It is strange how the Third Secret of Fatima is today surrounded by deceptions and attacks from anti-Marians who undermine its true message. For example, a History Channel documentary claimed that part of the Third Secret is still secret, that only 25 of the 62 lines of the original manuscript was revealed. This is not true. If you look at the official Vatican website, you will see all 62 lines. Click the link below and see for yourself. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
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The anti-Marians say that praying to Our Lady is a form of idolatry, an ‘abomination’. The reply of Marian devotees is simple – we pray to Our Lady not as a God, but as a human bridge to God.
An email letter, which has been circulating many times over for years, says only blessed candles can be lit during the three days of darkness. Neither blessed candles nor the three days of darkness are mentioned in the original Fatima messages. The apparent intent was to distract us and make us focus on external rituals so that we forget the essence of the message, namely, a return to the Lord, which will save us from calamity, not the lighting of candles.
The misleading email is littered with a complex set of quotes and sub-quotes until you can no longer distinguish what Our Lady is saying and what the anonymous author is adding. It is an ingenious subtle form of deception. It speaks of ”a great earthquake ten minutes before midnight going for eight hours and will tilt the earth’s axis 23 degrees”. There are no such exact scientific data in the Third Secret.
The email says, “once (God’s punishment) has started, you should not look outside under any circumstance!!!!”. The intent is to instill the wrong kind of fear, fear of penalty for transgressing a meaningless rule. True fear of the Lord involves prayer and good deed.
The original Third Secret transcript does not speak so much of hellfire and brimstone, as many think. The most doomsay text that visionary Sister Lucia wrote goes, “We saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’.” This passage explains that Marian intervention can save the world from disasters, but ony through constant penance.
Marian Interventions against disasters
According to Vatican Fatima scholars in the Vatican, there have been three such Marian interventions on potential disasters. The first was the Cuban crisis in 1961, the closest mankind had to a nuclear confrontation. The second was the two averted attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II, circa 1981. The Third Secret referred to a “bishop in white”, whom Sister Lucia later would say was Pope John Paul II, who would be saved from assassination. Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, later reported that the Pope was saved by ”a Mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path”. The Pope later gave the bullet to the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima who placed it in the crown of Our Lady of Fatima. Anti-Marians argue that there were no such Marian interventions. Events simply happened. The belief in Marian interventions is a matter of faith. No one is obliged to believe.
About half a dozen Popes since 1917 refused to reveal the Third Secret for more than 8 decades. Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope for centuries, known as the ‘Fatima Pope’, finally revealed it in 2002. It seemed that the many Popes kept the message secret not in fear of sowing panic but because of the “bishop dressed in white”, a Pope who would be slain. In 1981, Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was Our Lady’s request in one of her earlier Fatima messages as a precondition for world peace. After that, for the first time, a Russian leader, Gorbachev, visited the papacy, where he was touched by his dialogue with Pope John Paul II.
Three important events ensued. First, Gorbachev instituted détente as a unilateral policy towards establishing peace with the West. This led to the eventual break up of the Russian empire, and the end of the cold war. Second, Gorbachev opened up the churches in Russia and ended decades of suppression of the Church. Third, the break up of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled the last of many events easing tensions between the US and Russia. All these were considered by Fatima scholars as a Marian intervention against wars.
Can Prayers Avert World War III?
In the theology of sin and punishment, prophecies have an big ‘if’. They are premised on the fact that Man fails to return to the Lord. If he returns to the Lord, then grim prophecies can be reversed or deferred. For example, the Lord told the prophet Jonah to tell that the people of Nineveh that the city would be destroyed, if they would not repent. The affluent trade city of Nineveh was the New York City of biblical times. Nineveh returned to the Lord and was spared. This was the opposite in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said, if there was but one holy person remaining, he would spare the twin cities. There was none. He destroyed them in fulfillment of the prophecy.
The Fatima First Secret describes a vision of hell to scare us to the urgency for prayer and conversion, according to Sister Lucia. Our Lady says, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end (World War I); but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one (World War II) will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI.” It seems there were no Marian interventions in the two world wars, perhaps because there was no return of Man to the Lord.
Is God ready to strike as in Sodom and Gomorrah or ready to forgive as in Nineveh? In my personal experience, as I prayed with Sister Eva at the home of a visionary of Our Lady of Grace and Peace in San Francisco del Monte, she went into a sudden trance and convulsion. Instantly, her voice changed to a deeper tone, and said “I can no longer hold off the hand of my Son. Pray, pray, pray.”
The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters lately tend to point to the God of wrath overwhelming the God of mercy – Katrina, Irene, mega-tsunamis in Japan and Jakarta, mega-earthquakes in Peru and China, floods and forest fires everywhere, powerful weather disturbances due to climate change, and so on.
One such disaster was 9-11. God can actually permit evil to reign because we ignore Him. The similarity of the twin towers of New York to the twin towers of Babylon is awesome. They are both twin towers. They both represent the sin of pride, the arrogance of man believing he does not need God. 9-11 is more than just a crime by terrorist enemies. It is a message for us to return to God.
Today, Iran-Syria-Israel or Pakistan-India are easily the core of a new powderkeg that may evolve into a possible World War III. All that is needed is a small short fuse, when all of us are asleep. Can we still avert disasters? Can we still invoke Marian intervention through prayers and penance? Can Our Lady still hold off the Angel of Fire and the hand of her Son? Or are we hopelessly now in the era of the ‘end times’? It is up to all of us. Only Mankind’s actions can change the big ‘if’.
“Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts not your garments. Return to me your Lord your God. For gracious and merciful am I, slow to anger, rich in kindness, relenting in punishment.” (Joel 2:12-13).
********************************************************************** APPENDIX – HEALING MINISTRY’S COMPLETE LIBRARY ********************************************************************** Browse thru the ministry’s extensive archives of inspirational materials – Powerpoints, Youtubes, prayer poems, meditation posters, anecdotes. Save this link for future readings. http://www.sisterraquel.com/2010/04/archive00-entire-ministry-library/ The Lord Heals in Cyberspace amdg
Eastwind Journals 