photo credits aerodog59

Harbour of Hope

Summers warm colors and changing of light

Stars to open the curtains of night

Salt on the breeze to my worries give call

And they Soar to the heavens like waves in a squall.

The soft tinkle sounds from up in the spars

And the peeking out of new little stars

And the water slapping against my boat

Renews my heart and brightens my hope.

And so, Father Dollinger arranged to meet with his friend, Cardinal Ratzinger on one of his frequent trips to the Vatican. He planned to find the truth about the Third Secret of Fatima.: He visited Cardinal Ratzinger. He confronted him and did not mince his words.

“This is impossible! This cannot possibly be the Third Secret. Is this the whole thing? Is this the whole thing, or isn’t it? It cannot be; now you tell me! ” He insisted that Cardinal Ratzinger tell him yes or no.

The Cardinal answered: “Truly, that was not all of it.”

He pressed on for an answer:: “What is in the Third Secret if that was not all of it?” Well, what is there?

Ratzinger said that in the Third Secret there will be an evil council. She warned against changes in the liturgy … changes in the Mass. This is explicitly set forth in the Third Secret.

Father Ingo Dollinger is an elderly German priest, professor of theology in Brazil, and a personal friend of former Pope Benedict XVl.

Father Dollinger stated on more than one occasion that Cardinal Ratzinger admitted to him that the full Third Secret is no yet revealed.

The Fatima Crusader reported this on a number of occasions, most pointedly in 2009. This news regarding the Third Secret was recently re-confirmed by Dr. Maike Hickson ( 1 Peter5) on May 15.

Dr. Hickson, who knows Father Dollinger, telephoned the priest on Pentecost Sunday, and he gave her permission to publicly report the following facts:”Not long after the June 2000 publication of the Third Secret of Fatima by the Vatican’ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told Father Dollinger during an in person conversation that there is still part of the Third Secret that they have not published!

“There is more than what we published, Ratzinger said. He also told Dollinger that the published part of the Secret is authentic and that the unpublished part of the Secret speaks about ‘a bad council and a bad Mass’ that was to come in the near future.”

This statement by Father Dollinger was formerly relatedin the May 2009 issue of The Fatima Crusader by Father Paul Kramer. v

According to Father Kramer’s account, Cardinal Ratzinger revealed to Father Dollinger as far back as the early 1990’s that the Secret warned against a bad Council and against changes in the Mass.

Yet the text published by the Vatican on June 26, 2000 makes no mention of these specific warnings.

Father Kramer explained: “The elderly German priest, Ratzinger’s long-time- personalfriend, took note of the fact that when the vision of the Third Secret was published it did not contain those things, those elements of the Third Secret that Cardinal Ratzinger had revealed to him nearly ten years earlier. The German priest – Father Dollinger – told me that this question was burning in his mind”

Father Dramer continues: “Father Dollinger said to me, “I confronted Cardinal Ratzinger to his face. “How can this be the entire Third Secret? Remember what you told me before?”

Cardinal Ratzinger replied: “Really there is something more there.” (more than what the Vatican revealed)

Father Nicholas Gruner referred to this episode from Father Dollinger on more than one occasion, including a speech published in The Fatima Crusader in Autumn 2009.

Father Alonso, Official archivist of Fatima, who had many conversations with Lucia, states

“It is therefore completely probable that the text makes concrete references to the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of the pastors themselves and the internal struggles in the very bosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence of the upper hierarchy”\

And further,

“Does the unpublished text speak of concrete circumstances? It is very possible that it speaks not only of a real crisis of faith the the Church during that in between period (prior to the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), but like the secret of La Salette, there are more concrete references to the internal struggles of the Catholics or to the fall of priests and religious. Perhaps it even refers to the failures of the upper hierarchy”

Cardinal Ratzinger

Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview in Jesus Magazine on November 11, 1998

Cardinal Ciappi

Cardinal Mario Luigi Ciappi, personal papal Theologian to five Popes, writes:v”In the Third Secret it is foretold, among other things, that “the great apostasy in the Church will begin at the top”

In her last public interview, before she was silenced by the vatican 1957, she warns that “the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way he will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders.”

