Prayer given to Sr. Agnes on July 6th, 1973: 

“Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father, pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.”

Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.”

“Most holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your Special Child. Amen.”

Mary’s Maternal Mediation  

God and his Christ make use of Mary in this sense, that they make all the graces which they destine for us pass through her … By using her as intermediary, they temper their action all the more with humanity, without in any way diminishing its divine efficacy. They make Mary live by the life we are to live by. She is first filled to overflowing with it. Grace is pre­formed in her and receives in her the imprint of a special beauty. All grace and all graces come to us thus canalized a1nd distributed by her, impregnated with that special sweetness which she imparts to all she touches and all she does.  

By her action Mary enters therefore into our lives as bearer of the divine. In the whole course of our lives, from the cradle and before it to the grave and beyond it, there is nothing of grace in which she had no part. She shapes us to the likeness of Jesus … She leaves her mark on everything and adds to the perfection of what passes through her hands. I have said that we are sustained by her prayer: we are similarly sustained by her action and, if one may say it, have our spiritual being in her hands. Every Christian is a child of Mary, but a child is not worthy of the name unless it is formed by its mother.

Fr. Pierre Rogatien Bernard, O.P.

 Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send now your Spirit over the earth. Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts of all nations that they may be preserved from degeneration, disaster, and war.  May the Lady of All Nations, the Blessed Virgin Mary, be our Advocate.  Amen.

Blessed Virgin Mary, who can worthily repay you with praise and thanks for having rescued a fallen world by your generous consent! Receive our gratitude, and by your prayers obtain the pardon of our sins. Take our prayers into the sanctuary of heaven and enable them to make our peace with God.

Holy Mary, help the miserable, strengthen the discouraged, comfort the sorrowful, pray for your people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all women consecrated to God. May all who venerate you feel now your help and protection. Be ready to help us when we pray, and bring back to us the answers to our prayers. Make it your continual concern to pray for the people of God, for you were blessed by God and were made worthy to bear the Redeemer of the world, who lives and reigns forever. Amen.

+ St. Augustine

To me you are my dear love, my beauty, the great hope of salvation. Help your servant, 0 most glorious Virgin. My voice tells of you tearfully: my heart burns for love. Give heed as well to the prayers of all my brothers who cry unto you: 0 Virgin, you are full of grace; through you may the grace of Christ ever preserve us … 

May devotion and honor recall your memory in this place, 0 Queen of heaven, greatest hope of our life. With your kindness, look upon God’s handmaids and servants here who call unto you, O Virgin most mild. In your mercy, give heed in every moment to our prayers, and by your prayers direct our days, always and everywhere … 

Virgin and Mother whose merit is unequaled! O Mary, you alone are the one whom the Lord pre­served in such a condition of soul and body as to make you worthy of the mystery in which the Son of God assumed a body from you as the price of our redemption. 0 most merciful, through whom the whole world has been saved, I pray you, intercede for me, the most unclean of all and stained with every kind of wickedness; intercede for me, for because of my sins, I deserve to receive nothing except eternal punishment. 0 most glorious Virgin, grant that I, saved by your merits, may reach the eternal king­dom. 

Alcuin.

Queen of Heaven, Rejoice

Regina cæli lætare, Alleluia; Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia; Resurrexit, sicut dixit, Alleluia: Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia. 

Queen of Heaven rejoice, Alleluia; For the Son thou wast privileged to bear, Alleluia; is risen as He said, Alleluia: Pray for us to God, Alleluia.

This ancient Latin hymn and prayer is sung or recited at the Angelus during the entire Easter season, until Pentecost, replacing the usual Angelus prayers. The hymn reveals the intimate bond uniting the Virgin Mother of God to her Divine Son, who glorifies her, and with whom she intercedes for mankind, as she did at Cana.

“Rejoice, you who are full of grace” 

The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by His grace. It was fitting that the mother of Jesus in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” should herself be “full of grace.” She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty. It was quite correct for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the “Daughter of Zion”: “Rejoice.” It is the thanksgiving of the whole People of God, and thus of the Church, which Mary in her canticle lifts up to the Father in the Holy Spirit while carrying within her the eternal Son.

a meditation from the Apostles of the Holy Spirit

On May 13th, 1917, Our Lady made the first of six apparitions to three little sheperd children…

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FATIMA

1. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?

The Message of Fatima consists of a number of precise predictions, requests, warnings and promises concerning the Faith and the world which were conveyed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children–Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco–in a series of apparitions at Fatima, Portugal from May to October 1917.

2. WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?
You should believe the Message of Fatima because:

(1) It was confirmed by an unprecedented public miracle, the Miracle of the Sun, which occurred at precisely the moment Lucia said it would. More than 70,000 people, including Masons, communists and atheists, saw the sun, contrary to all cosmic laws, twirl in the sky, throw off colors and descend to earth. The event was reported in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times.

