Monday, May 13, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:
Piety, Psalms 97:1-9, Acts 7:55-60, John 15:29-33, Pope Francis Daily Homily - , Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, Fatima Portugal, Catholic Catechism Part Two: THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH - Chapter 3 Sacraments of Service at Communion Article 6:3 The Sacrament of Holy Orders - The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy
Orders
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in
Heaven. The Seven Gifts of
the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe (fear of the
Lord) , counsel, knowledge, fortitude, and piety (reverence) and shun
the seven Deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and
gluttony...Its your choice whether to embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit rising towards eternal light or succumb to the Seven deadly sins and lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to the Darkness, Purgatory or Heaven is our Soul...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...~ Zarya Parx 2013
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Prayers for Today: Monday in Easter
Rosary - Joyful Mysteries
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Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)
Pope Francis May 13 General Audience Address :
The Holy Spirit is “God active in us”
(2013-05-13 Vatican Radio)
(Vatican Radio) The Holy Spirit helps Christians remember the history of
our faith and the gifts we have received from God. Without this grace,
we risk slipping into idolatry. That was Pope Francis’ message at
morning Mass on Monday.
Monday’s first reading from the answer that Acts of the Apostles described Paul’s exchange with a group of disciples in and their surprising statement: “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Pope Francis began his homily commenting on these words and the amazement they produced by in Paul.
But he noted, with a certain realism, that the lack of awareness manifested by the Christians two thousand years ago was something confined to the first ages of the faith. “The Holy Spirit,” he said, “is always somewhat ‘the unknown’ of the faith.”
“Even now, many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is. And you sometimes hear: ‘But I get on well enough with the Father and with Son, because I pray the Our Father to the Father, I have communion with the Son, but I do not know what to do with the Holy Spirit. . .' Or people say, ‘The Holy Spirit is the dove, the one that gives us the seven gifts.’ But in this way the poor Holy Spirit always comes last and finds no place in our lives.”
Pope Francis said that the Holy Spirit is “God active in us”, “God who helps us remember,” who “awakens our memory.” Jesus himself explains this to the Apostles before Pentecost: the Spirit that God will send in my name, “will remind you of everything I have said.”
The opposite, he said, would lead the Christian down a dangerous path:
"A Christian without memory is not a true Christian: he or she is a prisoner of circumstance, of the moment, a man or woman who has no history. He or she does have a history, but does not how to enter into history. It is the Spirit that teaches us how to enter into history. Historical memory ... When in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says: ‘Remember your fathers in the faith’ – memory; ‘remember the early days of your faith, how you were courageous’ - memory. A memory of our life, of our history, a memory of the moment when we had the grace of meeting Jesus, the memory of all that Jesus has told us.”
“That memory that comes from the heart, that is a grace of the Holy Spirit,” Pope Francis vigorously repeated. He said remembering, “also means remembering one’s own misery, that which makes us slaves, and together with them, the grace of God that redeems us from our miseries”:
“And when a little vanity creeps in, when someone believes themselves to be a winner of the ‘Nobel Prize for Holiness,” then memory is also good for us: ‘But ... remember where I took you from, the very least of the flock. You were behind, in the flock.’ Memory is a great grace, and when a Christian has no memory – this is a hard thing, but it's true - he is not a Christian, he is an idolater. Because he is before a God that has no road, that does not know how to move forward on the road. Our God is moving forward on the road with us, He is among us, He walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Be mindful of all that, and life becomes more fruitful, with the grace of memory.”
Pope Francis concluded with an invitation to Christians to ask the grace of memory, so that they will never be a people that forgets the paths that have been taken, “that they will not forget the graces of their lives; that they will not forget the forgiveness of their sins; that they will not forget that they were slaves and the Lord has saved them.”
Mass was attended by Vatican Radio technicians and staff and employees from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, led by head of the Congregation, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, with the secretary Msgr. Joseph Kalathiparambil, and the Undersecretary Father Gabriel Bentoglio, who concelebrated with the Pope.
After the Mass, Pope Francis wished Msgr Peter Wells, an Assessor for General Affairs at the Secretariat of State, a happy birthday thanking him for the all the good he has done in the service of the Church.
Monday’s first reading from the answer that Acts of the Apostles described Paul’s exchange with a group of disciples in and their surprising statement: “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Pope Francis began his homily commenting on these words and the amazement they produced by in Paul.
But he noted, with a certain realism, that the lack of awareness manifested by the Christians two thousand years ago was something confined to the first ages of the faith. “The Holy Spirit,” he said, “is always somewhat ‘the unknown’ of the faith.”
“Even now, many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is. And you sometimes hear: ‘But I get on well enough with the Father and with Son, because I pray the Our Father to the Father, I have communion with the Son, but I do not know what to do with the Holy Spirit. . .' Or people say, ‘The Holy Spirit is the dove, the one that gives us the seven gifts.’ But in this way the poor Holy Spirit always comes last and finds no place in our lives.”
Pope Francis said that the Holy Spirit is “God active in us”, “God who helps us remember,” who “awakens our memory.” Jesus himself explains this to the Apostles before Pentecost: the Spirit that God will send in my name, “will remind you of everything I have said.”
The opposite, he said, would lead the Christian down a dangerous path:
"A Christian without memory is not a true Christian: he or she is a prisoner of circumstance, of the moment, a man or woman who has no history. He or she does have a history, but does not how to enter into history. It is the Spirit that teaches us how to enter into history. Historical memory ... When in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says: ‘Remember your fathers in the faith’ – memory; ‘remember the early days of your faith, how you were courageous’ - memory. A memory of our life, of our history, a memory of the moment when we had the grace of meeting Jesus, the memory of all that Jesus has told us.”
“That memory that comes from the heart, that is a grace of the Holy Spirit,” Pope Francis vigorously repeated. He said remembering, “also means remembering one’s own misery, that which makes us slaves, and together with them, the grace of God that redeems us from our miseries”:
“And when a little vanity creeps in, when someone believes themselves to be a winner of the ‘Nobel Prize for Holiness,” then memory is also good for us: ‘But ... remember where I took you from, the very least of the flock. You were behind, in the flock.’ Memory is a great grace, and when a Christian has no memory – this is a hard thing, but it's true - he is not a Christian, he is an idolater. Because he is before a God that has no road, that does not know how to move forward on the road. Our God is moving forward on the road with us, He is among us, He walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Be mindful of all that, and life becomes more fruitful, with the grace of memory.”
Pope Francis concluded with an invitation to Christians to ask the grace of memory, so that they will never be a people that forgets the paths that have been taken, “that they will not forget the graces of their lives; that they will not forget the forgiveness of their sins; that they will not forget that they were slaves and the Lord has saved them.”
Mass was attended by Vatican Radio technicians and staff and employees from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, led by head of the Congregation, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, with the secretary Msgr. Joseph Kalathiparambil, and the Undersecretary Father Gabriel Bentoglio, who concelebrated with the Pope.
After the Mass, Pope Francis wished Msgr Peter Wells, an Assessor for General Affairs at the Secretariat of State, a happy birthday thanking him for the all the good he has done in the service of the Church.
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Liturgical Celebrations to be presided over by Pope: May
Vatican City, 3 April 2013 (VIS)
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the month May, 2013:
MAY
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Following is the calendar of celebrations scheduled to be presided over by the Holy Father in the month May, 2013:
MAY
18 May, Saturday: 6:00pm, Pentecost Vigil in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
19 May, Pentecost Sunday: 10:00am, Mass in St. Peter's Square with the participation of ecclesial movements.
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed 05/13/2013.
