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"You
have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go.
To
save them, God wishes to establish in the world
the
devotion to My Immaculate Heart.
If
what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved ...
In
the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph...
Do
not lose heart - I will never forsake you;
My
Immaculate Heart will be your refuge, and the way that will lead you to God ...
Sacrifice
yourselves for sinners, Pray the Rosary every day.
I
am the Lady of the Rosary."
(Our
Lady of the Rosary, Fatima, 1917)
Most
Holy Virgin and our beloved Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of Your
Immaculate Heart, surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every
moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Moved by the ardent desire of loving You as
our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to Your Immaculate Heart, we humbly prostrate
ourselves at Your feet. We desire to prove the sorrow we feel for the grievances caused to
You and to atone - by means of prayer and sacrifice - for the offences with which Your
maternal love is returned. Obtain for all souls the pardon of so many sins, and hasten, O
Lady, the conversion of all hearts, that we may love Jesus and cease to offend God, Who is
already so much offended, and that we may be spared the punishments of hell.
Immaculate
Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death - be our refuge and the way
that will lead us to God.
On
10th December 1925, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Sister Lucia of Fatima.
Elevated on a luminous cloud next to the Blessed Virgin was the Child Jesus.
The
Blessed Virgin rested Her hand on Sister Lucia's shoulder, and showed her a Heart
encircled by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. As Sister Lucia beheld this
vision, the Child Jesus spoke -
"Have
compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which
ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no-one to make an act of reparation
to remove them."
Then
the Blessed Virgin spoke -
"Look,
My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at
every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say
that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation,
all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive
Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for fifteen minutes
while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making
reparation to Me."
Immaculate
Heart of Mary, pray for us - be our refuge and the way that will lead us to God.
 
"Tell
everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Tell
them to ask graces from Her, and that the Heart of Jesus
wishes
to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Ask them to plead for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
for
the Lord has confided the peace of the world to Her."
-
Our Lady of Fatima to Jacinta Marto, 1917
"It
is a solemn custom of the faithful .. to weave the prayers of the Rosary into mystical
garlands for the Mother of Christ. Following in the footsteps of Our predecessors, We
heartily approve this, and We call upon all the sons of the church to offer special
devotions to the Most Blessed Virgin this year. For the danger of a more serious and
extensive calamity hangs over the human family and has increased.. So We feel most
urgently that We must once again do what We can to safeguard peace. We are also disturbed
by what We know to be going on in other areas, such as the growing nuclear armaments race,
the senseless nationalism, the racism, the obsession for revolution, the separations
imposed upon citizens, the nefarious plots, the slaughter of innocent people. All of these
can furnish material for the greatest calamity... Nothing seems more appropriate and
valuable to Us than to have the prayers of the whole Christian family rise to the Mother
of God, who is invoked as the Queen of Peace, begging her to pour forth abundant gifts of
her maternal goodness in midst of so many great trials and hardships."
-
Pope Paul VI: Christi Matri (On Prayers To Mary
For Peace)
Throughout
the world, wars rage and atrocities take place on a daily basis - images of death, horror
and destruction fill the screens of televisions and the pages of newspapers, threatening
to immerse mankind in a quagmire of apathy and cold-heartedness, and so allowing the
powers of evil to run rampant throughout the world, while the eyes of the world watch and
do little. Such evil is an offence against God and against the dignity enjoyed by all
people, created in the image and likeness of the Almighty. Such evil inflicts a deep and
bleeding Wound upon the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and deeply pierces the Immaculate
Heart of Mary with a sword of unspeakable sorrow.
It
is easy for us to feel powerless in the face of such evil, but that feeling is deceptive,
for we wield the power of the Almighty when we pray in union with Christ, the Man of
Sorrows, and especially when we are united in prayer - "Again I say to you, if two of
you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in
heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of
them." (c.f. Matt.18:19-20). With such a promise given to us from the Son of God,
what else can we do but live our Faith in the serenity of holy Hope, one of the greatest
of all virtues.
As
well as enjoying the Presence and power of the Son of God, we are also confident of
enjoying the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God; amongst Her many titles, we
call Her 'Our Lady of Sorrows', in reference to Her sorrow as She watched the Passion and
Death of Her Son upon the Cross of Calvary. But Her sorrow extends beyond Calvary, for She
is our Mother also, given to us by Christ from the Cross - "Woman, behold Thy son;
son, behold Thy Mother" (c.f. John 19: 26-27). Upon Calvary, the Beloved Disciple
represents all of mankind, each one in particular, as the Church has taught throughout the
ages.
As
our Mother, She shares the sorrow that we all experience in one way or another throughout
the moments of our lives, whether personal or familial or national or global. As the
Second Vatican Council reminds us, Mary's maternal intercession continues even now, all
these centuries after the Death and Resurrection of Her Son, Jesus -
"The
maternal duty of Mary toward men in no wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation
of Christ, but rather shows His power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed
Virgin on men originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It
flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His mediation,
depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way does it impede, but
rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ.
Predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the
incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin was in this earth the
virgin Mother of the Redeemer, and above all others and in a singular way the generous
associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth and nourished
Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by
compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she co-operated by her obedience,
faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural
life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the order of grace.
This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in
faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and
lasts until The eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay
aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts
of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who
still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the
happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under
the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. This, however, is to be so
understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and
efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator."
-
Second Vatican Council: Lumen Gentium ch.8, para. 60-62.
Another
of the titles given to the Most Blessed Virgin by the Church is that of 'Queen of Peace',
as we recall in the Litany of Loretto. The Blessed Virgin is concerned with peace, because
peace is the natural characteristic of the perfection of Gods creation. Peace begins in
the heart of the individual, grows in the family, moves out into the nation and then
spreads to all the corners of the earth. But peace must begin in the hearts of individuals
first of all for all of this to happen.
As
the Blessed Virgin reminded us at Fatima, wars and persecutions are punishments for sin,
punishments against a people which has turned its face away from God and sought its own
will, rather than the will of God. Also at Fatima, She warned us of the consequences of
our choice of action - culminating in the "annihilation of nations". But She
also warned us of a far worse fate - a fate that is everlasting and which is the
consequence of dying outwith the friendship of God. That fate is Hell, the everlasting
torment of the souls of the damned. She announced -
"You
have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go, because there is no-one to pray and
make sacrifices for them. In order to save them, God wishes to establish in the world the
devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If people do what I request, many souls will be saved and
there will be peace."
In
order that this fate of eternal torment be avoided, in order that souls might be saved,
and in order to obtain true and lasting peace for the world, it is necessary for us to
PRAY for peace - it is necessary for us to truly live as part of the Mystical Body of
Christ which is the Church, in the certainty that the good we do merits grace which the
Blessed Virgin can apply to souls in need, but also in the knowledge all mankind has a
duty and a responsibility to make reparation to God for the sins which so offend His
infinite goodness.
And
so it is with the perfect confidence of little children that we address our prayers to
Mary under the title of Queen of Peace, in the knowledge that She will obtain for us from
Her Son His mercy and His grace, and the gift of peace.
Please
take a moment to offer a prayer to Mary, asking Her to obtain from God the gift of
peace for the world and for all its peoples.
Remember,
O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to Thy
protection, implored Thy help or sought Thine intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by
this confidence, we fly unto Thee, O Virgin of Virgins, our Mother; to Thee do we come,
before Thee do we stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despite not
our petitions, but in Thy clemency, hear and answer us. Amen.
Mary
Immaculate, Queen of Peace, pray for us.
Immaculate
Heart of Mary, be our refuge and the way that will lead us to God.
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