before the French Revolution, the “Constitution”, the fundamental Law of our society, in fact, served to establish and restore continually the Catholic city « on its natural and divine foundations against the unremitting attacks of a pernicious utopia, of revolt, and of impiety: omnia instaurare in Christo », as Saint Pius X used to say, « To restore all things in Christ ». Benedict XVI seems to have, as it were, adopted the same motto, in wording taken from St. Benedict, whose recommendation « never to set anything above Christ » he constantly repeats. After twenty-five years of a pontificate centred on “man”, it is a novelty for all the young generation to re-establish Christ at the centre of the Christian Faith and thus in the life of Christians. The commentary of Sister Lucy on the commandments of the Law of God complies with the same logic of counter-revolution and counter-reformation. It is first of all opposed to Masonic revolutions that impose on our Christian people, particularly in Portugal in 1910, as a fundamental law their hypocritical and atheist Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The catechism of Sister Lucy is, above all, the antidote to the evil that has held sway within the Church herself ever since three Popes and one Council made a theory out of this monstrous practical apostasy, which the Abbé de Nantes has relentlessly denounced: « the right recognised to the adversary to emancipate himself – himself and his nation, the whole world that he had subjected to himself – from God thrice holy, from Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. Eventually the Church genuflected to, adored, and served none but Man, her idol, behind whom Satan can be glimpsed. » The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is the attractive and uneven exposition of this religion of the rights of man, and the first of these is the right to religious liberty. This is why, after having detected ten sources of error in the CCC, l’Abbé de Nantes accused its authors of an « eleventh heresy » which consists in « silencing the general and public character of the Law of God, and locking it up within the privacy of the individual conscience » by proclaiming « State secularism, the freedom of man in contempt of the divine law ». « Sign of the final apostasy, and of the chastisement of God », secularism is more than an error; it is an « all too certain insult to God », an « evident rebellion against His law ». For « It is to the Israel of God that this Law is given, to its leaders so that they might submit to it and oblige their people to do the same! And to each one of its members so that they might work out their salvation. For want of this: « malediction will fall on those people who preach the secularisation of temporal powers… and ultimately their own! » L’Abbé de Nantes hastens to add: « I know! It is in the human heart that the Law of God is now engraved, a happy progress announced by Jeremiah. That is not to say, however, that the hearts of Princes and of Popes, that the constitutions of States and ecclesiastical law, that fathers and mothers of families, may offload their duty on to the consciences of poor people and children! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Mt 23) » • WHAT IS THE PLAN OF GOD? • THE PLAN OF GOD IS TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO MAN HERE BELOW AND TO CONCLUDE A COVENANT WITH HIM. Religion does not consist in seeking my own happiness in the other world for myself alone. It consists in a Covenant that God concluded a first time with Adam, that was broken through original sin, and was renewed with Abraham, and then with Moses to whom God told His Name: « I AM ». This implies that the other “gods” of the other so-called “religions” are not. Not even those of the « twelve great religions », the representatives of which were invited by Pope John Paul II to Assisi on the 27 October 1986 to pray with him for peace: Christians of all denominations, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Shintoists, Jainists, Bahais, Jews, Zoroastrians, African animists, and American Indians. Total: twelve! This is a sacrilegious parody of the twelve tribes of Israel. We must admit that the American Indian representative, John Pretty-On-Top cut a fine figure with his black and white feather headdress. At Assisi, he officiated in front of the baroque altar of the small San Gregorio church. Pointing his pipe towards the earth « our mother », then towards the sky « where the Great Spirit reigns », and towards the four winds « his brothers », he invited the participants to brotherhood, before lighting his pipe. This is a ridiculous and sacrilegious parody of our cult of the Holy Trinity. Since this 27 October 1986, it can be said that the Catholic Church has fallen prey to what Sister Lucy used to call a « diabolical disorientation », to which Benedict XVI put an end when he took possession of his cathedra, of his of his throne as Bishop of Rome, at St. John Lateran: « From high up on this Chair, he declared, the Bishop of Rome is constantly bound to repeat: “Dominus Iesus”, “Jesus is Lord”, as Paul wrote in his Letters to the Romans and to the Corinthians. To the Corinthians he said with a particular solemnity: “Even if there are so-called gods in the heavens and on the earth, – as indeed there are many gods and many lords, – for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, (Dominus Iesus) through whom everything was made and through whom we live” (I Co 8.5). Benedict XVI thus reinforced the teachings of the declaration “Dominus Jesus”, which was published on 5 September 2000 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of which he was the Prefect, and which raised a general outcry. Even in our parishes, we were the sad witnesses of this wind of revolt such that, since then, this declaration has remained a dead letter: « The Lord Jesus, we read in it, before ascending into Heaven, commanded His disciples to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world and to baptise all nations: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16.15-16) » This text that is signed Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, expressed a veritable anguish: « The constant missionary proclamation of the Church is endangered today by relativistic theories that seek to justify religious pluralism », he deplored. Today, Cardinal Ratzinger no longer speaks only as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but as Pope: « The Chair of Peter obliges all who hold it to say, as Peter said during a moment of crisis among the disciples when so many wanted to leave Him: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe; we are convinced that You are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6.68). » In “Dominus Jesus”, Cardinal Ratzinger also quoted, after the end of the Gospel of St. Mark, the end of that of St. Matthew, according to which Jesus said to His disciples: « All power in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Mt 28.18-20) ». Jesus added: « And behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. » That is to say: « I am near you, I bend over you, I speak to you and I show you all that I have already done in the past for Israel, for the Church. » So many blessings related in the Bible from the Book of Genesis to the Book of the Apocalypse make God lovable to us and turn us away from all other “religion”, obviously! It is by virtue of these incomparable blessings that God asks every man to enter into this Covenant and to be faithful to Him. « The story of Abraham must become the story of us all », as Cardinal Ratzinger wrote not long ago (The Unique Covenant of God and the Pluralism of Religions, editions Parole et Silence, 1999, p. 20). It becomes our story through the Cross, the figure of which is the sacrifice of Isaac (ibid., p. 33). Whence comes the obligation for all men to respond to so many blessings with gratitude, with worship, a moral disposition that seals between God and His creature a covenant more and more intimate; with promises attached: « If you do this, you will be happy on earth and blessed… If not, you will be unhappy, punished by Me. » This is the starting point of morality: throughout Sacred History, God constantly reminded His people that He had chosen them from among others, that He had formed them so that they would render Him a cult and obey his commandments. What about “the other religions”? « They can become the star that sets men on the road and leads them to seek the Kingdom of God », Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, interpreting the Gospel account of