THE WORLD APOSTOLATE OF FATIMA Established in 1947, The World Apostolate of Fatima, USA (originally known as The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima) is a Public International Association of the Faithful under the Pontifical Dicastery for Laity, Family & Life. It is the only Fatima organization in the world that speaks “in the name of the Church” and “with the authority of the Church” on Fatima.
Official Publication of the World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A. Volume 68, Number 3 Issue 3 2017 World Apostolate of Fatima, USA PUBLISHER
David M. Carollo EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Barb Ernster EDITOR
Vincent J. Covello COPY EDITOR
Rachel Matero GRAPHICS AND CATALOG FAITH CATHOLIC PUBLISHING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Soul magazine archives COVER IMAGE
©2017 The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A. The World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A. All rights reserved. Soul is printed in the United States of America. Mail Date: August 31, 2017 Reproduction of material appearing in Soul magazine is prohibited without prior written permission. Published quarterly by The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A. / The World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A. Asbury, NJ 08802 ISSN 0038-1756 U.S. postage paid permit Madison, WI Permit No. 2223 and additional mailing offices. U.S. subscription rates: 4 issues $16 Canadian subscription rates: 4 issues $21 The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, U.S.A., Inc., is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Soul editorial and administrative offices: P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882 Email: soul@bluearmy.com Website: www.bluearmy.com
MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to help people learn, live and spread the message of Our Lady of Fatima in communion with the Church and in concert with the New Evangelization. HOW TO REACH US • National Blue Army Shrine & WAF, USA Offices P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882 908.689.1700, ext. 210 service@bluearmy.com www.bluearmy.com • Soul Magazine soul@bluearmy.com Fatima Centennial US Tour for Peace www.fatimatourforpeace.com • Fatima Gift Shop 908.689.1700, ext. 218 giftshop.wafusa.org CONNECT facebook.com/OurLadysBlueArmy twitter.com/Fatima_bluearmy youtube.com/OurLadysBlueArmy LinkedIn.com/World Apostolate of Fatima USA JOIN OUR LADY’S BLUE ARMY The World Apostolate of Fatima is made up of individual members from around the world who follow the principles of the apostolate. To join the World Apostolate of Fatima, sign the WAF Pledge at www.wafusa.org/the-apostolate/pledge/ or call 908.689.1700 to obtain a copy of the pledge by mail.
This publication was examined by a censor of the Diocese of Metuchen and has been judged in accord with Canon 827 to receive ecclesiastical approbation. Rev. John G. Hillier, Ph.D, censor librorum, Diocese of Metuchen, Date August 14, 2017. N.B. The ecclesiastical approval implies that the material contained herein has been examined by diocesan censors and nothing contrary to faith and morals has been found.
Inside Summer 2017 2 2017 — A year of many graces and blessings DAVID M. CAROLLO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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The Queen of Heaven takes Britain by storm
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ARTS REVIEW The statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel according to Sister Lucia
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YOUNG HEARTS A Facebook question — a book full of answers
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A LOOK BACK The sixth apparition — Oct. 13, 1917
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SAINTS ALIVE St. Camillus de Lellis: Patron of health care workers
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THE GOOD BOOK Psalms 36 and 145
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I BELIEVE
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Soul Magazine receives Catholic Press Association awards
BOOK REVIEW Breathing Life into the Catholic Church: Making Sense of Vatican II
BLUE ARMY CATALOG
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Beyond the Fatima Centennial
DEACON ROBERT ELLIS, NATIONAL COORDINATOR
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October apparitions provide meaningful answers to modern world
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A tribute to my father: A witness to the miracle of the sun
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The Power of Our Lady of the Rosary
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The Fatima connection to the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
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Why little children for God’s big missions
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Blessed Alexandrina da Costa — the fourth seer of Fatima
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The impact of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue tours in 2017
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The spiritual meaning of Our Lady’s September apparition
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News from the WAF: Rosary Garden update
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Enthrone Jesus and Mary in your home
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DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
JOSEPH PRONECHEN
FATHER ANDREW APOSTOLI, CFR
ALICE REIS ISRAEL
DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
JOSEPH PRONECHEN
BARB ERNSTER
VINCENT J. COVELLO
FATHER MATTHEW R. MAURIELLO
MOST REV. BISHOP JOSEPH PERRY
VINCENT J. COVELLO
DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
BARB ERNSTER
FATHER ANDREW APOSTOLI, CFR
VINCENT J. COVELLO
VINCENT J. COVELLO
MARY MORRELL
KRISTIN STRAVINSKY
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
Thousands attended the August 13 celebration at the Shrine in New Jersey.
