(96) International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima Visit (II): Its History & Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart

AMDG

INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM VIRGIN STATUE AT ST. LOUIS CHURCH SUNDAY
[First four paragraphs & photo published on front page of Gallipolis (OH) Daily Tribune October 12, 2012]

http://www.mydailytribune.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Pilgrim+virgin+to+arrive+at+St-+Louis+Church+Sunday &id=20458022&instance=top  

          In 1946 Portuguese youth marched 67 miles to Lisbon with a statue of Mary from Fatima, the 1917 site of her apparition to three shepherd children and message to the world.  When they stopped at towns along the way to pray with the people, there were conversions; favors were granted; there was physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.  All of this inspired devotion in the people with invitations from all over Portugal and later the world for similar visits to their home parishes.  The great sculptor, Jose Thedim was commissioned to make another one, this time with the consultation of Sister Lucia, the surviving visionary, to meet the demand plus a duplicate which was smuggled into Soviet Russia through the U.S. Embassy where it stayed for years, and now is in a Catholic Church there.

            This pilgrim statue in the care of its two custodians is passing through Ohio and one of its world wide stops will be St. Louis Church in Gallipolis for almost two days, Sunday and Monday October 14-15.  It will next stop in Athens, Marietta, and other points in the Diocese of Steubenville and beyond. The purpose is to promulgate Mary’s message of Fatima and to bring the people closer to her son.  The point of every Marian devotion is “To Jesus through Mary”.  From the cross, Christ gave His mother to us as our mother (John 19:26-27).  Her role as the missionary mother of all is to spread the faith and to nurture it with the focus always upon Christ.  People honor the Queen Mother of Christ the King for her heroic virtue and extraordinary holiness.  At the same time, they adore her son and ask Mary to pray to Him for us. In the Old Testament,  the Queen Mother had a place of special honor and influence in the  King’s court. Furthermore, Mary is a model of woman, wife, and mother.  Many Protestants are also starting to recognize her qualities and virtues as a prominent figure in the Bible worthy of honor and emulation.

The people of St. Louis Church will receive the statue of Mary with a beautiful ceremony October 14 at 12 pm noon.  This representation of Mary will be continuously on display in front of the Blessed Sacrament until 6 pm Monday October 15.  There will be continuous prayer and/or Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament through the night during the 30 hours with four special sessions at 12 pm and 6 pm Sunday plus 8 am and 3 pm on Monday.  The congregation will honor and ask Mary to pray for us while learning about the details of her Fatima message.  Each session will feature a rosary with a different set of mysteries.  As appropriate for the time of day, lauds, vespers, and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy will be included.  In the final session on Monday afternoon there will be a closing Mass (4:30 pm) followed by benediction and procession of the statue out of the church.  The community is invited to enter at any time and leave as they please.  Below a large group of the Knights of Columbus pay homage to the Pilgrim Virgin.

The Knights of Columbus with the Pilgrim Virgin at one of their large meetings.

As a supplement and preparation for the visit of the Pilgrim Virgin statue, St. Louis Church will have a Public Square Rosary Prayer Rally on Saturday, October 13 at 12 p.m. noon in the Gallipolis City Park on 2nd Street in solidarity with thousands of people in similar rallies all over the Country..  The purpose is to pray for world peace and to beg God to save our country from immorality and secularism, both of which put our country in grave danger.  People of all faiths are invited to join thousands all over the country to respond to Mary’s appeal for repentance and prayer.  The rosary is actually biblical, a litany of repetitive prayer as background music with the focus on events from the Bible. 
  

Even the Muslims honor Mary as the ideal woman although they only consider Christ as a prophet.  She is one of the most honored figures in Islam, considered by many “as close to a perfect woman, as there could be, chaste & virtuous, devoid of almost all failings, the greatest woman of all time, and Queen of the Saints".  The Qur’an devotes much of the 19th chapter called “Maryam”.  Some say that Mary is mentioned more in the Qur'an (Chapters 3, 5, 21, and 26) than in the New Testament of the Bible (See www.quran.com and http://paulrsebastianphd.blogspot.com/2011/10/common-ground-iran-islam-christianity.html).

            No wonder that many Muslims even visit Marian shrines in the Middle East, such as Ephesus, Turkey and the women look upon her as a model. Islam even believes in the Annunciation and the virgin birth of Jesus, since they are in the Qur'an. Verses from the Qur'an relating to Mary are frequently inscribed on the mihrab of various mosques, including the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.  Thus Mary is very much a part of Islamic culture and religious tradition.