the visit of the Magi to the manger. « This “star of religions” indicates the direction of Jerusalem. It goes out, and is relit in the word of God, that is, in the Sacred Scripture of Israel. The true star is this word of God that it keeps: if we lose sight of it or if we move away from it, we cannot reach the goal. » (ibid., p. 20) • TO WHOM DOES THE COVENANT OF GOD EXTEND? • THE COVENANT OF GOD EXTENDS TO ALL MEN. When the Exile had dispersed the people of Israel, in punishment for their infidelity, the best of them understood that God was not only the God of one people and of one country, bound to Jerusalem, but that He was also the God of Babylon and of the universe. Furthermore, that He intended His covenant for the entire world, that this covenant was already contained in the relationship of creation through which all men, all peoples, received existence from the same God, who had thus loved them first, by giving them existence, and by asking them in return for thanksgiving, fear of the Lord, obedience to His will expressed in the commandments, and for religious acts intended to render Him a cult: the cult of God. The coat of arms of Benedict XVI is marked with the emblem of this universality by the head of a Moor, the figure of the Magi, who came from the East to adore Jesus. A source of blessing for man, creature of God who is the source of life, this cult, this obedience are not optional. Man is free to obey or to disobey, of course, but he suffers the consequences. If he obeys, it is life; if he disobeys and rebels, it is death, since God, our creator and redeemer, is the source of our life. Morality consists therefore in fulfilling all the clauses of a contract with God, first of all through Faith: « Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. » The first virtues of a “total” morality that are required by our native covenant with God, are the “theological” virtues of faith, hope and charity. This is why an Angel descended from Heaven to teach us this prayer, at the beginning of the twentieth century, in anticipation of the apostasy that was to come: « My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, who do not adore, who do not hope, who do not love Thee! » FAITH, THE CONTRACT OF THE COVENANT • WHAT IS FAITH? • FAITH IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE RELATIONSHIP THAT WE HAVE WITH GOD BY REASON OF THE UNEQUAL CONTRACT THAT ATTACHES US TO HIM St. Thomas says that « Faith is like an espousal », according to these words of God addressed to Israel through the mouth of the Prophet Hosea « Sponsabo te mihi in fide ». When we look towards God in virtue of this covenant, of this « marriage » through which He gives us His grace and His divine life in exchange for our obedience, when we cast a look of faith on the heart of God, our soul is like the bride who shares the being of her spouse, who enters into the knowledge of the spiritual being of her spouse, heart to heart with him. The act of faith that converts us and turns us towards God, is already full of love; « the dogma of the Faith » is not only a list of truths that must be believed under pain of being excluded from the Church. Of course, it is that as well: it is important to be orthodox and not heretical, but it is because heresies and schisms are the equivalent of the “discords” and “divisions” that tear apart a household, a married couple, a family. Faith is a union with God of the soul that enters into His plan, into His thought. This thought includes me in a whole, a universe, which has a history, and God gives me a role to play in it. It is as if, at my birth, I get on a train in motion. When I say: « My God, I believe, I adore, I hope… », the object of my hope is not only Heaven later on, but it is, right now, the certainty that at this very moment God is pushing me and all of us onwards, from one instant to the next, from moment to moment, as St. Thérèse used to say, from yesterday to today, from today to tomorrow. History, our Christian history, sacred history is not an absurd succession of incoherent events, because there is Someone who assures the continuity: divine Providence leads us where it wants to take us. What a prodigious hope! Jewish and Christian revelation, Jewish then Christian – and not “Judeo-Christian”, as they say, forgetting the fundamentally historical character of this religion, with its two stages – Jewish then Christian revelation, is the only religion that is history, and not only a series of precepts. God has a project, he pursues a plan by making a covenant with man, in such a way that history becomes religion, “sacred” history, and religion becomes history. The result is that the first moral precept is the act of Faith whereby our intelligence understands the blessings of God, fruits of His intervention in history, and grasps God Himself, the author of these blessings. St. Thomas explains that faith is not only an isolated specific act, but it is a “virtue”: a habit, a customary way of seeing the world, and ourselves in the world; our situation, our place, appears to us in the light of the divine covenant; in our daily life, everything reminds us of this covenant, new and eternal, by virtue of which we are created by God, baptised at birth, introduced into the Church, and carried on towards eternal life where we will be with God. Every moment of our existence is transfigured by Faith: through it we see the mystery of the blessing of God as it develops. Faith becomes a “virtus”: a force of our spirit, going beyond appearances. Thus, the small child with his catechism is wiser and more learned than the greatest scholars who do not have the Faith! For he sees the realities of life as God sees them, in that synthesis that is the “Creed”. Let us note that this is more the history of the divine Covenant with creation than a speculation on God, His manner of being, His Essence. It is to this Creed that we adhere through Faith. Thus, there is a relationship from God to us, and Faith is the first way of responding to it through a return from us to God: « I believe in God, the Father Almighty, – and merciful – creator of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. » From this “knowledge” of sacred history follows a first commandment: « One God you shall adore… » THE FIRST TABLE OF THE LAW • WHAT IS THE FIRST COMMANDMENT • THE FIRST COMMANDMENT IS TO « ADORE ONLY THE ONE TRUE GOD », CONTRARY TO ALL « INTERFAITH ». « This commandment is a precept dictated by love », taught Sister Lucy, for God does not need our adoration. He does, however, love us. Thus the object of our adoration is to give Him love for love: « By observing this commandment, we are making our way to God »: in Him we find mercy, forgiveness and grace. » Sister Lucy wrote this before the disclosure of the Third Secret in order for her “pilgrim” reader to gather its fruit, despite the refusal of the hierarchy to publish it, and to know that there is salvation only for « the souls who are making their way to God », contrary to all atheism. In fulfilling this first commandment, we assert our fidelity to Christ, our love of Jesus Christ as our only Master and sole Saviour. We do not want to know any other. Since He has ascended into Heaven, it is still from Him that we are going to ask for our salvation, through those whom He left after Him: St. Peter, the head of the Apostles, and the successors of the latter with whom He left His instructions: « You will teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. » The Church is accused of being dogmatic, inquisitorial, juridical, shut up in its past, and our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is assailed from all quarters, accused of being “conservative”. He serenely replied at St. John Lateran: « The Bishop of Rome is seated on his throne in order to give witness to Christ. Thus, the throne is the symbol of the potestas docendi, this power of teaching that is the essential part of the mandate to bind and to loose conferred by the Lord on Peter, and after him, on the Twelve. » The Abbé de Nantes likes to make a comparison that appeals greatly to us brothers and sisters: when a father of a family or when a superior of a religious house leaves after having given his orders, these are truly “commandments”. Perceived as such, as decisions put down on paper, they appear to be a dead letter, but it is living fidelity to the absent superior that commands our conduct; it is love for the father of the family who will return and judge us on our obedience to his orders. Thus, let us not accuse the Church of being too attached to her dogma, her morals, her discipline. Her dogma, her