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May 2, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World: "Dear children; Anew, I am calling you to love and not to judge. My Son, according to the will of the Heavenly Father, was among you to show you the way of salvation, to save you and not to judge you. If you desire to follow my Son, you will not judge but love like your Heavenly Father loves you. And when it is the most difficult for you, when you are falling under the weight of the cross do not despair, do not judge, instead remember that you are loved and praise the Heavenly Father because of His love. My children, do not deviate from the way on which I am leading you. Do not recklessly walk into perdition. May prayer and fasting strengthen you so that you can live as the Heavenly Father would desire; that you may be my apostles of faith and love; that your life may bless those whom you meet; that you may be one with the Heavenly Father and my Son. My children, that is the only truth, the truth that leads to your conversion, and then to the conversion of all those whom you meet - those who have not come to know my Son - all those who do not know what it means to love. My children, my Son gave you a gift of the shepherds. Take good care of them. Pray for them. Thank you."
April 25, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World:: "Dear children! Pray, pray, keep praying until your heart opens in faith as a flower opens to the warm rays of the sun. This is a time of grace which God gives you through my presence but you are far from my heart, therefore, I call you to personal conversion and to family prayer. May Sacred Scripture always be an incentive for you. I bless you all with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call."
April 2, 2013 Our Lady of Medjugorje Message to the World: "Dear children, I am calling you to be one with my Son in spirit. I am calling you, through prayer, and the Holy Mass when my Son unites Himself with you in a special way, to try to be like Him; that, like Him, you may always be ready to carry out God's will and not seek the fulfillment of your own. Because, my children, it is according to God's will that you are and that you exist, and without God's will you are nothing. As a mother I am asking you to speak about the glory of God with your life because, in that way, you will also glorify yourself in accordance to His will. Show humility and love for your neighbour to everyone. Through such humility and love, my Son saved you and opened the way for you to the Heavenly Father. I implore you to keep opening the way to the Heavenly Father for all those who have not come to know Him and have not opened their hearts to His love. By your life, open the way to all those who still wander in search of the truth. My children, be my apostles who have not lived in vain. Do not forget that you will come before the Heavenly Father and tell Him about yourself. Be ready! Again I am warning you, pray for those whom my Son called, whose hands He blessed and whom He gave as a gift to you. Pray, pray, pray for your shepherds. Thank you."
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Today's Word: Piety pi·ety [pahy-i-tee]
Origin: 1275–1325; Middle English piete < Middle French < Latin pietās, equivalent to pi ( us ) + -etās, variant (after i ) of -itās; see pious, -ity
noun, plural pi·e·ties.
1. reverence for God or devout fulfillment of religious obligations: a prayer full of piety.
2. the quality or state of being pious: saintly piety.
3. dutiful respect or regard for parents, homeland, etc.: filial piety.
4. a pious act, remark, belief, or the like: the pieties and sacrifices of an austere life.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 97:1-2, 6-7, 9
1 Yahweh is king! Let earth rejoice, the many isles be glad!
2 Cloud, black cloud enfolds him, saving justice and judgement the foundations of his throne.
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice, all nations see his glory.
7 Shame on all who serve images, who pride themselves on their idols; bow down to him, all you gods!
9 For you are Yahweh, Most High over all the earth, far transcending all gods
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Today's Epistle - Acts 7:55-60
55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.
56 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'
57 All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him,
58 thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.
59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'
60 Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.
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Today's Gospel Reading - John 16:29-33
The disciples of Jesus said, 'Now you
are speaking plainly and not using veiled language. Now we see that you
know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words;
because of this we believe that you came from God.' Jesus answered them:
Do you believe at last? Listen; the time will come -- indeed it has
come already -- when you are going to be scattered, each going his own
way and leaving me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is
with me. I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In
the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered
the world.
Reflection
• The context of today’s Gospel
continues to be the environment of the Last Supper, an environment of
fraternity and of farewell, of sadness and of expectation, in which is
mirrored the situation of the communities of Asia Minor at the end of
the first century. In order to be able to understand the Gospels well,
we can never forget that they give the words of Jesus not as if they had
been registered in a CD to transmit them literally. The Gospels are
pastoral writings which seek to embody and update the words of Jesus in
the new situations in which the communities find themselves in the
second half of the first century in Galilee (Matthew), in Greece (Luke),
in Italy (Mark) and in Asia Minor (John). In the Gospel of John, the
words and the questions of the disciples are not only those of the
disciples, in fact, they reveal the questions and problems of the
communities. They are the mirror in which the communities of that time
as well as those of today are recognized with their sadness and their
anguishes, with their joys and their hopes. And they find light and
strength in the answers of Jesus.
• John 16, 29-30: Now, you are speaking plainly. Jesus had told his disciples: The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and you have believed that I come from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father (Jn 16, 29-30). Listening to this affirmation of Jesus, the disciples answered: “Now you are speaking plainly and not using veiled language. Now we see that you know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words. Because of this we believe that you came from God”. The disciples think that they have understood everything. Yes, truly they got a true light to clarify their problems. But it was still a very dim light. They got the seed, but at that moment, not knowing the tree. The light or the seed was the fundamental intuition of faith according to which Jesus is for us the revelation of God, who is Father: “Now we believe that you came from God.“ But this was only the beginning, the seed. Jesus himself was and continues to be the great parable or the revelation of God for us. God reaches us and reveals himself to us. But God does not enter into any schema. He exceeds all, goes beyond our schema and gives us the unexpected surprise which, sometimes, is very painful.
• John 16, 31-32: You are leaving me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. Jesus asks: Do you believe at last? He knows his disciples. He knows that there is still much lacking for the understanding of the mystery of God and of the Good News of God. He knows that in spite of the good will and in spite of the light that they have just received in that moment, they still have to face the unexpected and painful surprise of the Passion and Death of Jesus. The small light that they got is not sufficient to overcome the darkness of the crisis: Behold, the time will come, indeed it has come already, when you are going to be scattered , each one going his own way and leaving me alone; and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. This is the source of certitude of Jesus and through Jesus, this is and will be the source of certitude for all of us: The Father is with me! When Moses was sent to liberate the people from the oppression of the Egyptians, this being his mission, he received this certainty: “”Go! I am with you” /Ex 3, 12). The certainty of the liberating presence of God is expressed in the name that God assumes at the moment of the beginning of the Exodus and of the liberation of his people: JHWH, God with us: This is the name for all time (Ex 3, 15). A Name which is present more than six thousand times only in the New Testament.
• John 16, 33: Courage, I have conquered the world! And now we have the last phrase pronounced by Jesus who anticipates the victory and which will be a source of peace and of strength for the disciples of that time, as well as for all of us, up until now: I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous, I have conquered the world”. With his sacrifice out of love, Jesus conquers the world and Satan. His disciples are called to participate in the struggle and the victory. To feel the courage which he gives is already to overcome the battle”. (L.A. Schokel)
For Personal Confrontation
• A small light helped the disciples
to take a step farther, but it did not light the whole journey. Have you
had a similar experience in your life?
• Courage, I have conquered the world! Has this phrase of Jesus helped you some times in your life?