Intriguing is that the conquering Moors named a town in Portugal after Fatimah, the favorite daughter of Mohammed. Mary must have chosen the town of Fatima as the site of her six appearances to the three shepherd children for a reason.  Could it be that someday, Mary will be the path for Muslims to follow to her Son and the Church?  Perhaps Mary will be a link of reconciliation between militant Islam and Christianity, who have been fighting intermittently for almost 13 centuries.

At least three times militant Islam came close to overrunning Europe, but were stopped…….at the Battles of Belgrade in 1456, the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, and the Battle of Vienna on September 11-12, 1683 which turned into a rout.  All three victories came after ardent prayers for Mary’s intercession.  The last defeat was a humiliation that led to a three century decline of militant Islam.  Osama Bin Laden chose the anniversary of that epic battle to rise again and stage his attack on America.  The War on Terror is just another chapter in a 1300 year old war between radical Islam and Western Civilization.  It began as evangelization by conquest and continued to be so.  The Qur’an does command Muslims to convert by conquest and to kill “the infidels”.  That’s us.  Moderate Muslims do not take it literally.  Radical fundamentalist Muslims do.  See www.wvinter.net/~haught/Koran.html ,  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060914001306AA3aptj    www.muslimaccess.com/articles/jihad/kill_the_infidels.asp

 

     The primary purpose of the visit of the statue of the Pilgrim Virgin is to promulgate the Fatima Message.  Prayer, repentance, and sacrifice in reparation for sin are the common threads of every Marian apparition.  In Fatima Our Lady also asked the people to pray the rosary daily for peace while meditating primarily upon the events of the Gospels and to make the Five First Saturdays in reparation for sin.  Finally she asked that each person consecrate him/herself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and that the Pope in union with the Bishops consecrate the world and Russia in particular to her Immaculate Heart.

         Pope John Paul II invited the Bishops of the world to the Vatican for the end of the Year of the Redemption and the beginning of the Year of the Family on March 25, 1984.  In union with the Bishops of every nation consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with special reference to Russia as she requested at Fatima. See
http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/consecra.htm#John%20Paul%20II,%201984.  

          *Five years later on November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall miraculously came tumbling down like the walls of Jericho without a shot being fired.  No one expected it.  Then on December 25, 1991 the Presidents of Russia, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia announced the formal dissolution of the feared Soviet Union.  A week later on January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, Russia emerged as an independent state, open to religious freedom and the new Community of Independent States recognized the independence and sovereignty of the former Soviet republics.  Thus Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe was thrown onto the ash heap of History.  For a fascinating chronology of the Consecration and subsequent events in the fall of Soviet Communism, click on  http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/FatimaConsecration.htm and www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com. See Blog #95 for a history of the apparitions and the miracle of the sun with photos plus a detailed explanation of Mary's message..
               

                                                            APPENDIX

*Fatima Consecration - Chronology

History of the Consecration and Related Events

From http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/FatimaConsecration.htm

July 13, 1917   Our Lady promises  to "come and ask the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate  Heart"1

June 13, 1929   Our Lady fulfills her promise, asking "for the consecration of Russia to Her                Immaculate Heart, promising its conversion through this means and the hindering of  the propagation of its errors."2 

Date unknown  Pius XI (1922-1939) informed of this request3

1938                 Portuguese Bishops ask Pius XI for the Consecration of the World to the Immaculate  Heart. It is said they were influenced to do this by the spiritual director of Bl.            Alexandrina da Costa (1904-1955).

June 1940        Request made to Pius XII through the Bishop of Macau, and a little later through     Father Gonzaga de Fonseca. Mention is made of Our Lady asking the Consecrating of  Russia to the Immaculate Heart.

Dec.  1940      Sr. Lucia writes letter to Pius XII, saying that Our Lord Himself requests the Pope to "consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the Bishops of the world do the same in union with Your Holiness."4

Oct. 31, 1942  Pope Pius XII consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart.

July 7, 1952    Pope Pius XII consecrates the Russian people to the Immaculate Heart

Nov. 21, 1964 Pope Paul VI renews, in the presence of the Fathers of the Vatican Council but without their participation, the consecration of  Russia to the Immaculate Heart.

May 13, 1982 Pope John Paul II invites the bishops of the world to join him in consecrating the world and with it Russia to the Immaculate Heart. Many do not receive the invitation in time for the Pope's trip to Fatima, where he accomplishes the consecration. Sr. Lucia later says it did not fulfill the conditions.

