You ask me to tell you more on the Rosary. Yes, I should have done so sooner, it is now late. Our dearest Mother desires we know her as Our Lady of the Rosary and honor her Immaculate Conception for very simple, practical reasons. It has been given to her to crush the head of satan, to drive him from the Church, from the world, but most of all from our own tawdry hearts. Today, after so many generations, each slipping deeper into iniquity until we have reached such a point where many of the best of us do not clearly see sin when It is right before us, in fact, entertwined with much of what we have become most comfortable with. For you must know this – this world has never, ever been so morbidly sick with sin as it is now.
God gives us all the graces of conversion and sanctification through Mary. We respond to this gift of God by receiving these graces more and more, letting them come alive and bear fruit in us.
And since God has His graces ready through Mary for every moment, for every situation, for every event and every state and condition, we must do this return to God in everyday life in a conscious turning to the Mediatrix of all graces. This happens when we accept her Immaculate Heart into our lives.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is, according to St. John Eudes, “the source and the principle of all her privileges, glories, prerogatives and qualities, which exalt her above all creatures. (…) It is also the source of all the graces that accompany these qualities, but also the source of all the virtues that she practiced.
“But why is her heart the source of all this? Because it was the humility, the purity and the love of her heart that made her worthy to become the Mother of God and consequently to receive all the other gifts and prerogatives that accompany such an exalted dignity. (…)
Now, in the month of October, the month of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, the powers of darkness are gathering force over the Vatican. Their victory seems inevitable but we know to whom victory has been given and that is what gives this October, this month of the Holy Rosary, such a poignancy.
It is through her holy Rosary that Our Lady of Fatima chooses to lead us to victory. As the Church has recognised for centuries, the Blessed Virgin Mary protects her Church (for she is Mother of the Church!) by means of her Holy Rosary. Our time with her each day, as the beads slip quietly through our fingers and we murmur our loving prayers, is the time she nourishes our souls with the graces Our Lord desires for us to have in order to know Him, and to increase in His love.
In our writings here at Return to Fatima, we see the Rosary as an intimate conversation between Mother and child, a loving exchange wherein such a deep union occurs as cannot be expressed in mere words.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ROSARY
But it is words that I must use, and although I am perhaps destined to fall short in the attempt, this short essay is my best effort. To understand the importance of the Rosary, we should first grasp the importance of the Immaculate Mother of God, she who “comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array”. (Canticles 6, 9)
Why is Mary so great? Because from the beginning of creation, God willed this most blessed, perfect creature to be the Mother of His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. She is the Sacred Tabernacle wherein the Holy Ghost fathered forth the Saviour of the world. Through her, entered salvation, although He might have chosen from an infinite variety of other ways… He chose Mary!
It was Mary’s humility, her humbleness before Him, so pure and so obedient, that made her such a perfect model for all of us, who are destined to become the heirs of His eternal Kingdom. St. Louis-Marie de Montfort assures us that Mary manifests her splendid power in these latter times because the salvation of the world began through Mary, and through her it will also be brought to completion.
GRACE HAS EBBED FROM THE WORLD
We have often noted that as a result of disobedience and indifference to the commands of our heavenly Father given to us through the Immaculata, grace has ebbed from the world, leaving it in a state of darkness, death and despair. And now, we see this especially in this looming Synod which begins in less than a week. And so we must recall, now more than ever, that it is precisely in these darkest of times when the working of God in His Church may be seen through the Immaculata, Mediatrix of Grace.
… Mary comes to the help of endangered Christendom and brings about a victory over its enemies despite their overwhelmingly superior strength. The popes themselves have acknowledged over and over again this victory of Mary’s, particularly over the Turks, and have introduced special feast days in honor of the Blessed Virgin on the occasion of various miraculous interventions of the Mother of God. In his consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pius XII summarizes this faith in Mary’s great power and entrusts to her the salvation of the Christian order: she establishes peace for a world at war and peace for souls; she leads those who have gone astray back to Christ’s sheepfold; she stops the onslaught of neo-paganism; she brings about the victory of Christ the King.
