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The Catholic Counter-Reformation in the 21st century |
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HE IS RISEN! |
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No 14 |
Editor : Abbé Georges de Nantes |
October 2003 |
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The Catholic Counter-Reformation in the 21st century |
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HE IS RISEN! |
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No 14 |
Editor : Abbé Georges de Nantes |
October 2003 |
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He will return with his immense
heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul |
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THE LIGHT IN THE NIGHT (3) |
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In her book, “Calls” from the Message of Fatima”, Sister Lucy comments on the revelations with which she had been favoured along with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta, first by the Guardian Angel of Portugal in 1916, then by the Queen of the Angels in Person, from 13 May to 13 October 1917. We have read and commented on the first nine “calls” (He is Risen, special number, August 2003, p. 3-12), concerning the three apparitions of the “Guardian Angel”: calls to keep the faith, to adore God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to place our hope in Him, to love Him. Let us notice that Pope John Paul I, just like the Angel of God, consecrated the general audiences of his brief pontificate to “calling” his people to the virtues of humility, faith, hope, and charity. The Mother of God Herself made the following “calls”: for the daily recitation of the Rosary (13 May 1917), for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (13 June 1917), to reflect on eternal life (13 July 1917) On 13 August, the children, illegally confined by the “Tinsmith”, were not at the celestial rendezvous. But Our Lady unexpectedly appeared to the seers at Valinhos on 19 August, and made known to them the « thirteenth call of the Message » that Sister Lucy entitles « The Call to the Apostolate » « “Pray, pray hard and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and to pray for them.” (Our Lady, Fatima, 19 August 1917) « In this passage, the Message asks us to undertake an apostolate on behalf of our brothers and sisters. The apostolate is a continuation of the mission of Christ on earth; we must be co-workers with Christ in His work of Redemption, in the salvation of souls. There is the apostolate of prayer which must be the basis of every other apostolate, if it is to be effective and fruitful; there is the apostolate of self-denial: undertaken by those who make sacrifices, denying themselves for the good of their brothers and sisters; and there is the apostolate of charity, which is the life of Christ reproduced in us by our dedication of ourselves to God in the service of others. « Thus, to begin with, we have the apostolate of prayer, praying in union with Christ for the salvation of our brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ continues to pray on earth in the Sacrament of the altar, where He offers Himself continuously to the Father in propitiation for the salvation of all. » Sister Lucy is truly the best of catechists, the most reliable, the most exact, because she speaks as an eye witness of what she teaches. On 13 July 1929, while praying in the chapel of the Dorothean sisters of Tuy, she saw the Father, under the appearance of « the face of a man and His body to the waist », and the Son « nailed to the luminous Cross », in the Sacrament of the altar: « a little below the waist (of the man nailed to the Cross), suspended in the air, one could see a chalice with a large Host onto which were falling a few drops of blood that were flowing down from the cheeks of the Crucified and from a wound in the chest. These drops ran down over the Host and fell into the Chalice » This is a very exact representation, of extraordinary realism, of the Holy Sacrifice, such as it actually takes place during the Mass. Catholic theology does not teach otherwise, whether Protestants like it or not: « It is by our union with Christ in the Eucharist, Sister Lucy continues, that our prayer is raised to God for the salvation of our brothers and sisters. » Outside of this, there is no salvation. Sister Lucy leaves no place for ecumenical or interreligious “dialogue”, nor Catholic Action, nor the « new evangelisation ». The aim of all apostolate is to snatch souls from the flames of Hell. And here is the only means of succeeding : « Shortly before He gave Himself up to death, Jesus Christ said to His disciples: “Remain in Me, as I in you (...); For apart from Me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15.4; 5). These words mean that it is by our prayer that our apostolate is to bear fruit. Without prayer, we can do nothing! In His priestly prayer to the Father, Jesus said: “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me, that they may all be one. Just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be one in Us… So that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.” (Jn 17.20-21). The Lord insists on our union with Him, so that our apostolate may bear fruit and the world may believe that He was sent by the Father. This insistence is the expression of the yearning for our salvation that wells up from His divine heart: He beseeches His Father for our salvation, for us to remain united amongst ourselves and with Him so that His redemptive work may bear fruit for all: “I pray (...) for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me.” « And Jesus concluded His priestly prayer by asking the Father that we might share in His own life: “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am (...) I have made Your Name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.” (Jn 17.24; 