October 1983  Pope John Paul II, at the Synod of Bishops, renews the 1982 Consecration

Mar. 25, 1984 Pope John Paul II, "united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college," consecrates "the whole world, especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and solicitude." Both the Pope and Sr. Lucia initially seemed uncertain that the consecration has been fulfilled, but shortly thereafter Sr. Lucia tells the papal nuncio to Portugal that the Consecration is fulfilled.

May 13, 1984 One of the largest crowds in Fatima history gathers at the shrine to pray the Rosary for peace.

May 13, 1984 An explosion at the Soviets’ Severomorsk Naval Base destroys two-thirds of all the missiles stockpiled for the Soviets’ Northern Fleet. The blast also destroys workshops needed to maintain the missiles as well as hundreds of scientists and technicians. Western military experts called it the worst naval disaster the Soviet Navy has suffered since WWII.

Dec. 1984        Soviet Defense Minister, mastermind of the invasion plans for Western Europe, suddenly and mysteriously dies.

Mar. 10, 1985 Soviet Chairman Konstantin Chernenko dies

Mar. 11, 1985 Soviet Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev elected

April 26, 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident

May 12, 1988  An explosion wrecked the only factory that made the rocket motors for the Soviets’ deadly SS 24 long-range missiles, which carry ten nuclear bombs each.

Aug. 29, 1989 Sr. Lucia affirms in correspondence that the consecration "has been accomplished" and that "God will keep His word."

Nov. 9, 1989   Fall of the Berlin Wall

Nov.-Dec. '89  Peaceful revolutions in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania

1990                 East and West Germany are unified

Dec. 25, 1991   Dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Letter of Sr. Lucia to Pope Pius XII Requesting the

Consecration of the World and Russia to the Immaculate Heart

Most Holy Father,

Humbly prostrated at your feet, I come as the last sheep of the fold entrusted to you to open my heart, by order of my spiritual director.

I am the only survivor of the children to whom our Lady appeared in Fátima (Portugal) from the 13th of May to the 13th of October 1917. The Blessed Virgin has granted me many graces, the greatest of all being my admission to the Institute of Saint Dorothy. (To here this is copy of the sketch the Bishop sent me.)

I come, Most Holy Father, to renew a request that has already been brought to you several times. The request, Most Holy Father, is from our Lord and our good Mother in Heaven.

In 1917, in the portion of the apparitions that we have designated "the secret," the Blessed Virgin revealed the end of the war that was then afflicting Europe, and predicted another forthcoming, saying that to prevent it She would come and ask the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart as well as the Communion of reparation on the first Saturday. She promised peace and the conversion of that nation if Her request was attended to. She announced that otherwise this nation would spread her errors throughout the world, and there would be wars, persecutions of the Holy Church, martyrdom of many Christians, several persecutions and sufferings reserved for Your Holiness, and the annihilation of several nations.

Most Holy Father, this remained a secret until 1926 according to the express will of our Lady. Then, in a revelation She asked that the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months be propagated throughout the world, with its conditions of doing the following with the same purpose; going to confession, meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary and saying the Rosary with the aim of making reparation for the insults, sacrileges and indifferences committed against Her Immaculate Heart. Our good Heavenly Mother promises to assist the persons who practise this devotion, in the hour of their death, with all the necessary graces for their salvation. I exposed the request of our Lady to my confessor, who tried to have it fulfilled, but only on the 13th of September 1939 did His Excellency the Bishop of Leiria make public in Fatima this request of our Lady.

I take this opportunity, Most Holy Father, to ask you to bless and extend this devotion to the whole world. In 1929, through another apparition, our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, promising its conversion through this means and the hindering of the propagation of its errors.

Sometime afterwards I told my confessor of the request of our Lady. He tried to fulfill it by making it known to Pius XI.

In several intimate communications our Lord has not stopped insisting on this request, promising lately, to shorten the days of tribulation which He has determined to punish the nations for their crimes, through war, famine and several persecutions of the Holy Church and Your Holiness, if you will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the Bishops of the world do the same in union with Your Holiness. I truly feel your sufferings, Most Holy Father! And, at much as I can through my humble prayers and sacrifices, I try to lessen them, close to our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Most Holy Father, if in the union of my soul with God I have not been deceived, our Lord promises a special protection to our country in this war, due to the consecration of the nation by the Portuguese Prelates, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; as proof of the graces that would have been granted to other nations, had they also consecrated themselves to Her.

Now, Most Holy Father, allow me to make one more request, which is but an ardent wish of my humble heart; that the feast in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be extended throughout the whole world as one of the main feasts of the Holy Church.

With the deepest respect and reverence I ask for the Apostolic Blessing. May God protect Your Holiness.

