In 8 Days Pope Francis is going to consecrate the World to Mary’s Immaculate Heart again. Why is this so important?
{Read commentary after news report}
by CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY 08/14/2013
– CNA
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Oct. 13 as part of the Marian Day celebration that will involve the iconic statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima.
“The Holy Father strongly desires that the Marian Day may have present, as a special sign, one of the most significant Marian icons for Christians throughout the world, and, for that reason, we thought of the beloved original statue of Our Lady of Fatima,” wrote Cardinal Rino Fisichella.
Cardinal Fisichella, who serves as president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, made his remarks in a letter to Bishop Antonio Marto of Leiria-Fatima.
According to the Portuguese shrine’s website, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima will leave for Rome on the morning of Oct. 12 and return on the afternoon of Oct. 13. The statue normally resides in the shrine’s Little Chapel of Apparitions.
The cardinal said that “all ecclesial entities of Marian spirituality” are invited to take part in the celebration. Hundreds of movements and institutions that emphasize Marian devotion are expected to attend, the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima says.
The two-day observance includes an Oct. 12 pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter and moments of prayer and meditation. On Oct. 13, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three shepherd children in the village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917. She warned of violent trials in the 20th century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She urged prayer and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
At the request of Pope Francis, Cardinal Jose Polycarp, the patriarch of Lisbon, consecrated the Pope’s pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, her feast day.
(End quote)
Now we will look at the history, implications, and importance of this act of Pope Francis in light of scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.
The word "consecration" literally means ‘to associate with the sacred’. The Catholic Church believes persons, places, or things can be consecrated. A synonym for to consecrate is to sanctify; the antonym is to desecrate.
The act of consecration of cities and regions dates back at least to the 9th century, when Abbo Cernuus of Saint-Germain-des-Prés composed a poem in which he attributed the failure of the Vikings to destroy Paris in 886AD to the consecration of the city to the Virgin Mary and her protection over it. In the 17th century France was again consecrated to the Virgin Mary by Louis XIII and a number of other countries such as Portugal followed that trend.
The Lords Servant Mrs. Ellen White was shown the importance of France in prophecy.
“The war against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the Revolution. That terrible out breaking was but the legitimate result of Rome’s suppression of the Scriptures. It presented the most striking illustration which the world has ever witnessed of the working out of the papal policy—an illustration of the results to which for more than a thousand years the teaching of the Roman Church had been tending. The suppression of the Scriptures during the period of papal supremacy was foretold by the prophets; and the Revelator points also to the terrible results that were to accrue especially to France from the domination of the “man of sin.” {GC 266.1}
Revelation chapter 11 prophesied of the French Revolution and the heresies that would follow. Revelation 11 also speaks of the two witnesses of the Old and New Testaments being murdered… “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified...” A whole chapter of the Great Controversy is dedicated in showing how this prophecy was fulfilled in the French Revolution.
But what set the stage for these events? (Read Chapter 15 of the Great Controversy “The bible and the French Revolution”)
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (31 January 1673 – 28 April 1716) of whom the city of St Louis in America is named, was a French Roman Catholic priest known for his particular devotion to the Virgin Mary and the practice of consistently praying the Rosary. Montfort is considered as one of the early Marian proponents of the field of Mariology as it is known today. His most notable works regarding Marian devotions are contained in his books ‘The Secret of Mary’ and ‘the True Devotion to Mary’. These writings from Montfort set the stage for one of the bloodiest events in human history in the French Revolution, which is a precursor for the end time persecutions against the two witnesses.
It is interesting to note that during the life of Louis de Montfort Satan began to manifest himself in apparitions in the form of Mary. The ‘Lady of Laus’ apparitions to a young shepherdess named Benoîte Rencurel between 1664 and 1718 in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus France are the first Marian apparitions approved in the 21st century by the Roman Catholic Church. The apparitions were recognized by the diocese of the Roman Catholic Church on September 18, 1665. They were approved by the Vatican on May 5, 2008. Currently, the site where the apparitions took place receives more than 120,000 pilgrims a year.