26). Love is the link binding us to Christ; it is love that gives value to our prayer and makes it fruitful for the salvation of our brothers and sisters. » « The first step in our apostolate, and the necessary condition for it to bear fruit, is thus our union with Christ through prayer. Both vocal prayer, which places us in the presence of Christ, and the prayer of sacrifice when we unite ourselves with Christ in His sacrifice, and also the prayer of love whereby we abandon ourselves with Christ to the Father for the conversion of all. » The word « conversion » never appears in the ecumenical speeches of our pastors since the Second Vatican Council. In Sister Lucy’s writings and in her heart, it obviously refers in a special way to Russia. But she is forbidden to speak of this. So she continues: « Jesus Christ has given us the example. Before beginning His own apostolate in His public life, He withdrew to the desert in order to pray and do penance there, and fast for forty days: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness. (...) And He ate nothing in those days.” (Lk 4.1-2). Moreover, the Evangelists frequently record that He would escape from the bustle of the crowds who were following Him and withdraw to pray in solitude. « On one of these occasions, when He rejoined His disciples, He found them unable to cast a devil out of a boy who was possessed. » « When, later on, they wanted to know why they had been unable to expel that demon, the Lord replied: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting” (Mk 9.29). This kind of persistent demon makes me think of temptations to pride, which are the most serious and difficult to overcome, both in ourselves and in others, because they blind us and prevent us from seeing the precipice down which we are slipping. As the Lord said, in such circumstances both prayer and penance are needed because only through them can we rediscover the virtue of humility which prompts us to ask God for His strength and grace. « In the Book of Exodus, we read that when the sentence of extermination was hanging over the People of Israel for having offended God by the sin of idolatry, Moses went up the mountain to meet God and implore Him to pardon His people. God heard Moses’ prayer and spared his people, punishing only those who had been guilty: “Whoever has sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, My angel shall go before you.” (Ex 32.33-34). Here we see the Lord, who is ever good and merciful, co-operating with those who work together with Him; it is a model of the apostolate which is based on prayer, and which springs from direct contact with God. Moses is the apostle of the People of Israel, but before giving instructions to the people, he speaks with God and receives from God what he is to communicate to the people. Hence, God helps him, promising to send an Angel to go before him. » Since censorship prevents her from presenting her personal testimony, Sister Lucy has no difficulty substituting Sacred Scripture for it, as in the person of Moses… And, indeed, she could not put it better! It makes a strong impression to see her play the role of Moses, as God’s messenger to a proud and idolatrous people, even in Portugal! For « before giving instructions to the people, [she] spoke with [the Mother of] God and, received from [the Mother of] God, what [she] was to communicate to the people » It could even be said about her that « God helped [her], promising to send an Angel to go before [her] » She saw this angelic forerunner on 13 July 1917 « at the left of Our Lady and a little higher up », and he cried out in a loud voice: « Penance, Penance, Penance! » « Without this life of prayer and contact with God, every apostolate is fruitless, because it is God who must make effective what we do, what we say, and the efforts we make. » Failing to have heard the triple call of the Angel preceding the Message of Our Lady, one hundred two voyages to visit one hundred thirty-six countries, the equivalent of twenty-eight times round the world only succeeded in making people more arrogant and idolatrous. « Hence, the Message tells us: “Pray and make sacrifices.” so that, through your prayers, your words, your example, your acts of self-denial, your work and your charity, you will be able to help your brothers and sisters to get up again if they have fallen, to return to the right path if they have strayed away from it, and to make their way again to God if they are estranged from Him. » The last vision of the Third Secret dominates entirely Sister Lucy’s meditation on the aims of the true apostolate: to have souls « make their way to God ». The blood of the martyrs will do the rest, winning Heaven for them, not individually, but as families: « You will also be able to help them to overcome the difficulties, dangers and temptations that surround, seduce and pull them down. Very often, people are overcome and fall because they have no one at their side willing to pray and to make sacrifices for them, stretching out a hand to them, and helping them to follow a better path. « In this field of the apostolate, we all have a mission to accomplish which has been entrusted to us by God. We are all responsible for our neighbour. By Baptism we share in the priesthood of Christ our Saviour, and we are also incorporated into His Mystical Body, with a specific place and specific duties to perform. Human beings were not created to be strangers to one another, to ignore one another eternally, but rather to be companions to one another, brothers and sisters who love and help one another, and gather together around their Father who provides for their daily needs for food and clothing; from Him each one receives the same blessing and all are heading for the same destination, their Father’s House. « The true apostolate consists in this union of the children with their Father in Heaven. » However, we must expect to see that certain