morals, her discipline, they are Jesus Christ living among us! Above all, let us refrain from setting up a “Holy Spirit” who would dictate to us another language and give us other orders and permissions! This is what Pope Benedict XVI has stated firmly: « This power of teaching frightens many men inside and outside the Church. They wonder whether it does not threaten liberty of conscience, if it is not a presumption contrary to freedom of thought. This is not so. The power Christ conferred on Peter and on his successors is, in the absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The power of teaching, in the Church, includes a commitment to the service of obedience to the Faith. The Pope is not an absolute sovereign, whose thought and will are laws. On the contrary: the ministry of the Pope is the guarantee of obedience to Christ and to His Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but constantly commit himself and the Church to obedience to the Word of God, in the face of all attempts at adaptation, dilution, and all opportunism. « This is what Pope John Paul II did when, in the face of all attempts, apparently benevolent for man, based on erroneous interpretations of liberty, he emphasised unequivocally the inviolability of the human being, the inviolability of human life, from conception to natural death. Freedom to kill is not a true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces human beings to slavery. The Pope, in his major decisions, is aware of being bound to the great community of the Faith of all time, to binding interpretations that have grown during the course of the pilgrimage of the Church. Thus, his power is not above, but in the service of the Word of God, and it is incumbent upon him to make this Word continue to remain present in its greatness and to resound in its purity, as well as to prevent it from being torn to pieces by continual changes in fashion. » We are thus clearly warned against all heresies that claim to take their inspiration from a spirit other than the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Eager to hear all that will be said to us by our Holy Father the Pope on behalf of Jesus Christ, we will not go to seek in our prayer and in our communion some insights, some inspiration or other, some warm feelings, still less some glossolalia! that might be given to us in this contact with Christ. We will, however, know how to repeat that He is our all on earth and that He remains so, even ascended to Heaven, at the right hand of His Father. It is He who is our Master, our Head, our Saviour, the object of our worship. • WHAT IS THE SECOND COMMANDMENT? • THE SECOND COMMANDMENT IS LIKE THE FIRST: « “YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF YAHWEH YOUR GOD IN VAIN, FOR YAHWEH WILL NOT HOLD HIM GUILTLESS WHO TAKES HIS NAME IN VAIN.” (Dt 5.11) » Sister Lucy specifies: « This commandment obliges us to live in truth towards God, towards our neighbour and towards ourselves. God detests lying, for God is Truth. » To the Samaritan woman who claimed to adore God on Mount Garizim where the Samaritans had built a temple, which was the rival of that of Jerusalem, Jesus replied: « Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. »
For, « true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him » (Jn 4.21 and 24). The truth is Jesus Christ. This is why our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI cannot refrain from repeating the adage of St. Benedict: « Put nothing above Christ. » « If, as Jesus said, Sister Lucy writes, we cannot go to the Father except through Him and He is the truth, this demonstrates that we cannot go to God except on the path of the truth. » Then, as horrified witnesses to all the “interfaith” meetings that imitate the idolatries of Samaria, from that of Assisi to that of Lisbon, last October, we understand the « sadness of God » of which Francisco was the witness, so overwhelmed that he wept during the night, his head buried in his pillow, in order that we might be prophetically warned. We who are the witnesses of the sadness, so poignant of the Abbé de Nantes, our Father, we understand that it is not enough to engage in controversy, to fight, but we must share this sadness of God, since our Father is reduced to this sole office. For the proclamation of religious liberty as a right of the human person is not only an error, a « delirium », as Gregory XVI and Pius IX used to say, from the sole human viewpoint of life in society, but it is an insult to God, contrary to the virtue of faith, which is an adherence to God, at the initiative of God who loved us first by creating us and then by redeeming us. The proclamation of religious liberty by an Ecumenical Council, thus by the totality of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, is the unilateral breaking by men of the Church of an unequal covenant in which God commands, as Master of natural and supernatural wisdom, while man is but His subject, His student, His disciple. Already, in the Ancient Covenant, the sin of the rebellion of Israel was to deal on a basis of equality with God, to the point of thinking that God needed the worship given by the children of Israel in the Temple that they had constructed for Him. Well! the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 made them understand that He did not need them, but that it was they who had need of Him! In the New Testament, St. Paul had foreseen that men would make for themselves a religion according to their passions, « for the pleasure of their ears ». A hundred years ago, St. Pius X said: The first step towards the fulfilment of this prophecy of the Apostle was taken by Protestantism. The second, by Modernism. In turn he himself prophesied: The third will be by atheism. This is what we see today. Atheism is nothing other than the cult of man or, in the words of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, « the Gospel becomes the Jesus project, the social liberation project, or whatever other projects that are only historical and immanent, which may still seem religious but which are, in fact, atheist in essence » (Conversations on the Faith, 1985). What is rational, and supernatural, is the cult given to God by man. If, however, man sets God aside in order to make his own religion, invent for himself his own dogmas, and from there his own morality – as Luther did –, he breaks the “unequal contract” with God, he tears himself off from the Church, the place of the New and Eternal Covenant. He places himself outside of God, against God. Through his disobedience, he incurs His malediction, like Adam and Eve in the earthly Paradise. After Protestantism came Modernism, according to which religions, that is the relationships with the Divinity, are feelings that arise in the individual or collective human unconscious. It is the contradiction of the divine Covenant, since it is man who has the initiative, who makes himself the lord of his own universe, the creator of his own being, of his own morality, of his own cult. We have lost, according to the analysis of Benedict XVI, « the notion of “obedience” which, according to some, is no longer even a Christian virtue, but the heritage of an authoritarian and dogmatic past, which must be transcended. » This is where we are now! We have lost the Faith that is precisely the knowledge of the Covenant that God concluded with the Hebrew people first, then with the Catholic, apostolic and Roman Church. Now, the first commandment of God is to have faith in that Creed that comes to us from God through the Church. Without the Faith, no one can be saved. Therefore, the first virtue of our morality is obedience, but the obedience of the Faith. As we explained above, this Creed is not a dogmatic collection, still less an ideology, but a prayer, a knowledge and a life. This is also what Cardinal Ratzinger recalled in a conference given on 15 January 1983 at Our Lady of Fourvière. He based himself on « a word of Jesus related by St. John, he said: “This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Jn 17.3) » Then he explained: « To believe is to find and carry out life. It is not a question of just any power, that it would be permissible either to acquire or to leave aside, but precisely the power to learn to live, and to live a life that can remain forever. » Otherwise, it is death. How does this “life” manifest itself? It manifests itself in two ways, as the whole work of our Father, the Abbé de Nantes teaches us: 1o through the praise of God, through thanksgiving, which in Greek is called “Eucharist”. The entire life of our Father revolves around the Mass, as his