The 1917 messages from apparitions reported by three children in Fatima Portugal resulted in consecrations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by two popes. In the messages of ‘Our Lady of Fatima’, these satanic apparitions specifically asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Based on these messages, both popes Pius XII and John Paul II consecrated Russia and the world to the Virgin Mary.
Pope Pius XII was impressed by Montfort's work ‘God Alone’ saying it was “everything to him”. When he canonized Montfort on July 20, 1947, he said: “Remain faithful to the precious heritage which this great saint left you”.
Pius XII felt a close bond to Fatima, in that he was being made an archbishop in Rome on May 13, 1917 just as the first messages of Fatima were being reported, and that his ‘consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary’ on October 31, 1942 was during major turning points in World War II. Mariologist Gabriel Roschini wrote that this 1942 consecration of humanity to Mary can be viewed as an apex for Marian culture. In that address Pius XII consecrated not only the Catholic Church but the whole human race to the Virgin Mary for the first time, doing so as “Father of Christianity” and as “the representative of Christ”. The consecration was performed via a Portuguese radio broadcast to the residents of the surrounding villages of Fatima, and then renewed on December 8, 1942 in Rome.
Pope John Paul II made Marian devotions and consecrations a hallmark of his papacy often referring to and heavily relying on the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort. Pope JPII once recalled how as a young seminarian he "read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit" a work of de Montfort and that: "Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord's Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity".
According to his Apostolic Letter ‘Rosarium Virginis Mariae’, the pontiff’s personal motto "Totus Tuus" was inspired by St. Louis' doctrine of Marian devotion and total consecration, which he quoted: “…since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ."
The thoughts, writings, and example of St. Louis de Montfort, an example of the French school of spirituality of which they most proud of, were also singled out by Pope John Paul II encyclical ‘Redemptoris Mater’ as a distinctive witness of Marian spirituality in the Catholic tradition. In an address to the Montfortian Fathers, the pontiff also said that his reading ‘the saint's work, True Devotion to Mary’ was a "decisive turning point" in his life.
John Paul II felt a close bond to Fatima in that he was shot on the day of the feast of Fatima, May 13, 1981 in Saint Peter's Square while bending over to touch a medal of Fatima on a young spectator. He attributed his recovery to “Our Lady of Fatima”.
Then the next year on May 12, 1982 in Fatima Portugal, during Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the shrine at Fatima, Spanish priest Juan María Fernández y Krohn tried to assassinate him with a bayonet. John Paul II claimed Mary saved him again for venerating her and what he was about to do. The next day Pope John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and said: “Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means drawing near, through the mother's intercession, to the very fountain of life that sprang from Golgotha. This fountain pours forth unceasingly redemption and grace. In it reparation is made continually for the sins of the world. It is a ceaseless source of new life and holiness”.
On March 25, 1984 Pope John Paul II again performed the solemn consecration of the world, and implicitly Russia, in supposed fulfillment of the prophecies of Fatima, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before the statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, brought to Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City for the ceremony.
This same statue is being brought from the shrine of the ‘Little Chapel of Apparitions’ in Fatima, to Rome on the morning of the 12th of this month (Oct 2013) to be venerated by millions of people, and Pope Francis will get on his knees to consecrate the world to her. This same pope believes Mary was behind his assumption of Papal power but we know who really is behind it. Pope Francis dedicated his reign to Mary first thing after his election. He has openly asked for blessings from priests who claim to have seen apparitions of Mary.
We are now in the time of the eighth papal king of Revelation 17. This is the pope who will lead the world to perdition. We are about to see the “marvelous workings of Satan” as the Lords servant prophesied.
"When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. As the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return. The people of God will then be plunged into those scenes of affliction and distress which prophets have described as the time of Jacob’s trouble. {5T 451}
http://eighthking.blogspot.com/2011/12/whos-is-anti-christ-eighth-king-of-rev.htmlBut you are not in darkness that these deceptions should overtake you.
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