• Courage, I have conquered the world! Has this phrase of Jesus helped you some times in your life?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima
Feast Day: May 13
Patron Saint:
Attributes:
Our Lady of Fátima (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora de Fátima, European Portuguese: [ˈnɔsɐ sɨˈɲoɾɐ dɨ ˈfatimɐ])
is a title for the Virgin Mary due to her reputed apparitions to three
shepherd children at Fátima, Portugal on the thirteenth day of six
consecutive months in 1917, beginning on May 13. The three children were
Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
The title of Our Lady of the Rosary
is also sometimes used to refer to the same apparition (although it was
first used in 1208 for the reputed apparition in the church of Prouille),
because the children related that the apparition called herself the
"Lady of the Rosary". It is also common to see a combination of these
titles, i.e.
Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Fátima). The
events at Fátima gained particular fame due to their elements of
prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war
and the conversion of Soviet Russia. The reported apparitions at Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church.
History
Page from Ilustração Portuguesa,
29 October 1917, showing the people looking at the miracle of the sun
during the Fátima apparitions attributed to the Virgin Mary.
On
May 13, 1917, ten year old Lúcia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and
Francisco Marto were herding sheep at a location known as the Cova da
Iria
near their home village of Fátima, Portugal. Lúcia described seeing a
woman "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and
stronger than a crystal ball filled with the most sparkling water and
pierced by the burning rays of the sun."
Further appearances were reported to have taken place on the thirteenth
day of the month in June and July. In these, the woman exhorted the
children to do penance and Acts of Reparation
as well as making personal sacrifices to save sinners. The children
subsequently wore tight cords around their waists to cause themselves
pain, performed self-flagellation using stinging nettles,
abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed other works of
penance. According to Lúcia's account, in the course of her
appearances, the woman confided to the children three secrets, now known
as the Three Secrets of Fátima.
Thousands of people flocked to Fátima and Aljustrel in the following
months, drawn by reports of visions and miracles. On August 19, 1917,
the provincial administrator and anticlerical Freemason, Artur Santos
(no relation to Lúcia Santos), believing that the events were
politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they
could reach the Cova da Iria that day. Prisoners held with them in the
provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were
first consoled by the inmates, and later led them in praying the rosary.
The administrator interrogated the children and tried unsuccessfully to
get them to divulge the contents of the secrets. In the process, he
threatened the children, saying he would boil them in a pot of oil, one
by one unless they confessed. The children refused, but Lúcia told him
everything short of the secrets, and offered to ask the Lady for
permission to tell the Administrator the secrets.
That month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the
13th, the children reported that they saw the Virgin Mary on 15 August,
the Feast of the Assumption, at nearby Valinhos.
Photograph taken during the reputed "Dance of the Sun" at Fátima on 13 October 1917.
As
early as July 1917 it was claimed that the Virgin Mary had
promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions on October 13, so
that all would believe. What happened then became known as "Miracle of
the Sun". A crowd believed to number approximately 70,000,
including newspaper reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova
da Iria. The incessant rain had finally ceased and a thin layer of
clouds cloaked the silver disc of the sun. Witnesses said later it could
be looked upon without hurting the eyes.
Lúcia, moved by what she said was an interior impulse, called out to
the crowd to look at the sun. Witnesses later spoke of the sun appearing
to change colors and rotate like a wheel. Not everyone saw the same
things, and witnesses gave widely varying descriptions of the "sun's
dance". The phenomenon is claimed to have been witnessed by most people
in the crowd as well as people many miles away.
While the crowd was staring at the sun, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta
said later they were seeing lovely images of the Holy Family, Our Lady
of Sorrows with Jesus Christ, and then Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They
said they saw Saint Joseph and Jesus bless the people. The children were aged 10, 9, and 7 at the time.
Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século (Portugal's most influential newspaper, which was pro-government in policy and avowedly anti-clerical),
reported the following: "Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose
aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the
sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all
cosmic laws - the sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of
the people." Eye specialist Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the newspaper Ordem
reported "The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at
another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceeding
fast and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the
sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat". The special reporter for the October 17, 1917 edition of the Lisbon daily, O Dia,
reported the following, "...the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy
purple light was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken
clouds...The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through
the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the
people who knelt with outstretched hands...people wept and prayed with
uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The
seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."
Chapel of Apparitions, built at the place where the Fátima apparitions were reported
No movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time.
According to contemporary reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and
schoolteacher Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the
town of Alburita, the solar phenomenon was visible from up to forty
kilometers away. Not all witnesses reported seeing the sun "dance". Some
people only saw the radiant colors, and others, including some
believers, saw nothing at all.
Since no scientifically verifiable physical cause can be adduced to
support the phenomenon of the sun, various explanations have been
advanced to explain the descriptions given by numerous witnesses. A
leading conjecture is a mass hallucination possibly stimulated by the
religious fervor of the crowds expectantly waiting for a predicted sign.
Another conjecture is a possible visual artifact caused by looking at
the sun for a prolonged period. As noted by Auguste Meessen, a professor
at the Institute of Physics, Catholic University of Leuven, looking directly at the Sun can cause phosphene
visual artifacts and temporary partial blindness. He has proposed that
the reported observations were optical effects caused by prolonged
staring at the sun. Meessen contends that retinal after-images produced
after brief periods of sun gazing are a likely cause of the observed
dancing effects. Similarly Meessen states that the colour changes
witnessed were most likely caused by the bleaching of photosensitive
retinal cells.
Meessen observes that solar miracles have been witnessed in many places
where religiously charged pilgrims have been encouraged to stare at the
sun. He cites the apparitions at Heroldsbach in Germany (1949) as an
example where exactly the same optical effects as at Fátima were
witnessed by more than 10,000 people.
There is no evidence that people who came to Fátima, even those
expecting a miracle, were staring at the sun before Lúcia spoke. Most
would have been focused on the tree where the children said the
apparition appeared. Some onlookers reported other phenomena, including
luminous mist and the showers of flower petals seen around and above the
tree during previous visitations.
In addition to the Miracle of the Sun, the seers at Fátima indicated
that the apparition prophesied a great sign in the night sky which would
precede a second great war.
On January 25, 1938, bright lights, an aurora borealis appeared all
over the northern hemisphere, including in places as far south as North
Africa, Bermuda and California. It was the widest occurrence of the
aurora since 1709 and people in Paris and elsewhere believed a great fire was burning and fire departments were called.
Lúcia, the sole surviving seer at the time, indicated that it was the
sign foretold and so apprised her superior and the bishop in letters the
following day. Just over a month later, Hitler seized Austria and eight months later invaded Czechoslovakia.
Three Secrets of Fátima
First two secrets
The First secret was a vision of hell, which Lúcia describes in her Third Memoir, as follows:
- "Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror."[20]
The Second secret included Mary's instructions on how to save souls
from hell and convert the world to the Christian faith, also revealed by
Lúcia in her Third Memoir:
- "I
have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them,
God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If
what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be
peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending
God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI.
When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is
the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world
for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church
and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the
consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of
reparation on the First Saturdays.
If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be
peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing
wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy
Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated.
In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will
consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of
peace will be granted to the world."