souls will persist in straying from the “family”, despite all our efforts: « It is this union which is the grace and the gate of salvation; if not, let us see what Christ’s priestly prayer says to us: “Holy Father, keep those You have given Me true to Your name, so that they may be one, as We are. While I was with them, I kept those You had given Me true to Your Name. I have watched over them and not one is lost, except the son of perdition.” (Jn 17.11-12). These words of Jesus should help us not to grow discouraged when we encounter in our path those sons of perdition who resist grace, the tenacity of our charity, of our efforts and sacrifices and prayers. They are the children of that other progeny whom Satan turns aside into the ways of perdition. » A mystery of predestination which casts a light on the mercy of our God towards us, and which invites us to imitate Him so as to win our brothers through « the apostolate of forgiveness » « This is in accordance with what God said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. But now you go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, My angel shall go before you.” (Ex 32.33-34). Because some persist in their evil ways, the Lord, who is ever merciful, does not cause the rest to perish, but orders Moses to continue his apostolate and to lead his people in the ways of the Lord. Each one is responsible for his own acts, so that the one who sinned and persists in his sin, is to be blotted out from the Book of Life, but not his brother who repented and chose to be led by the Lord. « Yes, our God is truly merciful! And we, too, must be merciful, created as we have been in His image and likeness. This is why Jesus Christ said: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt 12.7), quoting the words of the prophet Hosea, who describes the feelings of the Heart of God as follows: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.” (Hos 6.6). Here we have the apostolate of forgiveness, whereby we are to bring our brothers to the knowledge of God. Let them find in us sentiments of forgiveness which will be for them a reflection of the mercy of God! « Let us reflect that God has made the granting of His pardon to us dependent on the degree to which we ourselves forgive those who have wronged us in some way: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6.14-15). This obligation on us to forgive others requires us to overcome temptations of pride which lead to revenge. This law had already been proclaimed by God in the Old Testament: “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am Yahweh.” (Lv 19.18). As God here ordains, we have to resist the temptation to revenge, contempt or indifference, by the apostolate of charity which will lead us to forgive, to pay back evil with good, and to pray for those who persecute us. We have to imitate Jesus Christ who, on the cross, asked His Father to forgive those who had insulted, maltreated and crucified Him: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23.34) « And the Lord’s own words leave no room for doubt: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one, so that your Father also who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mk 11.25-26). In another place the Lord says to us: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Lk 6.27-28). This pardon is the fruit of the charity which burns in the heart of Christ and which must animate our apostolate to our brothers and sisters: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Lk 12.49) FOLLOW THE MUSIC! Suddenly, Sister Lucy seems to change the subject totally by reporting another word of Our Lady that she heard at Valinhos on 19 August. And yet she added it onto the same chapter on « the call to apostolate »: « However, this call of the Message includes another characteristic which should also mark our apostolate. When Our Lady was asked what was to be done with the offerings that the people had begun to leave at the place of the Apparitions in fulfilment of their promises, She replied: “Have two litters made. One is to be carried by you and Jacinta and two other girls dressed in white; the other one is to be carried by Francisco and three other boys vested in white albs. The money from the litters is for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and what is left over will help towards the construction of a chapel that is to be built here.” (Our Lady, 19 August, 1917) « The litters that the Message refers to here are not litters for carrying images but those used for carrying in procession the offerings made by the people to the Lord. In fact, the people were accustomed to thank God for His gifts by offering Him some of the fruits of their harvest, in accordance with each one’s means. These offerings were collected by stewards who placed them in litters which were carried processionally on important feast days. After the High Mass, they were carried in procession and offered to God in thanksgiving for the grace received and as a contribution to church expenses. « Our Lady clearly revealed, by Her answer, how pleasing to God this simple act of thanksgiving was, since we must show our gratitude to God and we also have a duty to take part in, and contribute to, the cost of the public honour that is paid to Him. A word, now, about the gesture that the Message asks us to make, that of joining with our brothers in bringing to Him our offerings, our thanksgiving, our prayers and our sacrifices: this constitutes an act of collaboration which animates and gives life to the apostolate, making us apostles of one another. « Some of the customs that the people of Fatima had at that time were reminiscent of those described in the Bible. I think that the people of that time, most of whom could neither read nor write, knew little or nothing about Bible history, apart from a few facts which a few people in the area, who did know how to read, were able to read about in summaries