Heaven's Threat of Chastisement
by John Vennari
TAKEN FROM THE WINTER, 2006 ISSUE OF THE FATIMA CRUSADER
This is an edited excerpt from Mr. Vennari's conference speech: "Does God Change His Mind?"
Fatima is a continuation and reaffirmation of Heaven's constant call for reparation over the past few hundred years.
I'm going to talk about some of these, starting with Our Lord's messages to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre regarding Devotion to His Holy Face. These messages and writings enjoy the full approval of the Catholic Church, and in many ways appear to be a forerunner of the Message of Fatima.
"The
Earth is Covered with Crimes" Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was a Carmelite nun in Tours, France who lived from 1816 to 1848. On November 24, 1843, Our Lord spoke the following words to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre.
"The earth is covered with crimes. The violation of the first three Commandments of God has irritated My Father. The Holy Name of God blasphemed, and the Holy Day of the Lord profaned, fills up the measure of iniquities. These sins have risen unto the Throne of God and provoked His wrath which will soon burst forth if His justice be not appeased. At no time has these crimes reached such a pitch."
Earlier, on August 24, 1843, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre received a special communication from Our Lord:
"He opened His Heart to me, and gathering there the powers of my soul, He addressed Me in these words: 'My Name is everywhere blasphemed. Even children blaspheme.' And He made me understand that this frightful sin, more than any other, grievously wounds His Divine Heart. By blasphemy, the sinner curses [God] to His Face, attacks Him openly, annuls redemption, and pronounces his own condemnation and judgment. Blasphemy is a poisoned arrow ever wounding His Divine Heart. He told me that He wishes to give me a Golden Arrow wherewith to wound His Heart delightfully and heal these wounds inflicted by the sinners' malice."
This is the origin of the prayer that most of us are familiar with, The Golden Arrow:
"May the Most Holy, Most Sacred, Most Adorable, Most Mysterious and Unutterable Name of God be praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all God's creatures, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen."
Our Lord said that this prayer gives a "torrent of grace for sinners". We see that Heaven makes it easy for us to help save souls. We can memorize these prayers given us by Heaven and say them repeatedly to console Our Lord and make reparation. This is the point: Heaven is constantly asking us to make reparation.
In these communications from Heaven, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was asked to make a Communion of Reparation for the Desecration of Sunday (sin against the Third Commandment). Again, we see a kind of forerunner of Fatima of the Five First Saturdays and the Communion of Reparation.
Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre writes:
" . . . Our Lord commanded me to receive Holy Communion every Sunday for these three particular intentions:
"1) In a spirit of atoning for all forbidden works done on Sundays, which as holy days are to be sanctified;
"2) To appease Divine Justice which was on the very verge of striking on account of the profanation of holy days;
"3) To implore the conversion of those sinners who desecrate Sundays, and to succeed in obtaining the cessation of forbidden Sunday Labor."
La Salette
Now, here I want to make a connection to another historic event in France. It demonstrates consistency-----how these messages from Heaven hang together.
On
September 19, 1846, Our Lady appeared to the shepherd children Maxim
and Melanie in La Salette. And Our Lady's message of La Salette was a
confirmation of the messages Our Lord had given to Sister Marie de
Saint-Pierre. What did Our Lady of La Salette warn of? She warned of "the utter contempt (of man) for God's Commandments, especially, She said, in the profanation of the Lord's Day and the crime of blasphemy." (That is, for sins against the Second and Third Commandments.)
She said, "If My people do not return to God by penance, I shall be forced to let fall the Hand of My Son, it now presses so heavily that I can scarce hold it any longer." The messages of La Salette and that of Heaven to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre are in many ways the same message.
The Holy Face
On October 11, 1845, Our Lord gave the revelation concerning the importance of making reparation to His Holy Face. On this day, Our Lord said to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre:
"I seek Veronicas to wipe and venerate My Divine Face which has but few adorers."
He then dictated a prayer of reparation to the Holy Face:
"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the adorable Face of Thy Beloved Son for the honor and glory of Thy Name, for the conversion of sinners, and for the salvation of the dying."
Once again, we see that the Holy Face Message, and that of La Salette, is a call for reparation and warning of chastisement. This is the "tradition," if you will, by which the Message of Fatima came to us. It is the only way to properly understand it.
And if I'm going to talk about the revelations of Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre on the Holy Face, I must mention the Nine Promises from Our Lord to those who practice Devotion to the Holy Face. Our Lord does not only warn, but promises us great graces when we respond. He shows His goodness and generosity toward us.
Of these Nine Promises-----because of time considerations-----I will only mention four:
"According to the care you take in making reparation to My Face disfigured by blasphemies, so will I take care of yours which has been disfigured by sin. I will reprint therein My image and render it as beautiful as it was on leaving the Baptismal font." (Nov. 3, 1845)
"By My Holy Face you shall work miracles." (Oct. 27, 1845)
"By My Holy Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners. Nothing that you ask in making this offering will be refused to you. If you knew how pleasing the sight of My Face is to My Father!" (Nov. 22, 1846.)
"As in an earthly kingdom you can procure all you wish with a coin marked with the prince's effigy, so in the kingdom of Heaven you may obtain all you desire with the precious coin of My holy Humanity, which is My adorable Face." (Oct. 29, 1845) [1]
Dom Gueranger, the famous Abbot from Solemnes, along with a group of theologians, were given the writings of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre to determine if the Church could approve them. Dom Gueranger not only approved of these revelations, but gave them his enthusiastic support.
There's a lot more we could say on this, but I want to simply emphasize Heaven's constant call for reparation and constant warning of chastisement.
