IHS
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost—9 July AD 2017
Ave Maria!
Ordinary of the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text - English“O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Heavenly beauty and splendor of the Father,
You are the most valued Heavenly treasure.”[1]Please begin your 54 day novenas to the Immaculate Heart of Mary starting tomorrow.
Twenty seven days in petition twenty-seven days in thanksgiving for the return of Christian civilization under Christ the King and Mary His Queen.
Details are on the last page of the August Parish Bulletin.[2]Please pray for Alfie Evans, 14 Months old ,
another hostage of socialized medicine in Britain.https://www.facebook.com/groups/alfiesarmy/
Toward the beginning of the previous century the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three children at Fatima in Portugal. (13 May-13 October 1917) This was what the Church calls a private revelation, but it is one that the local bishop investigated for about eight years and declared “worthy of belief.”[3] With the possible exception of the revelations at Lourdes there is probably no better and widely accepted apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Made simple, the Fatima message was that people had to return to God, amend their ways, and do penance for their sins. The Blessed Virgin volunteered that her Immaculate Heart would be the touchstone of mankind’s repentance and the vehicle by which peace could be restored in a world that was already at war, and which would suffer immensely from the Communist revolution taking place at roughly the same time as the revelations.
The celebration of First Saturdays in honor of our Lady goes back to the time of Charlemagne, and had already been granted a plenary indulgence by Pope Pius X in honor of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. In 1925 the Blessed Virgin appeared once again to Sister Lucia (one of the original visionaries) and promised even greater gifts to those who would sanctify the First Saturdays with Holy Communion received in reparation:
See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.Do you, at least, strive to console me. Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the … mysteries of the Rosary.[4]
The Blessed Mother promised so much for observing a mere five First Saturdays, with the intention of making reparation. Our Church makes a point of observing these Saturdays, most often with Mass specifically in our Lady’s honor, on every First Saturday. I would hope that all of you would make the effort every month—we live in a world gone mad with “blasphemies and ingratitude.” and it would be foolish to stop after a mere five Saturdays.
(If you are already in the state of grace, you can receive your First Saturday Communion, and make the required Confession during the week before or the week after.)
The First Saturdays of Reparation require meditating on the Rosary for fifteen minutes. Personally, I don’t think it is possible to pray five decades in anything less than fifteen minutes—but don’t get tied up with any one or any group that makes the “Hail Mary” sound like a tobacco auction. And, just like the five Saturdays, it would be foolish to limit your Rosaries to just a few Saturdays—over a dozen promises are attributed to Our Lady for faithful recitation—and rich indulgences are offered, particularly for recitation “in a church or public oratory or in a family group, a religious Community or pious Association.”[5]
Another thing associated with the Fatima revelations was the request of the Blessed Virgin for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. If this were accomplished, “Russia will be converted and there will be a period of peace.” This request has caused a great deal of controversy in the modern Church. There have been several “consecrations” but they all seem to lack some dimensions. Most “consecrated the whole world” to the Immaculate Heart, and not specifically Russia. Pope Pius XII consecrated Russia specifically in writing with the Apostolic Letter Carissimis Russiae Populis on 7 July 1952.[6] Most Fatima purists insist that it should be specifically Russia, and that the consecration must be made by all the bishops of the Catholic Church—which has not yet been done.
We don’t have any control over the hierarchy, but this morning during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, we will consecrate our Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.[7]
So please, pray the Rosary—especially during the next fifty-four days. Make the First Saturday Communions of Reparation. Wear the Brown Scapular. And join us this morning in consecrating our Parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
“O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Heavenly beauty and splendor of the Father,
You are the most valued Heavenly treasure.”
NOTES:
[3] Dom Jose Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima 13 October 1930 http://www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/statements/fatima_statement_02.html