“In times of the greatest distress, God comes to the aid of the world by sending the Immaculata herself. Through her His actio comes to its full expression, because except for her all the other ways that God has of reaching us have been cut off, as it were, by the Enemy and the devil has occupied and controls all the bastions. God wills to save mankind, even in the end times. But how can this happen, when man can no longer find God’s truth in the confusion of the errors that prevail throughout the world, when he is tempted on all sides to be unfaithful to God and His law and to stray from the path of truth? Through the Immaculata!
“First God reveals to the world the true situation and the great danger through the personal intervention of the Immaculata, especially in her great messages of La Salette and Fatima. Then He sends His graces to the world as the “last means of salvation”, concentrating them in the Heart of the Immaculata:
‘With great longing I desire the spread of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for this Heart is the magnet that draws souls to Me, the hearth that radiates to the world the streams of My light and My love. It is, finally, the inexhaustible spring from which flows into the world the living water of My mercy.’ “ (“Who Are You, O Immaculata?“)
Dear readers, we continue to call for the Irresistible Novena of Rosaries, as our weapon of choice against the dark forces gathered in Rome, determined to complete their victory over Christ’s Church. They believe that their victory is assured, and I hope that you understand that, when this month closes, it may well appear to be so. Certainly, the Church appears to be shattered into fragments as never before. Many faithful seem determined to relieve what has become an intolerable anxiety by urging us all to proclaim Benedict the true Pope and formally reject Francis as an anti-pope. Regardless of which is the “true pope”, we need to understand this one thing clearly:
THE CHURCH IS GOD’S
It was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, by His Sacred Blood, poured out for us on the Cross. He is the true Head of the Church. He established it as an absolute Monarchy, reserving to Himself the right to reign over the Pope, who serves only as His representative, His Vicar.
GOD HAS GIVEN US THE REMEDY
In the tragic event of a defective pope, and despite all the confusion and clamor, Christ Himself has decreed the solution to be through His own Immaculate Mother, to whom the Church is entrusted by His dying words from that same Cross of our salvation. Now this most Holy Mother of God has told us what to do. Her words were clear and simple and they were entrusted to little children at Fatima.
THE REMEDY IS THE IMMACULATA
Jacinta, Francisco and Lúcia, understood them. They were not able to read or write, they did not even know the name of the pope, much less feel confident of their ability to decide for themselves whether the pope was truly the pope, or opine on deep matters of theology and church history. And yet they were entrusted with the Message of Our Lady of Fatima. Think of this!
Obedience to the Immaculata’s message is not some sort of spiritual passivity. It requires that we put devotion to her, obedience to her message first, setting her will above our own. We must be totally consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Only then will we all be given a leader and a way to follow the Immaculata to her inevitable victory over the powers of evil usurping the Church.
Anyone who presumes to lead the faithful to a solution of the present crisis will be, clearly and unequivocally a servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, proclaiming her message as fully and clearly as she gave it to us without any modernist obfuscation.
It is only when one of two things happen that the Church will truly be free of the present evils:
Either sufficient of us arise and follow Our Lady as she has commanded in her message of Fatima, in penance and reparation, in humility and obedience, -OR- Through the provident justice of God, reparation will be made by a spiritual and material chastisement far surpassing anything that has been proposed or could be imagined.
As darkness closes over us and false shepherds arise among us, leading many astray, we pray our Rosaries and look to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Most Holy Mother, “the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the certain door by which we are to enter Heaven.” (Sr. Lúcia)
A reader suggested we add the Consecration to the Immaculata here, and so, here are two:
SAINT LOUIS MARIE DE MONTFORT’S
Act of Consecration to Jesus through Mary
O ETERNAL and incarnate Wisdom! O sweetest and most adorable Jesus! True God and true man, only Son of the Eternal Father, and of Mary, always virgin! I adore Thee profoundly in the bosom and splendors of Thy Father during eternity; and I adore Thee also in the virginal bosom of Mary, Thy most worthy Mother, in the time of Thine incarnation.