The contemplative Carmelite accepted her imposition of silence. She understood it was God’s plan for her. ? haurietis aquas ?

She exhorted those outside of Carmel to battle: “This is a diabolic disorientation invading the world and misleading souls. It is necessary to stand up to it …”

Are these really the words of Sister Lucia? She had seen human bodies lifted up by flames coming from wihin themselves in hell “where the souls of poor sinners go” She had received Communion from an angel. She had seen the “woman clothed with the sun” … the Queen of Heaven clothed in light.

It is difficult to “stand up to it” when one is still under the impression that the sole path which Sister Lucia was to take in this world was to make known the message of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima which was to promote and beg for the “Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart”

Instead of being able to make known the message, the messenger of God was silenced. Very grave matter !!

Yet, under the rule of silence, a book was written. Letters were written. Pope and Cardinal visited.

The Sister Lucy who wore the round glasses, and, wrote and spoke with the Pope did not have the humble gracious manner of the little seer of Fatima who had seen the light of God “as if seeing ourselves in a mirror” and who experienced the Miracle of the Sun …

How could she stand the imprisonment of a Carmelite life with the Secret still in her heart? The secret that was for us from Our Lady. I don’t believe it was really Lucy dos Santos.

The Council must have been evil! The Church got ‘rocked’. Evil is spreading over the earth because the Bishops of Rome, and the Popes of the last decades have failed to inform the world of the truth, as is their duty as Christs Representatives on earth.

Yes, Communism has reared its ugly head with its forked tongue … spreading its’ demonic way of thinking over the face of the earth … just as Our Lady said it would if Russia were not converted as a result of its’ Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

When this happens, the world will know that the joyful peace, which finally reigns, is a result of this consecration. The world will then honor Our Lady’s Heart next to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Why does God want this? I believe He wants the world to know how much Jesus loved and honored His Mother. Both are represented by the Heart, which is our human symbol of love.

Jesus and Mary had Sacred Hearts … those of a human. We honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He wants us to honor the Sacred Heart of Mary … the Immaculate Heart.

Mary’s heart felt every pain which wracked the Body of her Son on the Cross. What a grace for humanity it was. Jesus wants her to be honored next to Him, making her a Co-Redemptrix.

“There will be a wicked council planned and prepared that will change the countenance of the Church. Many will lose the faith; confusion will reign everywhere. The sheep will search for the shepherds in vain.

A schism will tear apart the holy tunic of My Son. This will be the end of times, foretold in the Holy Scriptures and recalled to memory by Me in many places. The abomination of abominations will reach its peak and it will bring the chastisement announced at La Salette.

My Son’s arm, which I will not be able to hold back anymore, will punish this poor world, which must expiate its crimes.

One will only speak about wars and revolutions. The elements of nature will be unchained and will cause anguish even among the best. The Church will bleed from all Her wounds. Happy are they who will persevere and search for refuge in My Heart, because in the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

After this message, Father Arnette only heard one more sentence: “This is the Third Secret of Fatima”

Could this be the true Third Secret? It could be. This text has been published and circulated before, for instance, in the book, ‘The Devil’s Final Battle’ Father Paul Kramer https://web.archive.org/web/20180411211435/htp://www.devilsfinalbattle.com/ch11.htm

It was also published in a newsletter of then-SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson in 2000. If this is the true Third Secret, it is no wonder why the Vatican, beginning in 1960 with John XXlll did not wish to make it public. John XXlll claimed that the Third Secret “does not concern my pontificate” and refused to reveal it, despite the Blessed Viirgin Mary’s request from God that it be revealed to the faithful by 1960 at the latest.

