“Woman, behold Thy son … Behold thy Mother.” (John 19:26-27)
Dying on the Cross on that first Good Friday, Our suffering Savior gave His beloved disciple, St. John, into the care of His Blessed Mother (“Woman, behold Thy son”), and then He gave His Mother into the care of His disciple (“Behold thy Mother”). The Catholic Church teaches that, at that moment, St. John was representing every faithful disciple.
Hear a Good Friday reflection by Fr. Michael Rodríguez:
The Blessed Virgin Mary Is Our Mother
Father Nicholas Gruner, in a speech given at The Fatima Center’s Fatima: The Last Chance for World Peace conference in October 2006,[1] explained how these words of Our Lord relate to the Message of Fatima. It pertains to the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to the seer Lucia in 1925.
On December 10, 1925, when Lucia was a postulant at the Dorothean Sisters’ convent in Pontevedra, Spain, Our Lady came, as She promised in 1917, with the Child Jesus to reveal the first part of God’s plan for the salvation of sinners: the reparatory Communion of the First Saturdays of the month.
As Father Gruner explained:
“The Blessed Virgin had in Her right hand Her Immaculate Heart all surrounded with thorns. The Child Jesus spoke first and pointed to Our Lady’s Heart and said: ‘Behold the Heart of your Mother.’ He didn’t say: ‘Behold the Heart of My Mother.’ He said:
“‘Behold the Heart of your Mother all circled with thorns which ungrateful men put there at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.’
“… Why does Our Lord say: ‘your Mother’ and not ‘My Mother?’ On the Cross, Jesus said to Saint John: ‘Behold your Mother.’ At Fatima, Our Lord says: ‘Behold the Heart of your Mother.’ Why is She our Mother? The Second Vatican Council, interestingly enough, explains it very well. It says that the Blessed Virgin Mary generates us into a life of grace. Saint Peter tells us in Sacred Scripture that we are made God-like; we are adopted sons by grace. And so this God-likeness quality which the Council of Trent tells us is a created quality, this is Divine Life. It transforms us, but this Sanctifying Grace or this Divine Life, this created Divine Life in us, is generated in our hearts and our souls by the Blessed Virgin Mary…
“Just as Mary is the Mother of Jesus, of a Person Who preexists, Jesus is a Divine Person, nevertheless, a Person Who pre-existed. She becomes His Mother by giving birth to Him in His human form. Similarly, She becomes our spiritual Mother, giving us birth in supernatural form and so She is, truly and strictly speaking, our Mother. She is as much our Mother as our own natural mother is. You can see the depth of just this one word, where Our Lord says: ‘Behold the Heart of your Mother.’ There is so much meaning in that one phrase.”[2]
A Time for Repentance, Prayer, and Sacrifice
In this same speech, Fr. Gruner made the following statement:
“The first thing we should do in this time of crisis is to pray and sacrifice. The second thing is to get others to pray and sacrifice.”[3]
These words – though spoken more than 15 years ago – are very applicable to today’s situation, in which we now have had – for more than four years – the chastisement of the COVID-19 coronavirus and the resulting extreme measures taken by governments in response to it. In addition to masks and lockdowns, future impositions will most likely include mandatory “vaccination” (perhaps better recognized as a murderous and unnatural gene therapy calculated for the surveillance and control of a much-reduced world population), vaccine passports,[4] and ultimately a “Great Reset” of global finances in a thoroughly socialized “prison planet.”
The war in Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine (and Western nations by proxy) has now lasted more than two years. Some estimates state it has resulted in nearly half a million deaths and injuries. Countless lives have been disrupted and millions have been displaced or sought refuge. Since October 7, 2023, many have been killed and much devastation wrought in what is being called the “Israel-Hamas” war. This conflict is likely to escalate as the atrocities continue unabated. Let us not forget that Our Lady of Fatima confirmed that wars are a punishment for mankind’s sins.