of Sacred History. At least, that is how it was with me. Only many years later was I able to read the Holy Bible, and only then did I discover the most intimate meaning of the Message and its connection with the Word of God. » These words are precious pearls. Here is at last the true “return to the Bible”, after one hundred years of modernist wanderings! After the death of Pius X, who had condemned it without really crushing the head of the serpent, Our Lady came down from Heaven to make an ignorant young girl Her messenger. Eighty years later, she writes a book which reveals the continuity of this Message with the Word of God and, in doing so, overcomes the heresies, for which modernism is the sewer in which they gather throughout the entire world. « Continuing our examination of this particular aspect of the apostolate, and making use of the similarities between incidents in Bible history and the customs of the people of Fatima at that time, let us recall the following instructions given by God to His people: “And Yahweh said to Moses: On the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present an offering by fire to Yahweh. And you shall do no work on this same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. For whoever is not afflicted on this same day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (Lv 23.26-31) « It is not difficult to see in this “tenth day of the seventh month” Sundays and Holydays which the Church requires us to consecrate to God. On these days we are obliged to observe that law of the Lord; they are days on which we are to worship God, offering Him our prayers and our sacrifices. « On another occasion, God said to Moses: “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel (...) An altar of earth you shall make for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My Name to be remembered I will come to bless you » (Ex 20.22; 24). I do not know what interpretation the Church’s theologians give to this passage from Sacred Scripture. I myself find it enchanting because it shows us the tenderness of the fatherly love of God. And since we ourselves are, in Christ, descended from the Chosen People, to us too, today, these words of the Lord are addressed: “Where I cause My Name to be remembered I will come to bless you” God seems to deal with us like a father who listens to the prattling of his baby son and, as soon as the baby pronounces his name, he runs towards him, picks him up in his arms, fondling and caressing him. » The way Sister Lucy discovered the continuity between the unique revelation of the Old and New Testament with the « Message » of Fatima shows and confirms the conclusion to which a detailed study had already lead Father Alonso: « The history of redemption continues, he noted, and at Fatima it takes the particular form of a charismatic grace granted to the latest times of the Church. At Fatima, as at Pontevedra, new holy places are established as though the covenant between the persecuted sons of God and the Lord was being renewed. God offers a new pact of reconciliation and mercy, based on the most reliable guarantees: His love for the Holy Virgin, so privileged after His most loved Son, whom He makes the custodian of His treasures. And the great promise of the Heart of Mary is nothing other than the continuation and almost the fulfillment of all the previous promises which God bestowed on His people in the Old and New Testament: “These souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne.” (13 June 1917). “I promise to assist them at the hour of their death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls” (10 December 1925). » But Sister Lucy is not permitted to talk about this universal mediation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary nor about the first Saturday reparatory devotion. So she continues: « In this passage, God also shows us how pleasing to Him are our offerings and sacrifices, when they are offered in thanksgiving for His benefits and in reparation for our own sins and those of others. God is the same today as then, hence what He asked of His people then, He asks of us today, even though the object and the form of the offering may have changed with the passage of time. » And this is how Our Lady’s requests for devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, and for reparation, made at Fatima, at Pontevedra, and at Tuy are nothing other than the prolongation of the demands from Yahweh to the Hebrews in the Old Testament! Therefore, how can Cardinal Ratzinger describe them as « private revelations » and censor them? They are intended for the entire world: « 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 were a prophecy of the litters used for the Pilgrim Virgin as she goes around the world, and the litter for the statue in the Chapel of the Apparitions.” I entirely agree with this interpretation because, in the mind of God, the same fact can have various meanings, and these journeys of Our Lady’s statue are yet another facet of the apostolate of the Message which She came to earth to bring, and which is travelling all over the world in search of people to bring them to God. « Thus is fulfilled Her prophecy: “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) « Ave Maria! » To anyone who knows how to read, it is clear that « The Call for Apostolate » is in fact an invitation to pray for the conversion of Russia, « The Call to perseverance in virtue » is, short from stating it explicitly, an insistent request for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who alone can deliver us from Hell by securing for us the grace of final perseverance that leads to Heaven: « The fourteenth Call of the Message: “Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war.” (Our Lady, 13 September 1917) « The Message asks us to continue to pray the Rosary, which is the form of prayer most accessible to everyone, great and small, rich and poor, wise