Of course, by 1960, preparations for John XXlll’s Second Vatican Council were running high, its convocation having been announced by him on January 25, 1959.

In 2004, according to private testimony (Father Ingo Dollinger, a friend of both St. Padre Pio from whom he received his First Communion, and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) … the Cardinal told Father Ingo, at his request, that “the Third Secret speaks of an evil council” https://novusordowatch.org/2016/05/novus-ordo-fatima-fiction

Related Links

Cardinal Oddi hints Third Secret is about Vatican ll http://www.traditioninaction.org/ProgressiveDoc/A_Oddi_CCL_Fatima.htm

Chiesa Viva claims THIS is the True Third Secret https://novusordowatch.org/2013/06/third-secret-fatima-cv/

Book: The Fourth Secret of Fatima Antonio Socci https:www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930278772/interregnumnow-20

Book: The Secret Still Hidden by Christopher Ferrara

https://www.amazon.com/obidos?ASIN/0981535704/interregnumnow-20

No Friend of Fatima: Unspinning Christopher Ferrara’s Defense of Benedict XVI https://novusordowatch.org/no-friend-of-fatima

The Novus Ordo Church and Fatima: Separating Fact from Fiction https://novusordowatch.org/2016/05/fatima-secret-ben16-denies

Benedict XVl and the Prophetic Mission of Fatima https://novusordowatch.org/2014/08/benedict 16-prophetic-mission-fatima

From ‘O Secula’ the anti-Catholic, Masonic daily paper of Lisbon, Portugal, by Avelino de Almedia, Editor in Chief

Despite his leanings, Mr. Almedia honestly reported what he witnessed regardless of the heckling that he knew he would receive from his employers and fellow journalists

“…One could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared at its zenith, coming out of the clouds.

It resembles a dull silver disc, and it is possible to fix one’s eyes on it without the least damage to the eye. It does not burn the eyes. It does not blind them. One might say that an eclipse is taking place.

An immense clamor bursts out, and those who are nearer to the crowd hear a shout: ‘Miracle! Miracle! Prodigy!

“The attitude of the people takes us back to biblical times. Stupefied and with heads uncovered, they watch the blue sky. Before their dazzled eyes the sun trembled, the sun made unusual and brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, and according to the typical expression of the peasants, ‘the sun danced…’ “What did I see at Fatima that was even stranger? The rain, at an hour announced in advanced, ceased falling; the thick mass of clouds dissolved; and the sun – a dull, silver disc-came down into view at its zenith, and began to dance in a violent and convulsive movement, which a great number of witnesses compared to a ser;entine dance, because the colors taken on by the surface of the sun were so beautiful and gleaming.”

Doctor Garrett also described “a disc, with a clear cut rim, luminous and shining, but which did not hur the eyes. I do not agree with the comparison which I have heard made in Fatima – that of a dull silver disc. It was a clearer, richer, brighter color, having something of the lustre of a pearl. It did not in the least resemble the moon on a clear night because one saw it and felt it to be a living body … it looked like a glazed wheel made of mother-of-pearl.

A Wheel of Fire

As witnesses testified, the “dance of the sun” was repeated three times, with many likening is movements to a ‘a wheel of fire, a bicycle wheel, a captive ball of fire, etc. For ten to twelve minutes the people stood transvixed in wonder, before their amazement turned to terror as the sun suddenly crashed toward the earth.

As if from a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor.. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent firewheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multi colored flashes of light, producing the most astounding affect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted for about ten minutes. The immense multitude, overcome by the evidence of such a prodigy, threw themselves on their knees. “The Creed, the Hail Mary, Acts of Contrition burst from all lips, and tears, tears of thanksgiving and repentance sprang from their eyes..”

