Making Prayer Sincere: A Reflection on Esther 4c:12



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“Then she prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘My Lord, our King, you alone are God. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you for I am taking my life in my hand.” (Esther 4C:12)

 

God’s Word has power! Jonah converted the entire pagan city of Nineveh with what are in Hebrew, seven words, “Forty days more, and the Lord shall destroy Nineveh.” With seven words, Jonah changes the course of Nineveh’s history, and changes the relationship between its people and God.

 

Interesting, not with seven words, but in seven days, the Lord creates the universe, so giving us all a history and a relationship with him.

 

And from the cross, Jesus makes seven statements, speaks seven words that gave us a new relationship to God;

 

“Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

 

“Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.”

 

“I thirst.”

 

“Amen I say to you, this day you will be with me in paradise.”

 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

 

“It is consummated.”

 

“Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.”

 

When Queen Esther prayed to God, she was not able to see the power of God directly, but we see the power of her words, in the form of prayer.

 

Esther and her people, the Jews, are about to be exterminated by order of the King’s royal Vizier, Haman. Esther is the queen by marriage, although the King is unaware that she is also Jewish, so she is the only one that can stop this order. But if the King learns that she’s Jewish, he may order her execution as well.

 

Whose side will the King take; hers, or Haman’s? She doesn’t know.

 

And so after fasting for three days, Esther prays these words, “Help me, who am alone and have no help but you.” And the Lord does indeed answer her for the King takes Esther’s side. Then the King orders Haman to be hung on the very gallows he had erected for executing Esther’s uncle, Mordecai.

 

But what I used to ask myself about this story, and what you may be wondering yourself is, yeah, yeah, God answers prayers, but why does God sometimes wait until the last desperate minute to answer those prayer?

 

And the answer is, because very often, that’s when our prayers get really passionate, and really sincere.

 

Very often the only time when we get down on our knees, really down on our knees, spiritually down on our knees, is when we’re too weak and worn out to stand anymore.

 

Now this is not the ideal circumstance to pray under, but hey, from God’s perspective; whatever works.

 

God doesn’t will evil things to happen in our lives.

 

God doesn’t want us to go through life sad, or frightened.

 

But God can use those times to draw us closer to him.

 

Haven’t you ever had one of those times in your life when you promised God anything, as long as he’d help you out of a present turmoil? I think we’ve all done that at sometime in our lives. When you think about it; that was probably the most honest, sincere, prayer we’ve ever offered.

 

In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to ask, seek, and knock.

 

Ask what? Ask the Lord anything and everything, because the Lord is a generous giver. The problem is we ONLY want to ask. We only want our needs met. There’s more to it than that. We have to seek.

 

Seek what? We have to seek to be good children of God. Jesus goes onto say, ‘If you sinners know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give to you?’

 

But do parents give things to their children when they’re good, or when they’re being brats? God is Father to a lot of brats, because we ONLY ask. We’re not seeking. We’re not seeking to be good children by seeking to be good brothers and sisters to our neighbors on earth.

 

And finally knock. At what? Knock at the doors of heaven to explore the Divine mysteries. That means Scripture reading, meditation, sacraments. In other words, embracing a spiritual lifestyle, because it’s in spirituality that we grow in our relationship with God. Think about it.

 

Parents love giving to their children, but what parent simply wants to be used by their children? No one. God, like any parent, wants a relationship.

 

Brothers and sisters, yes we must make time to pray, but we also have to work at making our prayers sincere, so God can bless us with every good thing.

 

And blessed be God forever.

Father Michael Anthony Sisco, Visitor to the Confraternity of Penitents

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Taken from: http://www.penitents.org/siscoEsther4.htm

Koran Has Mistakenly Shifted Haman to Era of Moses

Biblical Haman » Qur’ānic Hāmān: A Case Of Straightforward Literary Transition?

ʿAbdullah David and M S M Saifullah

© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.

 

First Composed: 20th November 2000

Last Updated: 8th January 2012

Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

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1. Introduction

Pharaoh said: "O Haman! Build me a lofty palace, that I may attain the ways and means- The ways and means of (reaching) the heavens, and that I may mount up to the god of Moses: But as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!" [Qur'an 40:36-37]

Controversy has prevailed since the European ‘Renaissance’ regarding the historicity of a certain Haman, who according to the Qur’an, was associated with the court of Pharaoh to whom Moses was sent as a Prophet by God. Haman is mentioned by name six times in the Qur’an and is referred to as an intimate person belonging to the close circle of Pharaoh, one who was engaged in construction projects. Western scholars have concluded that Haman is unknown to ancient Egyptian history. They say that the name Haman is first mentioned in the biblical Book of Esther, around 1,000 years after Pharaoh. The name is said to be Babylonian, not Egyptian. According to the Book of Esther, Haman was a counsellor of Ahasuerus (the biblical name of Xerxes) who was an enemy of the Jews. It has been suggested that Prophet Muhammad mixed biblical stories, namely the Jewish myths of the Tower of Babel and the story of Esther and Moses into a single confused account when composing the Qur’an.

We propose to examine the various aspects of this controversy, primarily grounded in a source-critical analysis along with a literary comparison, in light of modern historical and archaeological research.

2. Hāmān According To The Qur’an: A Brief Character Analysis

Haman is mentioned by name in six verses of the Qur’an.^[1] From these six verses we can deduce Haman is one of the characters depicted in the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh, indicating it is this part of the story where the context of Haman can be properly established. Other characters that form part of this narrative are Hārūn (Prophet, supporter of Moses) and Qarūn. Three other characters, al-Samiri, the unidentified servant and the servant of God, do not play a role in the confrontation though they are part of the larger Moses narrative. One of the most vividly described and oft-repeated head-to-head confrontations in the Qur’an, this story can be found dispersed throughout many sūrahs. Based primarily on the principal continuous text portions we can indeed discover the Qur’anic Haman, and reach a more useful assessment of his character than simply listing the verses containing his name.
 

CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MOSES AND PHARAOH

The confrontation between Moses and the Pharaoh is one of the most vividly described stories in the Qur’an, mentioned with details in fifteen sūrahs.^[2] This part of the story begins when God sends Moses to Pharaoh with miraculous signs. After showing Pharaoh his miraculous signs, Pharaoh’s inner circle of leaders become fearful, with Pharaoh accusing Moses of being a learned sorcerer trying to expel him from Egypt by using magic. Consequently, the Pharaoh sets a challenge between Moses and his best magicians to see whose signs are really superior; this event is given added significance as it is to take place on the renowned ‘Day of Celebration’. When the contest takes place and Moses prevails, Pharaoh’s magicians fall prostrate and openly declare their belief in the God of Moses. Pharaoh refused to accept the result of the contest and instead threatens severe punishment to anyone who believes in Moses and his God. Frustrated by Moses’ success and the wavering of his own people, Pharaoh instructs Haman to construct for him a lofty tower so that he can survey the God of Moses, though he is convinced Moses is lying. Thus we can observe it is at this stage of the confrontation that Haman assumes a clearly defined role. Likewise, it is at this point in the story we reach the climax of Pharaoh’s haughtiness and arrogance, who after been given a physical demonstration of miraculous signs and personal reminders from Moses, thinks he is able to survey God as a God. Eventually Pharaoh tried to kill Moses and his followers but instead was drowned as a punishment from God and his body preserved as a sign for future generations.

The main characters in the story are undoubtedly Moses and Pharaoh, protagonist and antagonist, respectively. Though Haman is portrayed as a minor character whose authority and power are clearly secondary to Pharaoh’s, his importance as part of Pharaoh’s court should not be underestimated. Indirectly, Haman’s seniority as part of Pharaoh’s court is mentioned in the story when Moses was sent to Pharaoh and his chiefs with signs but they were rejected [Qur’an 7:103]. Although not mentioned by name in this verse, it is clear that Haman must be considered part of this group and he is one of Pharaoh’s leading supporters. Only snippets of information are given regarding Haman, so one cannot indulge in an all-encompassing discussion regarding his personality, character traits, etc., though what we do learn about him is not unimportant. Haman is given commands and carries them out dutifully. He is put in charge of a very important construction project, indicating he possessed seniority and skill necessary to see the task through to completion, although we are not told anything more about the construction of the tower or if it was even built. He holds a senior enough position to be mentioned along with Pharaoh repeatedly. He was also an accuser, calling Moses a sorcerer and a liar. Haman is portrayed as a highly unethical character; motivated by his hatred towards the believers, and, along with Pharaoh and Qarūn, he initiated the slaying of the sons of the believers sparing only their women. Haman’s character is unchanging; he does not acquire any new attributes and is described as a wrongdoer, arrogant and one who commits sins. Haman died perhaps around the same time as the Pharaoh as a punishment from God for his unbelief and tyranny.

3. Criticism And Caution By Western Scholars

Prominent Orientalists have struggled to properly situate the Haman of the Qur’an, and have thus questioned his historicity. They have suggested that the appearance of Haman in the Qur’anic story of Moses and Pharaoh has resulted from a misreading of the Bible, leading the author of the Qur’an to move Haman from the Persian court of King Ahasuerus to the Egyptian court of Pharaoh. The most detailed attempt to draw a genetic connection between the Haman of the Qur’an and the Haman of the Bible has been made by Adam Silverstein,^[3] a Fellow of Queens College and University Research Lecturer at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Silverstein’s attempt to show Haman transitioning from the Bible to the Qur’an is probably the most detailed investigation so far of any character in the Qur’an in relation to its supposed dependence and subsequent transition from its corresponding biblical counterpart. For this reason alone, Silverstein’s article deserves special attention and interaction for the valuable insights it provides.

Modern scholars identify Father Ludovico Marraccio, an Italian monk from Lucca and Confessor to Pope Innocent XI, as the first scholar to make a chronological differentiation between the Haman of the Qur’an and the Haman of the Bible.^[4] There is, however, an earlier occurrence that is worthwhile mentioning in that it helps to properly situate the argument, tracing its trajectory from the outset. Some 250 years earlier in Spain around 1450 CE, Pedro de la Cavalleria, a distinguished jurist and apparently a crypto-convert to Christianity from Judaism, finished composing a work entitled Christ’s Zeal against Jews, Saracens, and Infidels. Subsequently Cavalleria was killed in 1461 CE during a period of civil unrest.^[5] His work remained largely unknown until it saw publication in Venice in 1592, edited with a fully annotated commentary by the Spanish scholar Martino Alfonso Vivaldo, based at the theological faculty, University of Bologna. Believing Muhammad to have made a glaring mistake in chronology, Cavalleria said,

This madman makes Haman to be contemporary with Pharaoh, surat. XXXIX. which how falsely and ignorantly it is said, all who understand the Holy Scriptures can declare; and he and his Followers, like Beasts, must be silent.^[6]

Vivaldo briefly comments on Cavalleria’s statement by pointing out that Haman’s appearance in the Bible is linked with the historical period associated with the Book of Esther.^[7] From this point onward, the vast majority of criticism has centred on the chronological disparity between both accounts. Moving forward, let us now look at a representative sample of critical comments from Western scholars.

One of the next writers to enter the list of critics was Marraccio. Published at the end of the 17th century as part of his monumental Latin translation of the Qur’an, he said:

Mahumet has mixed up sacred stories. He took Haman as the adviser of Pharaoh whereas in reality he was an adviser of Ahaseures, King of Persia. He also thought that the Pharaoh ordered construction for him of a lofty tower from the story of the Tower of Babel. It is certain that in the Sacred Scriptures there is no such story of the Pharaoh. Be that as it may, he [Mahumet] has related a most incredible story.^[8]

George Sale in his translation of the Qur’an said:

This name is given to Pharaoh's Chief Minister, from which it is generally inferred that Muhammad has here made Haman, the favourite of Ahasueres, King of Persia, and who indisputably lived many ages after Moses, to be that Prophet's contemporary. But how-probable-so-ever this mistake may seem to us, it will be hard, if not impossible to convince a Muhammadan of it.^[9]

In what has been hailed as a “classic” article by Theodor Nöldeke that was published in the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1891 CE and reprinted several times since, he says:

The most ignorant Jew could never have mistaken Haman (the minister of Ahasuerus) for the minister of the Pharaoh...^[10]

Nöldeke’s statement is very telling and we will return to it later in our conclusion. While dealing with the “wonderful anachronisms about the old Israelite history” in the Qur’an, Mingana says:

Who then will not be astonished to learn that in the Koran... Haman is given as a minister of Pharaoh, instead of Ahaseurus?^[11]

On the mention of Haman in the Qur’an, Henri Lammens states that it is:

"the most glaring anachronism" and is the result of "the confusion between... Haman, minister of King Ahasuerus and the minister of Moses' Pharaoh."^[12]

Similar views were also echoed by Josef Horovitz.^[13] Charles Torrey believed that Muhammad drew upon the rabbinic legends of the biblical Book of Esther and even adapted the story of the Tower of Babel.^[14] After talking about the apparent ‘confusion’ generated by this cobbling together of multiple sources, Arthur Jeffery says about the origin of the word ‘Haman’:

The probabilities are that the word came to the Arabs from Jewish sources.^[15]

The Encyclopaedia Of Islam, under "Haman" says:

Haman, name of the person whom the Kur'an associates with Pharaoh, because of a still unexplained confusion with the minister of Ahasuerus in the Biblical book of Esther.^[16]

This claim has been repeated again by the Encyclopaedia Of Islam under "Firʿawn". It says:

As Pharaoh's counsellor there appears a certain Haman who is responsible in particular for building a tower which will enable Pharaoh to reach the God of Moses... the narrative in Exodus is thus modified in two respects, by misplaced recollection of both the book of Esther and the story of the tower of Babel (Genesis, xi) to which no other reference occurs in the Kur'an.^[17]

Consequently, it is not surprising to find Christian apologists, missionaries^[18] and other polemicists such as Ibn Warraq^[19] exploiting these comments in order to ‘prove’ that the Qur’an contains serious contradictions, being one of the most ‘celebrated’ amongst the Christian missionaries on the internet. Have such criticisms permeated the discussion from the outset? Interestingly, beginning around the turn of the 18th century, some Western scholars were already advising caution.
 

AN ARGUMENT OF STRAW

Do two people having the same name in different historical periods necessitate a relationship? For the first time, towards the end of the 17th century and the beginning the 18th century, a few Western scholars began to recognise the myths and misconceptions propagated by their academic fellows concerning Islamic beliefs and practices did not stand up to scrutiny under examination, and realised that one needed to come to terms with Islam as a religion in its own right. The first scholar in Europe attempting to do so in a systematic fashion was Adriaan Reland, who from 1701 onwards was Professor of Oriental languages in the University of Utrecht. Known as his most famous work, the second part of De Religione Mohammedica Libri Duo responded to forty-one ‘common misconceptions’ held by his contemporaries and those who preceded him.^[20] Section 21 is titled, ‘Concerning Haman that was contemporary with Pharaoh’. We will quote the relevant analysis of Reland so we can properly appreciate the jist of his argument, which, in its basic outline, remains the same today. He said,

I confess, we may believe, if we please, that Mahomet thought Haman (of whom we read in the book of Esther) liv’d in the time of Pharaoh. But we are under no necessity to believe this, unless from the sole Opinion we have of Mahomet’s gross ignorance. Much less can we demonstrate that Mahomet, when he makes Haman and Pharaoh Contemporary, meant the Haman in our Bible. How just, I beseech you, is that Consequence, and how fit to repel the Turks! Because Mahomet speaks of Haman, cap. 29. Therefore he speaks of that Haman whom our Bible mentions. Who does not see this is an Argument of Straw?^[21]

One should be careful not to romanticise Reland’s approach. His outlook was quite simple and admirable in terms of the forthright fashion this accomplished scholar set out his overall intention. Such openness as the kind practised by Reland is rarely glimpsed in present-day academia with all its modern pressures. Instead of fighting a set of misconceptions, Reland believed it was only by understanding Islam on its own terms that Christianity could triumph. Finishing off Section 21 he says, “But what I have said is sufficient for my purpose; and is only intended to make our Writers more wary, that the Authority of the Alcoran may be beat down only with valid Reasonings, and the Truth of Christianity may triumph.”^[22] Despite these theological concerns, Reland is at least successful in highlighting the potential pitfalls in viewing Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad exclusively through the prism of earlier biblical tradition. Breaking with the trend of seeing Haman as simply misappropriated from its biblical context, the Encyclopaedia Of The Qur'an makes an intriguing suggestion about the possible identity of Haman,

There are conflicting views as to Haman's identity and the meaning of his name. Among them is that he is the minister of King Ahasuerus who has been shifted, anachronistically, from the Persian empire to the palace of Pharaoh... Other suggestion is that Haman is an Arabized echo of the Egyptian Ha-Amen, the title of a high priest second only in rank to Pharaoh.^[23]

Unfortunately no evidence is offered for this suggestion and one is instead directed to the bibliography in a search for answers. Let us first examine the authenticity and historical reliability of the biblical Book of Esther from where Muhammad supposedly appropriated the character of Haman.

4. A Critical Examination Of The Biblical Evidence Used Against The Qur’an

Weighing up the statements given in the previous section from Christian and Jewish scholars, to other less well-known categories of critics such as Christian missionaries, apologists and polemicists, with contributions ranging in type, from scholarly monographs to detailed encyclopaedia entries, their criticisms can be encapsulated on the basis of the following three assumptions:

1. Because the Bible has been in existence longer than the Qur’an, the biblical account is the correct one, as opposed to the Qur’anic account, which is necessarily inaccurate and false.
2. The Bible is in conformity with firmly established secular knowledge, whereas the Qur’an contains certain incompatibilities.
3. Muhammad copied and in some cases altered the biblical material when composing the Qur’an.

It goes without saying those writers who ground their objections in some or all of the assumptions stated above, the whole basis for the Haman controversy is the appearance of a Haman in the Qur’an in a historical period different from that of the Bible. The claim that the Qur’anic account of Haman reflects confused knowledge of the biblical story of Esther implies that any reference to a Haman must have biblical precursors. Furthermore, this assumption itself implies that either Haman is an unhistorical figure that never existed outside the Bible, or that if he was historical, then he could only have been the Prime Minister of the Persian King Ahasuerus, as depicted in the Book of Esther. Unsurprisingly, their assumptions obviously preclude the possibility that the Bible has its information wrong concerning Haman. Thus, only if the Book of Esther can be shown to be both historically reliable and accurate, can those writers be justified in making the claim the Qur’an contradicts the earlier, more “reliable” historical biblical account.

It will come as a welcome surprise to many that not everyone who has written about this topic predicates their arguments on some or all of the assumptions stated above.^[24] Nevertheless, as these assumptions continue to permeate the academic discussion regarding this particular topic, it seems justified for one to examine just how much substance should be attached to the biblical evidence, grounded first and foremost in an enquiry into the historicity of the Book of Esther.

 

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Taken from: http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Contrad/External/haman.html

Queen Esther's Triumph Foreshadows Triumph of Immaculate Heart of Mary

In the End My Immaculate Heart will Triumph

Mother Adela, SCTJM

Foundress

For private use only -©

When we speak of a triumph we are also referring to a battle. Triumph signifies the winning of a battle.