I give Thee thanks for that Thou hast annihilated Thyself, taking the form of a slave in order to rescue me from the cruel slavery of the devil. I praise and glorify Thee for that Thou hast been pleased to submit Thyself to Mary, Thy holy Mother, in all things, in order to make me Thy faithful slave through her. But, alas! Ungrateful and faithless as I have been, I have not kept the promises which I made so solemnly to Thee in my Baptism; I have not fulfilled my obligations; I do not deserve to be called Thy child, nor yet Thy slave; and as there is nothing in me which does not merit Thine anger and Thy repulse, I dare not come by myself before Thy most holy and august Majesty. It is on this account that I have recourse to the intercession of Thy most holy Mother, whom Thou hast given me for a mediatrix with Thee. It is through her that I hope to obtain of Thee contrition, the pardon of my sins, and the acquisition and preservation of wisdom.
Hail, then, O immaculate Mary, living tabernacle of the Divinity, where the Eternal Wisdom willed to be hidden and to be adored by angels and by men! Hail, O Queen of Heaven and earth, to whose empire everything is subject which is under God. Hail, O sure refuge of sinners, whose mercy fails no one. Hear the desires which I have of the Divine Wisdom; and for that end receive the vows and offerings which in my lowliness I present to thee.
I, ________________, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before. In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.
Receive, O benignant Virgin, this little offering of my slavery, in honor of, and in union with, that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to thy maternity; in homage to the power which both of you have over this poor sinner, and in thanksgiving for the privileges with which the Holy Trinity has favored thee. I declare that I wish henceforth, as thy true slave, to seek thy honor and to obey thee in all things.
O admirable Mother, present me to thy dear Son as His eternal slave, so that as He has redeemed me by thee, by thee He may also receive me! O Mother of mercy, grant me the grace to obtain the true Wisdom of God; and for that end receive me among those whom thou lovest, teachest, and protectest as thy children and thy slaves.
O faithful Virgin, make me in all things so perfect a disciple, imitator and slave of the Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ thy Son, that I may attain, by thine intercession and by thine example, to the fullness of His age on earth and of His glory in Heaven. Amen.
(St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Monfort, “True Devotion to Mary, with Preparation for Total Consecration”, by Catholic Way, Kindle Edition).
SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE’S
Act of Consecration to Mary Immaculate
O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, whom God has made the treasurer of His mercy, I, an unworthy sinner, throw myself at thy most holy feet and humbly beseech thee to accept me, whole and entire as thy property and possession.
To thee, O Mother, I offer all the faculties of my soul and body, and I place my life, my death and my eternity in thy hands, that thou may use my entire being according to thy will. Use me, O Immaculate Virgin as thou will, to fulfill that which was written of thee – “She shall crush thy head”, and “Thou hast destroyed all heresies in all the world”.
Deign that I may become in thy most pure and merciful hands a useful instrument to make thee known and loved by so many erring and indifferent souls, and also to increase as much as possible the number of those who truly admire and love thee in order that the Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus may be spread throughout the world.
This I can do, O Most Holy and Immaculate Mother, only with thy help, for wherever thou bestow thy grace, there alone can the conversion and sanctification of souls be achieved, and there alone can the sweet Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be established. Amen.
Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live our Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.
Open your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only: and He will free you from the hands of your enemies.With all your heart return to Him, and take away from your midst any strange gods” (I Kings 7:3)
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
† Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
† St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
† St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
~ by evensong for love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, King.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!
Dear readers, in all of Catholic teaching, we are consistently instructed in the importance of surrendering our will to the Divine Will – always! And yet, in these times, in which the power of evil appears to almost prevail, we find ourselves in need of God’s grace more than ever. God has not forsaken us! In His providence, He gives us the very same means by which He brought into the world our salvation, the pure and perfect Virgin of Nazareth, Mary Immaculate. Read on for Father Stehlin’s words on this most loving gift of God for us.
“In the Holy Ghost’s union with (Mary), not only does Love join these two beings, but the first of the two (the Holy Ghost) is the entire Love of the Holy Trinity, while the second (Mary) is the entire love of creation; and thus in this union of heaven with all of earth, all uncreated love with created love; it is the summit of love.” (Saint Maximilian Kolbe)
Soon, we will reach the date for renewing our Consecration to the Immaculata on 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Today, we make use of two wonderful books. From Loreto Publications, we have Father Karl Stehlin’s “Who are You, O Immaculata?” and from Angelus Press, we have St. Maximilian Kolbe’s little gem of a book, “Let Yourself be Led by the Immaculate”. Both are available in paperback or e-book/kindle.