” It seemed like a wheel of fire which was going to fall on the people.” Maria Carreira

“It spun like a firewheel.” Maria do Carmo Marques da Cruz Menezes

“…it spun round upon itself in a mad whirl.” Dr. Almeida Garrett

“It came down as if to the height of the clouds and began to whirl giddily upon itself like a captive ball of fire.” Father Pereira da Silva

“I saw the sun spinning around and it seemed about to come down on us. It revolved like a bicycle wheel. Afterwrd, it returned to its place … I wasn’t afraid, but I heard people cry out: “O we’re going to die! We are going to die.” John Carreira, the crippled sun of Maria Carreira, and later sacristan of the Fatima shrine.

“I saw the sun, as if it were a ball of fire, begin to move in the clouds. It had been raining all morning the sky was full of clouds, but the rain stopped. It lasted for several seconds, crushingly pressing down on us. Wan faces, standing here, from every side great ejaculations, acts of contrition, of the love of God. An indescribably moment. We feel it. We rramain dominated by it. Tut it is not possible to describe it.” Carlos Mendes, a lawyer

“At a certain moment, the sun seemed to stop and then began to move and dance” Ti Marto, father of Francisco and Jacinta Marto

“Ten suddenly, one heard a clamor, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun, whirling windly, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth, as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible.” Dr. Almeida Garrett

“At a certain moment, the sun seemed to stop and then began to move and dance unti it seemed that it was detached from the sky and was falling on ut. It was a terrible moment” Ti Marto

“It suddenly seemed to come down in a zig-zag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world to come at any moment.” Father Lourence, who witnessed the Miracle as a schoolboy.

“I looked at the sun and saw it spinning like a disc, rolling on itself. I saw people changing color. They were stained with colors of the rainbow. The sun seemed to be falling form the sky … They were afraid and screaming.” Antonio de Oliveiro, farmer

“I saw the sun turn upon itself; it seemed to fall from the sky … The people around me were crying that the world was going to end.” Maria dos Prazeres, widow

” The sun started to roll from one place to another and changed to blue, yellow-all colors. Then we saw the sun coming towards the children. Everyone was crying out. Some started to confess their sins because there was no priest around here. My mother grabbed me to her and started to cry, ‘It is the end of the world!’ And then we saw the sun come right into the trees …” Dominic Reis, in a 1960 television interview

“Suddenly the rain stopped and a great splendor appeared and the children cried, ‘Look at the sun!’ I saw the sun coming down, feeling that it was falling to the ground. At that moment, I collapsed.” Maria Candida da Silva

“I looked and saw that the people were in various colors yellow, white, blue. At the same time, I beheld the sun spinning at great speed and very near to me. At once I thought: ‘I am going to die’ ” Father Joao Menitra

“The sun at its zenith whirled upon itself; it detached itself in descending towards the right, all the while whirling with sudden movements never seen before, to the right and the left, having almost arrived at the horizon line, it went back up to the zenith on the left, tracing a sort of winding ellipse as it went.” Baron de Alvaiazere

The frightened people, watching the sun return to its place in the heavens, had not yet noticed that their drenched and mud-soaked clothing was now clean and dry. Certainly, one can ponder even this prodigy, which reminds us of God’s abiding Providence. So many pilgrims had for days traveled to Fatima, and then faced a downpour that led them through mud up to two feet deep. Their shoes and lower apparel were caked with mud, their hair and clothes soaked, their bodies thoroughly chilled and then within the ten to twelve minutes during the Miracle of the Sun, they were spotless, warm dry, restored. This wonder, however, was not what moved them to instinctively raise their voices in an ecstasy of exultation.

“We have seen the sign of God!” the crowd cried in joy and thanksgiving, “spontaneously using the most exact biblical term, which also evokes the mysterious prophecy of the Apocalypse.

