Author Topic: Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima (Read 2123 times)

Hobbledehoy · « **on:** October 12, 2013, 11:20:54 PM »

An interior soul ought to pay heed to the message of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima because it presupposes the assent to the teachings of Holy Mother Church regarding Our Lady's dignities and prerogatives, especially as set forth popularly by Sts. Alphonsus and Louis-Marie de Montfort: that Our Lady is the Mediatress of all graces won for us by her Divine Son and and that she holds the extraordinary office of spiritual Mother of those redeemed by Our Saviour and Co-Redemptress in the redemption of the human race; and, consequently, that Our Lady has an indispensable role in the cultivation of the interior life of the individual Catholic and a necessary role in the tranquility and peace of communities, states and nations.

The message of Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima is nothing more the celestially inspired epitome of the teaching of the Gospels, the Sacred Scriptures, the tradition of the Apostles and Fathers, the doctrines of the Councils and Roman Pontiffs of Holy Mother Church, being a practical summa of the teachings of St. Alphonsus and St. Louis-Marie regarding the indispensable role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the economy of salvation. Fatima is but a grand echo of those immortal words that Mary Most Holy spoke (the only public pronouncement of hers recorded by the Evangelists): "Whatsoever He (that is, Our Lord Jesus) shall say to you, do ye" (S. Joann. cap. ii., 5).

How greatly to be praised is the ineffable and unfathomable loving-kindness and charity wherewith the Lord God Almighty predestined the Blessed Mary to be the ever-Virgin Mother of the Word Incarnate, and consequentially elected her to a plenitude of glory and grace superior to that of all other created or creatable persons, whether Angelic or human: so as to make us cry forth in rapt adoration with St. Paul, "O depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God: how incomprehensible are His judgments, and His ways unsearchable!" (Rom. cap. xi. 33).

Whensoever we have recourse to Our Lady, she in turn leads us to Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Eternal Father and the only Son her perpetual and integral virginity. Just as St. Elizabeth praised her faith, and the Blessed Virgin in turn began intoning her beautiful Canticle Magnificat, so whensoever we praise Mary, we are rendering a more excellent praise to Him Who chose her to be His Mother.

For what reason is there that can explain why St. Luke recorded the visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her aged kinswoman, St. Elizabeth, if not to commemorate how the Incarnate Son of the Eternal Father decreed and inaugurated her office as Mediatress of the graces in the sanctification of souls? For it was thus, and in such a manner only, that Our Lord chose to sanctify and consecrate the unborn St. John as His Precursor. And in this mystery do we find revealed the inestimable and ineffable works of grace that Our Lord deigned to operate in Mary, with Mary, and through Mary.

As Rev. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Langrange, O.P., writes regarding this mystery of the Visitation, “Mary, who was to give birth to the Savior, brought grace to Elizabeth and to the unborn precursor. Mary herself had been redeemed in an absolutely exceptional manner by the future merits of her Son and she concurred in the redemption of us all. From the moment of her immaculate conception she had been redeemed by a sovereign redemption, being preserved from original sin instead of being healed of it. It was fitting that a perfect Redeemer should accomplish a sovereign and preservative redemption in at least one soul, and in that soul more closely associated with Him than any other in the work of man’s salvation. Truly, what Jesus merited for us in justice, Mary has merited for us with Him and in Him and by Him through the merit of congruity. In this sense it has pleased our Lord that no one should be saved except in consideration of the merits of His Mother. In the same sense it has pleased Him to sanctify the precursor by Mary’s words” (The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, “The Mysteries of the Rosary”).

Before the great Dominican theologian, St. Alphonsus in his celebrated work, The Glories of Mary, wrote, “And now, if all these first-fruits of Redemption passed through Mary as the channel through which grace was communicated to the Baptist, the Holy Ghost to Elizabeth, the gift of prophecy to Zachary and so many other blessings to the whole house, the first graces that to our knowledge the Eternal Word had granted on earth after the Incarnation, it is quite correct to believe that thenceforward God made Mary the universal channel, as she is called by St. Bernard, through which all the other graces that our Lord is pleased to dispense to us should pass” (Part II, discourse V).

Again, for what other reason is there that can explain why St. Luke recorded the presence of Mary Most Holy at Pentecost amongst the Apostles than the fact that Our Lord chose to associate His Blessed Mother in the work of the edification of the His Church?

The Apostles were united in prayer with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she (so to speak) drew down upon them from her Divine Son the Lord Holy Ghost in the plenitude of all His gifts and graces. This was why she was there with them. She is the Immaculate Conception, she was already the ineffable tabernacle and most pure Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Just as the Blessed Virgin went to St. Elizabeth, that she and the Precursor St. John the Baptist would obtain the grace of the Holy Ghost and the glad tidings of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, so Mary Most Holy accompanied the Apostles for the same purpose, for she was constituted as supreme Arbitress and Mediatress of the graces won by the Passion of Our Lord, according to the command given her at the foot of the Cross, “Woman, behold thy son” (S. Joann. cap. xix. 26). This was the fulfillment of the ancient oracle of the Old Testament, wherein it is said to Most Holy Mary, “Inhabit in Jacob, and inherit in Israel, and take root in Mine elect” (Ecclus. cap. xxiv. 13).

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #1 on:** October 12, 2013, 11:28:47 PM »

From an euchological appendix in the tome Spiritual Riches of the Rosary Mysteries by Rev. Fr. Charles J. Callan, O. P., and Rev. Fr. John F. McConnell, M. M. (New York City: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1957), here is a Novena to Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, which may easily be prayed as a Rosary Novena.