TOTAL CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATA
By original sin, each of us is separated from God and it is our life’s work to strive to return to God. The first step toward reunion with God, that is, the first rung on the ladder to God, is to make a firm decision of the will toward Mary. This setting out on the way to God is total consecration to Mary.
We give ourselves completely to Mary as our Mother and our Queen, as our way to the final destination which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Devotion to Mary is an essential component to the imitation of Christ.
Now, consecration is not simply a pious sentiment made on a whim, it is an agreement, a vow, to make the total gift of oneself.
Living this vow requires that one dispossess oneself and no longer act as proprietor and master but rather as a willing slave, conforming to our Lady’s wishes in all things. To understand, let’s look at our model, the Immaculate Mother herself.
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
St. Maximilian Kolbe tells us that when Mary said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”, she is confirming that she no longer possesses her being for herself, but is “pure relation to God’, that is, being-for-God. Inasmuch as she is completely united with the Holy Ghost, her spouse, she is utterly, completely consecrated to Him in her inmost being. In just this way, we must divest ourselves, down to the depths of our being; the Immaculata must take our whole life in her hands and thus give us to God.
In the words of St. Maximilian, “Only if we uproot from ourselves everything that comes from self and allow the Immaculata to lead us fully and completely, will we reflect her completely in ourselves.”And so we choose to be as much her own as she is God’s own. And she belongs to God to such an extent that she became His own mother. Father Stehlin adds, “We will voluntarily allow no room to any thought, wish, desire or idea that the Immaculata would not consent to. Such an attitude can become a habit only if we renew this act of self-giving again and again and keep it in mind.”
OUR CONSTANT FOCUS: THE IMMACULATA
In her Immaculate Conception, Mary, our Model, began the return of creation to God, and as her children, we return with her. St. Maximilian tells us,
“In the Holy Ghost’s union with her, not only does Love join these two beings, but the first of the two (the Holy Ghost) is the entire Love of the Holy Trinity, while the second (Mary) is the entire love of creation; and thus in this union of heaven with all of earth, all uncreated love with created love; it is the summit of love.”
Fr. Stehlin notes,
“The true foundation of the spiritual life consists precisely of this: entirely from God, entirely in God, and entirely to God! Now the Immaculata can convey this foundation to her children. In the words of St. Maximilian: “When God spoke about Himself, He said to Moses, ‘I am Who am.’ That is, it belongs to My essence that I always have My being from Myself, without beginning. In contrast, the Immaculate Virgin has her beginning in God, is a creation, is a conception. Nevertheless, she is the Immaculate Conception.”
Thus, to the extent that we devote ourselves to her, she forms in us that magnificent foundation that God formed in her, for we are her children, after all. Fr. Stehlin refers to her work in us as “an unceasing declaration of war against the consequences of original sin.” Now, as we proceed along this path with Our Immaculate Mother as guide, she calls to our attention how greatly we have allowed the toxins of the secular world, and even the poisons of the modernist church to affect us, how often we have been guided in our actions by our wounded human nature, and the traces of self-love in our thoughts, words and deeds. We are then faced with the bitter, frustrating but very necessary battle over principles.
LET GO AND LET MARY
This inner struggle will quickly defeat us unless we “let go and let Mary”. She knows the way. Father Stehlin reminds us that in the Immaculate Conception God teaches us through Mary of His unfathomable love and mercy for us; His infinite condescension to our mere nothingness, He gives us the love with which to love Him, granting us, superabundanty His love, His joy, His very life. Although our sins have blocked this flow of love, He offers us His mercy and forgiveness, and yet we brush that away as well. For we prefer in our arrogance to work our salvation out “in our own way”, relying on our own efforts. This astounding example of pride, which is deeply ingrained in us, can most effectively be countered by the Immaculata herself, once we learn total reliance on her. This letting-go is therefore, a way of spiritual childhood emphasising our dependence upon our Mother, and her constant care for us, her children.
For she is the perfect example, indeed the very personification of God’s mercy. She perfectly surrendered her “personhood”, divesting herself of all but her will which she surrendered in sweetest love to God in order to put no obstacles to His grace, that is, His life in her. Thus she became, in every fiber of her being, a reflection of God’s mercy. She is the perfect response to God’s call to “Be holy, as God thy Father is Holy.” Fr. Stehlin adds,
“To the extent that we enter into her attitude of total receptivity, we allow God to be merciful to us again, to grant us superabundant gifts, beginning with the overwhelming gesture of the cleansing of our sins.”