“A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun … Apoc 12:1

From:The Memoirs of Sister Lucia, the Last Fatima Visionary

www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus

Christopher was a great explorer and Captain who navigated unknown waters with skill, sailing by the stars, staying afloat through vicious squalls which shook the heavy wooden masts like toothpicks… putting fear in idea the souls of the passengers below. He was not a destroyer of people. Good to read about him before they burn our history books and remove all memories of American goodness and bravery. He does not fit into the CRT so he must go!

theconversation.com/indigenous-peoples-day-why-its-replacing-columbus-day-in-many-places-167849

n The sun shone brightly in the clear August sky, and those who came to Fatima eagerly awaited the arrival of the children and the noon hour. Then word came and spread throughout the crowd that the mayor had kidnapped the young visionaries. As the people began to talk among themselves, the hour of solar noon commenced – as did certain signs previously see and heard in July:

First came an extremely loud boom of thunder, which so badly frightened the people that many scattered and ran, thinking they would be killed. Maria Carreira, eyewitness to every Fatima apparition since June 1917, said, “Some thought the thunder came from the road;; others thought it came from the holmoak; but it seemed to me that it came from a distance. It frightened us all…”

A flash of lightning, following the thunder, also garnered the attention of the now-silenced crowd. This “flash” seen only by the three children, served as the sign of the Virgin’s approach. In August, when the children were not present, it was the crowd who perceived it.

Immediately after the “flash,” a little cloud, described as very delicate and very white, appeared and hovered over the little holmoak tree for a few minutes and then rose in the air and disappeared.

Simultaneously, there was a change of atmosphere in which people saw “all the colors of the rainbow, pink, red, blue, … the trees seemed to be made not of leaves but of flowers … the ground came out in colors and so did our clothes. The lanterns fixed to the arch looked like gold.

When the signs disappeared, the people seemed to realize that Our Lady had come and, not finding the children, had returned.

as Maria Carreira would later say: “They felt that Our Lady was disappointed and hence they were exceedingly upset.”

From Fatima in Lucy’s own words. The Memoirs of Sister Lucy

John Noble, an American citizen, wrote a book about his arrest and kangaroo trial: ‘I Was A Slave in Russia’ published by Cicero Bible Press, Broadview, Illinois

Here is a sample of Communist Mind Messing::

Everybody’s mind and soul go through their own hell when the Communists get to power as they struggle for the soul of America … seeping a stream of lies and more lies into the population. The installation of fear is an awesome tool of the Commies. What control they have when everyone is afraid of their neighbor because of Covid and the harsh treatment of the citizenry over it. Unvaccinated vs Vaccinated! What a ‘divisive’ tool that is !!

John Nobles Journey to The Gulag on the Prison Train

” On the prison train to the Gulag, a journey which lasted six weeks, I was jammed between other prisoners, feet hard against the train wall, hands at side, chin against the rough board of the shelf. There was no way to change positions, to arch one’s back, to do anything.

Communist Care On the Prison Train

Twice a day we were taken to the bathroom. At other times, prisoners who could not hold themselves would whimper and foul their pants and also the prisoners next to them. Even in the community of hardship it was difficult for some prisoners not to hate the unfortunates who did this.”

The Gulag

“The cell measured six by three feet, the size of a closet. A cot took up almost all the floor space. The walls were a dead white, and outside the door a 400 watt bulb glared day and night until the white of the walls seemed to seep through every part of the brain. Between the walls of each two cells there was a metal slot in which wood or coal fires could be built to heat the cells. Fires were got going in the slot about seven in the morning. By noon the walls were too hot to get near, and I gasped in the humid heat, wet with perspiration. The the evening the fires were permitted to go out, and the outer doors to the cell corridors were opened to let the freezing winds whip through.

We had no blankets. Each night was a chattering freezing night.

Communist Style Trial:

“”A girl at a table shoved a printed form toward me. It had been filled in at two places. First there was my name. Then there was a space with the figure 15 on it. ‘What is this?’ I asked pointing to the figure? ” You have been tried in Moscow and sentenced to 15 years of slave labor. Physical labor.’ “Why? For what reason, I blurted out.?” ‘If there are any questions, ‘ the girl replied curtly, ‘ask them where you will be sent.’