The Third secret, a vision of the death of the Pope and other religious figures, was transcribed by the Bishop of Leiria and reads:
- "After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of
Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his
left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they
would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the
splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand:
pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud
voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!' And we saw in an immense light that
is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they
pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression
that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and
women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big
Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before
reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins
and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he
prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached
the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he
was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him,
and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops,
Priests, Religious men and women, and various lay people of different
ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two
Angels each with a crystal aspersorium
in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and
with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
Controversy around the Third Secret
The Vatican
withheld the Third Secret until 26 June 2000, despite Lúcia's
declaration that it could be released to the public after 1960. Some
sources, including Canon Barthas and Cardinal Ottaviani,
said that Lúcia insisted to them it must be released by 1960, saying
that, "by that time, it will be more clearly understood", and, "because
the Blessed Virgin wishes it so."
When 1960 arrived, rather than releasing the Third Secret, the Vatican
published an official press release stating that it was "most probable
the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal." After this announcement, immense speculation over the content of the secret materialized. According to the New York Times,
speculation over the content of the secret ranged from "worldwide
nuclear annihilation to deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that
lead to rival papacies."
Some sources claim that the four-page, handwritten text of the Third Secret released by the Vatican in the year 2000 is not the real secret, or at least not the full secret. In particular, it is alleged that Cardinals Bertone, Ratzinger and Sodano
engaged in a systematic deception to cover-up the existence of a
one-page document containing the so-called words of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, which some believe contains information about the Apocalypse and a
great apostasy. These sources contend that the Third Secret actually
comprises two texts, where one of these texts is the published four-page
vision, and the other is a single-page letter allegedly containing the
words of the Virgin Mary which has been concealed.
The Vatican has maintained its position that the full text of the
Third Secret was published in June 2000. According to a December 2001
Vatican press release (subsequently published in L'Osservatore Romano),
Lúcia told then Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone in an interview that the
secret had been completely revealed and published - that no secrets
remained. Bertone, along with Cardinal Ratzinger, co-authored The Message of Fátima,
the document published in June 2000 by the Vatican that allegedly
contains a scanned copy of the original text of the Third Secret.
During
his apostolic visit to Portugal between May 11 and 14, 2010 on the
occasion of the 10th anniversary of the beatification of Jacinta and
Francisco Marto, Pope Benedict XVI
explained in a rare conversation with reporters that the interpretation
of the third secret did not stop with the interpretation of a
prediction of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in 1981. The Third Secret of Fátima,
said Benedict XVI, "has a permanent and ongoing significance" and that
"its significance could even be extended to include the suffering the
Church is going through today as a result of the recent reports of
sexual abuse involving the clergy".
Fate of the three children
Sister
Lúcia reported seeing the Virgin Mary again in 1925 at the Dorothean
convent at Pontevedra, Galicia (Spain). This time she said she was asked
to convey the message of the First Saturday Devotions. By her account a
subsequent vision of Christ as a child reiterated this request.
Sister
Lúcia was transferred to another convent in Tui or Tuy, Galicia in
1928. In 1929, Sister Lúcia reported that Mary returned and repeated her
request for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
Sister
Lúcia reportedly saw Mary in private visions periodically throughout
her life. Most significant was the apparition in Rianxo, Galicia,
in 1931, in which she said that Jesus visited her, taught her two
prayers and delivered a message to give to the church's hierarchy.
In
1947, Sister Lúcia left the Dorothean order and joined the Discalced
Carmelite order in a monastery in Coimbra, Portugal. Lúcia died on
February 13, 2005, at the age of 97. After her death, the Vatican,
specifically Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (at that time, still head of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith),
ordered her cell sealed off. It is believed this was because Sister
Lúcia had continued to receive more revelations and the evidence needed
to be examined in the course of proceedings for her possible
canonization.
Sister
Lúcia's cousins, the siblings Francisco (1908–1919) and Jacinta Marto
(1910–1920), were both victims of the Great Spanish Flu Epidemic of
1918-20. Francisco and Jacinta were declared venerable by Pope John Paul
II in a public ceremony at Fátima on May 13, 1989. He returned there on
May 13, 2000 to declare them 'blessed' (a title of veneration below
that of sainthood; see Canonization). Jacinta is the youngest
non-martyred child ever to be beatified.
In 1936 and again in 1941, Sister Lúcia claimed that the Virgin Mary
had predicted the deaths of two of the children during the second
apparition on June 13, 1917. Besides Lúcia's account, the testimony of
Olímpia Marto (mother of the two younger children) and several others
state that her children did not keep this information secret and
ecstatically predicted their own deaths many times to her and to curious
pilgrims.
In fact, it was the first thing Jacinta told her mother when she spoke to her after the initial apparition.According to the 1941 account, on 13 June, Lúcia asked the Virgin if
the three children would go to heaven when they died. She said that she
heard Mary reply, "Yes, I shall take Francisco and Jacinta soon, but you
will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known
and loved on Earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the
world to my Immaculate Heart."
Exhumed
in 1935 and again in 1951, Jacinta's face was found incorrupt or immune
to decay. Francisco's body, however, had decomposed.
Consecration of Russia
Statue of Pope Pius XII in Fátima, Portugal.
According
to Sister Lúcia, the Virgin Mary promised that the Consecration of
Russia would lead to Russia's conversion and an era of peace.
Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Letter Sacro Vergente of 7 July 1952, consecrated Russia to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pius XII wrote,
- Just as a few years ago We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today We consecrate and in a most special manner We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart...
In
1952 the Pope said to the Russian people and the Stalinist regime that
the Virgin Mary was always victorious. "The gates of hell
will never prevail, where she offers her protection. She is the good
mother, the mother of all, and it has never been heard, that those who
seek her protection, will not receive it. With this certainty, the Pope
dedicates all people of Russia to the immaculate heart of the Virgin.
She will help! Error and atheism will be overcome with her assistance
and divine grace."
Popes
Pius XII and John Paul II both had special relations to Our Lady of
Fátima. Pope Benedict XV began Pacelli's church career, elevating him to
archbishop in the Sistine Chapel
on May 13, 1917, the date of the first reported apparition. Pius XII
was laid to rest in the crypt of Saint Peter's Basilica on October 13,
1958, the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima.
Pope
John Paul II again consecrated the entire world to the Virgin
Mary in 1984, without explicitly mentioning Russia. Some believe that
Sister Lúcia verified that this ceremony fulfilled the requests of the
Virgin Mary. However, in the Blue Army's Spanish magazine, Sol de Fátima,
in the September 1985 issue, Sister Lúcia said that the ceremony did
not fulfill the Virgin Mary's request, as there was no specific mention
of Russia, and "many bishops attached no importance to it." In 2001,
Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone issued a statement, claiming that he had met
with Sister Lúcia, who reportedly told him, "I have already said that
the consecration desired by Our Lady was made in 1984, and has been
accepted in Heaven." Sister Lúcia died on February 13, 2005, without
making any public statement of her own to settle the issue.
Some maintain that, according to Lúcia and Fátima advocates such as Abbe Georges de Nantes, Fr. Paul Kramer and Nicholas Gruner,
Russia has never been specifically consecrated to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary by any Pope simultaneously with all the world's bishops, which
is what Lúcia in the 1985 interview had said Mary had asked for.
However, by letters of August 29, 1989 and July 3, 1990, she stated
that the consecration had been completed; indeed in the 1990 letter in
response to a question by Rev. Father Robert J. Fox, she confirmed:
I come to answer your question, "If the consecration made by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984 in union with all the bishops of the world, accomplished the conditions for the consecration of Russia according to the request of Our Lady in Tuy on June 13 of 1929?" Yes, it was accomplished, and since then I have said that it was made. And I say that no other person responds for me, it is I who receive and open all letters and respond to them.