The Blessed Virgin in Fatima speaks about the battle we are facing in these times, which includes the general loss of faith, the loss of many souls, wars, and destruction. But the worst war is the loss of faith, as Our Lord says: “Do not fear those who can kill the body, but rather those who can kill the soul” (cf. Matt 10:28). The worst death is that of a soul who loses faith – a soul far from God, far from His love and commandments, drowning in a life of sin, running the risk of eternal condemnation, or rather, eternal death.

This great battle we are waging today, which the Holy Father John Paul II calls the “culture of death,” not only includes the destruction of human life, but also the destruction of the soul. The Virgin Mary offers us Her Heart as a sure refuge, while showing us how in these particular times God has desired for the triumph to come through Her: “Tell all the world that great graces come through the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and “that God has entrusted to the Immaculate Heart the peace and conversion of the world!” (Words of the Virgin Mary in Fatima to Jacinta). When Lucia asked Jesus why the conversion of Russia would be the fruit of its Consecration to the Immaculate Heart, Our Lord responded, “Because I want it to be seen clearly that the triumph is of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in this way I will spread knowledge and devotion to the Immaculate Heart along with devotion to My Sacred Heart.”

Why the Blessed Virgin’s battle against evil?

From the beginning of the Sacred Scriptures (Genesis 3) until the end (Revelation 12) the Blessed Virgin is revealed as being in enmity and in battle against Satan, his seductions, and his works.

Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” Revelation 12: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…Then another sign appeared in the sky: a huge red dragon…ready to devour her child when she gave birth….and the woman fled into the desert…the dragon pursued the woman, but the woman was given two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert…Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus” (v. 1-17).

Since the rebellion of Lucifer, the Blessed Virgin plays a most important role in this spiritual battle. When God created Lucifer (the morning star - bearer of light) he created a magnificent creature who participated in his freedom and power. When Lucifer and his angels rebelled, claiming “we will not serve,” it was precisely in response to the announcement of the future event of the Incarnation: God would be made man, born of a woman, by the power of the Holy Spirit. God revealed His plan for the salvation of man from sin. The angels would have to serve God-made-man, His mother and all the redeemed. This he considered a humiliation, and along with his followers, he rebelled, and they were subsequently banished from heaven. Satan, from that moment on, made himself the bearer of darkness, rebellion, lies, pride and arrogance. He became (forever) the enemy of God, the enemy of the woman who brought to the world God-made-man, and the enemy of all Christ’s followers of whom She is spiritual Mother: Her offspring.

“In the salvific design of the Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of the Incarnation constitutes the superabundant fulfillment of the promise made by God to man after original sin, after that first sin whose effects oppress the whole earthly history of man (cf. Gen. 3:15). And so, there comes into the world a Son, ‘the seed of the woman’ who will crush the evil of sin in its very origins…the victory of the woman's Son will not take place without a hard struggle, a struggle that is to extend through the whole of human history. The ‘enmity,’ foretold at the beginning, is confirmed in the Apocalypse (the book of the final events of the Church and the world)… Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very center of that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the history of humanity on earth and the history of salvation itself… In this history Mary remains a sign of sure hope” (John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 11).

The Blessed Virgin is the response of God to Lucifer. She is the new morning star who brings us the true light; the bearer of salvation; the bearer of the incarnate Word; the new Ark of the Covenant. She is the great sign that appeared in the sky clothed with the sun – shining with the light of Christ, with the moon under Her feet (the moon symbolizing time).

As a mother and queen She has authority over time. Although She lived in time, She is above the vicissitudes of time and is not limited by its condition, but rather has the God-given power to be victorious in the battles we are waging in these particular times and in each particular time. She is crowned as a participant in the true power of Her Son. She is queen of heaven and earth with twelve stars, which symbolize the triumph of the Church in Mary.

Mary’s response, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38) is the perfect response to Lucifer’s cry of, “I will not serve.” Mary’s response to Elizabeth (Lk 1:46-55) – praise, humility, service and mercy – directly opposes that of Satan, who is proud, egotistical, filled with hatred and accusations, and seeks his own glory and autonomy.

In Mary’s perfect cooperation with the salvific plan of God, from the Annunciation unto the Cross, She with Her “fiat,” participates in the “crushing of Satan’s head.” Christ and the heel – which are Mary’s spiritual children, Her descendents – crush the head of the serpent, that is, the root of sin: pride.

The root of the battle is sin. Mary, by being created Immaculate and in virtue of Her Son’s future redemption, has power over the devil and triumphs over his destructive works. She, as Immaculate, was free from original sin and personal sin. Satan never had power over Her – neither over Her mind, Her heart, or of Her actions. Therefore, Our Lady calls us with urgency to an authentic conversion – to renounce sin, indifference, lack of faith, and the rebellion found in men of today. She, like a good mother in this decisive hour, always battles for humanity – this hour in which the eternal salvation of so many, many souls, including our own, is at stake.

Are not all the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin direct interventions of Our Mother, at any given moment, to prevent and protect the Church and humanity from the dangers and tragic consequences caused by lack of conversion? Are not the apparitions of the Virgin a shield against the works and deceptions of the devil, and are they not renewing our faith and prayer? Like a good Mother, She always places Herself in defense of Her children, between the devil and man, to counteract the dark and sinful effects of Satan’s diabolical actions.

Throughout the history of the Church, we have seen these obvious interventions and interferences of the Blessed Virgin Mary, battling and triumphing against the devil in defense of Her children; but never has Her coming to intervene been as in these last centuries. This is understood in light of what St. Louis de Montfort said: as time goes on the battle will intensify. Therefore, Her presence will also be more clearly manifested.

According to St. Louis Marie de Montfort, “God has made an irreconcilable enmity that will last and grow until the end of the world and it is between Mary, his Blessed Mother and the devil. It is between the children and servants of the Virgin and the children and subjects of Lucifer. In fact, the greatest enemy of Satan that God has raised up is Mary, his Blessed Mother, to whom he gave since the beginning of earthly paradise, even though at this point She existed only as a thought in his mind; to whom He gave so much abhorrence to this enemy of God, so much capacity to unmask the evil of this ancient serpent, so much strength to overcome, battle and crush this arrogant monster, who fears her more then all angels and all men, and in a way, even more than God himself” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, no.52).

The greatest enemy God has raised against Satan is Mary. Why?

First, because Satan, who is so proud, suffers infinitely more at seeing himself defeated and punished by a simple and humble servant of God, and the humility of Mary humbles him more than divine power (ibid.).

Second, because God has granted to Mary great power against demons (seen in exorcisms and in Marian works). This power is a fruit of Her Immaculate Conception – the enemy was never able to make Her participate in the kingdom of darkness and rebelliousness (ibid.).

