Fatima

The great experiment  

The declaration of independence, which begins with the words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, fixes the foundations of the new republic on universal Truths engraved by the creator on our hearts.  In 1954, our government, motivated in large part by the Knights of Columbus, and by a unanimous decision of both houses of Congress, confirmed our belief in God by inserting into the Pledge of Allegiance: “One Nation Under God” and declaring “In God We Trust” to be our motto.

The loss of innocence and Truth

But we were overcome by events after the 1950’s including the sexual revolution, drugs, the Vietnam war, the abolition of pray in schools, and especially Roe v. Wade with its implied constitutional right to abortion denying the right to life, and we turned from God as a nation.   In 1993 Pope St John Paul II gave the following commentary in Denver Colorado on the loss of Innocence and Truth: “In our century as at no other time in history the culture of death has assumed a social and institutional form of legality to justify the most horrible crimes against humanity including genocide, ethnic cleansing and the massive taking of human life even before birth or before natural death.  In much of contemporary thinking any reference to the law guaranteed by the creator, (once proclaimed so proudly by the U.S.)  is now absent.   No longer based on the objective Truth vast sectors of society are confused about what is right or wrong and are at the mercy of those with the power to create opinion and impose it on others.” 

The Winds of War and a nation divided

The destruction of the family, racism, violence, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine with the very real threat of nuclear war in China, Russia, North Korea and Iran have accelerated our decline at an exponential rate since Pope St John Paul II gave us his insights in 1993.    A seemingly insurmountable abyss has now arisen from within, and we are totally divided - friends against friends, political party against political party, and deep divisions even within the family unit.  After a review of the state of the union, Professor Towle, a political scientist from Mount St Mary’s, concludes in the Catholic Review that “it may be too late to heal our fundamental and profound divisions.”  Our future seems bleak as we ponder Jesus words “a Nation divided against itself cannot stand”, or Winston Churchill’s famous plea for our help “United we stand divided we fall.”

But everything is possible with God... 

St Louis de Montfort in his famous book True Devotion to Mary teaches that only when Jesus abides in us will we find peace.  St Louis goes on to say that the easiest way to find Jesus is to invite Mary into our hearts, for she is the mediatrix between God and man, a mother who would “swim the seas” to save her children.  The dispenser of all Gods gifts, she gives grace to whom she wants, when she wants and as much as she wants through her son Jesus who denies her nothing.  St Louis shows us how Jesus seemingly impossible demand to love our enemies, is made easy when our Mother Mary comes to our aid channeling us the necessary graces “for my yoke is easy, my burden light”. 

Pope St John Paul II’s call to Fatima

Pope St John Paul II in his Homily at the Shrine of Fatima in 1982 comments: “Sin has made itself firmly at home in the world and the denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings”.  He concludes: “the rejection of God by man through sin leads logically to the rejection of man by God, to Damnation…  But unlike Professor Towle, Pope St John Paul II gives us hope and points us to a message given to four shepherd children in 1917 at Fatima Portugal, in the middle of the 1st world war – the war to end all wars, as “a motherly message filled with Faith and Hope, that is at the same time direct and severe. “

The prophetic Fatima Message of 1917

After showing the children a vision of hell where the souls of poor sinners go, Mary told the children of Fatima that God wishes to save the world by establishing devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Her request repeated at each of the four apparitions: “You must pray the Rosary every day in honor of the Lady of the Rosary for world peace.  If people do as I say many souls will be saved and there will be peace, But, if people do not cease offending God another and more terrible war will begin.  When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is a great sign, that the chastisement of the world is at hand through war, famine, and persecution of the Church. “ 

Behold I am knocking at the door Rev 3:20

The Fatima message is more relevant today than it was in either 1917 or in 1982 when Pope St John Paul II visited the shrine at Fatima.  This summer Father Tom, as Monsignor Murphy did before him, has invited the Knights in Old Forge to Pray the Rosary together on Tuesday mornings before mass at 7:40AM in St Barts Church, in the presence of Jesus, to participate in the Holy sacrifice of the mass and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.  If we say this Rosary in honor of the Immaculate heart of Mary for world peace, we will open the door.