The apparitions and miracles that occurred at Fatima, Portugal in 1916 and 1917 rocked the country at the time and the rest of the world soon after. Let us look back on the events of Fatima — in Servant of God Lucia dos Santos’ own words. FATIMA LUCIA'S OWN WORDS - VOLUME TWO. 200pp (some photos) In this follow-up Catholic book, Sr. Lucia continues her firsthand account of the events at Fatima.
FATIMA:IntheEnd
by Mark Fellows
According tosome influentialmembers of the Vatican Hierarchy, the answer is yes. In Fatima on May13,2000, after the beatification ceremony for Francisco and Jacinta Marto,Secretary of State Angelo Cardinal Sodano told hundreds of thousands ofpilgrims that the Fatima Secret concerned only past events: RussianCommunism,and the 1981 assassination attempt on His Holiness, John Paul II.
FATIMA LUCIA'S OWN WORDS - VOLUME TWO by Sr. Lucia Softcover 200pp (some photos) In this follow-up Catholic book, Sr. Lucia continues her firsthand account of the events at Fatima. What better source to go to than to the one who received the revelations herself? Lucia reveals her thoughts on the messages she received in 1917 from Mary. Fatima in Lucia's Own Words II quantity. SKU: 043 Categories: Apparitions, Fatima. Description Additional information Description.
JosephCardinal Ratzinger,prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [CDF],agreed.In a June 2000 document issued by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Bertone,entitled The Message of Fatima, Ratzinger stated: 'We mustaffirmwith Cardinal Sodano . . . the events to which the third part of thesecretof Fatima refers now seem part of the past.' 2More recently [December, 2001] the Vatican made public an interviewbetweenArchbishop Tarcisio Bertone [the then CDF secretary] andninety-five-year-oldSister Lucy, the sole surviving visionary of the Fatima Apparitions.Accordingto Msgr. Bertone, in their interview Sister Lucy stated, incontradictionto her prior statements, that Pope John Paul II had successfullyconsecratedRussia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1984.3Moreover,Msgr. Bertone maintained that, again contrary to her previous remarks4,Sister Lucy now believed the Vatican had published the entire ThirdSecretof Fatima. 5
Accordingto the Vatican, then, we have reached 'the end' referred to by Our Ladyof Fatima on July 13, 1917. The Holy Father has consecrated Russia, andthe entire Fatima Message has been published. Our Lady said that 'intheend' Her Immaculate Heart would triumph, Russia would convert, and theworld would enjoy a period of peace. If the Vatican is correct in itsassessmentof the Fatima Message, we must now be experiencing the triumph ofMary'sImmaculate Heart.
TheConversionof Russia
Readersmay beexcused for not realizing this. Russia's conversion to Catholicismwhich,according to Our Lady of Fatima, would coincide with the consecrationofRussia, has been, well, subtle. The approximately six hundred thousandRussian Catholics6 are a tiny,legallypersecutedminority in a nation where two-thirds of the one hundred and forty-fivemillion people belong to the schismatic Orthodox Church, 7whose Patriarch refuses to allow the Pope to visit Russia.
Moreover,it is difficult to find evidence of even a veiled or embryonicconversionto Catholicism in pronouncements from the Orthodox Church-----likea recent blast in which a spokesman for Patriarch Alexy II expressedindignationthat the Church might attempt 'missionary activities among the peopleofour country, which has never been Catholic.'8
Sosubtle isRussia'sconversion to Catholicism that Alexy called the Vatican's simplerestructuringof the Russian Catholic Church into dioceses 'an unfriendly act.'Speakingof unfriendly acts, in April Russian police detained Msgr. Jerzy Mazur,the Catholic bishop of Russia's largest diocese, and Withoutexplanationexpelled him from Russian soil, forbidding him to return. 9Now that's subtle.
Itislikely the small remnant of faithful Russian Catholics are unaware oftheirnation's conversion to Catholicism. They are, one imagines, accustomedto making the best of a bad situation. And the situation in Russia isbadand getting abysmal. The societal indicators point not towards anationalconversion to Catholicism, but towards a decline into barbarism. Thedetailshave been chronicled elsewhere, 10but can be briefly summarized as woefullyhigh rates ofabortion, alcoholism,and organized crime.
