When we are afflicted, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because Our Lady promised the triumph of her Immaculate Heart! What is the relationship between this triumph and our present worries and concerns?

Newsroom (18/06/2023 09:00, Gaudium Press) Pandemics, deaths, murders, economic crisis, increase in the number of unemployed, corruption: these are the words we have heard most often lately, causing, as a consequence, afflictions, anguish, and fear, which can then lead people to despair.

However, beyond these catastrophes, it is necessary to have before one’s eyes the sunrise of a hope. “Contemporary times, which seem on the verge of ending with a new crisis, have a greater privilege. Our Lady has come to speak to men; it has not been an Angel, nor a great Saint or a prophet, but the Mother of God herself.” [1]

She did not address these words only to the generations of the early twentieth century, but, above all, to those who came afterwards. And as time passes, these words seem to apply to our own day, for our country, for each one of us, for you, dear reader.

The good mother who loves her child attends to his needs and afflictions, and especially when he is in danger and in the midst of misfortune: she goes to help him. Now, if this is the case with any devoted mother, what can be said of She who is the best of all mothers, the Mother of God and ours?

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

At Fatima, Our Lady foretold the coming of great punishments for humanity if men continued to offend God. But more important than the punishments announced, are the means of salvation indicated by the Mother of God: recitation of the Rosary, the practice of the Five First Saturdays and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

With humble clarity She expressed God’s desire: “He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To those who accept it, I will promise salvation, and these souls will be loved of God, like flowers placed by Me to adorn His throne. [2]

Yes, what motivated the Mother of God to come in person to transmit her message to the three little shepherds was the announcement of her glorious victory: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” [3]

It is a grandiose prospect of universal victory for the regal and maternal Heart of the Blessed Virgin. It is a promise of peace, attractive and, above all, majestic and exciting.” [4]

Why the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

In 1941, Our Lord Jesus Christ, confirming this desire transmitted by Our Lady at Fatima, asked Blessed Alexandrina to tell the Pope that He wanted the Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of His Most Holy Mother: “[…] that he hasten the hour of his Consecration to My Blessed Mother. May he place Her at the head of the battle and proclaim Her Queen of Victory and Messenger of Peace. Woe to him if he does not have the Queen of Heaven at his head! Woe to him if She does not intercede before the divine throne!”

God wants the salvation of humanity and points to the Heart of Mary to bring it about: “Just as I had everything sealed up in Noah’s Ark before the flood, so I want to seal up the whole world in that most holy Ark.

The certainty of victory: God never abandons us!

Who would dare to imagine that God can deceive or lie? It would be blasphemous to think so. Nor does our Lady speak untruths! If She has announced that her Heart will triumph, it will happen. And let us be sure that if we remain faithful to Her and to her Holy Rosary, we shall witness new wonders and the fulfilment of her prophecy.

In the calamitous and hopeless situation in which the world finds itself, let us place our trust in Our Lady and take the opportunity on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to consecrate ourselves to the love of this Heart, full of goodness and mercy for those who ask for forgiveness, placing all our worries, afflictions and anguish in it. She is the light of our life and will relieve us! Her heart is identical in charity and mercy with the Divine Heart of her Son Jesus Christ.

Therefore, let us not fear evils and let us trust, for St. Paul has said: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Anguish? Persecution? Hunger? Nakedness? Danger? The sword? But in all of this we are more than conquerors, thanks to Him who loved us! I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor heavenly powers, nor the present nor the future, nor cosmic powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God for us manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39).

[1] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Fatima: explanation and remedy for the contemporary crisis. In: Catolicismo. No.29, May 1953

[2] SISTER LÚCIA. Memoirs I. Fourth Memoir, c.II, n.4. 13.ed. Fatima: Little Shepherds’ Secretariat, 2007, p.175.

[Sister Lucia, op. cit.

[4] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Fatima in a global vision In: Catolicismo.n.197,1967

[PINHO, Mariano SJ. No Calvário de Balasar 2 ed. Braga National Secretariat of the Apostleship of Prayer, 2005, p. 224.

[6] PINHO, Mariano, SJ. Braga – National Secretariat of the Apostleship of Prayer, 2005, p. 224.

Compiled by Sandra Chisholm