So 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of what event? Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima.
What was Our Lady’s message at Fatima? What can you tell me about it?
Our Lady promised that in the end her immaculate heart would triumph, and mankind would be granted an era of peace.
Many believe that Fatima is linked to the experience of Pope Leo XIII in 1884 when he fell into ecstasy and heard a conversation between Jesus and the Devil where Jesus granted the Devil’s request for more power over mankind. Jesus granted Satan a period of a hundred years in which he would be given more power. Exactly 33 years later to the day, an estimated 70,000 people witnessed the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima.
Which century do you think was the one that Jesus granted to Satan?
When did it start? Don’t really know for sure but many believe that it began with our Lady’s appearance at Fatima and more specifically on Oct 13th, 1917 with the miracle of the sun.
So we talked about your impression of what Fatima was all about – In this talk I want to focus on what St. John Paul II said Fatima was all about:
“The greatness of Fatima is that it gives the specific formula to save mankind from self-destruction.” – Pope John Paul II, Oct. 13, 1977, Fatima Letter.
So, if the Blessed Mother gave us a specific formula through which she desires to save mankind, do you think it would be a good idea for us to know what that formula is?
What if I told you that the queen has decided to come to visit you for dinner tomorrow and her favorite desert is chocolate cake so you better make her a really good chocolate cake. What if you’ve never made a chocolate cake before – what’s the first thing you would do? Get a recipe – right?
What if you left an important ingredient out – like chocolate – you wouldn’t end up with a chocolate cake would you.
What it I told you that mankind was headed down a path that with 100% certainly would result in their complete self-destruction – i.e. the complete destruction of the world. Not too farfetched – there are over 15,000 nuclear weapons in existence in the world today – it’s currently estimated that the effect of detonating only 100 of these even in a limited geographic area would eventually render the planet uninhabitable.
So, what did St. John Paul II tell us the Blessed Mother came to save us from? So, after hearing this what’s the first thing we should do? Get the recipe and follow it – make sure we’re not leaving anything out.
I think many Catholics understand that the Blessed Mother called us to prayer - specifically praying the Rosary. And they’re right in that this is the most important aspect of the formula, however it isn’t the entire formula – there are two more parts to the formula in addition to the Rosary.
So what are the additional parts to the formula?
-Second part is the Brown Scapula devotion
-Third part is Sacrifice for the conversion of sinners
She called us to three things at Fatima
- Praying the Rosary daily
- Adopting the Brown Scapular devotion
- Daily sacrifice for the conversion of sinners
I am going to talk about all three of these in an attempt to encourage you and challenge you to heed our Blessed Mother’s call to follow her recipe so we can assist her in bringing about the triumph of her immaculate heart.
Ok. So let’s start by looking at the Rosary.
At the end of Our Lady’s first apparition to the 3 children at Fatima, she said "Recite the rosary every day to obtain the peace for the world and the end of the war."
In this, she revealed the most important part of the formula – to recite the rosary every day.
I don’t know how many of you are in the habit of doing this – if you aren’t, I’d like to challenge you to start by providing you a better insight into the power of the rosary. If you are doing this already, may what I’m about to share encourage you to recite it even more often.
There are two aspects of the Rosary I want to share - first, the Rosary as a weapon against Satan.
St. Padre Pio said, “Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother”
Padre Pio, by his own admission, said the rosary 36 times a day. He spent 16 hours a day hearing confession and he said that while he listened to people confessing their sins, he would say the rosary.
The famous Vatican exorcist Father Gabriel Amorth testified, “One day a colleague of mine heard the devil say during an exorcism, “Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful theRosarywas, it would be my end.”
So, are there times in history where we see clear evidence of the power of the rosary as a weapon against Satan? Let’s go back in time and see.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact origin of the rosary however, tradition has it that the rosary as we say it today, is attributed to St. Dominic. In 1206, Our Lady had reportedly appeared to St. Dominic and instructed him on the rosary. He spent much of his ministry after that teaching people about the rosary.
The Blessed Mother confirmed her teaching to St. Dominic about the power of the rosary against Satanthrough what is known as the battle of Muret, whichtook place in France on Sept 12, 1213. It’s regarded by historians as one of the greatest examples of David defeating Goliath. Count Simon de Montfort (father of the founder of the English parliament) and 700 knights were under attack by the Albigensian army of some 50,000.