In the meantime, the conception of
Theotokos Derzhavnaya Orthodox Christian venerated icon points out that
Virgin Mary is considered actual Tsarina of Russia by the religious
appeal of Nicholas II thus Consecration of Russia may refer to return of
Russian monarchy.
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is one of the largest Marian shrines in the world. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima (also known as the Fátima Shrine, the Sanctuary of Fátima or Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary)
is a Roman Catholic Marian basilica in Fátima, Portugal. Its
construction began in 1928 and it was consecrated in October 1953.
The basilica is built at the site of the
Marian apparitions reported by three Portuguese children in 1917 and
known as Our Lady of Fátima. The tombs of Blessed Francisco Marto,
Blessed Jacinta Marto and Sister Lúcia, the three children, are in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. Scenes of the Marian apparitions are shown in stained glass.
The fifteen church altars are dedicated to the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
The large church organ was installed in 1952 and has about twelve
thousand pipes. Four statues of the four great apostles of the Rosary
and to the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are at the four
corners of the Basilica: Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Saint Dominic, Saint John Eudes and Saint Stephen, King of Hungary.
The shrine attracts a large number of Roman Catholics,
and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine
with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the
significant dates of the Fátima apparitions. Overall, about four million pilgrims visit the basilica every year.
The Chapel of Apparitions is at the very heart of the
basilica. The exact location of the apparitions is marked by a marble
pillar which holds a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The Paul VI Pastoral Center was inaugurated on May 13, 1982, by Pope John Paul II,
as a center for study and reflection on the message of Fátima. It can
seat over two thousand people and has accommodation for four hundred
pilgrims.
The treasury of the sanctuary holds the Irish Monstrance
considered to be one of the most significant works of religious art
from Ireland. The monstrance was gifted to the basilica in 1949.
The entrance to the Fátima Sanctuary,
which is to the south of the rectory, is a segment of the Berlin Wall
intended to emphasize the belief that the Rosary prayers influenced the
fall of the Berlin Wall related to the Consecration of Russia based on
the Our Lady of Fátima messages.
The large statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which stands in the niche
above the main entrance of the basilica, was sculpted by American priest
Thomas McGlynn, O.P. Father McGlynn spent considerable time with the
visionary Sister Lúcia
as she described for him in detail how Mary looked during her
appearances to the children. The statue is not what Father McGlynn had
in mind when he approached Sister Lúcia, but is more accurately
described as a collaboration between visionary and sculptor, producing
perhaps the most accurate representation of Our Lady of Fátima ever to
be sculpted. The statue was presented as a gift from the Catholic people
of the United States to the Sanctuary of Fátima in 1958.
Fátima Prayers and Reparations
Many Roman Catholics
recite prayers based on Our Lady of Fátima. Lúcia later said that, in
1916, she and her cousins had several visions of an angel calling
himself the "Angel of Portugal" and the "Angel of Peace" who taught them
to bow with their heads to the ground
and to say "O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I ask
pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do
not love you." Lúcia later set this prayer to music and a recording
exists of her singing it. It was also said that sometime later the angel returned and taught them a eucharistic devotion now known as the Angel Prayer.
Lúcia said that the Lady emphasized Acts of Reparation
and prayers to console Jesus for the sins of the world. Lúcia said that
Mary's words were "When you make some sacrifice, say 'O Jesus, it is
for your love, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for sins
committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.'" At the first
apparition, Lúcia wrote, the children were so moved by the radiance they
perceived that they involuntarily said "Most Holy Trinity, I adore you!
My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament."
Lúcia also said that she heard Mary ask for these words to be added to
the Rosary after the Gloria Patri prayer: "O my Jesus, pardon us, save
us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in
most need."
In
the tradition of Marian visitations, the "conversion of sinners" is not
necessarily religious conversion to the Roman Catholic Church,
for that would be the "conversion of heretics or apostates who are
'outside the church and alien to the Christian Faith' according to Pope
Leo XIII in his encyclical on the Unity of the Church, Satis Cognitum".
Conversion of sinners refers to general repentance and attempt to amend
one's life according to the teachings of Jesus for those True Catholics
who do profess the faith truly, but are fallen into sins. Lúcia wrote
that she and her cousins defined "sinners" not as non-Catholics but as
those who had fallen away from the church or, more specifically,
willfully indulged in sinful activity, particularly "sins of the flesh"[53]
and "acts of injustice and a lack of charity towards the poor, widows
and orphans, the ignorant and the helpless" which she said were even
worse than sins of impurity.
Pilgrimage
Statue depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary as described by Sister Lúcia of Fátima.
An estimated 70,000 people assembled to witness the last of the promised appearances of the Lady in the Cova da Iria
on October 13, 1917. The widely reported miracle of the sun was a
factor that led to Fátima quickly becoming a major centre of pilgrimage.
Two million pilgrims visited the site in the decade following the
events of 1917. A small chapel - the Capelinha
- was built by local people on the site of the apparitions. The
construction was neither encouraged nor hindered by the Catholic Church
authorities. On May 13, 1920, pilgrims defied government troops to
install a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel,
and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
was first officially celebrated there in January 1924. A hostel for the
sick was begun in that year. In 1927 the first rector of the sanctuary
was appointed and a set of Stations of the Cross were erected on the
mountain road. The foundation stone for the present basilica was laid
the next year.
1930 was the year both of official church recognition of the
apparition events as "worthy of belief" and the granting of a papal indulgence to pilgrims visiting Fátima.
In 1935 the bodies of the visionaries Jacinta and Francisco were
reinterred in the basilica. The coronation of the statue of Our Lady of
Fátima there in 1946 drew such large crowds that the entrance to the
site had to be barred.
Today pilgrimage to the site goes on all year round and additional
chapels, hospitals and other facilities have been constructed. The
principal pilgrimage festivals take place on the thirteenth day of each
month, from May to October, on the anniversaries of the original
appearances. The largest crowds gather on 13 May and 13 October, when up
to a million
pilgrims have attended to pray and witness processions of the statue of
Our Lady of Fátima, both during the day and by the light of tens of
thousands of candles at night.
Political aspects
From
the French Revolution onwards the Catholic Church had adopted an
increasingly embattled world view and from the pontificate of Pius IX
the Church had been waging war against the so-called twin enemies of
liberalism and socialism. At the same time religion had become
predominantly a female activity by the early twentieth century.
The
numerical predominance of women within the Catholic Church went
alongside a corresponding development of female divine symbols. Dramatic
affirmations of feminine power were given in the apparitions of the
Virgin Mary which occurred all over Western Europe from the 1840s. The
Virgin, usually in the form of the Immaculate Conception, revealed
herself to female seers, often children. When Our Lady appeared to
Catherine Labouré, Bernadette Soubirous, Lúcia Santos at Fátima, or to
the children at Beauraing later, in 1932, and Mariette Beco in 1933,
these dramatic affirmations of divine power in an increasingly
irreligious/secular age, a transformation more strongly felt in the
Western world, offered 'proof' of the power of heaven against "the
onslaughts of secularizing governments".
"The Marian militancy of the Jesuit congregations divided the world
into two camps, those who would defend the Virgin and those who would
defile her. In the wake of the apparitions at Fatima in Portugal such a
view of the world appeared to be shared by the Virgin herself. The
'secrets of Fatima' revealed periodically by the seer Lucia showed
Mary's concern with the apostacy of Soviet Russia and the threat of communist anticlericalism.
