Fatima and the Four Last Things
DEATH, JUDGEMENT - HEAVEN OR HELL
Season of Advent A Time for
Repentance & Spiritual Conversion
Advent is given to us by the church to remind us of our need for repentance and for spiritual conversion a perfect time to read and meditate on the 4 last things. Advent is not just to prepare us for the anniversary of the birth of Jesus (Christmas) when God entered the world as man. More importantly Advent is a time for reflection on the coming of the Lord at the end of our lives and his final coming at the end of time! Modern man is frantically running from the reality of his own death. Poor simple man is tempted to believe he is something that he is not before his peers and even before God! Advent is time to stop and take stock of who God is and who we are as we stand before him.
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| Michelangelo's- The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel |
One of the best meditations on Death is the Dies Irae hymn a meditation on the Last Judgment, when Christ will come again in glory, no longer granting mercy, but as the Just Judge who will separate the just from the wicked, casting the latter into eternal fire, and welcoming the former to eternal bliss. The hymn closes with a supplication for mercy before the coming of that terrible day.
The video below is Mozart's Rendition of Dies Irea and it is a powerful piece making one tremble at the coming Judgment. the Day of Wrath. The Gregorian Chant of Dies Irea on the other hand, is more somber and reflective giving one hope in God's Mercy at that final hour of our own death or his second coming. This is chanted during Funeral Masses in the Extraordinary form in the Tridentine Mass! Makes one hope to be buried with that Mass and those prayers to follow you into eternity.
Day of wrath, day that will dissolve the world into burning coals, as David bore witness with the Sibyl. How great a tremor is to be, when the judge is to come briskly shattering every grave. A trumpet sounding an astonishing sound through the tombs of the region drives all men before the throne. Death will be stunned and so will Nature, when arises man the creature responding to the One judging. The written book will be brought forth, in which the record of evidence is contained whence the world is to be judged. Therefore when the Judge shall sit, whatever lay hidden will appear; nothing unavenged will remain.
O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity, join us with the Blessed. What am I the wretch then to say? what patron I to beseech? when scarcely the just man be secure. King of tremendous Majesty, who saves those-to-be-saved free, save me, Fount of piety.
Remember, faithful Jesus, because I am the cause of your journey: do not lose me on that day.
Thou has sat down as one wearied seeking me, Thou has redeemed me having suffered the Cross: so much labor let it not be lost. Just judge of the avenging-punishment, work the gift of the remission of sins before the Day of the Reckoning. I groan, as the accused: my face grows red from my fault: spare this supplicant, O God.O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity, join us with the Blessed.Thou who forgave Mary the sinful woman, and favorably heard the good thief, hast also given me hope. My prayers are not worthy, but do Thou, Good God, deal kindly lest I burn in perennial fire.
Among the sheep offer me a place and from the goats sequester me, placing me at Thy right hand. After the accursed have been silenced, given up to the bitter flames, call me with the blest. Kneeling and bowed down I pray, My heart contrite as ashes: Do Thou care for my end
That sorrowful day, on which will arise from the burning coals Man accused to be judged therefore, O God, do Thou spare him. Faithful Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen. O Thou, God of Majesty, nourishing brilliance of the Trinity, join us with the Blessed. Amen
The Message of Fatima & the 4 last things
A Catechesis of Faith & Reaffirmation of Gospel
Our LAdy of Fatima did not ask the permission of the parents of Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia before showing them the vision of hell. Remember that Jacinta was barely six years old! This reminds us that children do not belong to their parents they are only entrusted to them by God. God expects parents to instruct and form them in His ways; to know love and serve Him so that they will have the opportunity to be happy with Him forever in Heaven! Thus the outrage of abortion. Destroying God's creation in your child that was given to you in order to reflect His image in the world.
The reality of Hell should be taught to children using the same methods our Lady used at Fatima the Model Catechist. Appealing to their generous hearts by teaching them to help save others from going there. Having this knowledge they will be able tomake the right choices to save themselves from going there as well. Our Lady in showing young children a vision of Hell lead us to understand that children can also go there! Children can and do commit grave sins, even murder. They have the natural law impressed on their souls so they know right from wrong. However, we should never under estimate a childs capacity to do good and for self sacrifice. Our Lady at Fatima also showed us how great the heart of a child can become when properly formed! Even to heights of heroic sanctity.
A Vision of Hell
The Ultimate Justice of God
For Unrepentant Sinners
The children saw countless numbers of people who were endlessly falling into the fiery flames. Our Lady sadly looked upon them as she said "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.” And then she told them the secrets of Fatima that are connected with this vision. Material for another post someday.
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| The Vision of Hell |
In the third apparition of July the children were given a vision of hell the ultimate Justice of God for unrepentant sinners. Our Lady pointed to the earth and the light from her hands the light from her hands penetrated the earth and opened the ground so that the children could peer into the depths and could see hell. Lucia describes it for us: "As our Lady spoke she opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were an ocean of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished (from the souls of the damned) by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.This vision lasted only a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother who, at the first apparition, had promised to take us to Heaven. Without this promise, I think we would have died of fright.