Mémoires et Récits show. The same is true for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, since his earliest days: « It was a fascinating adventure to penetrate slowly into the mysterious world of the liturgy, which unfolded there, before us and for us, on the altar. » It sufficed to see him celebrate his mass of pontifical enthronement to see that it is still so: « The inexhaustible reality of Catholic liturgy has accompanied me in all the stages of my life. » (My Life, Fayard, p. 23) 2o through the combat of the intelligence against the unbelievers and the infidels that has filled the entire life of the Abbé de Nantes, a life of mystic union with the thrice holy God, the source and resource of this daily combat. Faith is a difficult knowledge. It is a gift of God, which must continually be strengthened and developed, exercised, maintained, in order to preserve it, to keep the Faith. A certain number of requirements, of “obligations” follow from this: • WHAT IS THE THIRD COMMANDMENT? • THE THIRD COMMANDMENT IS TO « KEEP HOLY THE LORD’S DAY ». To refrain from working on Sundays and holy days, and to attend Mass on those days. The Church insists, under pain of mortal sin, knowing that, without this precept, our Faith would be in great danger of perishing. Those who go to vigil Mass on Saturday evening in order to “devote” Sunday to their leisure do not respect the third commandment. The bishops, however, bear the responsibility for having themselves raised this sin into an institution. Hence the « sadness of God »… Instead of “adapting” ourselves to the secularisation of our society, which totally disregards the commandments of God and the Church, our duty is to profess our Faith publicly by publicly worshiping God, as Marshal Pétain, the head of State, did. Let us recall that Our Lord said: « Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in Heaven; but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in Heaven. » (Mt 10.32-33) It is not too much to listen every Sunday to the preaching of the Church in order to nourish our Faith. Moreover, it is a moral obligation to profess it by daily prayer, to have it always before one’s eyes, thanks to Catholic images, statues and signs. To strengthen it through the catechism taught to children. In short, to end up assimilating our intelligence to that of the Church. Furthermore! Even if “secular” society totally disregards my Faith, it nevertheless remains a rule for those of whom I am the head – children, workers, fellow citizens – contrary to all alleged “freedom of conscience”, or “religious liberty”. For my Faith is not my personal opinion, as the Catholic “liberal” professes it, Christian for himself but not for the others. Here again, Cardinal Ratzinger formerly deplored what he is now in a position to repress with authority: « In the formulas of faith spontaneously coined that I know, the expression “I believe” never means anything other than “we think” », it is our opinion, and thus « opinion comes to substitute itself for the Faith » (Conference given at the meeting of Rimini in August 1990). Object of the divine Covenant, a head of a family, a head of an enterprise, a head of State is the representative of God and of His Covenant to those of whom he has charge. Everywhere he exercises his authority, he has the duty of manifesting his Faith, not as being his personal opinion, but as the truth of God, and of imposing behaviour in conformity with that desired by God, in order that our Faith may reign over our whole Christian life and over our family life. Mgr Freppel used to say that « the head of an enterprise has responsibility for souls, in the true meaning of the word ». Everyone is not free to think or do as he likes! This is why our Faith must be supported by the Church, the true plenipotentiary of God, the true sovereign of this Covenant. May she have the freedom to create Christian schools, hospitals and institutions, in order that the Name of God may reign everywhere! This means that in our apostate society from which the Church has withdrawn herself, it belongs to us to represent in ourselves alone the absolute of divine law. This is an overwhelming responsibility for us little people! It is, however, a great honour for the Phalangist who knows that in the governing of human things, this divine Covenant is the only rule that imposes itself on nations and the entire universe. All international organisations alien to the Church experience every day their powerlessness, or rather: their omnipotence for worsening the chaos instead of bringing it the slightest remedy. It is therefore a necessity for the Church to arm princes and nations for the respect of Christendom. This is called the Crusade. It is therefore a necessity for the Church to make the Faith respected by those who have sworn to it within our Christian societies. This is called the Inquisition, an internal police, a divine police through which the Church discerns those who fail to keep the Faith in order to bring them back to the Truth, first, by persuasion, then if necessary, by the force of the temporal power, because it is a right of God and the salvation of temporal society itself is at stake. The Crusade and the Inquisition are major institutions of Christian society, because the Catholic Faith requires that each person propagate it in order that Christ may reign as Lord of lords and King of kings. TRUE AND FALSE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY Before continuing, we must therefore overcome the obstacle of the so-called “rights of man”, and especially that of “religious liberty”. Otherwise, our entire religion and the morality that follows from it are subverted. At number 1730 of the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) we read: « God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions... » There follows a quotation from Holy Scripture, according to which « God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel (Si 15.14) », which itself is followed by a quotation from the Second Vatican Council: « … so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him (GS 17). » Look for the error… It is triple. The first consists in considering this conciliar text to be infallible. In this respect, Benedict XVI would not make objection to what Cardinal Ratzinger has many times pointed out: « The truth is that the Council itself defined no dogma and was especially anxious to situate itself on a more modest level, simply as a pastoral council. Despite this, numerous are those who interpret it as though it were a question of a “super dogma” that alone is of importance. » It was in 1988, before the Chilean Conference of Bishops, on 13 July, a portent of the grace of Our Lady of Fatima, Mistress of truth, which marked this prelate. For our Father had already, for more than fifteen years, made use of the perplexities of this theologian to challenge « this solemn Magisterium that does not want to act, that is to say to produce, to promulgate Acts in a solemn form, this infallible Magisterium that does not want to pronounce anything infallibly, this Magisterium of communion that does not want to excommunicate anyone… » and that « then lets it be said that it is so solemn, so universal, so infallible that it sovereignly pronounces on everything in all its Constitutions, Declarations and Decrees, as though illuminated by a “high-tension” Spirit, and it places its seal upon its injustice by “disqualifying” – laying open to a world-wide defamation – those who do not toe the line, and who have serious reasons not to consider as obligatory Acts that neither external nor internal criteria demonstrate to be such, far from it and quite the reverse! » (Vatican II… disqualified!) (CCR no 23, January 1972) Perhaps he will at last be heard… For, by recalling that the original ambition of the Council was « more modest », the Holy Father precisely attacks what the Abbé de Nantes called, in his first Letter to Paul VI, « the pride of the reformers » (CRC no 1, October 1967). The second error of the CCC is to mistake the original state of Adam with the one that followed original sin: « God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions... » Such was the original state of Adam. Nevertheless, God did not merely create him in this condition, he then raised him to the state of grace and justice. Our old catechism used to say: « God created Adam and Eve holy and happy. » It immediately added that they fell from this state of holiness: « On what condition could Adam and Eve have remained holy and happy? – Adam and Eve could have remained holy and happy on the condition that they obeyed God. » « Did Adam and Eve remain obedient to God? – No, Adam and Eve did not remain obedient to God, but, deceived by the Devil, they disobeyed. » What was the outcome? Exactly what the Book of Ecclesiasticus says: Adam left to his own counsel, misinterpreted by the Second Vatican Council! This is the third error, all the more serious because years of research, from one session to the other, ended with this sole quotation from Scripture in support of “religious liberty”… which it contradicts. A literal translation from Hebrew gives: « Elohîm, from the beginning, created Adam and placed him in the hand of the one who stripped him, and abandoned him into the hand of his own design. » This verse summarises in three clauses the entire history of the origins revealed in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. 