The inconvenientfact of the matter is that Russia's decline seemed to accelerate afterPope John Paul II's 1984 consecration of the world to the ImmaculateHeart. 11 The razing of theBerlin Wall,the apparentattempts at democratic government, and the influx of consumerism andWesternculture into Russia have been taken as signs that Russia is'normalizing'after decades of Communist oppression. Although that is debatable, itisevident that none of these signs-----includingRussia'srecent inclusion into NATO 12-----isproof of a religious conversion to Catholicism of the magnitude of theFatima prophecy.
Onthis point it is worth recalling portions of a letter Sister Lucy wrotein 1936. Responding to a priest's inquiry about the consecration ofRussia,Lucy answered:
'I have spoken to Our Lord about the subject and not too long ago IaskedHim why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making theconsecration. [He replied] 'Because I want My whole Church toacknowledgethat consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary so thatit may extend its cult later on and put the devotion to the ImmaculateHeart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.
'Prayvery much for the Holy Father. He will do it but it will be late . ..Nevertheless,the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia. It has been entrusted toHer.' ' 13
Consequently,it isnot mere semantics to insist that a consecration of the world is notwhatHeaven is seeking.
Given Heaven'sinsistence that the Immaculate Heart be properly honored-----Jesus'wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart' theBlessed Virgin told Lucy 14-----wemay safely assume that the conversion of Russia will be a prodigiouseventthat commands attention, similar in magnitude to the Miracle of the Sunthat occurred at the final Fatima apparition on October 13, 1917-----justbefore Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power.
That suchan event has not occurred is further evidence-----wereit needed-----that Russia has yet to convert toCatholicism.The reason is that Russia has not been consecrated to the ImmaculateHeartof Mary according to the requirements of the Fatima Message.
TheThird Secret Visible
Our Ladyalso said that 'in the end' there would be a period of peace whichwouldcoincide with the consecration and conversion of Russia. As the eventsof September 11, 2001, put in bold relief, however, there is no peace.Civil wars and persecution of the Catholic Church-----particularlyby Islam -----occur daily throughout the world.
Thesesoberingeventsare a jarring counterpoint to well-publicized interfaith ecumenicalgatherings,like Assisi.
Are weat the end of the Fatima Message? Are we living in the period of peaceOur Lady of Fatima promised would occur with the triumph of HerImmaculateHeart? There is, unfortunately, nothing factual to support this. Wellthen,where are we?
That weare living in a period of remarkable upheaval in the Catholic Church isnot merely a plausible argument supported by statistics and a myriad ofpost-conciliar horror stories. It is a fact attested to by the presentPope, his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, and other notable members of thehierarchylike Cardinal Ratzinger. The phrase they have used, 'crisis of faith',is an all embracing term for the utter decadence in religious orders,aninsipid, ever devolving liturgy, a corresponding steep decline in Massattendance and belief in the Real Presence, the indifference ordefianceof the world episcopate to papal authority, and numerous otherindicatorsof a universal loss of faith-----in a word,apostasy.
[The mostrecent catastrophe has been the discovery of hundreds of homosexualAmericanclergy who for decades have been preying-----notpraying-----onadolescent boys. Anyone wondering why vocations to the priesthood aredown,at least among heterosexual men? The numbing magnitude of this latestcrisisis unrelieved by the reaction of the American hierarchy: no anguish, noremorse, no contrition; just well managed press conferences staged by acorporation doing public relations damage control.]
Ratherthan document a depressing litany of scandal, heresy, and aberrationmostreaders are probably already aware of, suffice it to say that in theChurch,like the world, there is no peace. It seems evident that the ImmaculateHeart of Mary has not triumphed in the Church 15,and it is perhaps for this reason that the Immaculate Heart has nottriumphedin Russia.
Which bringsus to the Third Secret of Fatima, and an answer to the question: whereare we? To be precise, we don't need to know the exact contents of theThird Secret of Fatima to acknowledge that the Church is undergoing aconvulsiveapostasy affecting not just the laity but priests, bishops, andcardinals.However, it is interesting that all Fatima experts, and of course,SisterLucy, have pointedly implied or expressly stated that the Third Secretconcerns widespread apostasy in the highest levels of the Church.
There havebeen otherapostasy-ridden periods in Church history, but few of them have beenpredictedand given a prescription ahead of time by the Mother of God in a publicapparition. If, as most experts think, the Third Secret of Fatimaconcernsapostasy in high levels of the Church, it is surely significant thattheBlessed Virgin wanted the Third Secret revealed by the Church in 1960. 16 It was not. Thus began the timeof theThird Secret, which coincided with a great falling away from the truth.It would seem that until the Fatima prescriptions are followed, thefallingaway will continue, and in all likelihood accelerate. Evil, like good,has a momentum of its own, and a myriad of unforeseen consequences.