In response to these chastisements, we must apply ourselves to prayer and penance as well as to personal conversion to living a more holy life. We must now more than ever turn to God, and to the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We need to do real penance for the outrageous crimes of our civil and Church leaders, for those of our families, and for our own sins as well. But we must also turn to our Mother – the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Solution: The Consecration of Russia
On July 13, 1917, when the First World War was raging without any sign of abatement, Our Lady of Fatima warned of worse punishments to come. She said:
“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 … [He will] 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.”[5]
Then on June 13, 1929, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to Sister Lucia (now a Dorothean nun in Tuy, Spain) to reiterate and formalize this request:
“The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.”
Our Lady provides the solution for preventing the sufferings described above: the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart and the devotion of the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. Unfortunately, since that time, Our Lady’s requests have gone unheeded,”[6] and many of the predicted events have already occurred. The nations continue to offend God (in ever more perverse and horrifying ways) and churchmen continue to spurn Our Lady’s request for the Consecration of Russia.
Obey Our Lady of Fatima
These are worrisome times, certainly. The pitch of mankind’s rebellion against God, despising even His Holy Mother whom He sent to Fatima as a sort of last resort, has reached such an intensity that we can only expect to undergo the most dire punishments imaginable. We will continue to see more and even worse punishments until Heaven is finally obeyed. Our Lady of Fatima has already told us as much.
We must hearken attentively to the Message of Fatima, and speak plainly and emphatically to others about it in connection with the punishments which many people are already recognizing in that context. So many horrible and shameful errors which have been festering in Western society and in the Church for many years are now undeniably visible to all as the very punishments of which Our Lady of Fatima warned. The truth of Our Lady of Fatima’s unheeded requests can no longer be denied.
Facts are facts, and they can be stubborn. The fact is that no Consecration of Russia such as was requested by Our Lady of Fatima has ever been performed, by the Pope in union with all the Catholic bishops of the world, specifically and explicitly consecrating Russia (as the sole object of the Consecration) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Offering prayers and sacrifices for the Pope and Catholic bishops of the world so that they may receive the grace to finally obey Our Lady of Fatima is now more needed than ever!
I conclude with an often-repeated account given by Father Gruner:
“I remember explaining [the need for the Consecration of Russia] to an atheist one time, in 1984. He didn’t believe in God, but he could understand nevertheless the prudence of carrying out this Act of Consecration. He said it was the first time he had seen any hope for the world. Even atheists understand it is most prudent to have the Consecration of Russia properly done just to take care of their lives, their persons, their homes that they paid 20 years’ mortgage on or to safeguard whatever it is that they hold dear; if nothing else just being alive, and enjoying their freedom. All these things are at risk without Our Lady of Fatima’s Message being heard and obeyed.
“And so, even from an atheist’s point of view it is perfectly prudent to put forward this act of consecration. If nothing else, what is going to be lost by doing it? Absolutely nothing. The worst that would take place, it would take half an hour of prayer of the Pope and bishops together to do the Act of Consecration. And with a bit more ceremony it might take an hour and a half. And that’s all. The actual prayer would take less than five minutes to pronounce. And so from a prudential point of view, there is everything to gain by doing it and everything to lose by not doing it.”[7] (emphasis mine)
How true Father Gruner’s words ring for us today! It is long past time for the Pope, in union with all the Catholic bishops of the world, to consecrate Russia alone to the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Let us step up our prayers and sacrifices so that the Pope and bishops receive the grace to do the Consecration at last!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
ENDNOTES:
[1] Father Nicholas Gruner, “The Fatima Prayers Teach Us: Mary Is OUR Mother” (The Fatima Crusader, Issue 114, pp. 45-49), an edited transcript of this speech.
[2] Ibid., pp. 47-48.
[3] Ibid., p. 45.
[4] See, for example, “New York’s Covid Vaccine Passport Makes No Sense”.
[5] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. I: Science and the Facts, p. 182; cited in The Devil’s Final Battle, p. 2.
[6] On March 25, 2022, Francis failed to properly consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because: Russia did not appear clearly as the only object of the consecration, the Pope must order all the Catholic bishops to join him in praying the consecration prayer, and it must be a day of prayer and worldwide reparation.
[7] Fr. Nicholas Gruner, “Do Not Despise Prophecy,” The Fatima Crusader, Issue 54, Winter 1997, pp. 61-62.