and ignorant. Everyone of good will can say the Rosary every day. « But why does the Message ask us to continue to say the Rosary every day? Because prayer is the basis of the spiritual life. If we give up praying, we deprive ourselves of that supernatural life which comes to us from the meeting of our soul with God, a meeting which comes about in prayer. Look at what Jesus says to us: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt 7.7-8). Prayer is to seek and meet with God. We need to seek God in order to meet Him, and we have His promise: “Whoever seeks finds.” It is not that God is far from us; we are the ones who distance ourselves from God and lose the sense of His presence. It is for this reason that the Message urges us to persevere in prayer, or, in the words of the Message, to continue to pray to obtain the end of the war. « Clearly, at the time, the Message was referring to the World War then afflicting so many people. But the word war also stands for many other wars going on all round us and which we must help bring to an end with our prayers and sacrifices. I am referring to the wars waged against us by the enemies of our eternal salvation: the Devil, the world and our own carnal nature. » Thus, we must have perseverance in doing good till the end, up to death, to obtain eternal salvation. This “final perseverance” is the utmost of graces, which an entire life laden with merits is not enough to guarantee. That is why it is necessary to ask for it ceaselessly, at least fifty times a day, by reciting the Rosary: « Pray for us, poor sinners, now and at the hour of our death ». Ever since the Middle Ages, ever since the promise made by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Simon Stock, obtaining this grace is tied to wearing the Scapular as a mark of consecration to Mary. On 13 June 1917, Our Lady renewed this promise: « To those who embrace this devotion I promise salvation; these souls will be favoured by God, like flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne. » And on 13 October, when she appeared in the sky in the guise of Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the Scapular in her hand, she was preparing the revelation of Pontevedra: « I promise to assist them at the hour of their death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls. » (10 December, 1925) Because of censorship, not even the slightest allusion to these promises can be found in Sister Lucy’s book. But for all that, she does not give up; and she wages her war against the Devil, against the world and against the flesh: « There are many people, nowadays, who dare deny that devils exist; however, they most certainly do. Devils are angels who were created by God to serve and praise Him. « The most pre-eminent of these Angels, known as “Lucifer” got puffed up with pride, and wanted to be equal to God. He dragged down with him a multitude of other angels who followed his example. St John tells us in the Book of the Apocalypse: “Now war arose in Heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Ap 12.7-9) « Later in the same book we read: “I saw another angel coming down from Heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendour. And he called out in a mighty voice: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a stronghold of every unclean spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird; for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.” (Ap 18.1-3) « And later, he writes: “Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient Serpent – who is the Devil and Satan – and bound him for a thousand years (...) and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more.” (Ap 20.1-3) » These passages are not chosen at random. Sister Lucy speaks from experience and gives a testimony that raises her to the rank of St. John, the author of the Apocalypse. She too saw the Angel of God, in 1915 and in 1916, as she relates at the beginning of her book. And once again on 13 July 1917: « At the left of Our Lady and a little higher up we saw 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; but they were extinguished on contact with the brilliant light that Our Lady radiated against them with Her right hand; pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: “Penance, Penance, Penance!” The ultimate vision of the third Secret shows the salvation of the souls that were making their way to God, sprinkled with the blood of the martyrs by the Angels. But Sister Lucy is not allowed to speak about it, nor about the final victory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is why she quotes Holy Scripture which announces Satan’s final fall: « The prophet Isaiah composed a satire against the king of Babylon in terms that recall the fall of the angels: “How are you fallen from Heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn? How are you cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low? You said in your heart: I will ascend to Heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High. But you were brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit!” (Is 14.12-15). » « And in one of the visions in his book, the prophet Zechariah describes the Devil as the accuser before God of the High Priest: “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the angel of Yahweh said to Satan: Yahweh rebukes you, O Satan! Yahweh rebukes you, He who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zc 3.1-2) » Being unable to take her thought off of Our Lady of Fatima’s Secret, Sister Lucy goes back to St. John: « The Book of the Apocalypse, too, after describing the defeat of Satan and his expulsion from Heaven, goes on: “And I heard a loud voice in Heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word to which they bear witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life.’” (Ap 12.10-11) » She could have written: « until they died one after another »… As she informed