Fatima - Given to Us to Arouse Us From Our Spiritual Lethargy

  Hello Everyone:
I just came back from a week of vacation in the Upper part of Michigan. God's beauty is very great. We see this beauty and wonder how any human being can not believe that a Greater Power created all of this. 

We are now in the month of September already. Another year is slipping away and it will soon be December - God willing! This is the month of Our Blessed Mother's Birthday (8th), the Most Holy Name of Mary (12th) the Exaltation of the Cross (14th), The Sorrowful Mother (15th), St. Matthew (21st) and we can add St. Padre Pio whose feast day is Sept. 23rd. (During this great month, I am also expecting a new grand baby - due date Sept. 8th - Please pray for my daughter Theresa and her husband Alex as this is their first baby)

I chose to write on Fatima - again! This website and our Carmelite apostolate is to promote this message - so needed today. It is a great mystery - Fatima. Why did She come? What was Her message?  Did She ask us to live this message daily? Yes. We are to live the Fatima message daily. The future of the world and the salvation of souls depends upon it. No, it is not just a private revelation. The public miracle of the sun places it before ALL of us to open our hearts and minds to this message.

There are so many threats in the world and in our country for socialism which may very well become hard core Communism as Our Lady predicted would happen if we do not say our daily Rosary and amend our lives. What greater peace than to find 20 minutes with your family and turn off the devices and pray the Rosary. It will bring peace to our homes so that this peace can then be experienced in the world. 

The eloquent but godless philosophies of today have everywhere produced a skeptical view of the value of prayer. At Fatima, Our Lady reproached us for our laxity and commanded us to pray for the conversion of sinners. Prayer is a communication with God, thoughts enlightened by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost. It should not end with our exit from our Sunday Mass but rather permeate our very existence. There are so many little opportunities to practice the presence of God at home, in the car, at school, at the workplace, at the store. This kind of praying along with little daily sacrifices is what Our Lady requested at Fatima. This type of living will appease the just wrath of Almighty God. The power of prayer is our only protection against the fury of Satan and the threat of communism to the world.  We have a great deal of work to do with Our Lady, for She looks pleadingly to those who enjoy the grace of Her special protection.

This special protection is promised in the wearing of the Brown Scapular which is always part of the Fatima message since She came as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on October 13th extending this Scapular to the world. Sister Lucia proclaimed that the Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable. We must use them together - always!

There is a beautiful poem written by a Father Joachim Smet, O Carm that relates the Brown Scapular to the very flesh of Jesus and His seamless garment that He wore. This is so beautiful a thought that I wanted to share it. Here it is:

                                              OUR LADY'S GARMENT
                      Beneath the dripping cross the soldiers pause
                          In wonder at the work of Mary's hand;
                      The God She clothed with Her own flesh had caused
                         No comment, but his cloak was in demand.

                       For only She could make a robe so fine---
                           Without a seam from top to bottom spun;
                       In all the length and breadth of Palestine
                           No man was clothed as well as Mary's Son.

                       Mother, I know that you remember still
                           The little human ways of making things,
                       And in the Father's home above, your skill
                           Fills with surprise those that are clothed like kings.

                        Sweet thought! This blessed day I stand arrayed
                        Like Jesus, in a cloak my Mother made!

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