Third, what Lucifer lost because of pride, Mary gains with Her humility. What Eve lost through Her disobedience, Mary gains with Her obedience. Eve’s obedience to the serpent led to Her perdition and that of all Her children; Mary, by remaining always faithful to God and His will, became the greatest channel of salvation – for Herself and for all Her children (ibid, no.53).

“Mary, until the end of time, will always uncover the evil of the infernal serpent and of his infernal plots; she will make his diabolical counsels vanish and will free his loyal servants from his cruel clutches. The power of Mary over all the demons will shine particularly in the end times, when Satan will strike at her heel, that is to say, on the humble slaves and poor children of Mary, who are called to battle against the gates of hell” (cf. ibid, no.54).

Is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart necessary?

Satan, who is a powerful angel and the prince of this world, has power over societies, nations and events. That power was broken by the death and resurrection of Our Lord and that salvation is made available to us the Church. We have the victory in Christ, but we ourselves must wage this battle and live out this victory continuously in each generation until the end of time. It is precisely in this battle against Satan and his followers by God’s children and the Church that the Virgin Mary comes to our aid today. She is the captain of God’s great army, in order to help us reach the victory that is truly fulfilled in Her heart.

In the apparition of Fatima on July 13, 1917, Mary said, “You saw hell where the souls of poor sinners go; to save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I say, many souls will be saved and you will have peace…There will be wars, hunger, persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To impede this I come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and Eucharistic reparation on First Saturdays. If my desires are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors through all the world, promoting persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated …Suddenly the horizon will darken... Later, a brilliant ray of light and hope will arise…In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

In this message from Fatima, Our Lady wants to awaken our awareness to the fact that we are engaged in a battle that involves nations, societies and kingdoms, and every individual residing in them. “We cannot deny the existence in society of forces capable of great influence which act with a certain hostile spirit towards the Church. All of these things manifest the work of the ‘prince of this world’ and of the ‘mystery of iniquity’ even in our day” (Synod of Bishops, 1985, Final Report, 4).

The key to Satan’s strategy, in our times, has been atheism, corruption of the faith, and the total secularization of humanity. As the Virgin in Fatima announced, Russia has gradually spread her errors, not only at the political level, but more importantly, she has spread her errors on a spiritual level through atheism, materialism and human secularism. These belief systems reduce man to believe only in the realities of the visible world and desire to put man in control of everything with no need for God. Also, the Church, the faith and the Scriptures have been under direct attack from a “religion conformed to the world” (referring not to its technology, but rather its doctrines); from false religious accusations; from false concepts of religion; and from false concepts of Church. Too frequently, “men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator” (Lumen Gentium,16).

We can deduce with clarity that the major battle of these times, which encompasses all that we experience today, is A CRISIS OF FAITH. We have a crisis of faith because we do not believe in God or in His Word. We lack obedience to God who has revealed Himself and has also revealed the Truth. Lack of faith leads to a life whose end is earthly, not celestial and a life that denies supernatural values and realities. In the Apostolic Letter of John Paul II, Tertio Millennio Advenient, we read, “It can not be denied that the spiritual life in many Christians passes through a time of uncertainty which affects not only their moral life but also their life of prayer and the theological correctness of their faith. Faith, already put to the test by the challenges of our times, is sometimes distorted by erroneous theological views, the spread of which is abetted by the crisis of obedience to the Church’s Magisterium” (no.36).

The Holy Father is telling us that our faith is being tested in these times because error has entered all the areas of our lives: spiritual, moral and doctrinal. Due to the crisis of faith, our minds have become darkened and our consciences are confused and disoriented. Sin is no longer called by its name, and it is because of this that we see so much chaos, intellectual pride, rebellion, the seeking of truth outside of God, and the defining of truth in accordance to each one’s personal interpretation and circumstance, i.e. relativism. There also exists a fascination for the occult and New Age movement. All this confusion can even be, at times, observed within religious circles.

Because of this, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart is necessary, for when the Church wages a battle like the one of our times, we are in need of a Mother to come to our aid, to take us to the desert (Rev. 12), hiding us in Her heart, feeding us with Her firm faith, Her disposition to the Word, Her obedience to the revelation of God; forming us with Her maternal mediation, with Her teachings, Her direction and counsels; and protecting us from evil, defending us in the battle for our souls, keeping us closely guarded in Her heart, where the devil can not enter or rob us. “Be not afraid, my Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and your safe path to God” (the Virgin Mary to Lucia).

It is urgently necessary in these times for the Blessed Virgin to have a powerful victory over evil: the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, the triumph of grace over sin, of light over darkness, of truth over error, of holiness over corruption, of peace over war and violence. “The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is necessary for the salvation of humanity, to show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of her womb” (John Paul II: Angelus, July 8, 1984).

John Paul II writes about a statement of Cardinal August Hlond when he [the cardinal] was dying: “‘The victory if it comes will come through Mary.’ After my election as Pope, as I became more involved in the problems of the universal Church, I came to a similar conviction: on this universal level, if victory comes it will be brought by Mary. Christ will conquer through her, because He wants the Church’s victories now and in the future to be linked to her” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p.220).

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart is also the triumph of the Church. The Holy Father has understood and taught that She will bring the new springtime to the Church; then the faith will reappear, the Church will shine, and the heart of Christ will triumph.

In what does this triumph consist of?

It consists of the spiritual re-conquest of the entire world – that is to say, it is the return of our hearts to Her Son so we once again belong to Him. And the sure and perfect way to reach the Heart of Christ is the Immaculate Heart. As our mother, She wants to do all that is possible to return us to the way of Her Son, to take us to Him, to reveal to us the only Lord and Savior. She wants to show us the way we have lost: love, faith, conversion, the sacramental life, moral values, family values, obedience and fidelity to God and His commandments. She is coming to find us because we have lost the way. She is finding the hearts She loves and taking them to the Heart She loves… to the Heart of Her Son and to the Heart of the Church.

“The Immaculate must conquer the whole world and each individual, in order to return them to God. It is for them that we should recognize her for who she is and submit ourselves to her and to her reign, which is all love and tenderness” (St. Maximilian Kolbe).

We should always think of the triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary in terms of the destruction of sin, its structures and its consequences. This belongs precisely to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart because the battle is fought in the hearts of men – men who have become hardened, who have distanced themselves from God and hold on to darkness and sin, the world, the flesh and the devil. She – in whose heart one lives in fullness the Redeemed triumph of Christ – wants to make us participants in this victory, manifesting to each one of us and to all nations, the triumph of Her Heart, the triumph of grace over sin, of love over egoism, of peace over violence, of renewed faith over atheism, of loving devotion over indifference and frailty, of revealed truth over lies, heresies and false religions.