Sacred Heart
If we go back to the 17th Century, we see in the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus a similar call. On June 16, 1675, Our Lord said the following to Margaret Mary Alacoque as He revealed to her His Sacred Heart:
"Behold this Heart which loves men so much that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to its love. Yet, in return, I received from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they exhibit for Me in this Sacrament of Love [the Blessed Sacrament]. And what is most painful to Me, is that they are hearts consecrated to Me". [2]
Our Lord is calling for reparation, and promised great graces for those who would practice devotion to His Sacred Heart.
We move to Lourdes, 1858, where Our Lady warned mankind that we have to do penance.
Also in the late 19th Century and into the 20th Century, there are the revelations of Our Lord to Sister Marie Chambon regarding devotion to the Holy Wounds. He dictated the prayer:
"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ in reparation for my sins and the sins of the whole world."
Here again we see Heaven's constant call for reparation.
Sister Elena Aiello
Jumping ahead to the 1950s, there is the dramatic revelations from Heaven to Sister Elena Aiello. This remarkable nun lived in Italy from 1895-1961; her revelations enjoy full Church approval.
She was a victim soul, a stigmatist who suffered the bloody sufferings of Our Lord's Passion on the Fridays in Lent from 1923 until her death in 1961. In fact at her death, L'Osservatore Romano (Vatican's official newspaper) wrote a beautiful tribute to her.
An eminent Scripture Scholar in Rome named Msgr. Francesco Spadafora wrote a book about her and had nothing but the highest praise for her and for her revelations. These revelations are some of the most frightening in modern times. They confirm the Message of Fatima, and they are a restatement of Heaven's constant call for reparation and warning of chastisement. We will just give one message, that of December 8, 1956: "Then, the Madonna appeared to me, sad and shedding tears. She said: "People are offending God too much . . . "
Our Lady then said: "This great mantle which you see, is the expression of My mercy for covering sinners and for saving them. Men, instead, cover themselves with even more filth, and do not want to confess their real faults.
Therefore, the justice of God will pass over the sinful world to purify humanity of so many sins openly committed----- and hidden-----especially those which corrupt youth!
"In order to save souls, I wish that there be propagated in the world the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mediatrix of men devoted to the Mercy of God, and to the Queen of the Universe.
"The world will be once more afflicted with great calamity; with bloody revolutions; with great earthquakes, with famines, with epidemic, with fearful hurricanes, and with floods from rivers and seas. But if men do not return to God, purifying fire will fall from the heavens, like snowstorms; on all peoples, and a great part of humanity will be destroyed.
"No longer do men speak according to the true spirit of the Gospel. The immorality of the time has reached a peak. But men do not listen to My motherly warnings, so the world must soon be purified.
"Russia will march upon all the nations of Europe, particularly Italy, and will raise her flag over the dome of St. Peter's. Italy will be severely tried by a great revolution, and Rome will be purified in blood for its many sins, especially those of impurity. The flock is about to be dispersed and the Pope must suffer greatly.
"The only valid means for placating Divine Justice is to pray and do penance, returning to God with sincere sorrow for the faults committed, and then the chastisement of Divine Justice will be mitigated by mercy. Humanity will never find peace if it does not return to My Immaculate Heart as Mother of Mercy and Mediatrix of men; and to the Heart of My Son Jesus". [3]
We see that God does not change His mind regarding the gravity of sin, the need for reparation, and the punishment for sin, if reparation is not made.
Fatima Must Be Obeyed
Everything is much worse than in 1956 (when the above revelation was given to Sister Elena), especially if we consider abortion, fetal experimentation on live aborted babies, widespread use of contraception; the floodgates of immorality open through television, movies and internet; unprecedented corruption of youth through music, the movie industries, internet and MTV; a tsunami of sins against the First Commandment that are not even recognized as sins against the First Commandment.
The need for reparation is greater than ever. So I am baffled-----and have been baffled for many years------as to why we never hear our Catholic churchmen speak of it.
We never hear of the urgent need for reparation; we never hear a reiteration of warning of chastisement; and worse, there is virtually no mention from our churchmen of mortal sin and sanctifying grace!
What we do here is talk about "dialogue", "New Springtime", "New Pentecost", "Civilization of Love", and other pop slogans. It's all rather dreamy and optimistic, but it is not the language of Heaven to us over the last few hundred years.
No, the language of Heaven, best summarized and exemplified in the Message from Heaven, is a call for reparation, warning of severe chastisement, and a reward of grace and peace for us if we respond to Heaven's requests.
God does not change His mind about the gravity of sin and the threat of chastisement if reparation is not made. The need for obedience to Our Lady of Fatima is greater than ever.
Footnotes:
1. See "Heaven's Request for Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus", (3 part series), Catholic Family News, June, July, and August, 2001.
2. Then He commanded her to have established in the Church a particular feast to honor His Sacred Heart. "I desire, therefore, that the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament be observed in a special manner as the feast of My Heart, by receiving Holy Communion on that day, and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. I promise that My Heart shall bestow its love abundantly on those who will render Me this honor, or cause the same to be rendered Me by others." Our Lord also warned of chastisement if the King of France did not consecrate France to the Sacred Heart as Our Lord had requested. That punishment came by way of the French Revolution that took place exactly 100 years after 1689 revelations of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary.
3. A full report with all references is found in "The Miraculous Life and Prophecies of Sister Elena Aiello", John Vennari, Catholic Family News, February, 2005
[The 2006 World Bishops Conference in Tuy, Spain, October 6, 2006]
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