Frère Michel, the premier Fatima scholar living today, devotes a section of his monumental 1983 work, The Whole Truth about Fatima, to a discussion of the Fatima Message as being summed up in three words: Conversion, Reparation, and Consecration.
The way of our conversion, he says, is the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is what Our Lady Herself intimated to Lucia, saying that Her Immaculate Heart would be “the way that will lead you to God.” The promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will consist in the universal expansion of devotion to that Immaculate Heart. Frère Michel explains that the Immaculate Heart is central to God’s ultimate design of mercy for the salvation of Christendom. “As for this devotion,” he writes, “it is summarized completely in two words: consecration and reparation.”
In the most recent Issue (#135) of The Fatima Crusader, a variety of writers explore what this three-pointed summary of the Fatima Message means in our daily lives as Catholics who long to live in a time of world peace under the reign of the Immaculate Heart.
This hope may seem unrealistic, given that so many in the Church hierarchy have succumbed to a diabolical disorientation, becoming partners in the world’s secular and often even anti-Christian agendas. Yet surely many who lived in the first century also thought the idea of a Messias whose reign would have no end was unrealistic. Such wondrous deeds strike freethinkers and unbelievers as beyond the realm of possibility. And in truth, there is no natural or human solution to the terrible crises of our age. “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). God Himself is the only one Who can bring about this miracle, and He has chosen to do so through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. Moreover, God desires that, as members of His Mystical Body, we also cooperate in His plan of mercy and salvation.
How are we to “Live the Fatima Message” in such times? What in particular are we to do in order to save our souls and help the Church emerge from this crisis? We must live a truly Catholic life, with a special emphasis on the devotions and practices recommended by Our Lady of Fatima. We must also strive to help save the souls of others, as Our Lady of Fatima tells us: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.”
The Fatima Message is a call for our conversion, for us to turn ourselves to God – by prayer, by placing ourselves under Our Lady’s mantle, and by combatting sin. We must make constant offerings of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary – not only in the course of our daily duties, making everything we do a sacrifice, but most particularly in our First Saturday devotions. Finally, we should honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary through a personal consecration to Her as we pray and sacrifice for the grace for the Pope to perform the requested Consecration of Russia.
The articles in this Issue of The Fatima Crusader set out simple and practical recommendations on many subjects touching the organization of our daily and spiritual lives. We invite you to read and pray about these recommendations and to implement in your own life the ones you are most drawn to. As you master those and they become habitual, you may choose to incorporate some of the other recommendations into your spiritual regimen.
May God bless your efforts to thus properly honor His Holy Mother Whom He sent to Fatima to be our guide through these difficult and perilous times!