Sound Familiar?

John Nobles trial and imprisonment so resembles that of the January 6 prisoners, who were jailed, put in isolation, and remain there. Extrajudicially ! Beyond the course of justice ! An example for America to see how the inhumane ideology of Communism, which first badly messes with your mind and, first instills hate. Orwell wrote of ‘hate week’

Joe Biden, currently wearing the ill gotten crown of the President of America, was endorsed by the Communist Party of America. He and his cohorts in the White House are daily seeping out harmful and unjust words and deeds, which exude the rotten odor of Communism, in black clouds over the United States of America causing families to quarrel and causing food and essential items to be in short supply.

They are currently working on a plan to eliminate a one family home. No more white picket fences, a pretty lawn with children skipping rope. Dreams will be shattered. Biden and Harris will see to that!

They want us all in apartments … like most of the Chinese citizens are. We can be observed and tattled upon in that situation. Not much room for children either. They want to eliminate ‘families’

Their private beliefs and lust for power can be seen in all its’ nakedness and who will be for us?

God bring us back the man who didn’t concede. Trump was red, white and blue. He was a giant of a man. He walked with kings but had the common touch. ‘ They’ are strangling him but he will overcome. He was sent to us by God. He won. Trump won!

The pagan world into which Our Lady was born had no knowledge of her coming, nor of the new day she heralded. Catherine Laboure was born on May 2, 1806 in Fain-les-moutiers, a tiny village in France, not far from Dijon. She was the ninth of eleven children.

Catherine’s mother was the source of her sanctity. She had instilled a love of God in her child. Perhaps she had a premonition of her daughters’ coming sanctity.

On her mother’s death, at the age of nine, the child was grief stricken, and in the midst of this terrible grief … one day … she climbed up on a chair and reached for a statue of the Blessed Mother that stood high on a shelf in her Mother’s bedroom. “Now you will be my mother” she said to the statue.

This was the start of the Marian age perhaps. for it was Catherine that Our Lady appeared to when she had later on become a Daughter of Charity. Catherine received the medal in a vision from Our Lady. This medal was named the Medal of the Immaculate Conception in the beginning, but, there were so many miracles from wearing it that people began calling it the Miraculous Medal.

And so it is today.

At the age of eighteen Catherine had her first mystical experience. It was in the form of a dream, wherein she found herself assisting at the Mass of an old priest, who was a stranger to her. At the end of Mass he turned and beckoned to her. She fled in fright. Then, in her dream Catherine went to visit a sick neighbor, only to encounter the same venerable priest. As she turned to flee from him the second time, he called after her:

“You do well to visit the sick, my child. You flee from me now but one day you be glad to come to me. God has plans for you; do not forget it”

Catherine had no interest in the world or its niceties. In spite of tutoring from a sister in law, Catherine had no real formal schooling.

She visited the sick in the hospital de Saint-Saveur in Chatillon. One day she recognized, on the wall of

the hospital, a picture of the old priest she had seen in her dream. It was St. Vincent de Paul and she knew that she wanted to become a Sister of Charity. Her calling seemed crystal clear.

She entered the Sisters of Charity as a postulant at Chatillon on January 2, 1830 at 140 rue de Bac in Paris. She arrived just in time to assist at the translation of the body of St. Vincent de Paul from the Cathedral Notre Dame to the newly erected mother church of the Vincentian Fathers. A novena of thanksgiving was held at the church to celebrate the great event and each evening, upon returning home, Catherine was granted a vision of St. Vincents heart.

This was a prelude to the great apparitions of Our Lady to come.

They were a the first of a train of miraculous favors Catherine was to receive all her life. She had a vision of Jesus Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist. This extraordinary favor was constant, given her every time she entered the chapel during the nine months. Political and spiritual knowledge was given her.

