CLICK HERE for article on Fatima and Sanctification of our families by Prof Amerco Pablo Lopez Ortiz, WAF International President
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Fatima and the Sanctification of the Family
by Tim Tinsdale Robertson
by Tim Tinsdale Robertson
Today the Church urgently needs families that are willing to strive for the personal sanctification of all their members, and especially children who are the future of the Church, in order on the one hand to witness to the beauty and truth of Catholic teaching on marriage and the family, and on the other hand, to foster the family’s moral and spiritual strength so as to withstand the increasingly serious threats it faces in contemporary society.
Through the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto on May 13, 2000, the message of Fatima has become especially relevant in our time as the perfect means to foster the sanctification of family life. Perfect, because the message comes from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is Mother of the Church and of the Holy Family; perfect in its simplicity, because the Mother of God chose three very young uneducated children to whom to reveal it; and perfect for the family because Blessed Francisco and Jacinta are the first children in the history of the Church to be raised to the altar for the heroic virtue demonstrated through their uncompromising fidelity and commitment to Our Lady’s message. When a second permanent miracle is obtained through their intercession, they will be declared the first non-martyr child saints of the universal Church.
Accordingly, their beatification signifies children and adults alike are called to follow the touching example of the shepherd children, for the sanctification of their souls through life’s trials, under the comforting maternal direction of Our Lady.
By a beautiful disposition of divine Providence, the Church has set before us the example of these children, referred to by St. John Paul II as “two candles whom God lit to illumine humanity,” as heaven’s response to the increasingly serious challenges to Catholic family life; and this came to pass through the great Marian Pope — Totus Tuus O Maria! — whose life was saved from the assassin’s bullet by Our Lady of Fatima, and who has bequeathed to the Church teaching the great depth and beauty of God’s plan for marriage and the family. As he said of himself and his association with Fatima, “There are no mere coincidences in the plans of divine Providence.”
We know from Our Lady’s promise that the message of Fatima is God’s word revealed by His Mother, given to preserve and strengthen the Church through the trials of the present time until the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. So it is very important for the future wellbeing of the Church in an increasingly hostile environment that families study and meditate on story of the apparitions and the moving example of the lives of the seers. Their witness is unique in the history of the Church, for never before have there been exchanges between very young children and an Angel and Our Lady, as related so movingly by Lucia in her Memoirs.
Here I can only briefly highlight some aspects of the apparitions which should set us on fire with the desire to fulfill God’s will as it did in the lives of the children.
Firstly, the prayers of the Angel and the requests of Our Lady are from heaven, they are divine; hence they are willed by God and are pleasing to Him. To adopt them means that one is thereby fulfilling God’s will. The Angel’s Pardon Prayer and Our Lady’s Sacrifice Prayer manifest Jesus’ deep desire for the conversion of sinners (cf. Mk 2:17) that is at the heart of Our Lady’s message. The Angel’s sublime prayer to the Most Holy Trinity is a perfect act of reparation that includes today’s very widespread state of indifference to God, reaffirms the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence, and took place in front of a Eucharistic miracle. It is the perfect prayer for Holy Communion and adoration.
Secondly, the children were so enraptured by the beauty of God and Our Lady in her first apparition, that already in the second apparition Lucia asked her to take them to heaven. In the third apparition, Francisco, age 9, saw God the Most Holy Trinity in the light from Our Lady’s hands, and afterwards said: “We were on fire in that light which is God and yet we were not burnt. But what a pity that He is so sad, if only I could console Him”.
It was their ardent love of the beauty and truth of Jesus, which Our Lady caused them to they experienced through several exceptional supernatural manifestations that planted in the seers’ hearts the Lord’s thirst to save souls, through embracing the prayer, penance and sacrifices that she asked of them, and also asks of us, for the conversion of sinners.
In his homily at their Beatification, St. John Paul II explained that the reason why the little shepherds became saints so quickly, even as very young children, was because "one makes more progress in a short time of submission and dependence on Mary than during entire years of personal initiatives, relying on oneself alone" quoting from St Louis de Montfort, The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, (n. 155).
The Immaculate Heart of Mary calls all her children to comply with her requests at especially in these times, for thedefeat of evil and the era of peace that she promised. We are urged to read and ponder Lucia’s memoirs and be inspired by the seers’ moving testimonies of their encounters with the living God and His Mother. She alone in the whole Church cannot be overcome by the errors and deceptions of Satan, and “in the end” will triumph over him.
The Battle Against the Family
According to a letter which Sister Lucia sent to Cardinal Carlo Caffarra who was entrusted by Pope St. John Paul II with the work of the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, she told him: “The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. However, Our Lady has already crushed its head.” (Cardinal Caffara personally confirmed this to Mary Shivanandan, S.T.D., John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family, Washington, DC on December 1, 2016.)
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