So whereare we? We are not 'at the end' of the Fatima Message. We are living ina time of great apostasy, which coincides almost exactly with the ThirdFatima Secret which was supposed to be revealed in 1960. In my humbleopinion,this is not mere 'coincidence.'
Beforethe End
In 2000Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Bertone issued a booklet entitled TheMessageof Fatima that purported to reveal the entire Third Secret. Thecuriousthing about this document, however, is that it did not address thewordscommonly believed by Fatima experts to be the beginning of the ThirdSecret:'In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved . . .' 17
TheChurch-appointed historian of Fatima, Father Joaquin Alonso, explained:'All authors have taken into consideration how Lucia, in the fourthMemoir,introduced the famous paragraph with the words 'In Portugal the dogmaofthe Faith will always be preserved etc. . . .' They have deduced ascertainthat the third 'thing' began there. These words introduce therevelationof the third part of the Secret.' 18
FatherAlonso spoke often to Sister Lucy while researching his multi-volumeworkon Fatima. Frère Michel sums up Alonso's opinion on the ThirdSecret:
'Itis therefore completely probable that the text makes concretereferencesto the crisis of faith within the Church and to the negligence of thepastorsthemselves. He [Alonso] speaks further of 'internal struggles in theverybosom of the Church and of grave pastoral negligence by the upperhierarchy,'of 'deficiencies of the upper hierarchy of the Church.' ' 19
If FatherAlonso and Frère Michel are right, many things are explained,includingthe issuance by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Bertone of a booklet thatallegedly reveals the Third Secret of Fatima, but in fact omits theonlyknown words of the Secret. 20
SisterLucy spoke of a 'diabolical disorientation' that had gripped theclergy.Indeed, when one looks objectively at the level of evil in the Churchandthe world, and then hears prominent Churchmen describing this wretchedperiod of misery as the 'new advent of humanity', or worse, the work ofthe Holy Spirit, it is easy to feel disoriented. It is interesting tonotethat pre-conciliar Popes did not share the current optimism.
Pope PiusXII, who died less than five years before the Second Vatican Councilopened,declared:
'We believethat the present hour is a dread phase of the events foretold byChrist.It seems that darkness is about to fall on the world. Humanity is inthegrip of a supreme crisis.' 21
His predecessor,Pope St. Pius X, related the following vision: 'I saw one of mysuccessorstaking to flight over the bodies of his brethren. He will take refugeindisguise somewhere; and after a short retirement he will die a crueldeath.The present wickedness of the world is only the beginning of thesorrowswhich must take place before the end of the world.' 22
St. Pius'vision is similar to the vision of Sister Lucy which Cardinal Ratzingerand Msgr. Bertone represented as the entire Third Secret. Sister Lucysawa Pope leading a small remnant through 'a big city half in ruins,' pastcorpses, and up a steep mountain to a cross where he and his followersare murdered en masse. 23 Thevisions ofSt.Pius X and Sister Lucy recall Blessed Jacinta Marto's visions of aweepingPope 'kneeling by a table with his head buried in his hands,'surroundedby enemies, and of 'highways and roads and fields full of people whoarecrying with hunger and have nothing to eat.' 24
Jacinta'svisions are often assumed to refer to World War II and Pope Pius XII.YetJacinta may have been shown a future conflict. As Father McGlynn notedin 1950, 'there is no indication in Her [Mary's] message that this[peace]will be achieved before another war.' 25Thepoint, however, is that the events seen by Lucy and Jacinta-----andperhaps by Pius X-----may come to pass before'theend,' that is, before the triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart, theconsecrationand conversion of Russia, and the period of peace. Father Alonso said:
'The finaltriumph of Mary's Heart is certain and it will be definitive. But itwilltake place in the end, that is to say, after a terrible purification ofsinful humanity, in a baptism of fire, blood and tears.' 26
FatherAlonso's implications are sobering. He would seem to be in agreementwithSt. Pius X, that we are in the 'beginning of sorrows.' One wonders howmany more catastrophes will occur before the Fatima prescriptions arefollowed.