How will this triumph come about? What will be the means?

“The words [of Fatima]…at the end of the century, seem to be close to their fulfillment” (John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p.221).

This triumph will open its way through [various significant] events, and it will be realized in history by our response to the work of Our Mother in these times, to our faithful obedience to Her petitions and directions. It will also come through the sacrifices of the modern day apostles (the sons of Mary, the lovers and adorers of the Eucharist, those faithful to the Pope), who will follow the footsteps of the twelve Apostles after Pentecost; they will have the same spirit of surrender that led to martyrdom for the faith; they will shed their blood if that be God’s merciful design; at the very least they will remain firm in their witness to prayer, sacrifice, love, peace, and truth in this present, difficult hour.

When and how?

We do not know exactly the how and when, but we know the means the Blessed Virgin is giving us to promote and accelerate this triumph. In the same July 13th message, She told us, “To impede the spiritual battle and crisis of faith I come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and for Eucharistic reparation on first Saturdays. If my desires are heeded, Russia will convert and there will be an era of peace.”

1 - Consecration and Reparation

Consecration entails surrendering and entrusting ourselves to the Heart of Our Mother. Allowing us to be formed, molded, guided and taught by Her. It is filling ourselves with Her interior dispositions and participating in Her graces. It is placing ourselves within Her in order to be protected in this arduous battle we wage against the forces of evil.

It is belonging to Our Blessed Mother; it is being claimed as an object and possession of Her, which weakens the power of Satan over us who wants to see us lost, removed from God, and condemned.

We know that the souls who surrender themselves to Her completely and without reserve are able to better comprehend who Our Lord is and the mysteries of God. The Mother of God cannot take us anywhere except to Our Lord, His Church and His Magisterium. The apostles of these times are formed in the Immaculate and Maternal Heart, just like the apostles who were with Blessed Mary in the Cenacle and received the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are to place ourselves at Her service: “We desire to be perfect instruments of the Immaculate and be guided totally by her, in perfect obedience” (St Maximilian Kolbe).

Now more than ever it is important to make Her known and loved and be consecrated to Her. “Jesus wanted to use you as a means to make me known and loved” (the Blessed Virgin to Lucia).

The consecration is not simply a prayer or an act of devotion; it is a commitment and a way of life of obedience, humility, unconditional service, openness to others, meekness, purity and abnegation.

Every act of consecration attracts and actualizes the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. John Paul II’s act of Consecration of the world set the course for the final triumph of the Immaculate Heart that was prophesized in Fatima. When we consecrate ourselves we accept Her as Mother, Teacher and Queen, and we invite Her to exercise the powers granted to Her to fulfill Her maternal mission in us. We can deduce that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart in this century has been woven, little by little, in a series of crucial events in the life of the Church: apparitions, Marian movements, consecrations, John Paul II’s papacy, new congregations, new marian charisms, the fall of Marxist political structures that impeded freedom of faith and religion, the Marian Year, the children of Fatima’s beatification, the renewal of the consecration of the world and the Church in October 2000… and the potent witness and opening of channels of Mercy through John Paul II’s death and the new pontificate of Benedict XVI.

We are witnessing, not only in extraordinary ways, but more often in subtle forms, clear and direct interventions of Our Mother who is renewing the faith that has grown cold and confused, who is calling us to a life of prayer, penance, love and adoration of the Eucharist, and Reparation; calling us to the sacraments; calling us to pray the Holy Rosary; and calling us to fidelity to the faith of the Church.

Together with the consecration comes reparation:

On December 10, 1925 Our Lady appeared with the Child Jesus to Sr. Lucia. The Child said, “Have compassion on the heart of your Blessed Mother which is covered with thorns and pierced continuously by the ingratitude of men and has no one to make acts of reparation to remove them.”

The Blessed Virgin immediately responded, “Look, my child, at my heart surrounded by thorns that ungrateful men have pierced without ceasing by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You [at least] try to comfort me.”

The requirements for Eucharistic Reparation on First Saturdays are as follows:

Pray and meditate the Holy Rosary (entering into the mysteries of our redemption).

Receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and do an examination of conscience. Have a plan of life that fosters conversion, repentance and growth in virtue.

Receive Communion in reparation for our sins, those of the world, and for offenses against the Immaculate Heart.

Do Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; be before the presence of Christ in adoration, love, and faith for those who do not adore, love or believe. Reparation attracts mercy.

2 - The Holy Rosary

In every one of the Fatima apparitions Our Lady asked us to “pray the rosary.” Why? It is a powerful weapon against the crisis of faith. It is our faith contained in one hand. All the principal mysteries of our salvation and redemption are contained in the mysteries of the rosary; therefore, we deepen our faith in a spirit of prayer.

With the Rosary great battles have been won: St. Dominic, Lepanto (October 7, 1571); Brazil (1964).

Pope Pius IX is quoted to have said, “Give me an army of people who pray the rosary and I will conquer the world.” After every decade we have been asked to pray, “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, free us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.”

God’s people have won many great battles through the Virgin Mary’s coming to their aid and directing them in the midst of tribulation: John of the Cross, St. James and Our Lady of the Pillar in Spain, Guadalupe, Covadonga, Lepanto, Poland, Russia… In Genesis, we read that during the time the Israelites were in the desert, the pillar or column of cloud remained over them during the day, and the fire remained over them in the night, in order to show them the way; the cloud and fire never ceased to occupy its place before God’s people(13:21-22). In the same way, the Virgin Mary is the new pillar or column who, at the beginning of Christianity, revealed herself to St. James, leaving Her image on a pillar; in more recent times, She revealed Herself to St. John Bosco in a dream, in which She went before the Church – and each one of us – during our times of confusion and struggles, taking us securely to the heart of Jesus.

She will always intervene in the history of man. God has given Her power for that purpose.

We may also look at the story of Esther. In Fatima the Virgin wore a particular detail on Her dress: a star. This helps us understand the essential mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this apparition. “Esther” means star. To better understand we go to the book of Esther: Queen Esther intervened to save the people from the plots and exterminations of the enemy. Instead it was the enemy who was exterminated, and she found favor with the King, who reversed all the actions of the enemy against himself.