(2) All of the Popes since the Fatima Miracle have recognized that the Message is authentic. Several Popes have gone to Fatima in person, including Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. John Paul II said at Fatima in 1982 that “the Message of Fatima imposes an obligation on the Church.”

(3) Many other miracles have been performed by God authenticating the Fatima Message as coming from Him, not only at the time of the Miracle of the Sun, October 13, 1917, but down the years to the present day, miracles of conversions and cures which science cannot explain by natural means.

(4) The Message of Fatima accurately predicted world events, which proves that it is a true prophecy.

3. WHAT DID THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA PREDICT?

The Message of Fatima accurately predicted in 1917 all of the following events which came to pass:

(1) the end of World War I;

(2) the emergence of Russia as a world power which would “spread its errors (including Communism) throughout the world … raising up wars and persecutions against the Church”;

(3) the election of a Pope who would be named Pius XI;

(4) the waging of a second World War following a strange light in the night sky.

The Message of Fatima also predicted that if the requests of the Virgin Mary at Fatima are not honored, many souls will be lost, “the Holy Father will have much to suffer”, there will be further wars and persecutions of the Church and “various nations will be annihilated.” The annihilation of nations predicted at Fatima has not yet occurred, but many fear that it will soon happen, given the growing immorality and corruption of the world.

4. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA REQUEST?

At Fatima Our Lady said that God wished to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady said that many souls would be saved from Hell and the annihilation of nations averted if, in time, devotion to Her Immaculate Heart were established principally by these two means:

1) the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope together with the world’s bishops in a solemn public ceremony, and

(2) the practice or receiving Holy Communion (and other specific devotions of about 1/2 hour in duration) in reparation for the sins committed against the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months–a practice known to Catholics as “the First Saturday” devotion.

5. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA WARN?

It warns that if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima for the Consecration of Russia and the First Saturday devotion are not honored, the Church will be persecuted, there will be other major wars, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated. Many nations will be enslaved by Russian militant atheists. Most important, many souls will be lost.

6. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA PROMISE?

The Message of Fatima promises that if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima are carried out “My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will Consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to mankind.”

7. WHY IS THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA IMPORTANT TO ME AND MY FAMILY?

The Message of Fatima is important to you and your family because it involves the salvation of souls, peace in the world and, if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima are not carried out, the consequences are the annihilation of nations and the enslavement of all mankind under militant atheists of Russia.

8. BUT ISN’T THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA JUST A PRIVATE REVELATION WHICH NO CATHOLIC HAS TO BELIEVE?

No, it is not just a private revelation. It is a public, prophetic revelation given by the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. It is not to be confused with “Revelation” or as it is also called, the Deposit of the Faith, which ended with the death of the last Apostle. But public, prophetic revelation must not be despised. The Virgin Mary’s prophecy was confirmed by a public miracle and authenticated by a whole line of Popes. Also, its predictions have come true.

So, while belief in the Message of Fatima may not strictly be required of Catholics as an article of faith, one would be very foolish to disregard such an obviously authentic message from Heaven. As St. Paul taught: “Despise not prophecies, but prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:20-21) The prophecy of Fatima has been proven worthy of belief. We should not despise it, but rather hold fast to what Our Lady told us at Fatima.

I am your Mother of Perpetual Help and I am the Mediatrix of all graces for my dear children. My eyes of mercy are turned toward you. My Heart is open to you. My hands are ever raised in prayer for you, or open over you, to shower abundant graces upon you and upon those for whom you pray.

I am pleased that you want to imitate my son Saint John in making your home with me, in opening to me every part of your life. In this way, you allow me to act upon you, but also you allow me to act with you and through you.

My presence and my action are revealed in gentleness, in sweetness, and in mercy. I want you to resemble me spiritually just as my Jesus resembled me physically. Jesus, looking at me, saw the perfect reflection of all the dispositions and virtues of His Adorable Heart. I, looking at you, want to see my own Immaculate Heart mirrored in yours. I want to communicate to you and to all my priest sons the virtues of my Heart.  By consecrating yourself to me, you have made this possible, and already my transformation of you has begun.

My Son has given me sway over the hearts of His priests. I will transform, and purify, and sanctify the heart of every priest consecrated to me. Mine it is to change the souls of priests, to wash them, to lift them up into the heavenly places so that their conversation may be with my Son, and through Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For this reason am I rightly called Porta Caeli, the Gate of Heaven.  It is the will of my Son that His priests should live, while they are yet on earth, in the heavenly places. He would have them enter with Him into the sanctuary of heaven, beyond the veil where, as Eternal High Priest, He offers Himself ceaselessly as a Victim of praise and propitiation to His Father.

