Our Lady of Fatima and True Devotion
Fr. Roger Charest, SMM
Perhaps no modern Saint
is better qualified
to interpret
the Message of Fatima
than St. Louis Mary de Montfort!
The word ”Fatima” has become synonymous with so many things that unless we view it as a perfect four-point true devotion program, there is a real danger of our missing its lesson completely.
There are, broadly speaking, two ways of looking at Fatima and its message. First, one may view it from the standpoint of its timeliness and urgency. Thus considered, Fatima bursts forth as a clarion call to better living, a heavenly ultimatum summoning a godless world to its knees; a kind of ”do-or-die” proposition on which hangs the fate of humanity at large – its utter ruin or its saving recovery, the triumph of evil or the triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. So viewed, Fatima deserves all our attention; its message, out unstinted backing and whole-hearted support.
A second and more comprehensive way of looking at Fatima and its timely message is to consider it from the angle of its devotional outlook; to probe into the depths of its doctrinal contents. From this vantage-ground Fatima’s message emerges as a perfect four-point true devotion program bearing the double seal of the timely and the timeless, of sound Catholic tradition and of urgent opportuneness.
It is obvious that Fatima’s message will be carried out only in the measure in which it is rightly understood; that Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph only inasmuch as that same devotion is carried out in the daily lives of Catholics at large, or at least, in the words of Lucia, … when a sufficient number are offering sacrifices and fulfilling Our Lady’s demands.”
Forcibly as this comes home to us, it is none the less true that this message – like all other heavenly revelations – calls for an interpretation, needs to be expounded in the light of the teachings of the Church which, through her theologians, spiritual writers, popes and saints, never fails in her divine mission of being ”The Light of the World.”
Statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
In a word, Fatima spells true devotion to Mary in the deepest sense of that word. Consequently, nothing short of a complete and perfect form of devotion to Mary – identical with, or roughly equivalent to Fr. de Montfort’s Perfect Consecration to Mary – will fully meet the demands of Our Lady of Fatima.
To those conversant with the “Treatise on True Devotion to Mary,” therefore, it will be no surprise to hear it said that perhaps no theologian, no spiritual writer, no modern saint is better qualified to interpret the message of Fatima than St Louis Mary de Montfort. More, that he is a forerunner of Fatima. Nor should anyone find it amiss that we call upon the authoritative words of Pope Pius XII, gloriously reigning—justly styled, ”The Pope of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”—with reference to a true and perfect consecration to Mary.
Truly, the man who could write in the year 1712, ”God wishes to reveal and discover Mary, the masterpiece of His Hands, in these latter times,” was not far removed in spirit and in truth from the Lady who said in the year 1917, “Our Lord wishes that devotion to my Immaculate Heart be established in the world.”
A brief recalling of Mary’s four-point program at Fatima, with Fr. de Montfort’s ”Treatise on True Devotion to Mary” open before us, should readily suffice to convince us of the intimate relationship and striking similitude existing between both messages. Better still, the latter will stand out as a perfect and fully satisfying response to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima. In a word, Fatima spells true devotion to Mary in the deepest sense of that word. Consequently, nothing short of a complete and perfect form of devotion to Mary – identical with, or roughly equivalent to Fr. de Montfort’s Perfect Consecration to Mary – will fully meet the demands of Our Lady of Fatima.
First Request: PENANCE
The first unavoidable truth that confronts us when we study true devotion to Mary is that it supposes Sanctifying Grace in a soul; it supposes, therefore, a certain amount of penance on the part of the soul in order that it may not only remain in that state but increase in it daily until it has reached the degree of sanctity God expects of it. ”I confess,” writes St. Louis De Montfort, “that, in order to be truly devout to Our Blessed Lady, it is not absolutely necessary to be so holy as to avoid every sin, though this were to be wished; but so much at least is necessary, and I beg you to mark well what I am about to say: 1—to have a sincere resolution to avoid at least all mortal sin, which outrages the Mother as well as the Son; 2—to do Violence to ourselves in order to avoid sin; 3—to say the Rosary or other prayers, etc…,” (T.D. No 99)
Is it any wonder then that in all her appearances, Our Lady of Fatima emphasized penance and a return to a better way of life? “I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.” Is it at all astonishing that Lucia, the eldest of the three seers, should avow some years later: “That which has remained most deeply imprinted on my heart is the request of our heavenly Mother begging us no longer to offend Almighty God Who is already offended too much”?