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart is gradual and comes about step by step

We have seen the fruits of the consecration of the world and Russia, the fall of the political structures that impeded the faith. But this does not signify that the world of today is a world of believers. The Holy Father said in his visit to Fatima in1991, “I am aware that the spirit behind communism is not dead, that we run the risk of Marxism returning in another form of atheism, and that exaggerated freedoms can tend to destroy the roots of human and Christian morality. The new condition of the people and of the Church is still dangerous and unstable. Therefore, Mother, we need you and ask that you reveal your love to each one of your children and to the nations” (cf. May 13).

What did the Holy Father want to teach us? That the Blessed Virgin has already achieved the first stage of the battle: the crumbling of a structured system with political power; but there is still much more that needs to crumble: all the errors spread by materialism, insubordination, rebellion, violence, oppression, atheism, secularism, dissension from the truth, and a world without God, without openness to His mysteries. In other words, we have failed to reach an end to the crisis of faith and its consequences within the Church, within the world, within hearts, within families and within entire nations. In this same message of Fatima we hear, “Portugal will not lose the faith.” Then came the third part of the secret (which was openly revealed in the year 2000). What does this mean, that there will be nations that will lose it? The crisis of faith has yet to be overcome. With this victory the total fulfillment of the promise will come. “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph,” and a time of peace will come.

“The current world crisis and the crisis within the Church, deep down, will reveal a great hidden truth not visible to the eyes: humanity’s impotence to resolve it on their own, despite all its progress and technology. It is in the depths of her poverty that she will feel the necessity to unite herself to God in an urgent way. This will be the decisive moment for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart” (John Paul II).

The fruit of this triumph will be an era of peace. Why an era of peace? Because in the triumph of Her heart, She, the Queen of Peace will make us participants in the peace that resides in Her heart – the peace which is the fruit of Her total communion of love with Christ; the peace She receives from Him by the perfect union of their hearts; the peace She possesses that comes from Her perfect harmony to the will of God and His designs.

Work for the triumph:

“Those who surrender completely to the Immaculate will burn with a powerful love that will set fire to all those around them and will cause many souls to burn with this same love. This is how they will conquer the entire world and each particular soul for the Immaculate. This they will do as quickly as possible” (St. Maximilian Kolbe).

The personal consecration and an authentic life will knock down the structures of sin that exist in our hearts. First, we must make sure of Her triumph in our hearts; this triumph will lead the way to Her triumph in society.

“Until the end of time, we must win the universe and each individual soul, now and in the future, for the Blessed Virgin, and through Her, for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Those souls will reach a much better and more profound love for the Sacred Heart than ever before. Through their love the world will be set on fire and consumed” (St. Maximilian Kolbe).

I think we should recognize the seriousness of the moment and how much depends on our response to the hour in which we live. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph – how beautiful it would be to know that we were instruments, however small, of that triumph. During our last trip to Fatima with our pilgrims, when saying our farewell to the Blessed Mother in the little chapel of apparitions, we were exhorted to “go and be apostles of her Immaculate Heart.”

In other words, we should respond to the call of Our Mother through the means She gives us to reach the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart, and we should, more than ever, make Her known and loved and use the means She gives us for our conversion and the era of peace.

Anne Catherine Emmerich (19th century mystic) tells us, “I saw flying through the surface of the heavens a resplendent heart in a red light, from which came a trail of white rays leading to Jesus’ wounded side. Those rays attracted a great number of souls that were passing through the Heart and the luminous trail of light and entering into the side of Jesus. It was explained to me that the Heart was that of Mary’s.”

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Esther, Our Lady of Fatima, Coming to the Rescue

Taken from the book, The Five First Saturdays (AMAIC, Sydney, 1994), pp. 68-73:

The Sixth Apparition: 13th of October

Torrential rain fell upon the 70,000 or more pilgrims who braved their way to the Cova da Iria on the 13th of October, to witness the promised miracle. But despite the fact that the rain had continued to fall, Lucia told the crowd: "You must close your umbrellas". The people obeyed and, in pelting rain, they prayed the Rosary. It was to be the day, also, when the Lady from Heaven would reveal Her identity to the three chil¬dren. Lucia had been careful never to name the heavenly Visitor, but always referred to Her as "the Lady", or "the beautiful Lady". Before the Lady arrived at the Cova da Iria that day, however, the children would be put through a testing time. For once, She did not come at the customary hour of noon. Nothing happened then: just more rain and cold and a crowd becoming restless. But for this, Her October apparition, Our Lady would be coming, not just for Portugal, but "that all the world may believe". Portuguese time was two hours ahead of solar time. So it was not until two o'clock, or solar noon, that Lucia raised her hands and cried: "She is coming!" Lucia opened the conversation, asking the Lady: "Madam, who are you, what do you want of me?” Our Lady replied: "I want to tell you to have a chapel built here in My honour. I am the Queen of the Holy Rosary. Continue praying the Rosary daily. The war is coming to an end and the soldiers will return to their homes soon”. Our Lady. Queen of the_Holv Rosary In Her apparitions leading up to Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary had chosen to appear in various guises, identifying Herself differently according to the circumstances. At Rue du Bac, She was Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal; at La Salette, Our Lady of Sorrows; at Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception": at Pontmain, She was Our Lady of Hope. It was most fitting then that at Fatima, the apogée of Her visitations, the Blessed Virgin should come as Queen of the Holy Rosary. If the abun¬dant Rosary images in the Book of Esther were a clue to Her identification, much more would the situation of 1917 in Russia indicate that the Woman must enter this conflict in Her most powerful guise of Our Lady of the Rosary. The impending Communist takeover of Russia, with all its ramifications for the world, required a counter offensive from Heaven that would match its gravity. Our Lady of the Rosary was the perfect Agent for such an assignment; for always throughout history, at a time of great crisis and impending doom for Christendom, God's faithful had looked to the Mother of God under that title, to rescue them. Like Queen Esther, Our Lady of the Rosary is a Queen who wins great victories when the chips are down; when all seems lost for the cause of right. - Was it not Our Lady of the Rosary who, in response to the public praying of the Rosary recited at the urgent request of Pope St. Pius V, saved Christendom, so terribly threatened by the Turkish fleet, by bestowing Her glorious victory upon the Christian fleet at Lepanto on the 7th of October, 1571? - Was it not to Our Lady of the Rosary that was due the miraculous delivery of the city of Vienna, besieged by the Ottoman Turks in 1683? - More recently, did it not happen in Austria once again that the fervent appeal of a population praying the Rosary in a continuous crusade of prayer, obtained on the 13th of May, 1955, the retreat of the Soviet occupying forces from Austrian soil? Pope John Paul II’s Rosary If the recitation of the Rosary, and devotion to Our Lady invoked as Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, have been the cause of so many astoni¬shing miracles in the temporal or physical order, how many other marvels, even more prodigious, are not to be ascribed to this devotion in the order of Grace? Is it not told for instance, that St. Dominic converted 100,000 Albigensian heretics by leading them to a knowledge and love of the Mysteries of the holy Rosary? Many Saints have also testified that God, through the Rosary and the Scapular, will one day save the world. Considered in the context of the Esther story, there is something very significant in the fact that Our Lady of Fatima deliberately withheld Her true identity until this crucial moment - just before She performed Her great Miracle. For, when finally Queen Esther chose to reveal her nationality to the king, it too was at a crucial moment, and it helped Esther to turn the tide. From a comparison of the two scenarios, we can only conclude that the Queen of the Rosary will similarly snatch victory at a point in history when all seems lost. The Great Solar Miracle After the Lady had identified who She was, Lucia again asked Her if She would cure the sick, and convert the sinners who had been recommen¬ded to her. Our Lady replied: "I will cure or convert some of them. Others I will not. They must repent and beg pardon for their sins". Then, with a look of grief and in a suppliant tone of voice, She added: "Men must not offend God any more for He is already very much offended". And opening Her hands Our Lady, as She was rising to go away, projected beams of light onto the sun. Lucia cried: "Look at the sun!" And suddenly, as the crowd looked upwards, the clouds opened and exposed the blue sky with the sun at its zenith. But this sun did not dazzle. The people could look directly at it. It was like a shining silver plate. Then the sun trembled. It made some abrupt movements. It began to spin like a wheel of fire. Great shafts of coloured light flared out from its centre in all directions, colouring in a most fantastic manner the clouds, trees, rocks, earth, and even the clothes and faces of the people gathered there, in alternating splashes of red, yellow, green, blue and violet - the full spectrum of rainbow colours. After about five minutes the sun stopped revolving in this fashion. A moment later, it resumed a second time its incredible motion, throwing out its light and colour like a huge display of fireworks. And once more, after a few minutes, the sun stopped its prodigious dance. After a short stop and for the third time, it resumed its spinning and fantastic colours. The crowd gazed spellbound. Then came the awful climax. The sun seemed to be falling from the sky. Zig-zagging from side to side, it plunged down towards the crowd below, sending out a heat increasingly intense, and causing the spectators to believe that this was indeed the end of the world. People stood wild-eyed, or sank to their knees in the mud, as the sun rushed towards them. A desperate cry went up from the crowd, begging God, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, for mercy, asking pardon for sins. The sun halted, stopping short in its precipitous fall, and then climbed back to its place in the sky, where it regained its normal brilliance. Then the dazed people, who had just experienced the wonder of the age - or what Cardinal Laraona would later call "the greatest Divine intervention since the time of our Lord" ("SOUL", Sep-Oct, 1990, p.6) - found that another miracle had occurred. This apocalyptic scene, full of majesty and terror, had ended with a delicate gift, which showed the motherly tenderness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for Her children. Their sodden clothes were dry and comfortable, without a trace of mud and rain. But there was another aspect to Our Lady’s Miracle that only the three children witnessed. Corresponding to the three distinct movements of the sun, separated by the moments of pause, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco saw three distinct tableaux representing, successively, the Joyful, the Sorrowful and the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. In the first tableau they saw the three members of the Holy Family; with Our Lady of the Rosary, to the right of the sun and more brilliant than the sun, wearing a white dress and a blue mantle. To the left, dressed in red, was St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus blessing the world. Next, Our Divine Lord appeared as a grown man, lovingly blessing the world. To the left was Our Lady of Sorrows, clad in purple. Finally, Our Lady of Sorrows was replaced by Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Scapular in Her hand. The Miracle of the sun at Fatima, therefore, was absolutely a Rosary miracle. It seemed even to move to the pulse and rhythm of a Rosary being recited. Its approximately fifteen minutes' duration might have also been intended to represent one of the conditions of the Five First Saturday devotion: fifteen minutes meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary, while keeping Our Lady company. Full of Scriptural Imagery All in one, the great Miracle of the 13th of October, 1917, incor¬porated some of the most spectacular elements of renowned Old Testament miracles. Fr. Smolenski (Op cit., 11-12) has compared Noah's time for instance, when it rained for forty days and nights, with Fatima on that day, when everything was drenched with rain. The dove with the branch indica¬ted that the storm had subsided; Our Lady's presence over the holm-oak tree was Heaven's peace. The Ark landed on solid earth: Fatima was dry because of the miracle. God re-established the covenant of peace by means of Noah; Our Lady asked that Consecration be made to Her Immaculate Heart. The rainbow became the sign of peace: the whole area of the Fatima miracle reflected all the colours of the rainbow during the sun's dance. "As Noah's sons inherited the covenant of peace, brought to mind by the presence of the rainbow, so Mary, Image of the Church as the servant of God, would have her children be the bearers of her peace to a re-energized and re-evangelized creation". Other comparisons with Old Testament miracles appear in "Soul" magazine (Sep-Oct, 1990, p.6). For instance, the sun's leaving the entire area dry at the Cova da Iria reminds one of the dry path through the Red Sea. Or there is Joshua's own solar miracle when, at his command, the sun gave its light two hours after sunset. Again, reminiscent of the sun's fall, was Elijah's calling down of fire from the sky as a challenge to the pagan priests. (Elijah is already linked to the Carmelites and the Scapular due to his association with Mount Carmel and his miraculous mantle). Finally, we could add to these the miraculous alteration affected on the sundial, as caused by Isaiah for the benefit of king Hezekiah. Pope Pius XII, instituting the feast of 'The Queenship of Mary' with his encyclical "Ad Caeli Reginam" in 1954, likened Our Lady to the rainbow in the Genesis account of Noah and in Ecclesiasticus: "Is She not a rainbow in the clouds, reaching towards God, a promise of peace? (Cf. Genesis 9:13). 'Look upon the rainbow, and bless Him that made it; it is very beautiful in its brightness. It encompasses the heaven about with the circle of its glory, the hands of the Most High have displayed it' (Ecclesiasticus 43:11-12)". But undoubtedly, more than anything else it is the stupendous character of the Miracle of the Sun - coupled with the fact that it had been predicted to the very hour, months in advance - that sets Fatima apart from all the Old Testament manifestations of God, and even from the preceding Marian apparitions. Pope Paul VI referred to it simply as 'Signum Magnum', 'The Great Sign'. ….

The entire book can now be read at: http://amaic2.blogspot.com/2008/04/five-first-saturdays-of-our-lady-of.html