Father Fuentes in 1957, she is aware that « the Devil is currently engaged in a decisive battle against the Virgin »; Sister Lucy continues to provide numerous “scriptural” proofs of his presence in this world where he has been at work ever since the beginning: « In the course of His public life, Jesus drove out many demons. One day, in reply to the Pharisees, who were saying maliciously that He was driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub, Jesus said: “And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?... For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? (...) But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Lk 11.18-20) « Later, when He was both warning and arming St Peter in advance against the assaults and temptations of the Devil, the Lord said to him: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and once you have recovered, you must in turn, strengthen your brethren.” (Lk 22.31-32) « In one of his letters, St Peter himself writes: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To Him be the dominion for ever and ever! Amen! ” (1 Pt 5.8-11) « All these passages of Sacred Scripture, and many others that would be too long to quote here, prove to us that devils exist. We cannot doubt this truth revealed by God. The Message came to remind us of this truth and to restate it for us so that we would not let ourselves be deceived or taken in by false assertions. It asks us to continue to pray, and to be on our guard against being taken in by the suggestions of this enemy who, by every means in his power, endeavours to secure our eternal damnation. Jesus Christ said: “Everyone who commits sin is slave to sin.” (Jn 8.34) The Devil tries to drag us off into the path of sin, in order to make slaves of us, in time and in eternity. « But why did the Devil turn into such a great enemy of both God and human beings? He became an enemy of God because he had been defeated by Him – this was a humiliation which his pride could not accept – so, in his fury, he tries to avenge himself in every possible way. « Driven by this pride, when he saw that God had created human beings with a nature inferior to his, but destined one day to go to Heaven and enjoy the happiness that he himself had lost, the Devil was filled with envy and decided to do everything in his power to cause human beings to be lost by inducing them to disobey God, disregard His orders and cease to believe in His word. That was how he deceived the first human beings. « Assuming the form of a serpent, he went to meet Eve, the first woman God had created, who was walking in the Garden of Eden, and asked her: « So God said: “You shall not eat of any tree of the garden”? « And the woman said to the serpent: « – We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” « But the serpent said to the woman: « “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” « So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. « And they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him: « “Where are you?” « “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Gn 3.1-10) » « In the sacred text, we see that the Devil deceived the first two human beings. He told them that if they ate that fruit, they would become like God: You will be like God! The truth is that not only did they not become like God but they became much less than they had been before and, having become afraid of God: “I was afraid because I was naked and I hid”, they wished to hide from His presence. « Why are they naked? Because, through their disobedience to God, they had lost the garment of grace: they saw themselves with no clothes on, stripped of the garment of grace that had covered them. This is what they achieved by allowing themselves to be seduced and tricked by the Devil! This is how he works! It is for this reason that Jesus Christ warns us against him: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and was never grounded in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks lies, he is speaking true to his nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Jn 8.44) « But I believe that the Devil’s envy must have become even greater when he saw God promising a Redeemer to the human beings that he had seduced, whereas there was no redemption for him. And why would God have been so merciful to human beings? I am not absolutely sure, but I think the reason was that they fell through having been seduced and deceived by another, whereas the Devil sinned out of his own malice. God must have seen in human beings the possibility that they would repent and humbly ask pardon, but the Devil’s pride is so great that it admits of no repentance nor of the humility that might lead him to ask for forgiveness. Thus he saw himself defeated and condemned for ever, when God said to him: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, and between your seed and Her seed; She shall bruise your head, and you shall lie in wait for Her heel.” (Gn 3.15) » Sister Lucy saw and heard this “Woman”, come down from Heaven in the flesh to speak to her, and to warn her of Satan’s fury unbridled for « engaging in a final battle where one will know on which side lies victory and on which side defeat », because « we are in the last times of the world ». She said this to Father Fuentes once, and not a second time... Father Fuentes was sanctioned for having wanted to be her spokesman, so as to warn « the world » while there was still time. But it was just prior to the Council that was to « open the Church to the world » and reject the « prophets of woe ». Nevertheless, it cannot be said that Heaven’s messenger did not carry our her duties. She continues: « In addition to the temptations of the Devil, we also have the temptations of the world which surrounds us, enticing and deceiving us. Many times we are both deluded and deceived by the voices of the world. « The world speaks to us of vanity, wealth, honours, fashions, etc. Susceptible