A Vision of Triumph
Sister Lucy's vision in Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Bertone's TheMessageof Fatima is assumed to refer to the Third Secret, and well it may,although from its content it could also refer to what is commonlycalledthe Second Secret: Mary's warning about Russia's errors resulting innationsbeing annihilated, the good being martyred, and the Holy Father having'much to suffer.' Another Fatima vision concerned what is commonlycalledthe First Secret: the sight of multitudes of souls falling into Hell-----likesnowflakes, Lucy said-----because there was nooneto pray and sacrifice for them.
Yet thereis another Fatima vision that must not be neglected. It happened duringthe apparition of June 13, 1917. After promising Lucy: 'My ImmaculateHeartwill be your refuge,' Mary opened Her hands in a gesture Lucy latercomparedto the Dominus Vobiscum at Mass.27From Her palms issued rays of an 'immense light' which appeared tosimultaneouslybear Francisco and Jacinta to Heaven and immerse Lucy on earth.
'In front ofthe palmof Our Lady's right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which piercedit,' Lucy said. 'We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart ofMary,outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.' 28The light from Our Lady's palms 'penetrated to our inmost hearts,' saidLucy, adding: 'I think that on that day the main purpose of this lightwas to infuse within us a special knowledge and love for the ImmaculateHeart of Mary, just as on the other two occasions it was intended todo,as it seems to me, with regard to God and the mystery of the most HolyTrinity.' 29
'From that dayonwards,'Lucy writes in her Third Memoir, 'our hearts were filled with a moreardentlove for the Immaculate Heart of Mary.' 30What did this triumph of the Immaculate Heart in the lives of the seerslook like?
Much ofit was, like the life of the Blessed Virgin, hidden. The children keptthe Secret Mary gave them. They pondered it in their hearts, the samewaySacred Scripture describes Mary 'pondering all these things in Herheart.'They prayed much, and developed a thirst for penance and suffering. Itwas later discovered that Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucy all wore heavyknottedropes and engaged in other physical mortifications very unusual forchildrentheir ages.
Perhaps theirzest forsuffering was the outward manifestation of a love of the BlessedTrinity.Lucy said that in previous apparitions Mary had provided them withintimateknowledge of God and the Holy Trinity. Who can better teach us how toloveGod than the Blessed Virgin? What creature knows better how to pleaseGod,or wills what God wills more ardently? And if God wills that childrendopenance and mortification in reparation for offenses committed againstthe hearts of Jesus and Mary, what does this mean for the rest of us?
Mary'smantle spreads to cover all Her children, but it does not protect themfrom crosses. Instead crosses, properly used, accelerate love of Godanddevelop a more intimate knowledge between creature and Creator.FranciscoMarto developed a love for the 'hidden Jesus' so strong he spent allhisfree time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, until his last days, whenillness kept him bedridden. He confessed to Lucy that he suffered much,and added: 'But it doesn't matter. I suffer to console Our Lord, and ina little while I shall be with Him.' 31
Whenhe died, Jacinta was too sick to go to his funeral. She was put in thebed Francisco died in, but it was her fate to die far away from herhomeand family. She was devoted to the Immaculate Heart, and when theBlessedVirgin showed Jacinta that she would die alone in a Lisbon hospitalaftermuch suffering, the little girl embraced the repugnant fate with tearsbut without complaint. 'If only I could put in the heart of everybody,'Jacinta told Lucy, 'that light that I have here in my breast to burn meand make me love the heart of Jesus and the heart of Mary so much.' 32
The 'littleMother of Heaven,' as Jacinta called Her, had told the children theywould'have much to suffer,' but She promised that 'the grace of God will beyour comfort.' To Lucy She made an additional promise: 'I will neverforsakeyou. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will leadyou to God.' 33 The assuranceof notbeingforsaken was surely intended to comfort Sister Lucy over a long life ashidden and penitential as her cousins'.
How similarare these lives to the life of the Blessed Virgin, whose Heart waspiercedtime and again by swords of sorrow and thorns of grief. Just as Marydidnot avoid the Cross, so no one who follows Her can avoid the Cross, beit three Portuguese shepherd children or the remnant of RussianCatholics.However long it takes, in the end She will triumph universally becauseGod has so ordained it. Meanwhile, the triumph of Her Immaculate Heartin the lives of souls is as humble and hidden as Her own life, or anylifethat is completely absorbed in God.
To theeyes of the world, such triumphs are as incomprehensible as the triumphof the Cross was to the Sanhedrin. May those who wish to be Herchildrenbe given eyes to see, ears to hear, and the grace to follow to the endthis sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of our Mother of Fair Love.
Footnotes:
(1)Fr. Louis Kondor, SVD, Editor, Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, TheRavengate Press, p. 162.