2017
A year of many graces and blessings A
s we look toward the final months of the Fatima centennial, anticipation for October 13, 2017 is building. The year has been filled with so many
graces and blessings, we all have much to be thankful for.
On May 13, Francisco and Jacinta were elevated to the altar, 100 years to the day Our Lady greeted them with these words: “Do not be afraid — I come from heaven.” Why did God allow so much time to pass before these two children, who were assured of heaven by Our Lady, were proclaimed saints? Perhaps it is a statement that Fatima is not just about historic events a century ago, but a statement that Fatima and its message of hope and direction for life is for the future. These children and their cousin Lucia were willing to offer their lives for the salvation of souls; Jacinta and Francisco for a short while after the apparitions ended and Lucia for the next 88 years. Are we also willing to offer our lives for this mission? 2
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
Many events have marked this time of celebration. At the shrine in New Jersey we have seen overflowing crowds. During our statue visitations we are greeted with full churches. The centennial of Fatima is drawing people to Our Lady’s message of hope. The answers to our difficulties do not lie with Church leaders or politicians. They do not lie with anyone but ourselves. Our Lady said if her requests are not heeded there will be great calamities for the Church and the world and many souls will be lost, but, in the end, her Immaculate Heart will triumph and there will be peace. This will happen when we have merited it through our prayers and sacrifices. Let us look to our new saints to guide us in this effort. The World Apostolate of Fatima has co-sponsored and participated in a number of Fatima centennial events and conferences this year. In April, we co-sponsored the Institute for Religious Life conference held at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary near Chicago. In May, in addition to our events at the Blue Army Shrine, we participated in the Marian Day at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin. In June, we were featured at the FOCUS conference in Florida and participated in the convocation of Catholic Leaders in Orlando. In July, we were featured at conferences in the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Cleveland, Ohio. And the year is only half over. See the inside back cover and back cover of the magazine for information on events being held later this year. We have translated our documentary, Fatima — A Message of Hope, which has been playing on EWTN television, into six different languages. People can now watch this informative production with subtitles in Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. The Fatima message is for the world. Our job is to bring it there. As we continue to bring the spirituality of Fatima and the solution to the difficulties of this world to all that will hear, let us never forget the words of Our Lady to the wine stewards at the wedding feast at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.”
David M. Carollo is the executive director of the World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A.
T H E N AT I O N A L C O O R D I N AT O R ’ S M E S S A G E
Beyond the Fatima Centennial P
raise God for the participation of Holy Mother Church and so many organizations and individuals in the celebration of the Fatima centennial! The response to celebratory events throughout
our nation and the world has been overwhelming and heartwarming.
But now, what happens after Oct. 13, 2017, or Dec. 31, 2017? Many expect something profound, of divine origin, to occur before the centennial’s end that will result in masses of humanity turning back to God, a transformation of the world’s cultures and the laying of a foundation for an “era of peace.” While it is well and good to hope for such — and I suppose just about everyone does — something tells me we haven’t yet done enough to merit it. It seems to me that the most important aspect of the centennial year is that it has provided us with an opportunity to make Fatima widely known — initially to some, and better known
to others. We’ve reached a lot of people. But are they moved enough to fully embrace Our Lady’s message, and do they sufficiently understand what it will require for them to live it faithfully for the remainder of their lives? Many have said, Fatima is not just another pious devotion. These are serious questions of great import, both for the salvation of souls in the eternal order and for world peace in the temporal. And I believe that during 2018 and beyond, our focus needs to be directed toward bringing to fruition the initial spark that was engendered in everyone who has been touched by Fatima during the centennial celebration.
Deacon Bob Ellis is the national coordinator of the World Apostolate of Fatima, U.S.A.
