Jesus, I trust in you!
The appointed time of the
Incarnation has come. God sent the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in bring
her the glad tidings that she would conceive and bear the Son of God in her
womb. The Father is sending his Son and he has chosen the Virgin to be his mother.
“You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name him Jesus…he
will be called holy, the Son of God.” No one has loved the Son more than the
Father. And by the annunciation, the Father entrusts to Mary the Son whom he
loves the most, his only begotten Son. The Son left his heavenly throne and
entrusts himself to the womb of his Mother.
When the Blessed Virgin showed the
children a vision of hell, she said to them: “You have seen hell where the
souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world
devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will
be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not
cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius
XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the
great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes
by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
“To prevent this, I shall come to
ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of
Reparation on the 1st Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia
will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors
throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good
will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations
will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy
Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of
peace will be granted to the world.”
The Blessed Virgin asked not only
for the establishment of devotion to her Immaculate Heart but the consecration
of Russia to her. When Our Lady asked that Russia be consecrated to her
Immaculate Heart, she meant that the Church, through the Pope, should offer
that nation to her. To consecrate means to entrust to Mary not just individuals
but an entire nation. It is significant that the Lord should want this consecration
to take place. It was as if he was entrusting the battle against evil to the
Blessed Virgin. In the book of Genesis, God said to the serpent: “I will put an
enmity between you and the Woman, between your seed and her seed.” It is true
that Jesus will save us, his people, from sins. But in his battle against
Satan, he wishes to involve his Mother. The triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart
is the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Father entrusted Jesus to Mary
at the Incarnation. At his crucifixion, Jesus entrusted the Church also to Mary
when he said to her: “Woman, behold your son.”
The Lord Jesus entrusted the
spiritual battle to his own mother.
However, the consecration of Russia
is not a magic formula that will bring about the desired results. Lucia said,
“God will only permit the grace of Collegial Consecration when a sufficient
number are complying with the message of Fatima.” This is why in 1967, Pope
Paul VI wrote: “We now exhort all the sons of the Church to renew personally
their consecration to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of the Church.”
(Signum Magnum) This is the reason why we do not leave the consecration of
Russia to the hands of the Holy Father alone. We must do our part by
individually living out what Our Lady demanded at Fatima: conversion, Penance
and Prayer (especially of the Rosary). We have to put our whole selves at the
disposal of the Blessed Virgin in the very same way that she placed herself at
the disposal of the Lord: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according
to your word.” Every day, we must offer our minds, hearts, and strength to the
Blessed Virgin and to ask her to do with us as she pleases. Before a collegial
consecration of the world can take place, there should first be world-wide
individual acts of consecration. If we do not confess our sins, nor live lives
of penitence, nor pray the Rosary every day, the consecration of the world
would be void of its meaning. We must entrust ourselves to Mary as God has
entrusted the incarnation of his Son to her.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