Our
Lady of Fatima presented a vision of a world divided. Rome, and
Mary, were ranged against the Soviet Union in a struggle between the
redeemed and the fallen. With the advent of the Spanish Second Republic,
the Virgin Mary [would be] seen on Spanish soil at Ezquioga. Ramona
Olazabal insisted Mary had marked the palms of her hands with a sword.
Seers gained much credence in Integrist and Carlist
circles. The visions at Ezquioga were widely covered in the press, as
were the sixteen other visitations of the Virgin to Spain in 1931. There
was also the Fatima story, an officially sanctioned apparition, the
cult of which, far from being condemned, was actively encouraged by the
Church. As the forces of the Republic gathered strength in Spain, the
Virgin Mary was to be found leading the armies of the faithful ranged
against the Godless."
The
Blue Army of Our Lady is made up of Catholics and non-Catholics who
believe that by dedicating themselves to daily prayer (specifically, of
the Rosary) they can help to achieve world peace and put an end to the
error of communism. In 1952, a feature film, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, was released. Critics held that the film overplayed the role of socialist
and other leftist elements in Portuguese government as the
"adversaries" of the visions. They state that since the government was
controlled not by socialists but by Freemasons at the time,
most government opposition to the visions would have been motivated by
concern for separation of church and state, not by atheistic,
antitheistic or Communistic ideology. Other critics have stated that
only the enemies of the message propose such a belief.
Official position of the Catholic Church
Inside the Basilica of the Rosary
Private revelations do not form part of the deposit of faith of the Catholic Church,
and its members are not bound to believe in any of them. However, as a
matter of prudence, assent would normally be expected of a Catholic
based on the discernment of the Church and its judgment that an
apparition is worthy of belief.
After a canonical enquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially
declared "worthy of belief" in October 1930 by the Bishop of
Leiria-Fátima.
Ecclesiastical
approbation does not imply that the Church provides an
infallible guarantee on the supernatural nature of the event.
Theologians like Karl Rahner argued however, that Popes, by
authoritatively fostering the Marian veneration in places as Fátima and
Lourdes, motivate the faithful into an acceptance of divine faith.[65] Popes Pius XII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI
all voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fátima
events in unusually clear and strong terms. After the local bishop had
declared that (1) the visions of the three children are credible and (2)
the veneration of the Blessed Virgin is permitted, the Portuguese
bishops approved and declared the genuine supernatural nature of the
event. The Vatican responded with granting indulgences and permitting
special Liturgies of the Mass to be celebrated in Fátima.[15]
In 1939, Eugenio Pacelli, who was consecrated bishop on May 13,
1917—the day of the first apparition—was elected to the papacy as Pius
XII, and became the Pope of Fátima.
One year after World War II had started, Sister Lúcia asked Pope Pius
XII to consecrate the world and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
She repeated this request on December 2, 1940, stating in the year 1929,
the Blessed Lady requested in another apparition the consecration of
Russia to her Immaculate Heart. She promised the conversion of Russia
from its errors.
On May 13, 1942, the 25th anniversary of the first apparition and the
silver jubilee of the episcopal consecration of Pope Pius XII, the
Vatican published the Message and Secret of Fátima. On October 31, 1942,
Pope Pius XII,
in a radio address, informed the people of Portugal about the
apparitions of Fátima, consecrating the human race to the Immaculate
Heart of the Virgin with specific mention of Russia. On December 8, 1942, the Pontiff officially and solemnly declared this
consecration in a ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. On May 13,
1946, Cardinal Masalla, the personal delegate of Pius XII, crowned in
his name Our Lady of Fátima, as the Pope issued a second message about
Fátima:
- "The faithful virgin never disappointed the trust, put on her. She will transform into a fountain of graces, physical and spiritual graces, over all of Portugal, and from there, breaking all frontiers, over the whole Church and the entire world".
On 1 May 1948, in
Auspicia Quaedam, Pope Pius XII requested the consecration to the
Immaculate Heart of every Catholic family, parish and diocese.
- "It is our wish, consequently, that wherever the opportunity suggests itself, this consecration be made in the various dioceses as well as in each of the parishes and families."
On May 18, 1950, the Pope again sent a message to the people of
Portugal regarding Fátima: "May Portugal never forget the heavenly
message of Fátima, which, before anybody else she was blessed to hear.
To keep Fátima in your heart and to translate Fátima into deeds, is the
best guarantee for ever more graces". In numerous additional messages, and in his encyclicals Fulgens Corona (1953), and Ad Caeli Reginam (1954), Pius XII encouraged the veneration of the Virgin in Fátima.
At the end of the Second Vatican Council Pope Paul VI
renewed the consecration of Pius XII to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
and, in an unusual gesture, announced his own pilgrimage to the
sanctuary on the fiftieth anniversary of the first apparition. On May
13, 1967, he prayed at the shrine together with Sister Lúcia. This
historic gesture further cemented the official support for Fátima. Pope John Paul II
credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life following the
assassination attempt on Wednesday, May 13, the Feast of Our Lady of
Fátima, in 1981.
He followed the footsteps of Paul VI, on May 12, 1987, to express his
gratitude to the Virgin Mary for saving his life. The following day, he
renewed the consecration of Pius XII to the Immaculate Heart of the
Virgin.
On May 12 and 13, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
and strongly stated his acceptance of the supernatural origin of the
Fátima apparitions. On the first day, the Pope arrived at the Chapel of
Apparitions to pray and gave a Golden Rose to Our Lady of Fátima "as
a homage of gratitude from the Pope for the marvels that the Almighty
has worked through you in the hearts of so many who come as pilgrims to
this your maternal home". The Pope also recalled the "invisible hand" that saved John Paul II and said in a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary that "it
is a profound consolation to know that you are crowned not only with
the silver and gold of our joys and hopes, but also with the 'bullet' of
our anxieties and sufferings".
On the second day, Pope Benedict's homily pronounced in front of more
than 500,000 pilgrims a reference to the Fátima prophecy about the
triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and related it to the final
"glory of the Most Holy Trinity".
References
- Alonso, Joaquín María (1976) (in Spanish). La verdad sobre el secreto de Fatima: Fátima sin mitos. Centro Mariano "Cor Mariae Centrum". ISBN 978-84-85167-02-9. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- Alonso, Joaquin Maria; Kondor, Luis (1998). Fátima in Lucia's own words: sister Lucia's memoirs. Secretariado dos Pastorinhos. ISBN 978-972-8524-00-5. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- Cuneo, Michael. The Vengeful Virgin: Studies in Contemporary Catholic Apocalypticism. in Robbins, Thomas; Palmer, Susan J. (1997). Millennium, messiahs, and mayhem: contemporary apocalyptic movements. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-91649-3. Retrieved 26 October 2010.
- De Marchi, John (1952). The Immaculate Heart. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young
- Ferrara, Christopher (2008). The Secret Still Hidden. Good Counsel Publications Inc.. ISBN 978-0-9815357-0-8
- Frère François de Marie des Anges (1994). Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph. New York, U.S.A
- Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite (1990). The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume III. New York, U.S.A.