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #2 on:** October 12, 2013, 11:39:31 PM »

An excellent epitome of the spiritual doctrine of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort regarding total consecration to Our Lord through the Blessed Virgin Mary, appropriate for the anniversary of the prodigy of the terpsichorean Sun wrought by the Virgin Mother of the true Sun of Justice (Mal. cap. iv. 2), which was greater than the miracle wrought at the invocation of Josue unto the Lord God (Jos. cap. x. 12-14), is found in the same Saint's work The Love of the Eternal Wisdom (trans. A. Somers S.M.M.; Philadelphia, Penn.: The Peter Reilly Company, 1949):

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #3 on:** October 13, 2013, 12:09:27 AM »

From the Seraphic Doctor's The Mirror of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Speculum Beatae Mariae Virginis) and The Psalter of Our Lady (Psalterium Beatae Mariae Virginis) (trans. Sr. Mary Emmanual, O.S.B.; St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1932), here is a Marian adaptation written by St. Bonaventure of the Canticle of Habacuc that is wonderfully suited for the anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima wrought by Our Lady of the Rosary:

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #4 on:** October 13, 2013, 04:58:47 AM »

.

Dear Hobbles,

You posted all that in less than one hour? :confused1:

Welcome to the 96th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.

........After a prolonged rainfall over the previous two
days, with saturated soil underfoot and no sanitation
facilities, the pilgrims of estimated 70 thousand
(70,000) souls in number, stood ankle-deep in the
mud, and watched the sun in the sky, without anyone
suffering any vision impairment from the spectacle.

In fact, many people who had arrived blind went away
with their vision restored completely. Many deaf could
hear, many lame could walk again, many sick were
cured. The miracles of healing were so numerous that
no one was able to count them all. But the miracle
that went unnoticed was this: All those people whose
feet and shoes had been buried in mud, after the sun
returned to its normal place in the sky, were no longer
standing in mud, but rather on solid ground, with
grass growing, as if the crowd had not trampled it all
morning and the day before. If the soil had been
merely dried by the terrifying descent of the sun
overhead, their feet should have been stuck in dried
soil, and everyone would have lost their shoes pulling
out their feet. But no one lost any shoes. Estimates
of the heat energy required to dry all that soil have
assured us that if it were only heat, the people would
have been killed, incinerated, as if a nuclear
detonation overhead had occurred. But no one was
hurt. Rather, the soil was restored to its pristine state,
and everyone's clothes were not only dry, but fresh
and clean, AS IF LAUNDERED.

What has escaped commentary for 96 years is this:
Our Lady's grace restored everything, as if the rain
had not fallen, as if the lack of sanitation had not
occurred, as if it were, that all things were made new
again, as her Son had once said, "Behold, I make all
things new." The Immaculate Conception had touched
our poor world for a moment in time, and RAISED UP
THE PEOPLE out of the mud, and it had been nearly
forgotten -- Because there was simply too much to
think about.

The quiet miracle passed into history without a sound.

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 13, 2013, 07:13:02 AM »

Quote from: Neil Obstat

Welcome to the 96th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.

........After a prolonged rainfall over the previous two
days, with saturated soil underfoot and no sanitation
facilities, the pilgrims of estimated 70 thousand
(70,000) souls in number, stood ankle-deep in the
mud, and watched the sun in the sky, without anyone
suffering any vision impairment from the spectacle.

In fact, many people who had arrived blind went away
with their vision restored completely. Many deaf could
hear, many lame could walk again, many sick were
cured. The miracles of healing were so numerous that
no one was able to count them all. But the miracle
that went unnoticed was this: All those people whose
feet and shoes had been buried in mud, after the sun
returned to its normal place in the sky, were no longer
standing in mud, but rather on solid ground, with
grass growing, as if the crowd had not trampled it all
morning and the day before. If the soil had been
merely dried by the terrifying descent of the sun
overhead, their feet should have been stuck in dried
soil, and everyone would have lost their shoes pulling
out their feet. But no one lost any shoes. Estimates
of the heat energy required to dry all that soil have
assured us that if it were only heat, the people would
have been killed, incinerated, as if a nuclear
detonation overhead had occurred. But no one was
hurt. Rather, the soil was restored to its pristine state,
and everyone's clothes were not only dry, but fresh
and clean, AS IF LAUNDERED.

What has escaped commentary for 96 years is this:
Our Lady's grace restored everything, as if the rain
had not fallen, as if the lack of sanitation had not
occurred, as if it were, that all things were made new
again, as her Son had once said, "Behold, I make all
things new." The Immaculate Conception had touched
our poor world for a moment in time, and RAISED UP
THE PEOPLE out of the mud, and it had been nearly
forgotten -- Because there was simply too much to
think about.

The quiet miracle passed into history without a sound.

Thank you so much for this!

Hobbledehoy · « **Reply #6 on:** October 13, 2013, 02:29:00 PM »

The anniversary of the prodigy of the terpsichorean Sun wrought by the Virgin Mother of the true Sun of Justice (Mal. cap. iv. 2), which was greater than the miracle wrought at the invocation of Josue unto the Lord God (Jos. cap. x. 12-14), particularly beckons us to commend all Priests and Bishops to Mary Most Holy.

Here are some considerations that may prove edifying for such an endeavor furnished by Rev. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., in The Priest in Union with Christ (Trans. Rev. Fr. G. W. Shelton; Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1954):