On Trinity Sunday, June 6, 1830, she saw Our Lord dressed in kingly robes, with a beautiful crown. At the reading of the gospel, his kingly robes fell off and His crown tumbled to the floor. She was given to understand in her heart that the King of France, Charles X, would be overthrown. Students of mystical phenomena are fascinated by this and regarded that its’ sole purpose seems to have been to foretell the fall of an earthly monarch.

But now, the great apparitions of Our Lady were at hand.

Catherine had gone to sleep when, at eleven thirty, “I heard someone calling my name: Sister, Sister, Sister!” Wide awake, I looked in the direction of the voice. Drawing the bed-curtains, I saw a child clothed in white some four or five years old. He said to me”Come to the chapel; get up quickly and come to the chapel; the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you there..” I thought at once ‘Someone will hear me’ “The child answered: Do not be afraid. It is eleven thirty and everyone is asleep. Come I am waiting for you. I followed him. He kept to my left and was surrounded with rays of light. Wherever we went along, the lamps in the hall were lit.

“All the torches and tapers were lit in the Chapel. It was like midnight Mass. I heard the noise like the rustling of a silk dress, which came from the direction of the tribune near the picture of St. Joseph. A lady was sitting herself in a chair on the altar steps at the Gospel side – just like St. Anne, only it was not the face of St. Anne.”

“This is the Blessed Virgin”

“Looking upon her, I flung myself towards her, and falling upon my knees on the altar steps, I rested my hands in her lap. I could not say what I felt. The Blessed Virgin told me how I must conduct myself with my Director, and added several things that I must not tell. I could not say how long I stayed with Her. When she left it was like a shadow passed away. Catherine wrote the overall account of the acutual words spoken by Our Lady during this interview. She entitled it: July Conversations with the Blessed Virgin, from 11:30 in the evening of the 18th until 1:30 in the morning of the 19th, St. Vincents’ Day’

“My child, the good God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will have much to suffer, but you will rise above these sufferings by reflecting that what you do is for the glory of God. You will be tormented until you have told the one who is directing you. You will be contradicted but you will have grace. Tell with confidence all that passes within you; tell it with simplicity. Have confidence. Do not be afraid. You will see certain things; give an account of what you see and hear. You will be inspired in your prayers: give an account of what I tell you and of what you will understand during your prayers.”

” The times are very evil. Sorrows will befall France; the throne will be overturned. The whole world will be plunged into every kind of misery. (In saying this, the Blessed Virgin seemed to be very distressed).) But come to the foot of the altar. There graces will be shed upon all , great and small, who ask for them. “

” My child, I particularly love to shed graces upon your community; I love it very much. It pains me that there are abuses in regularity, that the rules are not observed, that there is much relaxation in the two Communities. Tell that to him who has charge of you, even though he is not your superior. He will be given charge of the Community in special way.”

The Vincentian Fathers form a Double Family with the Sisters of Charity Both have the same superior General. When Our Lady visited Catherine the communities of St. Vincent were passing through the painful days of reorganization that followed the French revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.

“There will be victims My child, Monsiseigneur the Archbishop … Our Lady cried. … will be stripped of his garments. the whole world will be in distress. The Cross will be treated with contempt; they will hurl it to the ground. Blood will flow. They will open again the side of Christ ”

At these words I wondered when this would be and I understood clearly … forty years.

This apparition was a prelude to the great apparition of the Miraculous Medal on November 27. Cathere is to be entrusted with a mission.

There is some reason to believe that her predictions were not meant to apply only to the year 1870, for during the revolution of 1830, which erupted just a week after this apparition, and during the revolution of 1848, these predictions were fulfilled at least in part. Archbishop Darboy was murdered in 1830, as Our Lady had foretold Archbishop Affre was shot to death on the barricades in 1848, and Archbishop deQuelon had twice to flee for his life during the “”Glorious Three Days” of the revolution of 1830.

These visions may be looked upon as hints of even more horrible punishments such as World War l and World War ll.