LIFE UNDER THE BANNER OF LOVE
“Entering into Mary’s heart therefore, is the beginning of life under the banner of love, which is, in fact, the only way that leads us back to God. Love, as the pattern of all virtues, gives to our whole moral life its value: “At the sunset of our lives we will be judged on our love”, says St. Therese of the Child Jesus. Not what we have done and accomplished but rather, how we have done it, i.e., with how much love, will determine the value of our life. Without supernatural love all our moral acts are only “a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal” (1Cor. 13, 1), but this love is given to us gratuitously in the heart of the Immaculata; therefore we can increase the value of the acts we perform in our daily life insofar as we do them in the Immaculate Heart. Thus, Mary becomes in the fullest sense “the Mother of Fair Love”.
Our Lady of Fatima requested of the children (and of us, her children as well!) “prayer and sacrifice”, and this is how we fulfill her request; through our Total Consecration, lived moment by moment. It is what gives the simple details of our humdrum existence its meaning and dignity. By living our consecrations, we allow the Holy Ghost, through Mary, to work the merciful will of God in this sinful world.
Mary, our model, treasured her Son in her heart. Profound silence, holy peace, and tender recollection characterize Mary’s relationship with Jesus. Thus, she teaches us something almost completely lost in our noisy, distracted time; prayer in quiet recollection, living in the presence of God. How can we achieve this? Through our Lady’s Rosary! Each morning, as we pray the mystery of the Annunciation, we accept our Lord Jesus into our soul with Mary’s sweet “Fiat!” And throughout this first rosary of the day, in each of the Five Mysteries, we hold Him tenderly in our heart, thus preparing ourselves in the sacred quiet of our prayerful vigil with Mary for the dreadful “busyness” of our day. These Joyful Mysteries are the school of the Maternity of Mary, and when we persist in them, we learn to cherish Him in our hearts, and gradually, this peace and joy of His sweet presence abides with us more and more.
For those who have asked, here is
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s
Act of Consecration to Mary Immaculate
O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, whom God has made the treasurer of His mercy, I, an unworthy sinner, throw myself at thy most holy feet and humbly beseech thee to accept me, whole and entire as thy property and possession.
To thee, O Mother, I offer all the faculties of my soul and body, and I place my life, my death and my eternity in thy hands, that thou may use my entire being according to thy will. Use me, O Immaculate Virgin as thou will, to fulfill that which was written of thee – “She shall crush thy head”, and “Thou hast destroyed all heresies in all the world”.
Deign that I may become in thy most pure and merciful hands a useful instrument to make thee known and loved by so many erring and indifferent souls, and also to increase as much as possible the number of those who truly admire and love thee in order that the Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus may be spread throughout the world.
This I can do, O Most Holy and Immaculate Mother, only with thy help, for wherever thou bestow thy grace, there alone can the conversion and sanctification of souls be achieved, and there alone can the sweet Kingdom of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be established. Amen.
“Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation! Immaculate Heart of Mary, convert sinners, save souls from hell!” (Saint Jacinta Marto)
Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.
Open your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only: and He will free you from the hands of your enemies.With all your heart return to Him, and take away from your midst any strange gods” (I Kings 7:3)
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff. † Most Precious Blood of Jesus, save us, save our priests. † Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come – Viva Cristo Rey! † St. Joseph, protect us, protect our priests! † St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. † Remember, pray the rosary and confound satan.
~ by evensong, for love of the Immaculata
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!
Published several years ago. Restored May 2, 20202 and updated for September 1, 2021
“In times of the greatest distress, God comes to the aid of the world by sending the Immaculata herself. Through her His actio comes to its full expression, because except for her all the other ways that God has of reaching us have been cut off, as it were, by the Enemy and the devil has occupied and controls all the bastions. God wills to save mankind, even in the end times. But how can this happen, when man can no longer find God’s truth in the confusion of the errors that prevail throughout the world, when he is tempted on all sides to be unfaithful to God and His law and to stray from the path of truth? Through the Immaculata!