(2)The Message of Fatima, the booklet published by CardinalRatzingerand Msgr. Bertone on June 26, 2000.
(3)Sister Lucy has in fact consistently maintained that a validconsecrationmust explicitly mention Russia by name and significantly involve theworldepiscopate. Pope John Paul II's 1984 consecration of the world to theImmaculateHeart of Mary did neither.
(4)The web page of the Italian daily la Repubblica carried aninterviewwith Father Luigi Bianchi, an old friend of Sister Lucy's. In theinterviewBianchi said Lucy agreed with his assessment that the Vatican issuedonlya 'watered down' version of the Third Secret. The November 2001 issueof CatholicFamily News (CFN) published a photocopy of the article in Italian,with an accompanying English translation.
(5)From a press release issued by the Vatican on December 20,2001, andlaterpublished in the January 9, 2002 English Edition issue ofL'OsservatoreRomano.
(6)Everything is disputed, however. The Orthodox claim there are not thismany Catholics in Russia; the Vatican puts Russia's Catholic populationat 1.3 million.
(7)From an AP news report from Moscow, April 1, 2002, entitled 'Head ofRussianOrthodox Church says talks with Vatican remain on hold.'
(8)'Russian Orthodox Church Angered by Vatican Diocese Plan,' reported in AgenceFrance Presse, February 11, 2002, from Moscow.
(9)As reported in Catholic, from a Fides News Report ofApril20, 2002.
(10)By the author of this article in the 'This Present Darkness' series,publishedin Catholic Family News (CFN) in the summer of 2000, and morerecentlyby John Vennari in CFN, February 2002.
(11)It has been maintained by some that this satisfied Our Lady of Fatima'srequest that Russia be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. Suchassertionsare generally made without offering supporting evidence.
(12)Russian head of state Vladimir Putin scored a coup at a May summitmeetingnear Rome when Russia signed onto NATO, pledging to fight alongside theUnited States against world terrorism. Doing his best Pope John XXIIIimitation,Putin told reporters: 'We're convinced that what unites us outweighswhatdivides us.' See news.colm.au-'NATO-Russia pact signed, May 29,2002.'
(13)Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinite, The Whole Truth AboutFatima,Volume II, Immaculate Heart Publications, p. 631 (hereinafter referredto as TWTAF.) The italicized words are Our Lord's response toSisterLucy.
(14) Fatima in Lucia's Own Words,p. 161.
(15)In the current liturgical calendar the feast of the Immaculate Heart isoptional- the lowest rank possible.
Fatima In Lucia's Own Words Ii 2
(16) TWTAF, Volume Ill, p.472. When asked in 1946by CanonBarthas whythe Secret was to be revealed in 1960, Lucy replied: 'Because theBlessedVirgin wishes it so.' This was also the reply of Lucy's bishop, Bishopda Silva.(17) Fatima in Lucia's Own Words,op. cit., p. 162(Lucy'sfourth memoir).
(18)Father Joaquin Maria Alonso, C.M.F., The Secret of Fatima, Fact andLegend, Revised Edition, The Ravengate Press, Cambridge, 1979, pp.69-70.
(19)See Frère Michel, The Whole Truth About Fatima, VolumeIII,p. 704, published by Immaculate Heart Publications. Frère Michelis quoting from the Spanish translation of Alonso's Fatima Fact andLegend.
(20)Except in a cryptic, unexplained footnote.
(21)As quoted in Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy, The ComingChastisement,Rockford, Illinois, Tan Books, 1970, p. 22. (22)As quoted in ibid., p. 22.
(23)Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Bertone The Message of Fatima,p.17.
(24)From Lucy's Third Memoir, as quoted in Kondor, or. cit., pp. 108-9.
(25)Thomas McGlynn, O.P., Vision of Fatima, Little, Brown AndCompany,Boston, 1950, p. 213.
(26)As quoted in Catholic Counter Reformation Journal, Englishlanguagetranslation, August 2000, p. 30. Emphasis supplied.
(27)McGlynn, or. cit., p. 95. Lucy also described the Blessed Virgin asbeingbathed in 'waves of light' (p. 103).
(28) Fatima in Lucia's Own Words,Fourth Memoir, p.161.
Lucia Dos Santos Memoirs
(29) Fatima in Lucia's Own Words,Third Memoir, p.107
Sister Lucia Of Fatima Book
(30) Ibid.,p. 107.