The reality eternity was already impressed on this young mind and the possibility of some souls spending an eternity in hell! This thought impressed Jacinta the most. She often called Lucia and Francisco she would ask: "Are you praying with me? It is necessary to pray much to save souls from hell! How sorry I am for sinners who go there and burn forever like wood in a fire! If I could only show them hell so they would not go there!" Even after she was taken sick, she would get out of bed to bow her head to the floor, and pray as the Angel had taught for the glory of God, and in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended in the tabernacles throughout the world and for the conversion of poor sinners.
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| Photo taken after the Vision of Hell note the anxious expressions |
Many years later Lucia said she believed that most people go to Hell because of sins of the flesh. If souls can be condemned to hell because of one unrepentant mortal sin for all eternity is it not to be understood that other souls could be detained for long years in purgatory who have committed countless deliberate venial sins for which they have had little sorrow and had done little or no penance. The guilt that has been remitted by absolution, but the temporal punishment will have to be paid in purgatory.
Modern Man is Frantically
Running From The Ultimate
Reality of His Own Death.
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| Hieronymus Bosch “Death of a sinner”, angel and devil weigh a mans soul |
Today we are so busy, so frantically busy trying to control our own personal destiny and good fortune and in the process we unwittingly make today's technological advances our God. In extreme cases the computer screen has become his tabernacle and window into solving his thirst for knowledge. Knowledge for finite things because that is all the computer can give us. We are deceived into believing from all the information available to us up to the computer. All the images (visions) that can be brought before him, from the outer reaches of the universe and the depths of the ocean that we can finally solve and ultimately control the mysteries of the universe. The mysteries of life and death without the reality of God! A deception of the devil for this time the ultimate deception the ultimate lie! Poor simple man is tempted to believe he is something that he is not before his peers and even before God!
Someday God Will Send
A Strong Delusion
I feel it is here in our day!
I wonder if the scriptures of 2Thessalonians2:9-12 is in the beginnings if not already being actualized! 9The coming of the lawless one with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We are spending more and more time involved in this technology to do what we think are great things! What was supposed to save time for human relationships has become a time consumer. Often we no longer have time for true prayer. A prayer that enables an openness of soul to God a readiness and receptivity in order to be always praying, (Luke 18:1) and always listening to hear his voice when he whispers to our souls in the silence. We have lost this form of prayer because there is no longer silence for modern man our ears are plugged into something all day!
Another victory of the devil that technology has brought us! We can no longer hear the voice of conscience with all the noise and distractions around us. Without conscience we longer hear the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. I fear if we persist down this slippery slope God will allow us to have faith in whatever it is we put faith in. If we don't turn back to God in prayer, he may (if he has not already) send the strong delusion described in, Thessalonians 2:11. And in other words a time may come that God will not permit the deluded to repent. Hence this little catechesis on the 4 last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell and reality of purgatory as mentioned by the events of Fatima .
The Message of Fatima confirmed
the Reality of Purgatory
God’s Mercy vs. God’s Perfect Justice
Why not say the 5 last things
and include Purgatory?
Purgatory is only temporary end before the final end in Heaven so it is not considered to be one of the last things. However Purgatory is such an important dogma of the church. Incredibly so many Catholics are ignorant of Purgatory so do nothing to avoid it themselves and little or nothing to help the Poor Souls who are there, suffering intensely, as they wait for Masses and prayers to be offered for them. That is why Our Lady brought up the reality of Heaven and Purgatory in her first appearance to the children. Only after strengthening them with the graces given in both the May and June apparitions did the children experience another reality of a place called hell.
The painting below of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, the 'Throne of Mercy' and 'Queen of the Angels', who takes great delight in sending her Angels to release those Souls mercifully pardoned by her Son Jesus through the prayers and supplications of the church!
| Lucia recognized that it was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel wh appeared during the Miracle of the Sun in October because she recognized her as the same image in her parish church. |
During Our Lady's First Visit to Fatima in May Lucia–the oldest of the three, after being reassured by Our Lady that they would all one day go to Heaven. Jacinta and Francisco would go soon and she would go but not right away because it was the will of God that she help promote the devotion to her Immaculate Heart to save poor sinners. Lucia found the courage and asked Our Lady about two of her friends who recently died: "Is Maria das Neves is in Heaven?" "Yes" answered Our Lady, "she is in Heaven." She also asked about another friend, Amelia. Our Lady answered: "She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world."
Amelia's Fate is a
Warning for All of Us!
Amelia was eighteen years old when she died. She is in Purgatory and will, on the testimony of Our Blessed Mother, stay there until the end of time. Let us take to heart and make certain that her fate will not be our own. What could she have done to merit such purgation in those days and what about us and the sins committed in our era?
Why such a lengthy expiation?