- Kramer, Father Paul (2002). The Devil's Final Battle. Good Counsel Publications Inc.. ISBN 978-0-9663046-5-7
- Joe Nickell: Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures: Prometheus Books: 1998: ISBN 1-57392-680-9
- Nick Perry and Loreto Echevarria: Under the Heel of Mary: New York: Routledge: 1988: ISBN 0-415-01296-1
- Sandra Zimdars-Swartz: Encountering Mary: Princeton: Princeton University Press: 1991: ISBN 0-691-07371-6
- Walsh, William:Our Lady of Fatima: Image: Reissue edition (October 1, 1954): 240 pp: ISBN 978-0385028691
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Today's Snippet I: Fatima Portugal
 |
| Panoramic view of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima (with the Chapel of the Apparitions and the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary) |
Fátima is a civil parish in the municipality of Ourém, in the Portuguese Centro
region. With a population of 11,538 inhabitants in 2011, the parish
actually encompasses several villages and localities of which Fátima,
with a population of 7,756 residents, is the largest. Part of the urban
agglomeration of Leiria, it is 187 km (116 mi) south of Porto and 123 km (76 mi) north of Lisbon.
It has been permanently associated with the Marian apparitions that
occurred in Cova da Iria in 1917 and which were later recognized by the
Catholic Church.
History
The parish was founded in 1568, when it was annexed by the Collegiate of Ourém (Portuguese: Colegiada de Ourém).
The history of Fátima is associated with three children: Lúcia and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, who on 13 May 1917, while guarding their sheep in Cova da Iria, witnessed an apparition of a lady dressed in white. Cova da Iria is now the Chapel of Apparitions or Portuguese: Capela das Aparições. The lady, later referred to as Our Lady of the Rosary, indicated that she was sent by God with a message of prayer, repentance and consecrations. She visited the children each month on the 13th day from May 13 - October 13. The last apparition occurred on October 13th, and was witnessed by 70,000 pilgrims, who saw the Miracle of the Sun. In addition, Our Lady of Fátima sent a message that consisted of three secrets: first, a vision of Hell where the souls of the sinful would travel without prayer; the second, prophesied the beginning of the Second World War; and ultimately, the mysterious third secret, which was written down by Lúcia dos Santos in 1944, and held by the Vatican, since 1957.
Lucia became a nun and as Sister Lúcia, she recounted three visits from an angel to her and her cousins. Between April and October in 1916 this angel invited them to pray and do penitence. The angel visited them twice in Loca do Cabeço and once by the well in Lúcia's garden. Jacinta died in 1919 and Francisco in 1920 from the Spanish flu Epidemic of 1918-1920, and were later beatified on 13 May 2000 by Pope John Paul II. Lucia lived until 2005.
In order to mark the location of the apparitions, a wooden arch with a cross was constructed in Cova da Iria. The faithful began to travel in pilgrimage to the site. On 6 August 1918, with donations from the public, a small chapel was begun, built from rock and limestone and covered in tile. With a width of 3.3 metres (11 ft) by 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) length, and 2.85 metres (9.4 ft) height, it began to become a center of Marian worship, receiving names such as a fé. Fátima, cidade da Paz (the faith of Fatima, City of Peace), or Terra de Milagres e Aparições (Land of Miracles and Apparitions).
The construction of the sanctuary brought local development to the region, which eventually allowed the town of Fátima to be elevated to the status of city on 12 July 1997. Actually, there was a movement in the parish, primarily from the economic sector, who desired that Fátima become its own municipality. But, the project, which was led by engineer Júlio Silva, ex-president of the Junta de Freguesia, was vetoed on July 2003 by Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, resulting in disappointment among its residents.
Geography
Fátima is located on the Estremenho Limestone Massif, on the flanks of the Serra de Aire, approximately 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. The geology of the Serras de Aire and Candeeiros gives rise to an arid landscape with a rocky ground interspersed with limestone outcroppings. There are various geological formations in the region including sinkholes, uvalas and polje (like the Polje de Minde-Mata), as well as karst grottoes, caves with stalactites and stalagmites, in addition to lapiez fields.The climate is characterized by heavy precipitation during the winter with approximately 1,400 millimetres (55 in) annually and warm, dry summers.
The trees in this area are primarily dominated by Holly oak (Quercus ilex), Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea), Strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo), Buckthorn and Olive trees, all of which are resistant to the precipitation extremes of the climate. There are also areas of savannah, strips of land bounded by walls of loose stone.
Until 1917, Fátima was an unknown village involved in shepherding and agriculture. It became known worldwide because of the Marian apparitions seen by three young shepherds, occurring between 13 May and 13 October 1917. About 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from Fátima is Aljustrel, a small hamlet where the three shepherd children were born. To the west, near Aljustrel, is Loca do Cabeço, a smaller agglomeration of rocky outcroppings where, in 1916, an angel appeared twice to the three children.
Culture
The Sanctuary of Fátima, in Cova da Iria, is the principal focus of visitors. Annually pilgrims regularly fill the country roads leading to the shrine. Numbers can reach hundreds of the thousands on 13 May and 13 October, the significant dates of the apparitions in Fátima.Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima (also known as the Fátima Shrine, the Sanctuary of Fátima or Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary) is a Roman Catholic Marian basilica in Fátima, Portugal. Its construction began in 1928 and it was consecrated in October 1953.
The basilica is built at the site of the Marian apparitions reported by three Portuguese children in 1917 and known as Our Lady of Fátima. The tombs of Blessed Francisco Marto, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Sister Lúcia, the three children, are in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. Scenes of the Marian apparitions are shown in stained glass.
The fifteen church altars are dedicated to the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
The large church organ was installed in 1952 and has about twelve
thousand pipes. Four statues of the four great apostles of the Rosary
and to the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are at the four
corners of the Basilica: Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Saint Dominic, Saint John Eudes and Saint Stephen, King of Hungary.
The shrine attracts a large number of Roman Catholics,
and every year pilgrims fill the country road that leads to the shrine
with crowds that approach one million on May 13 and October 13, the
significant dates of the Fátima apparitions. Overall, about four million pilgrims visit the basilica every year.
The Chapel of Apparitions is at the very heart of the
basilica. The exact location of the apparitions is marked by a marble
pillar which holds a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The Paul VI Pastoral Center was inaugurated on May 13, 1982, by Pope John Paul II,
as a center for study and reflection on the message of Fátima. It can
seat over two thousand people and has accommodation for four hundred
pilgrims.
The treasury of the sanctuary holds the Irish Monstrance considered to be one of the most significant works of religious art from Ireland. The monstrance was gifted to the basilica in 1949.[4]
The entrance to the Fátima Sanctuary, which is to the south of the rectory, is a segment of the Berlin Wall intended to emphasize the belief that the Rosary prayers influenced the fall of the Berlin Wall related to the Consecration of Russia based on the Our Lady of Fátima messages.
The large statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which stands in the niche
above the main entrance of the basilica, was sculpted by American priest
Thomas McGlynn, O.P. Father McGlynn spent considerable time with the
visionary Sister Lúcia
as she described for him in detail how Mary looked during her
appearances to the children. The statue is not what Father McGlynn had
in mind when he approached Sister Lúcia, but is more accurately
described as a collaboration between visionary and sculptor, producing
perhaps the most accurate representation of Our Lady of Fátima ever to
be sculpted. The statue was presented as a gift from the Catholic people
of the United States to the Sanctuary of Fátima in 1958.