(31)William Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima, The MacmillanCompany,New York, 1947, p. 168.
(32) Ibid., p. 178.
(33) Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, p. 161.
ReprintedfromTheFatima Crusader,Spring 2003 Issue.
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Fatima In Lucia's Own Words Vol 2 Pdf
MARY'SINDEXwww.catholictradition.org/Mary/fatima7.htm
Our Lady’s call to “recite the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war” is as needed today as ever.
Sister Lúcia, one of the three children to receive apparitions and messages from the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, expressed an ambitious hope to a fellow sister in a little-known letter she wrote in 1970.
Fatima In Lucia's Own Words Ii Cast
During her hidden life in the convent, Sr. Lucia wrote several well known memoirs and works of spirituality, including Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words and Calls from the Message of Fatima.
She also wrote a number of letters. One largely unknown letter, dated Sept. 16, 1970, is addressed to Mother Martins, and speaks eloquently about the prayers of the Rosary.
Throughout, she explains the divine origins of the prayers of the Rosary, calling this devotion a ‘Trinitarian and Eucharistic prayer.’
Before she ends, she expressed this incredible and ambitious desire:
I have great hopes that, in the not too far distant future, the prayer of the Holy Rosary will be proclaimed a liturgical prayer, because all its parts share in the Sacred Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Sister Lúcia de Jesus dos Santos OCD, better known as Sister Lúcia of Fatima, lived her life as a Carmelite nun at the cloistered convent of Coimbra, Portugal. He days were spent in prayer and penance following the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
It was the continuation of the extraordinary events of 1917, when the Blessed Virgin gave her and two other children — Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco — special messages about prayer and penance, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and three secrets concerning future events in the life of the Church and the world.
At Fatima, Our Lady repeated asked the children and the world to pray the Rosary.
To date, no pope or meeting of the pope and bishops has yet proclaimed the Rosary as a liturgical prayer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does make four references to the Rosary. Paragraph 971 says the prayer of the Rosary is the “epitome of the whole Gospel.”
In paragraph 2678 it says, “Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the Rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours,” while section 2708 reminds us that the Rosary is a good method of meditating on the mysteries of Christ.
“Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful,” paragraph 1674 tells us.
“The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals.”
So, the Catechism has several things to say about the Rosary, but no mention of it being a liturgical prayer.
Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium (no. 98) says: “They too perform the public prayer of the Church who, in virtue of their constitutions, recite any short office, provided this is drawn up after the pattern of the divine office and is duly approved.”
In the past, some religious orders would pray the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a properly liturgical prayer, and it remains an option today, so perhaps the same recognition could be extended to the praying of the Rosary?
The 150 Hail Marys said when one prayers three sets of mysteries correspond with the 150 Psalms prayed in the Liturgy of the Hours.
And since 1573, the Church has even had a dedicated liturgical feast to celebrate the Rosary, complete with its own set of prayers for Mass and Vespers. That’s not to mention the many other liturgical feasts of Our Lady and prayers to her included in the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass.
In his encyclical, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, St. John Paul II wrote of the Rosary: “Not only does this prayer not conflict with the liturgy, it sustains it, since it serves as an excellent introduction and a faithful echo of the Liturgy, enabling people to participate fully and interiorly in it and to reap its fruits in their daily lives.”
We could go into the many Rosary encyclicals, speeches, books, meditations and acts of devotion by saints and popes alike, and it would fill volumes.
There seems plenty of reasons to support Sister Lucia’s wish to see the Rosary elevated to new heights in the Church, but will it ever been fulfilled?
Perhaps some would feel a sense of reservation about tampering with the Rosary, in much the same way some objected to the new Mysteries of Light being introduced, albeit as an option. The Rosary was given to us as a popular devotion, and it should stay that way. If it was good enough for St. Maximilian Kolbe and Padre Pio, then it’s good enough for us.
And in an era where debates over the liturgy are as heated as ever, introducing yet another liturgy-related issue could be unwise and unnecessary, maybe even distracting Catholics from the seeing the Rosary as primarily something we pray and mediate upon.
Fatima Lucia's Own Words Pdf
“The prayer of the Rosary, after the Liturgy of the Most Holy Eucharist, is what most introduces us to the intimate mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and the Eucharist, what most brings us to the spirit of the mysteries of Faith, Hope and Charity,” wrote Sr. Lúcia in the same letter.
Fatima In Lucia's Own Words Ii Youtube
Whether it happens or not, Our Lady’s call to “recite the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war” is as needed today as ever.