The malice of sin is great. What we think are small faults are in reality serious offenses against the infinite goodness of God. Look how the saints wept over their smallest faults. We are weak we say and it is true but God is always there for us offering us graces to strengthen us and giving us lights to see the gravity of our sins. We do not use the lights and graces he so generously offers us, and we do not receive the sacraments as we should.
The saints committed few and slight sins they sorrowed much over them and did severe penances. We commit many and grave sins and we sorrow little and do little or no penance. For the majority of us who do make the positive decision to serve God and are not yet properly prepared (humble enough) to enter Heaven, the only choice is to make the transition to goodness in Purgatory. Our Lord tells us that we shall have to render an account for each and every idle word we say (Matthew12:36 ) and that we may not leave our prison until we shall have paid the last farthing. (Matthew 5:26).
All Venial Sins
Must also be Atoned for!
All sins mortal and venial accumulated for 20, 40, or 60 years of life. Each one has to be atoned for after death. Is it a wonder that souls have to remain so long in purgatory? It cannot be calculated the immense number of venial sins we commit on a daily basis. Faults of self love, selfishness; in thoughts words and deeds. Acts of sensuality, faults of charity; laziness, vanity, jealousy, tepidity. Then the sins of omission that we give no credence too. Do we ever thank God as we should for all his blessings given to us? He waits for our visits day and night in the tabernacle; do we go? He dies for us every morning at Mass and gives innumerable graces to those who participate longing to come into our hearts in Holy Communion. We are too lazy to attend this Calvary . We have luxurious homes, food, clothing while many in the world live in hunger and misery. Life is given to serve God and save our souls but we are satisfied if we give God five minutes of prayer in the morning and evening and the rest of the 24 hour day is given to work, rest and pleasures.
And Mortal Sins?
Unfortunately, Most of us have committed mortal sins in our lives and if we confess them we do not make satisfaction for them. Do we return what we have stolen or make charitable contributions to the poor if we cannot. Did we restore the good name of the other who we maligned with our slander or calumny? The tongue can murder another as well as a gun or knife and change the direction of the life of someone for good or ill! St. Gertrude in her revelations indicated that those who have committed many grave sins and have not done due penance, may not share in the ordinary suffrage's of the church for a very considerable time! The venerable Bede also indicated that the justice of God may demand that those who pass a great part of their lives in repeated and unrepentant mortal sins and confess them on their death bed, may be detained in purgatory until even the last day.
We would do well to remember that the best means of lessening our term in Purgatory -- or of avoiding it altogether -- is to have clear ideas of it, to think well and often on it and to adopt the means God offers for avoiding it. Not to think of it is FATAL. It is nothing else than preparing for ourselves a long and rigorous Purgatory!
The servant of God Fr. John Anthony Hardon, S.J. said many times: “Only the very chaste and very humble shall enter Heaven; No one else! No one else! No one else!”
Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart
Make Our Hearts Like Unto Thine!
and Purgatory in 1657
Montserrat - the site of a Marian shrine - is a Benedictine monastery with nearly 1000 years of history. The shrine is set on the ledge of the mountains where a Basilica and Benedictine monastery are also built. The Basilica was constructed in the neo-Gothic and Renaissance style and was consecrated in 1592, 100 years after the discovery of America. According to legend, the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat was discovered by young shepherds who had been attracted by lights that came from a cave where the statute was hidden. Our Lady of Montserrat is the Patroness of Catalonia, and because of the color of her skin, she is known as "La Moreneta" ("The Little Black Madonna").
The Most Reverend Father Bernardo de Ontevieros, General of the Benedictine Order in Spain, along with the Abbot Father Millán de Mirando, were present at the monstery of Our Lady of Montserrat to take part in several conferences when a woman with her young daughter came to the monastery, and the little girl began to implore Abbot Millán to celebrate three Masses in memory of her deceased father, deeply convinced that by the merits of these Masses, the soul of her father would be freed from the pains of Purgatory. The good Abbot, moved by the tears of the young girl, began to celebrate the first of these Masses for the dead on the following day, and the little girl, who was present at the Mass with her mother, during the consecration began to declare that she saw her father kneeling at the foot of the main altar, surrounded by dreadful flames. The Father General, who was skeptical, wishing to determine whether the little girl’s account was true, told her to bring a handkerchief close to the flames that surrounded her father. The little girl, following his directive, placed the handkerchief in that mysterious fire which only she was able to see, and at once all the monks saw the handkerchief catch fire with a living flame. .....Read More
Further Meditations on the Four Last things
Divine Providence brought a little booklet titled READ ME or RUE IT by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P. The cover promised that the pamphlet would be a Revelation for many who would read it and it was for me. I paraphrased portions from this booklet within this post. I also want to mention the Classic Meditations on the Four Last things: DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C. whose quote is one of the titles of this post and will be an valuable source for further meditations. Links for both booklets can be found at the end of this post.
READ ME or RUE IT by Fr. Paul O'Sullivn,O.P.
DEATH, JUDGMENT, HELL and HEAVEN by Fr. Martin Von Cochem O.S.F.C.
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