How can we do this? While our website, social media and publishing endeavors are of great value, a key ingredient to success will always be one-onone, face-to-face interaction and mutual support. Our prayer cells are one such means, and I encourage everyone to seriously look into the possibility of becoming involved in one, or establishing one if there is not already one nearby. Everything one needs to know about prayer cells is posted on the prayer cell page at Bluearmy.com. I’d like to suggest another approach — not in place of, but in addition to prayer cell participation. We might call it “The Fatima Adopt-a-Soul Initiative,” or some such thing. If every member of Our Lady’s Blue Army were to connect and establish a relationship with just one other person — someone not already engaged in Fatima, of course — for the purpose of teaching them more about it, counseling them on how to embrace and live its message and supporting them on their journey, we could reach a lot of people with Our Lady’s message. And if each new member were to participate in such an initiative — the outcome is obvious, isn’t it? There is no time to be lost where the salvation of souls is concerned. We will not be blessed with an “era of peace” until sufficient numbers have embraced and are living the Fatima message. Each and every one of us needs to do whatever we can. If we ask for the grace to succeed with one other person, that grace will be granted. What will you be doing after the glow of the Fatima centennial begins to fade into the past? Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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provide meaningful answers to modern world By Father Andrew Apostoli
T
he Oct. 13 apparition at Fatima is rich in meaning and purpose for the modern world. The “beautiful Lady who came from heaven” had promised the children she would finally reveal who she was in October and also give a sign so that all the people would believe. Our Lady
hinted at this in the September apparition by foretelling a sequence of appearances that the children would see in October, along with the promised miracle: “Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Dolours (sorrows) and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. St. Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world.” These images are unmistakably related to the mysteries of the Rosary and they correspond to who Our Lady said she was, “I am the Lady of the Rosary.” This final apparition, which is so centered on the Rosary, not only underscores her repeated request for this powerful prayer, but gives us the answer to our modern day evils.
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Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
© MARK SANISLO — USED WITH PERMISSION
October apparitions
What did the children see?
First, what the children did not see was the miracle of the sun. Just before the miracle, Lucia raised her arm and said, “Look at the sun.” But when asked about this later, she did not remember saying it, so it was quite spontaneous. Instead, she was immersed with her cousins in the apparitions that were occurring to them — simultaneous to the miracle of the sun. And the apparitions that the children did see correspond to the mysteries of the Rosary. The first apparition — the joyful mysteries
The children saw St. Joseph with the Child Jesus blessing the world and our Lady dressed in white with a blue mantle. This vision of the Holy Family represents the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, which show us the true dignity and holiness of marriage and family life. In praying these mysteries we are called to renew the Christian family life. The second apparition — the luminous and sorrowful mysteries
Next, Our Lord appears with Our Lady of Sorrows. It’s interesting that Jesus came with her, but did not come in sorrow. He didn’t come being scourged, being crowned with thorns or on the cross. He came as a young man who appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. Many people feel this vision of Jesus prefigured the luminous mysteries of the Rosary, but He’s not yet in sorrow nor entered into His Passion. The luminous mysteries focus on the fulfillment of Jesus’ public life and His identity as the Son of God. In praying these mysteries, we are called to know Jesus on a deeper level, imitate Him in our lives and be drawn later into His Passion. In this same apparition, Our Lady of Sorrows represents the sorrowful mysteries. Mary is reminding us of our need to carry our crosses and suffer with Christ, as she did, in reparation for the sins of the world. She invites us to participate with her in God’s plan of salvation. In praying these mysteries, we are called to have the courage to endure our crosses and offer them for the salvation of souls. The third apparition — the glorious mysteries
Finally, Mary came as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She is Our Lady of the glorious mysteries
because she will crush the head of the serpent. Mount Carmel plays significantly in the Old Testament as the place where the prophet Elijah discredited the 850 prophets of Baal, who were the first to introduce idolatry into Israel. The rites of this pagan deity included the sacrifice of human infants. The people of God had been on the verge of annihilation due to a prolonged drought sent by God as a punishment for their idolatry. But by the miracle of the fire of Mount Carmel they were converted and saved. When all of the prophets of Baal were unable to bring down fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice, Elijah does so through a simple prayer. And the fire that comes down not only consumes his sacrifice, but melts the very stones of his altar and all the water on the ground that was poured out on the sacrifice in order to show the power of God. The terrified Israelites fell to their knees crying, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” Similarly during the miracle of the sun at Fatima, at the climax of which Our Lady appears as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the stupefied crowd witnessed the sun as a ball of fire falling down to earth. They could feel its heat and were so terrified they confessed their sins aloud and many were converted or healed. The solar miracle also consumed the rain that had been pouring on the people, leaving them soaking wet and standing in three inches of mud. Mary came as Our Lady of Mount Carmel to represent victory — the victory of Christ and the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. She is the faithful daughter of Israel whose obedience to God allows her to share in his victory over Satan and the many forms of idolatry that lead souls away from God. When we pray the glorious mysteries we pray to be rescued from these snares of the devil so that we may enter into the glory of heaven. In these October appearances, Mary prepared us for the struggles we face today, especially with the false gods of our day that have led to the breakdown of family and society. Mary is telling us the importance of the Rosary to defeat these evils. How pleasing this prayer is to Our Lady! She points us to herself as the Lady of the Rosary because, as she told the children in July, “only she can help you.”