OK – did you get that – 50,000 against 700. Who do you think should have won that battle? Well thanks to St Dominic and his friars who gathered in the church in Muret to pray the rosary continually, the 700 knights emerged victorious – clearly a miraculous outcome. A shrine was built there by Simon de Montfort, in gratitude to the Blessed Mother for the victory.
OK, that’s pretty amazing right? There can’t be too many other examples in history like that one right? Well let’s see.
First a little history lesson.
In the early 700’s, starting with Mohammad, the Muslim Empire spread from Mecca through various conquests that saw the empire spread through northern and western Africa and into Europe, occupying Spain, Portugal and as far north as southern France. Their reign within Europe lasted almost 7 centuries until they were eventually driven out by Christian armies in the late 1400’s.
In the 1500’s a second wave of Muslim expansion was carried out by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman empire expanded east through India and into China and throughout the middle east, including the Holy Land,and west to eastern Europe (the Balkans, southern Russia and Hungary). During this era the Christian world was in constant danger of being overwhelmed by the Muslim Ottoman Turks.
To make matters worse, after the reformation, the Catholic church was now fighting on two fronts against both the Muslims and the Protestants and might, at any time, be swept away altogether.On October7, 1571 the Ottoman Turks had seized the opportunity to launch a vast fleet of war shipsto conquer as much of Christian Europe as they could conquer.Miraculously, they were defeated at the Battle of Lepanto by the much smaller Christian fleet under the command of Grand Admiral Don John of Austria.Once again we had a David vs Goliath battle and the reason for the miraculous victory? Pope St Pius V called for a church-wide Rosary campaign for victory against the vast Muslim fleet. It is said that the Christian soldiers went into battle with their sword hanging on one side of their belt and a rosary hanging from the other side.
A copy of the miraculous image of our Lady of Guadalupe sat in the cabin of Don John throughout the battle. The victory of Lepanto was commemorated by a new Feast, that of our Lady of Victory which was later made universal re-named the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary.
However, the struggle with the Ottoman Turks was not over. OnSeptember 11, 1683 – came the Battle of Vienna. The Turks goal was to occupy all of Europe but most importantly Rome, the heart of Catholicism. They planned to turn St. Peter’s basilica into a mosque.
They had amassed an army of 200,000 soldiers and had swept across eastern Europe and had now arrived at Vienna. They viewed Vienna as the last Christian stronghold that once defeated would enable them to sweep straight through to Rome. Like Muret, the Christian armies if Vienna were vastly outnumbered – close to 10 to 1.Again, the pope called for a church-wide rosary campaign to defend against the invading Turks.
The Blessed Mother intervened, when on Sept 12thKing Jan (John) III of Poland came to the rescue of Viennawith a small cavalry that caught the Turks by surprise. As they invaded, the crescent moon standard that the Turks carried into battle was mysteriously engulfed in a cloud, which threw the highly superstitious Turks into a panic allowing the invading Polish cavalry victory – the Turks were driven into retreat. The battle marked the turning point in the 300-year struggle between Roman Christendom and the Ottoman Empire and is viewed by historians as one of the most important battles in human history. King Jan III entrusted his nation to Our Lady of Czestochowa (also known as the Black Madonna) and gave credit to Her for the success of the Battle of Vienna.
After the victory of King Jan over the Turks, Blessed Pope Innocent XI, extended the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary to the whole Church to be celebrated on September 12th in memory of the deliverance of Christendom.
Today we are again faced with the Muslim persecution of Christians and the constant threat of terrorism fueled by Muslim extremists. Did you know that the town of Fatima was named after the daughter of Mohammad? Could there be a message in the fact that the Blessed Mother chose to appear in this little obscure town?
OK. So these are examples from ancient times. Are there any more examples from recent history?
Did you know that for three years, Catholic Austria was under the tyrannical rule of communist Russia after World War II? AFranciscan priest named Father Petrus remembered the story of how Christians in the sixteenth century had defeated the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto through therosary, despite being greatly outnumbered.Father Petrus launched arosarycrusade and 70,000 people pledged to say therosarydaily for the intention of Austria becoming free from Russian rule.Although Austria was valuable to the Soviets because of its strategic location and rich resources, on May 13, 1955, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, the atheistic Russian regime, in a completely unprecedented move, signed the agreement to leave Austria. Not one person was killed, and not even one shot was fired. Today, historians and Military strategists still cannot explain why the Russians pulled out of Austria.