Four months passed.

her “I saw the Blessed Virgin again. I heard a sound again like the rustling of a silk dress. The Virgin was standing before me. She was of medium height, and clothed all in white. Her dress was of the whiteness of the dawn, made in the styled “A la Vierge” … that is , high neck and plain sleeves. A white veil covered head, and fell in folds to her feet. Her hair was in coils, bound with a fillet ornamented with lace, about three centimeters in height or of two fingers breadth, without pleats, and resting lightly on the hair. Her face was sufficiently exposed and so beautiful that it seems to me impossible to express her ravishing beauty.

Her feet rested on a white glove, that is to say half a globe, or at least I saw only half. There also was a serpent, green in color with yellow spots. Her hands were raised to the height of the stomach, and held, in a very relaxed manner and as if offering it to God, a golden ball surrounded with a little golden Cross, which represented the world. Her eyes were raised to heaven. Her face was of such beauty that I could not describe it.

All at once I saw rings on her fingers, three rings to each finger.the largest one near the base of the finger, one of medium size in the middle, the smallest one at the tip. Each ring was set with gems, some more beautiful than others., the largest gems bursting with rays from all sides flooded the base. Each ring was set with gems, some more beautiful than others; the larger gems emitted greater rays and the smaller gems, smaller rays. I could no longer see the feet of the Virgin”

“At this moment, while I was contemplating her, the Blessed Virgin lowered her eyes and looked at me. I heard a voice speaking these words”

“This ball that you see represents the whole world, especially France, and each person in particular. They are the symbols of the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems from which rays do not fall are the gracesare the graces for which souls forgot to ask. “

A frame, slightly oval in shape, formed round the Blessed Virgin. Within it was written in letters of gold: ‘O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.’

The inscription, in a semi circle, began at the height of the right hand, passed over the head, and finished at the height of the left hand.

The golden ball disappeared in the brilliance of the sheaves of light bursting from all sides; the hands turnedout and the arms were bent down under the weight of the treasures of grace obtained. Then the voice said:

“Have a Medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Grace will abound for those who wear it with confidence.”

“At this instant the tableau seemed to turn, and I beheld the reverse of the medal; a large M surrounded by a bar and a cross; beneath the M were the hearts of Jesus and Mary, the one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword.”

Within minutes after the vision had disappeared from Catherine’s sight “like a candle blown out.”

Catherine died peacefully on December 31, 1876. Pope Pius Xl beatified her in 1933 and Pope Pius XIl canonized her in 1947.

She lies, incorrupt, in the chapel on Rue de Bac in Paris, on the very altar on which Our Lady appeared to her.

There can be no doubt that the ‘Medal of the Immaculate Conception hastened the definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception . This doctrine is symbollically portrayed in the representation of Mary crushing the head of the serpent, a reference to Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. The doctrine is specifically mentioned in the golden letters which formed round the Virgin: ‘O Mary conceived without sin.’ Pope Pius lX asserted that the impetus for his pronouncement came from France. Archbishop de Quelen of Paris, who approved the making of the Medal and later confirmed the authencity of the vision, had no small part in this impetus. In 1836 he dedicated his archdiocese to the Immaculate Conception, and it was through his urging that the title “Queen conceived without sin” was added to the Litany of Loreto. Bernadette was wearing a medallion when Our Lady appeared to her and made “a sweeping gesture with her arms “just the way she appears on my medal”

The spread of the medal was so rapid and the flood of favors it let loose so startling that the faithful gave it the name ‘Miraculous Medal’ The numbers of medals minted since 1832, when it was first struck, is beyond all counting. The Medal is worn by Protestan and Jew and Catholic.

The wonders it works are according to the needs and ills of mankind. Conversions to the Faith, repentance of hardened sinners, recovery from illness – acute and chronic.

Taken from the story by the Reverend Joseph I. Dirven, C.M.

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