The Holy Spirit is the living flame of this heavenly holocaust. All of heaven glows with the Fire of Love that burns in the Heart of the Son who stands before His Father as Eternal High Priest. I am for all my priest sons the Gate of Heaven. If any priest would ascend, even in this earthly life, into the glory of the heavenly liturgy ceaselessly celebrated by my Son before the Father’s Face, he need only approach me. I will open the way into the mysteries of heaven for him. I will teach him the reverence, the silence, the profound adoration that befits one called to serve at the altars of my Son, and in His place.

Let me be for you the Gate of Heaven. Come to me at every opportunity. Pray my Rosary. I will make you share in all that I hold in my Heart. I bless you now and I bless those for whom you have prayed to me. I bless my priest sons. I love them with all my Heart and I follow them in their comings and goings. When they fall I weep over them, and all my desire is to lift them up, to cleanse them, to heal their wounds, and to see them restored to the grace of friendship with my Son.

I am present to you and I hear the prayers you address to me. I will open my hands, full of graces and blessings, over the souls whom you recommended to me. I am ever willing to come quickly to the aid of my poor children. I am every ready to help them them, to lift them when they fall, to bind up their wounds, and even to intervene in such a way as to repair the effects of their wrongdoing.

I am not distant. I hear every prayer addressed to me. My maternal Heart is moved to pity when my children, and especially my priest sons, have recourse to me in their needs. I am the Mother of Mercy, Mater Misericordiae, honoured by the Church in her chant to me. I do turn towards you my eyes of mercy, and I am ever willing to help poor sinners. Let sinners come to me; I will never turn them away. Let them appeal to my Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart; they will never be disappointed.

As for you, dear son of mine, persevere in praying to me. Hold fast to my Rosary and beware of every ploy of the Evil One to separate you from it. My Rosary is your safeguard and your weapon in the fight against the forces of evil. At the same time, for you it is a remedy and a comfort. Do you not see how the Rosary has stabilized you? Do you not experience its healing and all its benefits? Pray my Rosary and teach others to do the same. Trust me for the nfolding of the plan of my Son.

From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest

How Friar Leo saw a terrible vision in a dream

ONCE, in a dream, Friar Leo beheld a vision of the making ready of the Divine judgment. He beheld the Angels making music with trumpets and divers instruments, and calling together a marvellous great crowd in a meadow. And on one side of the meadow was set a ladder all rosy red, which reached from earth even unto heaven, and on the other side of the meadow was set another ladder all white, which descended from heaven to earth. On the top of the red ladder, Christ appeared a Lord offended and exceeding wrath. And St. Francis was nigh unto Christ but a few steps lower down; and he came farther down the ladder, and with a loud voice and great fervour called and said: “Come ye, my friars, come confidently, fear not, come, draw nigh unto the Lord, for He calleth you”. At the voice of St. Francis and at his bidding, the friars went and climbed up the red ladder with great confidence. And, when they were all thereon, some fell off the third step, and some off the fourth step, others off the fifth and the sixth; and at the last all fell, so that there remained not one upon the ladder. And so great ruin of his friars, St. Francis, as a pitiful father, was moved to compassion, and besought the Judge for his sons, that He would receive them to His mercy. And Christ showed His wounds all bloody, and said unto St. Francis: “This have thy friars done unto Me”.

And St. Francis delayed not, but, even as he interceded, came down certain steps, and cried unto the friars that were fallen from the red ladder and said: “Come ye, rise up, my sons and friars, be of good courage and despair not, but run to the white ladder and climb up it, for by it ye shall be received into the Kingdom of Heaven; run, friars, through paternal admonishment, to the white ladder”. And on the top of the ladder appeared the glorious Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, all pitiful and kind, and welcomed those friars; and without any difficulty they entered into the eternal kingdom. To the praise of Christ. Amen.

“See, My daughter, My heart surrounded by thorns which ungrateful men pierce at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude… Say to all those who, for five months, on the first Saturday, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep Me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, in a spirit of reparation, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.”

The confession may be made on the First Saturday itself or some days before or after the First Saturday. This reparatory devotion was requested to atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1. attacks upon Mary’s Immaculate Conception;
2. attacks against her Perpetual Virginity;
3. attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept Her as the Mother of all mankind;
4. for those who try to publicly implant in children’s hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother, and
5. for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.

The fairest flower of them all…

We honor the Mother of God and we have put all our hope in her because we know she can do everything. And do you know she can do everything? Her Son does not refuse anything she wishes, because He has not been able to give back to her what He took on loan from her.  He took His flesh from her, and made it divine, but He did not give it back. This is why we feel ourselves so safe in the garden of the Mother of God.

A Greek Orthodox monk to Pope Benedict XVI