President Marcos ruled the Philippines under martial law for almost a decade starting in 1972. The citizens of the Philippines were poor and starving while President Marcos and his wife Imelda lived in lavish luxury. The people wanted to elect a new president, Benigno Aquino, nicknamed Ninoy. He was assassinated right in front of his wife and family as he stepped off a plane to run for office in Manila. After this brutal murder, Ninoy’s wife Corazon “Cory” Aquino became active in protests against the Marcos regime. The people clamored for Cory to run for President, and when they presented her with one million signatures urging her to do so, she fulfilled the people’s wishes. Marcos called a snap election on February 7, 1986 which turned out to be a bloody, violent, and fraud-filled event. President Marcos, declared the winner by his corrupt government, took control of the media and sent out the military to quell any protests. Cardinal Sin of the Archdiocese of Manila urged a peaceful protest and the Catholic people came out in droves.They surrounded the military tanks and armed soldiers, and prayed therosary whileHoly Masses and prayer vigils took place in churches. This prayerful protest continued for almost a week when unexpectedly, the soldiers stepped away from their tanks, put down their guns, and joined the peaceful crowd. President Marcos fled the country on February 26, 1986 and the whole nation took to the streets in celebration.
As you know, we say the prayer for Canada here every Monday night, which is great. However, I believe after hearing these accounts of the power of the rosary we should be organizing rosary campaigns for the conversion of our government leaders and our nation.
The rosary as a means for our protection
In 1978, theRosarysaved a college girl from dying at the hands of the in-famous serial killer Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy had just murdered all the other girls in a college sorority house, and then entered her room—but some unexplainable force made him stop, drop his weapon and flee. That particular girl had promised her grandmother she would pray theRosaryevery night.
The unnamed girl awoke to a man standing over her with a bat. When she opened her hands, Bundy looked at therosarybeads in them and fled. Monsignor William Kerr, of Tallahassee, Florida, was called by the police to accompany them to the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University – where the girl was found unresponsive and would only speak to a priest. When Monsignor Kerr approached the girl, she told him her grandmother had made her promise before going off to college that she would always pray theRosaryevery night before bed for protection even if she fell asleep praying it – which she had that night; thus, when Bundy entered, the beads were still clutched in her hands.
Ironically, when Ted Bundy was on death row, awaiting execution for his crimes, he asked Monsignor Kerr to serve as a spiritual counselor, and the priest took the opportunity to ask about that terrible night. Bundy explained that when he entered the girl’s room, he had fully intended on murdering her but some mysterious power was preventing him from doing so.
The only wartime use of nuclear weapons took place in the Aug. 6, 1945 attack on Hiroshima and the Aug. 9 attack on Nagasaki by the United States.The Hiroshima attack killed around 80,000 people instantly and caused in excess of 130,000 deaths, mostly civilians.
Eight Jesuits were 8 blocks from the epicenter of the detonation on Hiroshima, but they survived the catastrophe, and the radiation that killed thousands in the months following had no effect on them.The Jesuits priests were at the rectory of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, one of the few buildings that survived the bomb blast.Father Cieslik wrote in his diary that they only sustained minor injuries from the broken windows – but nothing resulting from the atomic energy that was unleashed.
The doctors who took care of them afterwards warned them that the radiation they received would produce serious lesions, as well as illness and premature death.The diagnosis never materialized. No disorders ever developed, and in 1976 Father Schiffer attended the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia and told his story. He confirmed that the other Jesuits were still alive and without any ailments. They were examined by dozens of doctors some 200 times over the course of the following years, without any trace of the radiation being found in their bodies.
The eightJesuits never doubted that they had been blessed with protection by the Blessed Virgin Mary. “We were living the message of Fatima and we prayed theRosaryevery day,” they explained.
In the Sixth and final apparition at Fatima, Our Lady said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary, I desire here a chapel in my honor to be built, and that people continue to recite the Rosary every day.” While the 70,000 who had come that day witnessed the miracle of the sun, the children saw Our Lady dressed like the white of the sun with a blue cope, St. Joseph was with her and held the Child Jesus and each of them blessed the world with the sign of the cross. Then after this vision they saw The Lord bless the world, standing next to Our Lady of Sorrows. After these visions the Lady of Mt Carmel finished the miracle.
These three visions were the punctuation mark on her request to recite the rosary daily – the first vision represented the joyful mysteries, which are focused on the holy family, the second appearance of Our Lady of Sorrows represented the sorrowful mysteries and the final appearance of Our Lady of Mount Carmel represented the Glorious mysteries. In the final appearance, our lady had the brown scapular – the habit of the Carmelite order, draped over her arm.