1o In the beginning, God created Adam. 2o « The hand of the one who stripped him » is a clear allusion to the intrusion of Satan « stripping » man of his state of innocence and original grace. The word is well chosen to evoke man who finds himself naked… He already was before, but now he is ashamed of it. This proves that he has lost his state of innocence and original grace. 3o Then God abandons him « into the hand of his own (perverse) design ». For it is the fault of man himself. He chose disobedience… Well! so be it, he is free! but he will have the consequences. What does the catechism teach: « What did Adam and Eve lose through disobedience to God? » – By disobeying God, Adam and Eve lost the life that was to lead them to Heaven: they were condemned to suffering and to death, and thereafter they felt attracted by sin. » This is what « Adam left to his own counsel » means. The catechism then teaches the consequences that infested mankind: « Was the sin of Adam handed down to all his descendants? » – Yes, the sin of Adam was handed down to all his descendants, who are all born deprived of grace and submitted to the same miseries as he was. » « Left to his own counsel », carried away by « his own desires », as St. James says, man falls into sin and incurs death. This is a fact that is experienced daily, since the proclamation of the “rights of man”, and especially of the “first of them”, the right to religious liberty. This is why unlimited individual liberty, set as the first requirement of the dignity of the person, is crazy, is impious, is catastrophic, and is, above all else, idolatrous. Religious liberty considered as a social right of the person is the principle and foundation of universal damnation in this world and in the next. THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW Anathema sit! Our Father has challenged the Pope ever since the proclamation of this monstrous heresy, to make it the object of an infallible dogmatic definition. The only acceptable “religious liberty” is the freedom to practice the will of God set out on the “second table of the Law”: « Honour your father and your mother. » Sister Lucy practiced this fourth commandment in a heroic manner, despite the bad treatment she suffered from her mother during the apparitions of 1917. She extends this precept to submission to social and political authorities, to all forms of “patronage” in a society that was still patriarchal and counter-revolutionary: the Portuguese society governed by President Salazar, a great friend of Pétain and Franco. Because the will of God is that we not be left free! The marvel of education, of paternal and maternal love, as well as of divine grace and the tact of the Church is that the child desires to leave his freedom of choice to the authority, the wisdom, the prudence, the piety, the strength of these tutelary beings, in the filial and even servile fear of displeasing them. « You shall not kill. » This commandment is universally scorned today, and not only by “terrorists”. What Sister Lucy said about adultery, the object of the sixth commandment, may be said about murder in all its forms, including euthanasia and abortion, and all unjustly fomented wars: « We live in times in which society seems to make this sin into a law. » The same is true of theft, the object of the seventh commandment: « You shall not steal », and of false witness, the object of the eighth commandment: « You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour » As for the ninth commandment: « You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife » Sister Lucy writes: « Throughout the world there is so much disregard of this commandment that I begin to wonder whether it is even worthwhile talking about it? » Armed with her mission received from Heaven, Sister Lucy firmly replies: « The answer is in the affirmative, for even if the whole world is drowning in the abyss, the word of God remains, repeating: “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife!” » In order to practise this “second table”, however, we must first enter into the plan of God and say “yes” to Him through faith, a “yes” that binds us in the future, in history, through hope. I must not merely content myself with believing in this plan, but I must “fulfil” it… HOLY HOPE Here I am speaking like a Marxist. This is because Marxist dialectic is nothing other than the diabolic inversion of Christian hope, the true object of which is not only Heaven, which will come later... but Heaven immediately: it is the certainty that God pushes me onward, as well as all of us, from yesterday to today, and from today to tomorrow! To these moments that follow one another, Someone assures continuity by His divine Providence that accomplishes His design in us. Every morning, by an act of hope, the Christian assumes his destiny... by resuming, with God, the plan that He has for him. Without grumbling! This is supernatural Christian hope, in continuity with the hope of the Jews before Christ, when they knew nothing about the life beyond. Nevertheless, they lived in hope, not that of the Promised Land or even that of contemplating God later, but that of living with God, working with Him, and walking on His path. « Walk in My presence », God said to Abraham, and this was enough for Abraham, the « father of believers », to live in the joy that obedience to the Law gives. For, in the actions that were asked of them, the children of Abraham were seized, all together, in order to play a role in the great project of God, the limits of which they were unaware. It is the same in the New Testament. The Kingdom of Heaven was already there. It was Jesus Himself, what He did; it was His Gospel, the Word that He spoke; it was the group of men and holy women who accompanied Him. « The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you », He said to the dumbfounded Jews. You are called to enter into it. If you do, you will obtain life. Otherwise, it will be death. What life will it be? Eternal life of course! which has already begun, as Jesus told us in the Gospel of Saint John. On the one condition that we conform to the divine plan by cleaving to Christ and by accomplishing the work that He expects from us, within the Church. The Kingdom of God is the one, holy, Catholic, apostolic and Roman Church. In the Church, holy hope is born from the Covenant; it is the fruit of the Covenant, and it is communitarian and complete. It is the joy of embracing here below the project of God: « My God, I hope with firm confidence that »... what? « that your universal divine plan will be accomplished, and that it will also be accomplished through me and with me ». • WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF THE VIRTUE OF HOPE? • THE OBJECT OF THE VIRTUE OF HOPE IS THE GRACE OF DAILY FIDELITY TO THE DIVINE COVENANT. Thus, even before desiring Heaven, I desire to be part of the Covenant, here and now. I fear not only falling into Hell, but also leaving the Covenant and being left by the wayside when the caravan passes. I rejoice at the thought of the blessings that I have received: I am already in a state of happiness. See the saints: they did not wait for Heaven in order to be happy. They beamed with joy. The only misfortune for them would have been to leave the Church and the Covenant with God through their infidelity. Here and now that would be Hell! • WHAT ARE THE SINS AGAINST HOPE? • THE SINS AGAINST HOPE ARE DESPAIR AND PRESUMPTION. Not knowing why I must do one thing or the other, why I must get up in the morning, go to work, to church; not knowing why I am going to have another child... and not wanting to have one, this is the sin against hope that leads to laziness, apathy and lack of appetite for life, and for the acts of life and for worship! See the sermons of our Father