to these voices, we want to raise ourselves up, to give a good impression, to draw attention, to be showered with honours, to possess wealth, to be regarded as scholars, to have the first places, even at the expense of justice and charity. « These are the temptations of the world which blind and darken the understanding. Hence when Jesus Christ prayed to His Father, He had in mind those who, with hearts faithful to His word and grace, struggle to overcome these temptations: “It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You; (...) I passed Your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world no more than I belong to the world. I am not asking You to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One.” (Jn 17.9.14-15) « They are not of the world because they follow the Word of God who is the truth, not allowing themselves to be deceived by the lying and deceitful maxims of the world. » That is why, by opening to the world, the Council was itself nothing but « deceit and lies », at least, towards Fatima, right from the opening speech of Pope John XXIII condemning the « prophets of woe ». Sister Lucy is certainly referring to them when she continues: « They belong to God, since the Father has entrusted them to Jesus Christ who, in turn, entrusts Himself to His Father for them, to consecrate them in the truth: “They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth, Your word is truth. (...) and for their sake I consecrate Myself so that they too may be consecrated in the truth.” (Jn 17.16-19) « To be consecrated in the truth is to dedicate oneself entirely to God, and to souls for the love of God; it is to persevere in the service and in the love of God and of one’s neighbour; it is to keep going in the way mapped out for us by God – in truth – because the maxims of the world are lies and illusion. And that is why the world hates us, persecutes us and speaks calumny about us. « Like the Devil, and instigated by the devils, the world surrounds us with envy, jealousy and hatred: “If the world hates you, you must know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you.” (Jn 15.18-19) « Let me repeat for you, in my own words, what the Message says: “Continue to pray, in order to achieve peace, to gain victory over temptations and persecutions.” » Sister Lucy comes to the third obstacle that stands in the way of our perseverance in good, after the Devil and the world: « Within ourselves, too, there is another source of temptations; in order to overcome them we must continue to pray, and to struggle, because only thus shall we be able to persevere in the good path. Listen to what Jesus Christ says to us: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” (Mt 7.13-16) » The false prophets, here, are those who flatter us in the name of the our human dignity as free and autonomous persons, and nurturing our pride: « The Lord says that there are many who follow the wide road that leads to perdition; and that only a few find the narrow road that leads to life. So let us be doubly watchful over our own tendencies towards an exaggerated freedom that sets aside the authority of those who represent God for us, thus setting us unwittingly, and foolishly, on the slippery downward path. « We want to be free, but we do not know how to use our freedom well. Hence, God has placed over us those who can point out to us the right path that we may, and must, freely follow. But our pride deceives us and does not allow us to see the good which we despise, nor the evil that we are doing. In such circumstances, the temptation is within ourselves, setting a trap for us without our realising it. It is what we call the concupiscence of the heart and of the feelings, which causes us to long for things that are not good for us. In order to recognise and overcome these temptations, we must do what the Message tells us: continue to pray, so that God will give us light, strength and grace. « Jesus also said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves”. (Mt 7.15). These false prophets are all those people surrounding us, trying to induce us to follow the wide road, to give free rein to our evil tendencies, caprices, vices and disordered passions, all of which are contrary to God’s Law. They are the bad company that turns us aside from the right path of truth, justice and charity. They are all those false prophets who deny the truths revealed by God, endeavouring to introduce new and erroneous doctrines in support of the disordered lives that they themselves wish to lead. The Lord gives us a rule by which to identify such people: “You will know them by their fruits. (...) Every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. (...) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.” (Mt 7.16-20) « These warnings must put us on our guard against ourselves and the maxims of the world around us. How many times does one hear people say: “I do such and such because everybody does it”; “I dress like this because it is the fashion and everyone is dressed like this”; “I live like this, because that’s how people live nowadays”; etc. Are we to allow ourselves to be condemned just because other people live like that? – “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire.” – God tells us that He does not wish the death of the sinner but rather that he be converted and live (Ezk 18.23). However, we should note the condition: that he be converted! « “Continue to pray, in order to achieve peace”, which is the fruit of the victory achieved over all the temptations which drag us towards the paths opposed to the Law of God. Jesus Christ says quite clearly: “Not everyone who says to me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 7.21) « Thus it is that the Message tells us: Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war.” « Ave Maria! » (to be continued) Brother Bruno de Jesus
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