References
- ^ Trudy Ring, 1996, International Dictionary of Historic Places, ISBN 978-1-884964-02-2 page 245
- ^ Leo Madigan, A Pilgrim's Handbook to Fatima, Gracewing Press ISBN 0-85244-532-6 page 168
- ^ Regis St. Louis and Robert Landon, 2007, Portugal, Lonely Planet Press ISBN 978-1-74059-918-4 page 290
- Walsh, William Thomas (1 October 1954), Our Lady of Fatima, Random House, ISBN 978-0385028691
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,
Section Two: The Seven Sacraments of the Church
CHAPTER THREE : THE SACRAMENTS AT SERVICE OF COMMUNION
Article 6:3 THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS
SECTION TWO
THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER THREE
THE SACRAMENTS AT THE SERVICE OF
COMMUNION
1533
Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation.
They ground the common vocation of all Christ's disciples, a vocation to
holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces
needed for the life according to the Spirit during this life as pilgrims on the
march towards the homeland.
1534
Two other sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation
of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through
service to others that they do so. They confer a particular mission in the
Church and serve to build up the People of God.
1535
Through these sacraments those already consecrated by Baptism and
Confirmation LG 10 for the common priesthood of all the faithful can receive
particular consecrations. Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are
consecrated in Christ's name "to feed the Church by the word and grace of
God."LG 11 # 2 On their part, "Christian spouses are fortified and,
as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special
sacrament."GS 48 # 2
ARTICLE 6
THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS
1536
Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to
his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time:
thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate,
presbyterate, and diaconate. (On the institution and mission of the apostolic ministry by Christ, see
above, no. 874 ff. Here only the sacramental means by which this ministry is
handed on will be treated.)
III. The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy
Orders
1554
"The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in different
degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called bishops, priests,
and deacons."LG 28 Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, the
Magisterium, and the constant practice of the Church, recognizes that there are
two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ: the
episcopacy and the presbyterate . the diaconate is intended to help and serve
them. For this reason the term sacerdos in current usage denotes bishops and
priests but not deacons. Yet Catholic doctrine teaches that the degrees of
priestly participation (episcopate and presbyterate) and the degree of service
(diaconate) are all three conferred by a sacramental act called
"ordination," that is, by the sacrament of Holy Orders:
Let everyone revere the
deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the
presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without
them one cannot speak of the Church.St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Trall. 3,1: SCh 10, 96
Episcopal
ordination - fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders
1555
"Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the Church
from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of tradition,
is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to the dignity
and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the unbroken
succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of the
apostolic line."LG 20
1556
To fulfil their exalted mission, "the apostles were endowed by Christ with
a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the imposition
of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the gift of the Spirit, which is
transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration."LG 21; Cf. ⇒ Acts 1:8;
⇒ 24; ⇒ Jn
20:22-23; ⇒ 1 Tim 4:14;
⇒ 2 Tim 1:6-7
1557
The Second Vatican Council "teaches . . . that the fullness of the
sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness
namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language
of the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa)
of the sacred ministry."LG 21 # 2
1558
"Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying,
also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In fact ... by the imposition of
hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit
is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that bishops, in an
eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher,
shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona
agant)."LG 21 "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has
been given to them, bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers
of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors."CD 2 # 2
1559
"One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of the
sacramental consecration and by the hierarchical communion with the head and
members of the college."LG 22 The character and collegial nature of
the episcopal order are evidenced among other ways by the Church's ancient
practice which calls for several bishops to participate in the consecration of
a new bishop.Cf. LG 22 In our day, the lawful ordination of a bishop requires
a special intervention of the Bishop of Rome, because he is the supreme visible
bond of the communion of the particular Churches in the one Church and the guarantor
of their freedom.
1560
As Christ's vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the particular Church
entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially with all his
brothers in the episcopacy the solicitude for all the Churches: "Though
each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to
his care, as a legitimate successor of the apostles he is, by divine
institution and precept, responsible with the other bishops for the apostolic
mission of the Church."Pius XII, Fidei donum: AAS 49 (1957) 237; cf. LG 23; CD 4; 36; 37;
AG 5; 6; 38
1561
The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by the bishop has
a quite special significance as an expression of the Church gathered around the
altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good Shepherd and Head of his
Church, presiding.Cf. SC 41; LG 26
The
ordination of priests - co-workers of the bishops
1562
"Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has, through
his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his
consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying
degrees various members of the Church with the office of their
ministry."LG 28; cf. ⇒ Jn 10:36 "The function of the bishops' ministry was
handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed
in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcapal order for the
proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by
Christ."PO 2 # 2
1563
"Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of priests
shares in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and
rules his Body. Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the
sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular
sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit
are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest
in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head."PO 2
1564
"Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office, and
notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of
their own proper power, the priests are for all that associated with them by
reason of their sacerdotal dignity; and in virtue of the sacrament of Holy
Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme and eternal priest, they are
consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as
to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New
Testament."LG 28 cf. ⇒ Heb 5:1-10;
⇒ 7:24;
⇒ 9:11-28; Innocent I, Epist. ad Decentium: PL 20, 554 A; St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 2, 22: PG 35, 432B
1565
Through the sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the universal dimensions
of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. the spiritual gift they
have received in ordination prepares them, not for a limited and restricted
mission, "but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation
'to the end of the earth,"'PO 10; OT 20; cf. ⇒ Acts 1:8 "prepared in spirit to preach
the Gospel everywhere."OT 20
1566
"It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of the
faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office;
there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite
the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head, and
in the sacrifice of the Mass they make present again and apply, until the
coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of
Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the
Father."LG 28; cf. ⇒ 1 Cor 11:26 From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly
ministry draws its strength.Cf. PO 2
1567
"The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and its support
and instrument, called to the service of the People of God, constitute,
together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college (presbyterium)
dedicated, it is, true to a variety of distinct duties. In each local assembly
of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop, with whom they
are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take upon themselves
his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge
them."LG 28 # 2 priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on
the bishop and in communion with him. the promise of obedience they make to the
bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of
the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his co-workers, his
sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and
obedience.
1568
"All priests, who are constituted in the order of priesthood by the
sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental brotherhood,
but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to which they
are attached under their own bishop. . ;"PO 8 The unity of the
presbyterium finds liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters'
imposing hands, after the bishop, during the Ate of ordination.
The
ordination of deacons - "in order to serve"
1569
"At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons, who receive
the imposition of hands 'not unto the priesthood, but unto the
ministry."'LG 29; cf. CD 15 At an ordination to the diaconate only the bishop
lays hands on the candidate, thus signifying the deacon's special attachment to
the bishop in the tasks of his "diakonia."St. Hippolytus, Trad. ap. 8: SCh 11, 58-62
1570
Deacons share in Christ's mission and grace in a special way.LG 41; AA
16 The
sacrament of Holy Orders marks them with an imprint (“character") which
cannot be removed and which configures them to Christ, who made himself the
"deacon" or servant of all.Mk 10:45;
⇒ Lk 22:27; St. Polycarp, Ad Phil. 5, 2: SCh
10, 182 Among other tasks, it is the
task of deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine
mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in
assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and
preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the
various ministries of charity.LG 29; SC 35 # 4; AG 16
1571
Since the Second Vatican Council the Latin Church has restored the diaconate
"as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy,"LG 29 # 2 while the
Churches of the East had always maintained it. This permanent diaconate, which
can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the
Church's mission. Indeed it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a
truly diaconal ministry in the Church, whether in its liturgical and pastoral
life or whether in its social and charitable works, should "be
strengthened by the imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles.
They would be more closely bound to the altar and their ministry would be made
more fruitful through the sacramental grace of the diaconate."AG 16 # 6
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