Tuy, Spain, 2nd of December of 1940

Maria Lucia de Jesus

From Novos Documentos de Fátima, Fr. Anthony Mario Martins, SJ (Oporto: 1984). English edition: Documents on Fatima & Memoirs of Sr. Lucia. (Alexandria, SD: Fatima Family Apostolate, 1992).

Sister Lucia, who died at the age of 97 in 2005, confirmed that Pope John Paul II correctly consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart in 1984 as Mary had asked in 1929. 

Message of John Paul II at the Funeral of Sr. Lucia

   February 16, 2005

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genova (Italy), the correspondent sent especially by Pope John Paul II, presided over the funeral Mass.

Venerable Brother Albino Mamede Oleto, Bishop of Coimbra:

With profound emotion I learned that Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, at the age of 97 years, was called by the heavenly Father to the eternal dwelling of heaven. She has thus reached the end to which she always aspired in prayer and in the silence of the convent.

The liturgy has reminded us in these days that death is the common heritage of the children of Adam, but at the same time it has assured us that Jesus, with the sacrifice of the cross, has opened to us the gates of immortal life. We recall these certainties of the faith at the moment we give our last farewell to this humble and devout Carmelite, who consecrated her life to Christ, Savior of the world.

The visit of the Virgin Mary, which little Lucia received in Fatima together with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta in 1917, was for her the beginning of a singular mission to which she remained faithful until the end of her days. Sister Lucia leaves us an example of great fidelity to the Lord and of joyful adherence to his divine will.

I remember with emotion the various meetings I had with her and the bonds of spiritual friendship that, with the passing of time, were intensified. I have always felt supported by the daily gift of her prayer, especially in the harsh moments of trial and suffering. May the Lord reward her amply for the great and hidden service she has done to the Church.

I love to think that the one who has received Sister Lucia in the passing from earth to heaven has been precisely She whom she saw in Fatima so many years ago. May the Holy Virgin accompany the soul of this devoted daughter of hers to the happy encounter with the divine Spouse.

To you I entrust, Venerated Brother, the task of expressing to the nuns of the Carmel of Coimbra the certainty of my spiritual closeness, while, for their interior consolation in the moment of separation, I impart an affectionate blessing, which I extend to the families, to you, Venerated Brother, to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my special envoy, and to all the participants in the sacred rite of suffrage.

Vatican, 14 February 2005

John Paul II

Notes

    The great unknown light as a warning of a second world war occurred January 25, 1938 as an Aurora Borealis.  Rand McNally III a U.S. Government physicist did some research and concluded that the pattern of that Aurora Borealis was very similar to that after a high altitude Hydrogen Bomb explosion.

       Leonid Brezhnev, the dictator of Soviet Russia 1964-1982 was seriously planning a strike on the West in the 1970s.  That would have probably set off World War III.  However, mysteriously a series of accidents occurred and much of the Soviet arsenal was destroyed.

A series of quotes of Blessed Jacinta, the youngest of the children to whom Our Lady of Fatima appeared almost a hundred years ago.

                                                    

 •  "The sins that lead more souls to hell are the sins of the flesh."

 •  "Fashions that will greatly offend Our Lord will appear. People who serve God should not follow fashions. “The Church has no fashions. Our Lord is always the same."

 •  "The sins of the world are very great."

 •  "If men knew what eternity is, they would do everything to change their lives."

 •  "Many marriages are not good; they do not please Our Lord, and they are not of God."

Is Sister Lucia referring to Gay Marriage?   “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family!” ---Sister Lucia to Cardinal Carrafa

Bulletin and Newspaper Blurbs

PUBLIC SQUARE ROSARY PRAYER RALLY – Saturday October 13 at 12 pm Noon in the Gallipolis City Park by the Gazebo on 2nd St.  Please join us and thousands all over the country to follow Mary's appeal made at Fatima in 1917 for prayer and sacrifice in reparation......to pray the rosary for world peace and for God to save our country from immorality and secularism. The need is urgent!  As history shows, there is great power in public prayer because of its witness of faith and appeal for repentance.  See www.americaneedsfatima.org.

INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM VIRGIN STATUE VISIT.  The people of St. Louis Church will receive the statue of Mary with a beautiful ceremony October 14 at 12 pm Noon.  This representation of Mary will be continuously on display in front of the Blessed Sacrament until 6 pm Monday October 15.  There will be  continuous prayer and/or Adoration through the night during the 30 hours with four special sessions at 12 pm and 6 pm Sunday plus 8 am and 3 pm on Monday, closing with Mass at 4:30 pm and benediction.