To understand what is expected of us in the post-synodal church, we must return to the true message of Fatima. Now, when the Church is being assaulted by those within its highest ranks. we look to Our Lady of Fatima, Star of the stormy sea.
On June 13, 1929, during her accustomed Holy Hour, Sister Lucia of Fatima received what was perhaps the most significant vision of the Most Holy Trinity and Blessed Virgin ever recorded in the history of the faith.
Sister Lucia describes the vision:
Suddenly the whole chapel became bright with a supernatural light and above the altar appeared a luminous cross that extended to the ceiling. In an even brighter light appeared above the cross the face of a Man with His body down to the waist. In front of His chest was a Dove, also made entirely of light, and nailed to the cross was the Body of another Man. A little below His hips appeared a chalice floating in the air and a large host, upon which fell the drops of blood that streamed from the face of the Crucified, and from His wounded side. They flowed down upon the host, and from there they fell into the chalice.
Beneath the cross and to the right was Our Lady with her Immaculate Heart in her hand (it was Our Lady of Fatima with her Immaculate Heart, which she held in her left hand, without a sword or roses, but rather, surrounded with a crown of thorns and all aflame).
Beneath the cross on the left appeared large letters, as though made of crystal-clear water, that flowed from the hand of the Crucified down upon the altar and formed the following words, Grace and Mercy.
“I understood that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity was being shown to me, …”
The Blessed Virgin’s message was obedience:
“The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, and to order that in union with Him and at the same time, all the Bishops of the world make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to convert it because of this day of prayer and worldwide reparation.”
In a previous post (June 13, 2015), I provided some historical context for the timing of this apparition. Interestingly, not one single Pope has attempted to provide us with any insight on this immensely significant vision, which is actually a revelation regarding the Sacrifice of the Mass as well as the Blessed Virgin and Most Holy Trinity.
If Our Lady only wanted to ask for the Consecration of Russia and the First Saturdays of Reparation, why the elaborate mystical vision? Some writers posit that it was a prophecy about the modernist attack on the Sacrificial nature of the Mass, and that is true, as far as it goes, but so was Knock, and it still did not account for the appearance of the Holy Trinity and the words, Grace and Mercy coming from the wounds of our Crucified Savior.
When we read Father Karl Stehlin’s “Who Are You, O Immaculata?” (Loreto Publications) it begins to become clearer. Fr. Stehlin, drawing on the works of St. Maximilian Kolbe, describes Mary’s role in our salvation. “She is the summit of creation and the bridge over which all paths from heaven and to heaven must travel, the nave of the church that bridges the distance between God’s majesty and the guilty sinner and connects these two extremes.”
Fr. Stehlin affirms that the mystical vision at Tuy is meant to direct us to the true meaning of the Immaculata in the mystery of God and redemption. You really must read the book, but here are some excerpts to help us get to our goal of understanding the Message of Fatima in this post-synodal church of our time.
In Part One of his book, Fr. Stehlin offers us an extensive and theologically deep background on the significance of Sister Lucia’s vision at Tuy. Father Stehlin first describes the Blessed Virgin’s relationship with the Holy Trinity and explains that by holding her thorn-crowned heart in her hand and offering it to us, Our Lady was showing that she, as Co-redemptrix and mediatrix is touching our world and is the channel through which flows the entire love-filled outpouring of the Holy Trinity into souls, also symbolized in the vision by the flowing, living water that pours out from the wound of the Crucified Savior into the world as “Grace and Mercy”.
Father S. reminds us that Our Lady of Fatima promised the children (and us!), “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that leads you to God.“ He adds, Mary’s message can be summed up in three words, consecration, conversion and reparation. Thus, she draws them to her Immaculate Heart (consecration), then leads them in their return to God (conversion) and calls them to participate in the restoration of Christ’s reign (reparation).
“The time has come …”, Mary began her message at Tuy. At Fatima, the will of God was made visible to the whole world, so that now, in the end times, Mary might be made known to the world as the Mediatrix of All Graces, as the beginning of creation’s return home to God. Mary’s heart gathers the children of God and preserves in them the light of grace in the midst of a dark world. In her heart, we can endure to the end beneath the Cross of Christ. And thus proceeds the return through Mary to Christ in the Holy Ghost to God the Father.” (Stehlin, op. cit., p. 12)
As Bishop Athanasius Schneider recently noted in his response to the final synod, “Each period of confusion during the history of the Church is at the same time a possibility to receive many graces of strength and courage and a chance to demonstrate one’s love for Christ the Incarnated Truth. (Rorate Caeli). In the midst of confusion and error, God’s infinite grace and mercy abounds for those who remain at the foot of the Cross with Mary.
The revelations of Our Lady of Fatima in the mystical vision of Tuy is an encouraging promise for us now: She offers her Immaculate Heart to her children, those who are consecrated to her, who live their consecrations moment by moment in this desolate wasteland of the post-synodal church. The greater the trial, the more God’s grace and mercy abounds!
More than ever before, we will pray the Sorrowful Mysteries and open our hearts to the graces Our Lord is offering us through His Mother. The more that God’s justice is mocked and His sacraments despised, the more doubts and errors confuse the faithful, the more firmly we abide with Mary immaculate, our Queen and our Mother, our sure refuge from apostasy.
We need to keep working on our Total Consecrations, or re-consecrations; they are more vital than ever, and right now, will avail us greatly in the essential graces, offered so generously from Our Crucified Lord, as He continues to suffer through this Passion of His Mystical Body. We have 34 days until Our Lady’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.
There has never been a better time to Pray the Rosary with confidence and joy!
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
† Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
† St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
† St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Please pray for the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
~ by evensong for love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, King.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!