on the seven capital sins and the… eighth (S 38. Les péchés capitaux et leurs remèdes, summer 1978; audio tapes: 6 hours). The ultimate sin against hope is despair, the discouragement of the person who says to himself: my life has no purpose, it is meaningless and it is leading nowhere. This is really withdrawing from the Covenant in virtue of which God takes us and leads us, sometimes through trials and difficulties. By faith and hope, I believe that it is my Father who leads me to where I did not want to go, because it is useful to the world, to the fulfilment of His immense design, which is as personal for me as it is communitarian for the entire world. The other sin against hope, the opposite, is to fall into presumption: I am so passionate about what I do that I need nothing more. I am so happy that I do not need the divine Covenant to live well: this is presumption! Presumption consists of forgetting, in the unequal contract that binds me to my Creator, that it is He who is the Master, the Source, the Truth, the Life and the Way. Woe to him who is satisfied, who is happy about everything, for simple human reasons, living from one thing to the next, like his dog or cat, forgetting that God has created all and offered us everything! Forgetting to give thanks, cutting oneself off, withdrawing from God, while considering oneself to be the master of one’s own life, is to enter into rebellion against God. This presumption is a defiance of God! I place myself before Him like another God, trying to be happy on equal terms with Him. This is the story of our secular democracy, and of our French Constitution. De Gaulle was sure that he could make the French happy without God! Today, this is the claim of the “European Constitution”. Presumption! Supernatural hope is therefore an absolutely essential virtue because no act of our life escapes sovereign divine Providence. There is no act of our life that is not a part of the great plan of God, namely the establishing of His Kingdom, so that all men may know Him and finally experience eternal life, except for those who will have opposed this plan through mortal sin. Once we have understood this, we can become great mystics and carry hope very far. For the mystical life consists of the sanctification of the present moment, in which there is not a single one of our acts that does not depend on God, in which we always act according to the plan of God, while following Christ, thanks to the gifts of counsel and fortitude that we have received in the Sacrament of Confirmation. THE GIFT OF COUNSEL. Because every action of my life has a repercussion on the great design of God in history, before deciding to do one thing or the other I must receive the counsel of God, knowing that it is in His interest, and that He will therefore lead me on a path that is in conformity with what He seeks. The choice of a vocation, the choice of a state in life, all require divine counsel for of myself I cannot know what is best. What is important for me is to adhere to the design of God, but I do not know what it is! I therefore ask counsel of God through prayer and spiritual direction. In answer, the Holy Spirit urges me in a certain direction, by means of good inspirations, or the counsel of my spiritual director, which I will understand later on to have been the most advantageous to the design of God. THE GIFT OF FORTITUDE. Life is hard. To take action, whatever it may be, the creature requires vital energy. Man is only great, healthy and holy when he perpetually unites himself to his creator, like the Spouse of the Song of Songs leaning on the arm of her Beloved. The intimate persuasion that God carries us leads to a new spirit of prayer: – prayer of thanksgiving for what has been given to us. – prayer of petition that God will continue to give us his blessings. – prayer of confidence in God who directs our existence. No depression! – holy Mass, memorial of the Cross, renews, restores and strengthens the Covenant that was sealed on Calvary between God and sinful humanity. Through the Mass, I renew the Covenant with Him for the interval of time that separates me from the next Mass that I will be able to attend. This is why the obligation for Christians to go to Mass every Sunday is a matter of life and death. « A people who does not go to Mass anymore is a people that is finished!... for it has broken the Covenant by which it lives! » our Father exclaimed one day. Benedict XVI did not say otherwise when he defined the Eucharist « as the mystical heart of Christianity, where God always mysteriously comes out of Himself and draws us into His embrace. « The Eucharist is the fulfilment of the promise made by Jesus on the first day of His great week: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself”. » (Jn 12.32) The Pope took note of « the weariness of the mission during the last thirty years », which corresponds very exactly with the reign of John Paul II it could be said in passing, then he touched a raw nerve by asking if this weariness « ... does not come from the fact that we have only thought about exterior realities, but that we have almost forgotten that all this action must continually be nourished from a deeper centre? This centre that Thérèse simply called “heart” and “love” is the Eucharist [...]. « If this heart does not beat, then the Apostles will no longer be able to proclaim the Gospel, nuns will no longer be able to comfort and heal, laymen will no longer be able to bring the world to the Kingdom of God. The heart must remain a heart so that the other organs, thanks to it, may able to serve as required. It is precisely when the Eucharist is celebrated in the proper manner, in the “Upper Room”, in the interior space of a faith filled with respect without any other intention than to please God, then faith can be born of it... » (Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith: the Church as Communion, 2003) THE DIVINE CHARITY The heart is the seat of charity, the third theological virtue. It is a love that has God as its object and cause; the source of love for God is God Himself in our heart: « You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind. » « with all your heart »... The heart is the most mysterious component of our personality. It is the heart that decides, that moves the will. To love with all one’s heart is to have in the depths of ourselves a favourable disposition, a welcome, an enthusiasm, an openness towards the other, a benevolence or a beneficence for the other, a need for mutual presence, for union. We say about certain exceptional beings that they have “a heart of gold”. Charles de Foucauld, for example. In opposition to the biographers who present him as having a great pride, an outrageous ambition, or even a thirst for power, our Father defines Charles de Foucauld as “a heart of gold”. Whereas he says about one of his boarding school comrades, at Puy, that he had a safe in lieu of a heart. How dreadful! « with all your soul »... The soul is the expression of the feelings, in particular joy in love, the desire to love more. « with all your strength »... The energy of man is placed at the service of love, which determines in the subject all of his views, all of his decisions, all of his behaviour... « with all your mind »... Love tries to get to know those whom it loves, their being, their past, their desires, their plans, in order to correspond to them; this is the work of the mind. God, therefore, gives us the order to love Him, so that this love of God might be the major disposition of our heart, the very foundation of our soul, and so that it overflows onto our neighbour: « My God, I love Thee with all my heart and above all else, because Thou art infinitely good, infinitely lovable, and I love my neighbour as myself for love of Thee. » In the Old as well as in the New Testament, this “commandment” is « the whole Law ». Our morality therefore is summed up in this precept of loving God. Without love, religious practices and the fulfilling of the precepts are only ritualism and formalism. Now, we do recite this act of charity. Yet do we live it in all truth? Does it truly meet with the enthusiastic adherence of our hearts? We have to admit that this is not the case. Charles de Foucauld made of his religion a love. The Abbé Huvelin marvelled at it... so extraordinary was it at the end of the nineteenth century. What would he say today?! • WHY IS THE WEST, APART FROM THE SAINTS, SO CLOSED TO THIS PRECEPT OF LOVE? • THE WEST IS CLOSED TO THIS PRECEPT OF LOVE DUE TO AN EXCESS OF RATIONALISM. Aristotelian philosophy defines man as a substance that is self-sufficient, independent