Decidedly not. Penance and sorrow for sin are at the very root of Christian life and, therefore, of true devotion to Mary which is but a flower of that same divine plant Hence it is that Fr. de Montfort erected his towering structure of true devotion to Mary on that same foundation; that is why he calls his Perfect Consecration to Mary nothing else but “a perfect renewal of the vows of holy Baptism,” by which a soul renounces sin and pledges undying fidelity to Christ.
To understand that true devotion to Mary is incompatible with the state of sin, one must remember that true devotion is that interior, permanent, abiding love which lies deep in the heart of every Child of God towards Mary, his Mother. Now, can we conceive of such a love for Mary in a soul that is obstinately an enemy of her divine Son? “How can we truly say that we love and honor our Blessed Lady, when by our sins we are pitilessly piercing, pricking, crucifying and outraging Jesus Christ, her Son?” (TD. No. 98) Compare these words with the following, spoken to Lucia: “My Child, behold my heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.” (3rd App.)
If we now inquire into the nature of sacrifice and penance requested of all, by Our Lady at Fatima, we have the words of Our Lord to Lucia: “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My Law. This is the penance I now seek and require.”
The first necessary step then towards the fulfillment of the demands of Fatima is to relinquish sin and to live in the state of Grace. It is likewise the minimum required for the practice of true devotion to Mary. When “a sufficient number” of souls are practicing this first degree of true devotion to Mary, Our Lady of Fatima’s first request shall have been fulfilled.
Second Request: THE ROSARY
The second “must” in Fatima’s message is a request for the frequent and even daily recitation of the Rosary. “I am, the Lady of the Rosary…People must recite the Rosary.” (6th App.)
For a better appreciation of the part played by the Rosary in Our Lady’s four-point true devotion program it may be well for us to recall a few elementary principles of true devotion to Mary. We have already pointed out that true devotion to Mary is the abiding love and esteem which we beat our heavenly Mother, and that this love and esteem is deeply rooted in Sanctifying Grace.
We may now venture a step further and assert that this Mary – love in a soul must develop and manifest itself through what we generally term: practices of devotion. In turn, these practices of devotion may be either exterior or interior: exterior, if they comprise, in great part at least, an exterior element such as, the singing of hymns in Mary’s honor, bringing flowers to her altars, etc. . .; interior, if chiefly characterized by their interior and spiritual nature such as, meditating on Mary’s virtues, etc. …
Let it be well borne in mind that these practices of devotion are as necessary to the life of true devotion to Mary in a soul as the leaves are to the life of a tree. They are, so to speak, the very lungs through which it breathes and thrives. Thus it is that the rosary devotion, combining as it does both an exterior element (the vocal recitation) and an interior one (the meditation of its mysteries) constitutes in itself a perfect practice of true devotion to Mary. Little wonder then that Our Blessed Lady should have inserted the Rosary as the second item in her four-point true devotion program, at Fatima. Little wonder, too, that St. Louis de Montfort should have written these words which have the authentic ring of Fatima’s message: “I pray you urgently, by the love I bear you in Jesus and Mary”, to say a whole Chaplet or even, if you have time, the whole Rosary, every day. At the moment of your death you will bless the day and hour in which you have followed my advice.” (T.D. No. 254)
The reason for this is obvious: the Rosary constitutes not only a perfect practice of true devotion to Mary, but it establishes a soul in a second degree of true devotion to the Mother of God, thereby leading it closer to the third and highest degree of devotion to Mary which is total consecration to her Immaculate Heart, (Out Lady‘s third request at Fatima).
St. Louis Mary de Montfort gives his reason for this all-too-logical conclusion: “The Hail Mary,” he writes, “is the most beautiful of all prayers, after the Our Father. It is the most perfect compliment which you can make to Mary, because it is the compliment which the Most High sent her by an Archangel, in order to gain her heart; and it was so powerful over her heart by the secret charms of which it is so full, that in spite of her profound humility she gave her consent to the Incarnation of the Word. It is by this compliment also, that you will infallibly gain her heart, if you say it as you ought.” (TD. No. 252)
In reading these last lines one would hardly believe they were written over two centuries before Fatima! Indeed, they lead us to the very heart of Fatima’s third request which is devotion and consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
(To be continued: Part II May Be Found Here)
