Joseph A. Cirrincione - Fatimas Message for Our Times

Fatima's Message
For Our Times

by
Msgr. Joseph A.
Cirrincione

Copyright 1990 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 90-70660

ISBN: 0-89555-403-8

This booklet may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any method of reproduction, mechanical or electronic, without the written permission of the Publisher.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1990

"Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak"

Matthew 26:40-41

(Letter of permission from Sister Lucy to use her letter.)

Mosteiro De Sta. Teresa
Coimbra, Portugal

December 13, 1989

Dear Monsignor Cirrincione,

... After the receipt of your letter about this matter, I spoke with Sister Lucia and she said she had no hesitation in giving you her permission to use the letter she wrote in 1971 to her nephew, Father Valinho. The letter has already been published in various languages. So, dear Monsignor Cirrincione, you can use it at your discretion.

Goodbye, dear Monsignor. Please bless me and all of us.

In Jesus and Mary, I remain

Your poor servant,

Mother Prioress

INTRODUCTION

The present booklet is the fruit of many years of research on the subject of Fatimacombined with long years of meditation about its meaningby an author who is one of the most astute students of Fatima alive today. It might appear at first to the casual reader of this tract that the author has linked together three disparate themes and tried to forge them into one coherent whole. But actually, a close and careful reading will show that the three themes of this booklet are really all about the same thing and actually coalesce into one main thrust, namely, that we must pray in order to have the grace and understanding in our souls to live the true Christian lifethe essence of which is an outpouring, or giving (charity, if you will), of both our natural talents and assets, plus, and more particularly, a giving or sharing of the supernatural life we have received from God.

An attempt is made here to show that priests, bishops and all other consecrated soulsparticularly and most especiallyneed a powerful prayer-life to live their particular Christian vocations most effectively, but also, though perhaps to a somewhat lesser degree, that laypeople too are under exactly the same moral imperative.

Since the author's orientation for this writing is from Fatima, he tries to weave into the rendition powerful examples from the overall Fatima messages and apparitions. The first chapter contains the basic message of this booklet and is all about "LIFE," and particularly about the supernatural life of our souls, called by the Catholic Church Sanctifying Grace, and why we are called upon to share this life with others. In the second chapter, entitled "The Culture of Death," an attempt is made to hold up to our minds a picture of what is going on in our world, to show that a great majority of people today are living, in effect, as though Christ never came, i.e., the various actions they display are so definitely anti-life as to constitute a veritable "culture of death" in our age, a belief-system, one might say, which is diametrically opposed to the "life-giving" belief-system of the Catholic Church, which in turn is based upon the teachings of Our Lord.

And finally, in Chapter 3, the author concludes with a rather disproportionately long analysis of Vatican Council II, in an attempt to demonstrate, as conclusively as possible in so short a treatise, that nowhere in Vatican II and nowhere in the writings and pronouncements of recent Popes will anyone find anything to support the idea that the traditional Catholic prayers and devotional practices have been abandoned or are to be abandoned. That they actually have been abandoned by many in the Church is a fact too palpable to require illustration, and this very abandonment of our prayer and devotional traditions he claims is the fundamental cause of much of the malaise in the Church and in the world.

But further, and more importantly, as a result of proving that the Church has not officially abandoned these prayer and devotional traditions, but rather has consistently called for their use and employment, he is calling on, first our priests, bishops and consecrated souls, and secondly, upon all Catholics to return to the traditional life of prayer that has always been practiced in our Churchincluding especially the Rosary, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also, and in particular, to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, the "holy hour," if you will.

If we are going to turn the world around, and our fellowmen as well, and cause them to turn toward God and thereby toward life and love and understanding and the giving of all these in turn to still others, then we have to begin with ourselves. For we cannot give what we do not have. We have to fill ourselves with that truth and understanding and life and love (which come only from God) if we are to share it with others. And the best and easiest way to achieve this objective is the same as it has always beenhumble prayer before Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth and the Life," and especially before Him in the Blessed Sacrament on our altars. He is the soul of our prayer-life. And our prayer-life is the soul of our entire life and existence.

This booklet, then, is an appeal to all to return to prayer, to the use of the traditional prayers and devotions of the Churchthe Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, etc., but particularly to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, which can and does include all of the other traditional devotions of the Church and which gives "Life" to them all.

Thomas A. Nelson

Publisher

Chapter I

LIFE

On May 12, 1982, Pope John Paul II arrived at Fatima to give thanks to Our Lady of Fatima for sparing his life when an assassin attempted to kill him on May 13, 1981. In his evening homily, he said to the many thousands gathered there: "Would you like me to tell you a secret? It is simple, and after all, is no secret. Pray, pray much. Say the Rosary every day."

When he spoke of telling a secret, the Holy Father well knew, of course, the world-wide curiosity to know the third part of the secret Our Lady told Sister Lucy, which has not been revealed. What he was telling his audience was that it would be much more profitable for them to put into practice what they already knew of Our Lady's Message than to pine for the knowledge of a part of her message that Church authorities have deemed it better not to reveal.

Sister Lucy gave evidence that she was of the which her community printed in leaflet form for worldwide distribution. This spontaneous act on her part indicated how strongly she felt that people should be more concerned with what Our Lady wanted them to DO(!) than with what they wanted to know. Thus, Pope John Paul II was echoing her sentiments and putting his own prestige behind her call to recite the Rosary daily. And, in doing so, his words had a double effect, viz., approval both of the message of Fatima and its messenger.

I was tempted to title this booklet The Fourth Secret of Fatima because it has somewhat the same purpose as the rather transparent attempt by the Holy Father to gain attention to his words by speaking of a "secret."

As in that case, so in this one, there is no question of a secret. But also, as in that case, here there is a message which Sister Lucy feels is vitally important and that all too generally is ignored. This message is found in a letter she wrote some years ago to her nephew, Father Valinho, a Salesian priest. This is what she wrote.