and autonomous. The result: we are like marbles in a bag! It is against this individualism that Sister Lucy vigorously protested: « Let us not say, as do some indifferent or cynical persons who have gone astray or who are individualists: That only concerns me! « Yet... if all Heaven has mobilised itself to save you! How can you assert that this business of the salvation of your soul concerns you only? » (He is Risen no 24, July 2004, p. 17) This is precisely what the Abbé de Nantes preaches, in virtue of his relational metaphysics: « Sin is not an individual thing that we settle with God in the Spirit, as the Protestant and Orthodox, and all heretics, schismatics, and innovators claim, outside the Church. Sin is a stain that Christ, through the Church, is going to cleanse because He died on the Cross for this. It is the deifying contact with the Church, the continuation of the flesh of Christ. Those who believe in this divine touch of the flesh are the elect, the happy, the fulfilled and the pure. Thus, the first virtue, the operation that follows being, is perfect dilection. » (ibid.) It suffices to remark that if I exist, it is not of myself: “He who is” brings me into existence. If, for an instant, He “forgot” me, I would return to nothingness. God, however, does not forget; He thinks of me and keeps me in being at every moment. This relation of origin is therefore at the innermost depth of my small person and binds me to my Creator, « intimior intimo meo », who is nearer to me than myself, as saint Augustine said. This observation does not fall within the province of reason, unlike the demonstration of the existence of God, according to which, since there is being, a perfect, unlimited Being exists of Himself. The fact, however, that He brings me into existence is beyond reason; it is a “scandal”. Existentialists say: I am “uncalled-for”; following them, our Father says that it is “crazy”. Nevertheless, it is the indubitable object of an immediate, existential and striking intuition that this perfect, infinite Being, whom I know through reason, brings me into existence by a constituent relation of my being. The second observation, which does not need to be demonstrated either, is that I love myself. The person who commits suicide does not hate himself. On the contrary, he loves himself so much that he would like to be different in his own eyes. Not only is this self-love not bad, but it is the first virtue, infused in us by God at the same time as existence, life and movement. God gives me being... and He gives me love of myself because He loves me! for He does not give anything that He does not have Himself. Why does God love me in this manner? For no other reason than the love with which He loves me first, unconditionally, even before I existed! God is my Father. This love of God for me cannot be frustrated in Him by anything because He is the infinite being; He is “I am”; He is Love. This love that I have for myself, which is an immediate, constant and irrefutable fact, comes from the Love of a Being who is nothing but Love, without a hint of hatred, since He is infinite Love. By loving myself, I participate in the love that He has for me, and I reach Him in the same movement with which I love myself. God is no longer the elusive “object” that I contemplate outside of myself. God is the source of my being. The source of my being is God who is Love, and who creates love in me; and every time that I come back to my source, I realise that I am a fragile being, brought into existence by a love that carries me forward, creates me and makes a covenant with me. It is for the same reason that He is so offended by the sins that are committed against His commandments, whereas we might think, as Sister Lucy tells us, that He is, « in His own Being », unaffected, « eternally happy, great, powerful, immense, the source of life and of all good ». Since He loves us, He expects us to respond to His love with a similar love. Sister Lucy continues, however, « at the very moment when we transgress one of His laws, we cease to love God, we create a rift in love. How could a son say that he loves his father if, in his own house, he transgresses and despises the orders, the lessons, the kindness and the caresses of his father? He could only be – and he is – a rebellious son, and not a son who loves his father. » • HOW DO WE PASS FROM LOVE OF GOD TO LOVE OF NEIGHBOR? • IN ORDER TO PASS FROM LOVE OF GOD TO LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOR, WE MUST PERFORM ACTS OF CHARITY. The God who loves my neighbour and makes him love himself is the same God who creates me and makes me love myself. When I plunge into the Heart of God, I thus find the love that God has for me, but I also find the love that God has for my neighbour, and this other neighbour and, little by little, the whole community. All is the creation of this same God who creates me and makes me happy to exist and to be loved by Him. I am therefore going to love everything that He loves. « I love my neighbour as myself in the love of God », rather than « for » the love of God, since my neighbour is the work of God, just as I am! All the beings of creation are the objects of a distinct love of God. Thus, if I love God I am obliged, in order to enter into communion with Him, to love my brother. « Anyone who says that he loves God and hates his neighbour, says St. John, is a liar! ». We could therefore formulate the act of charity like this: « My God, I believe that You love me with all Your Heart, all Your Soul, all Your strength, and all Your mind, and that You love my neighbour as myself. » For it is in God that I find this particular love for me, and this multiplicity of loves: the others are also loved by Him, and it is in Him that I love them. Thus, all of our loves find their source and common principle in the Heart of God. • WHY DID GOD CREATE THIS PLURALITY OF BEINGS? • GOD CREATED THIS PLURALITY OF BEINGS IN ORDER TO UNITE THEM IN A HAPPY RECIPROCITY OF SERVICES. God cannot love each one of us independently of the others. Only His Son, whom He loves as Himself, is the object of an exclusive love, and their common Love is the Holy Spirit. The Son, the Word of God, is satisfied with the Love that He has for His Father and with the love that His Father has for Him, without needing creatures. Whereas if God loves each one of us, if He has created us next to one another, it is because He has created us for others. God has His plan, which is called “Kingdom of God”, and which is the Mystical Body of the Church. « Let us remember, Sister Lucy writes, that all of us are sent by God, each one to occupy the place that has been allotted to him: children are sent by God to their parents so that they may raise them, educate them and establish them on the road of life; teachers are sent by God to teach their pupils; pupils are sent by God to their teachers so that they may teach them the arts, and the natural and supernatural sciences. In this way, all is service, whether we serve as parents, as teachers, or as children, pupils or workers. All is service in the name of the Lord. » God has loved us together, but the ones for the others. This is what Mgr Freppel called « a happy reciprocity of services », in which he saw « a faithful expression of the Christian economy, as God wanted it to be ». In the distinctive characteristics of each person there is a call to the other person, a call to enter into relationship with the other, to make a covenant with him, a relationship that is in the image of the creative relation, a relation of love that prepares for the eternal beatitude of Heaven. Because all this is for Heaven! Sister Lucy also writes: « Company directors and employers serve their employees by giving them work and by paying their salary, providing them in this way with a means of earning their living in a serious and honest manner. So, we are all servants of God, who serve Him in their brothers. » This is how she advised and encouraged President Salazar in his corporative work. Such is the plan of God with which we collaborate out of love for Him. Sister Lucy adds: « This doctrine is guaranteed by the words of Christ: “Amen, amen, I say to you, he who receives anyone whom I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” (Jn 13.20) » • WHY DO CREATURES NOT NATURALLY LOVE ONE ANOTHER AND WHY IS THERE SO MUCH HATRED? • BECAUSE OF ORIGINAL SIN, AND THE CONSEQUENCES WITH WHICH IT MARKS US AT OUR BIRTH. All that we said about love is simple, true, exciting. God loves all of us, and the ones for the others. This love that God has for us is full of Wisdom. Each one