OUR LADY OF FATIMA WHY Fatima: The Path To Peace! Is Critically Important by Fr. Nicholas Gruner, STL, STD, [CAND.] Part 1 Fatima Is Unique Our Lady of Fatima said some extraordinary things - such extraordinary things, in fact, as have never been said before or since. She tells us that Fatima is necessary for the very survival of Christian civilization. She says, "If My requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace." She also says that if Her requests are not granted: "Russia will spread her errors throughout the world raising up wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated." Our Lady is consistent. She cannot change Her Message to suit the whims of people today. Her words should be enough for us. But there are those who say: "That was said ninety-six years ago. People have not paid attention. Therefore, Our Lady should give us another, more up-to-date message." But those who say that are wrong. No One Pays Attention Now, perhaps it is not quite accurate to say that no one has paid attention to Our Lady's Message, but we can certainly say that not enough people (including the Popes, Cardinals, bishops, and priests) have given Her Message as much serious consideration and response as it demands and deserves. It is also true, sadly, that many have paid no attention to Our Lady of Fatima. Others have given Her some nominal attention, but hardly any. Too few have seriously reflected on Our Lady's words and taken to heart Her personal plea for us to amend our lives, to pray the Rosary every day, and to make the First Saturday Communions of Reparation. Grossly Inadequate Response One thing that we can be absolutely certain of (judging from the past ninety-six years) is that the Message of Fatima has not been given enough of a response from almost every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth. Perhaps you or someone you know is an exception to that statement, but the history of the past century establishes the truth of that conclusion as a whole. Our Time Is Almost Over How long will this inadequate response to our Heavenly Mother be tolerated by Heaven? That time is surely running out. Our Lord has indicated in the clearest terms that His Providence has established a limit to how long He will allow us to neglect His Mother's requests (which He referred to as His own command!). When that time has run out, the Pope - like the King of France - will be cruelly murdered. Then many bishops, priests, religious, and lay people vill follow him in being forced to lay down their lives at the hands of the Church's enemies. This is clear from Our Lord's words to Sister Lucy:  "Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command [to consecrate Russia], like him they will follow him into misfortune." Our Lord's warning is made even more vivid by Sister Lucia's description of the vision of the Third Secret, in which the child-seers of Fatima witnessed this horrible "misfortune": "Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions." Notice how Our Lord, in His words to Sister Lucia, draws our attention back to His request of 1689 through Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque for the King of France to consecrate that nation to His Sacred Heart. His request for that consecration came 100 years to the day before King Louis XVI was deprived of his power to rule by the forces of Revolution in France. He draws a direct parallel between these two requests, which He refers to as commands, for the consecration of France to His Sacred Heart and the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Mercy Has a Time Limit In asking us to invoke Heaven's aid to save us from our enemies, He extends to us His mercy. But it is also clear from this example of the King of France that when the time of mercy has elapsed and the threatening dangers actually overtake us, they come as an element of being a punishment from God. When 100 years to the day had elapsed from the time when the king was commanded to consecrate France, he suddenly no longer had the power or opportunity to do so. It was taken out of his hands by his enemies. God allowed that to happen to indicate that it was a punishment from Him for despising and neglecting the remedy which He had offered. First there is a time of mercy, which is real, but which does not last forever. The time is pre-set by God. Just as the kings of France had exactly 100 years in which to act, there is undoubtedly a pre set time during which Heaven will wait for the Consecration of Russia. Ninety-six years have passed since 1917. We have no guarantee of having 100 years to put off our obedience to the Queen of Heaven, but even if we have yet four years to go before our enemies overrun us, do we think that four years is a lot of time? Especially when we consider how little response this request has received during the past ninety-six years, do the next four years seem ample space for our efforts? One might argue that there are still sixteen years remaining before 2029, which will be the 100th anniversary of the formal command to consecrate Russia. But either way, our time is short. And besides, it becomes more difficult each year as our enemies - the enemies of Jesus Christ - become stronger and stronger, and makes it more and more difficult for faithful people and groups to survive. The important thing to realize is that we will be held personally accountable for not doing our part if we delay any longer to do all in our power to promote awareness of this request and to pray and sacrifice for this intention. The plain fact of the matter is that we all - collectively, taken as a whole, and including the bishops, the priests, the religious, and the lay faithful - have not taken Our Lady's Message and Her requests seriously enough up to this point. All of us (or almost all of us) have not taken the Fatima Message, the Fatima requests, the Fatima commands of Jesus and Mary seriously enough. We have not made them our top priority, our most important duty - our obligation to do all we can under pain of sin. The lament of Sister Lucy spoken in 1957 is even more true today: "[T]he Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her Message, neither the good nor the bad." We Must Choose Reality! We may not want to hear these things. Some of us may find these facts too unpleasant to bear. We would rather hear something that makes us feel good. But it is because Jesus and Mary love us and long for our eternal salvation that They have revealed to us the truth of our situation. In our turn, we must reflect on Their revelation, because our safety and our salvation depend on our adherence to truth. We must consider these things. The reality of our situation is something that we cannot afford to ignore. If a young child is near a hot stove and he does not understand how badly he can be injured by it, he desperately needs someone to warn him and keep an eye on him. Even though he doesn't understand his situation, the fact is that he is relying on someone to prevent him from hurting himself. That is the reality of his situation. The same can be said for all kinds of aspects of life. We can get sick or be injured or even die as a result of the decisions we make - in eating, in driving, etc. - regardless of whether we realize the dangers around us or not. There are consequences for ignoring or for being taken unaware by the reality of our situation. This is all the more true in the case of Our Lady's warning about Russia's errors spreading throughout the entire world unless we beforehand apply for Her to save us by Her own merits from the just punishment of our sins. We are in the gravest danger, right now, all of us. We are on the verge of being cruelly conquered and enslaved, even exterminated in the most ferocious persecution ever suffered by the Church, if we continue to ignore the warning and the requests of Our Lady's Message of Fatima. Time is running out. Our time is very short. Now more than ever, we need our Church leaders and our elected state leaders and legislators (in Washington, in Ottawa, in Europe - Senators, Members of Congress, Members of Parliament, Members of State Legislatures, Members of Provincial Legislatures, Mayors, Aldermen - every person charged with the administration of the common good) to be made aware of, and to pay attention to, and to do all that they can to bring about obedience to Our Lady's command. Our response to Her request for the Consecration of Russia is now more urgent than ever. It may soon be too late to preserve the lives and well-being of much, if not most, of mankind living today. Facts We Must Remember If you think I exaggerate, I ask that you stop to reflect on a few facts: 1. There are weapons that exist right now and that are ready to be deployed within as little as 10 MINUTES, which can wipe out the entire USA - i.e., all 300 million American citizens. This goal of our enemies could be realized in less than 1 hour after they fire these missiles. 2. There are enough operational nuclear weapons in the world right now in various countries (U.S.A. BRITAIN, FRANCE, ISRAEL, RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, PAKISTAN AND NORTH KOREA) to kill every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth. In fact, this could be done MANY TIMES OVER by means of all of the weapons already in existence. 3. Various capital cities of the world (including Rome, London, Washington, and Moscow, each with their millions of citizens) have been permanently targeted for potential annihilation by at least one of the nuclear powered nations listed above. 4. In addition to all of this potential for destruction, there are also many powerful and influential persons among the true ruling elite of the world who very seriously plan and intend to carry this out (or some other similar plan to achieve the same results) for the sake of their own personal gain. CONTINUED FORWARD HERE. Taken from Summer 2013 Issue, The Fatima Crusader HOME--------------------E-Mail www.catholictradition.org/Mary/fatima50a.htm