of us, every creature, is willed by God to occupy a place, to play a role in the general orthodromy, and this is why everyone must have this or that relationship with this or that neighbour in order to fulfil his task in the universe. There is, however, something that is aberrant, scandalous and absolutely incomprehensible: man, in his liberty, can choose the worst disorders instead of the happiness that God has prepared for him. Precisely because he is a wretched being, for whom the flesh counts more than the spirit, and whose mind falls into monstrous digressions like pride, man finds himself loving outside of God, and wanting to seek his own good where God does not wish him to! By his revolts, man claims to create relationships according to his own whims, even if this means flouting the Law of God. His love then becomes “passion”. He loves this woman who is not his own out of selfish and carnal passion. Reason suffices to show that this is a crime, a mortal sin, which kills the life of grace in him and in her. Yet passion blinds him. What is true of individuals is also true of peoples and nations. This is how, on 25 April 1974, after forty years of religious renaissance, political stability and social peace, the “Carnation Revolution” plunged Portugal into serious disorder. DIVINE CIRCUMINCESSANT CHARITY From the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, there emerges a particular morality that must be constructed on our human life in society and on our “horizontal” relations through which “we fulfil ourselves”, not according to our personal whims, like an octopus: in which case our love for others can do them no good! but according to the Heart of God, passing through Him to love others, never loving them outside of His design, but following the advice of St. Francis de Sales to Madame de Chantal: « When will we all be impregnated with gentleness and suavity towards our neighbour? When will we see the souls of our neighbours in the sacred breast of the Saviour? Alas! whoever considers the neighbour outside of it, risks loving him neither purely, nor constantly nor equally; but there, but in that place, who would not love him? Who would not put up with him? Who would not bear with his imperfections? Who would find him to be ill-favoured? Who would find him tedious? Now, this neighbour is there, ma dear daughter, he is in the breast and the bosom of the divine Saviour; he is much loved there, and so lovable that (Jesus) dies of love for him. » (To Madame de Chantal, 15 May 1616) He who loves in this manner will be a good son, a good daughter, a good mother, a good employer, a good citizen… this is the general rule of our entire moral life, for to be a father, spouse, friend is fully satisfying, gratifying, even if it takes away the freedom to pursue all kinds of pleasures or to develop all sorts of talents… athletic, philosophical, or artistic… I do not know what else and what does it matter! It is better to be a good father, a good spouse, a good friend rather than a great philosopher shut up in his ivory tower. When concerned about being a good son, a good spouse, a good friend, the Christian is, by that very fact, rescued from many temptations. Not only that, but he is conformed to God Himself, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! To be fathers, to be mothers is to be instruments of the Heavenly Father. The glory of a Christian father is to be the servant of God in engendering children and educating them. The glory of a Christian mother is to co-operate in this work, in this “enterprise”, through her maternities, with all her tenderness, with all her heart, capable of forgetfulness of self and unlimited devotion. VIRTUE, THE FLOWER OF CHARITY The description of the virtues, the fruits of this “circumincessant” charity, was developed by the Abbé de Nantes in the series of conferences given at the Mutualité in 1985-1986. The contrasting portraits of a good and a bad father, of a bad and a “good woman”, gave those who listened to him a just and life-long horror of all vices and a love of all virtues. The great virtue of woman is her modesty in clothing, language and look. This modesty protects her beauty and enhances it, by giving it a spiritual value that, in our Christian civilisation, is called by the beautiful name of chastity. Through this virtue and through her devotion that makes her model herself after the Immaculate Heart of Mary, woman finds in her heart the necessary motivation for going beyond her own sensitivity and for devoting herself to the man that she loves, for encouraging him in all that he undertakes to support her family, her prosperity, and to participate in the life of the city, and thus carry out a work of civilisation. What is the great virtue of man? Is it strength? Is it intelligence? Undoubtedly; however, if it is used to crush his wife, his children, and his fellow citizens with his pride and his egoism, then there is no point to it! No, the fundamental virtue of man is religion. Unlike the impious who leaves that to his wife, the Christian father is first of all a religious man: he kneels down and prays; he goes to Mass and receives Communion. He is the guarantor of the Faith of his family and makes it practice its religion. He makes Christian order reign in his home, according to the commandments of the Church. The love of those who found such families will overflow in unending cascades, for there is no measure to observe in love. This is what our Father calls “Divine” (and human) “Circumincessant Charity”, which forges countless bonds of “brotherhood” or “friendship” between creatures of the Good God. “Brotherhood” is a fact of nature. It is the relationship of brothers and sisters in a family. “Friendship”, on the other hand, is a fact of Christian civilisation. Not that pagans were unaware of it. The Greeks and the Romans, on the contrary, valued it highly, but among them it was a selective, an elective friendship: I choose whoever pleases me for a friend; this does not make me come out of my egoism. On the contrary, it may lock me into it. Christian friendship is of a different order. Quite different from another pagan and modern notion: “solidarity”, a Masonic invention in the service of the cohesion of a social group for its defence against all the others, repeating the solidarity of the Pharisees and the Sadducees mobilised long ago against the “sect” of the Christians. Today, it is international solidarity for the “respect of man”, organised by Freemasonry in order to supplant Christian charity, which is its opposite. The parable of the Good Samaritan, by revealing to us that our neighbour is Christ, brings about a revolution in universal morality: our neighbour is not only the one for whom we would instinctively have relations of friendship, but the one who arrives unexpectedly in my little universe, who is sent by Christ, and who needs me: « Whatever you do to one of these little ones, you do to Me », says Jesus. This is why alms is an institution of the Church. Charity organised by the Church is intended to make every man a member of Christ, and this charity becomes political, in order that the Church may create her schools and hospitals. Contrary to “secularism”, we want to transfigure society in order to make it the City of God on earth. Our relations are a gift of God in view of this inspiring work, a will of God to which we must respond through friendship and devotedness. Firstly, by fulfilling the commandments of God, the basis of friendliness, the first requirement of charity, with a perfect loyalty, the great virtue that is demanded of those who make their act of allegiance to our Catholic, Royal, Communitarian Phalange. Not forgetting politeness that corrects the casualness of our tendencies, and our natural “spontaneity”: « Politeness is the flower of charity », St. Francis de Sales says. The book of Sister Lucy, Calls from the Message of Fatima, ends with a fourth part. She deals with the Holy Rosary, « illustrious and powerful prayer », not supererogatory but willed by God. It is not a “Commandment of God”, but it is more galvanising because, through the maternal voice of Our Lady, who descended from Heaven seven times, « God wished to ask for the daily recitation of the Rosary ». This is necessary for obtaining every grace and Paradise on the day of death. How can Heaven give such an importance to this devotion, without even passing through the hierarchical authority of the Church? This question will be the subject of a fourth part of our Marian catechesis, if God wills. Brother Bruno of Jesus. |
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