“Mary came as Our Lady of Mount Carmel to represent victory ...”
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Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
A tribute to my father – a witness to the miracle of the sun By Alice Reis Israel
F
atima has a special place in my heart because of my father, Dominic Reis. His birthday was May 13 and he was 17 years old at the time of the apparitions. He was at the Cova da Iria in Fatima with his
parents on Oct. 13, when the great miracle of the sun occurred. This miracle was foretold by Our Lady to the three shepherd children in the June and September apparitions. About 70,000 to 100,000 people witnessed the miracle and it was reported in newspapers all over Portugal.
His parents, Manuel and Rose Campanha Reis, talked about going to the apparition site when they heard that the miracle was going to happen. They lived 100 miles from Fatima in a village near Porto. They made the decision to go on Oct. 11 and left on the train at the next morning. The Portuguese government at the time was very anti-religious and the authorities were opposed to the faithful gathering at the Cova. Priests could not talk about Fatima in their churches because of the government. When they arrived at the Cova, there were soldiers trying to block the people. My father was injured by a bayonet puncture through his left hand as he tried to protect
his father from the charging soldiers rushing toward the crowds of people. My father said there were so many people pushing forward that the soldiers finally gave up. They were able to move closer and were about 75 to 100 feet from where the children were kneeling in front of the holm oak tree. He believed Our Lady was standing on the small holm oak tree, because the branches and leaves bent forward during the apparition. They knew Our Lady was talking to the children because they could see Lucia talking back. The rains were heavy all morning and now it was raining harder. He stayed close to his mother and father.
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The spectacular solar event begins
As my father described it: “There was a good three inches of water where I stood and mud on the ground. I was soaking wet. Then around noon time, the sun started breaking through the clouds and we could see the sun. Now it was raining just like you open a faucet in your house. Rain! And then suddenly the rain stopped. The sun started to roll from one place to another, changing blue, yellow, all colors. Then we see the sun come toward the children, toward the tree. Everyone was hollering out. We were all so afraid. Some started to confess their sins openly before everyone. “Even my mother grabbed me to herself and started to cry, saying, ‘Dominic, this is the end of the world.’” “ I tho ught: I could look at the sun without pain in my eyes. Eithe r I ’m o u t Everyone around me was making a tremendous noise. of my m ind Because of all the noise, I was looking at the crowd as or t hi s wa s the sun was actually falling. It had turned upon itself and a mir acl e , a fallen down. I could feel the heat because it was coming so re al mir acl e . ” close. At that moment, I saw it on my left shoulder. It was on my shoulder and I could have touched it. The people around me were very much afraid that this was the end of the world. “Then the sun went into the trees where the little children were and within minutes the children got up and turned around toward the people. Lucia said that everything is going to be all right. Pray and pray hard. Pray the Rosary every day for sinners around the world, that God was too much offended. Within minutes, the sun went back the way it came in. “As soon as the sun went back in the right place, the wind started to blow real hard, but the trees didn’t move at all. In a few minutes, the ground was dry, even our clothes had dried and looked as though they had just come from the laundry. “I believed. I thought: Either I’m out of my mind or this was a miracle, a real miracle. 8
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
Dominic built a small shrine to Fatima at his parish church in Holyoke, Mass.
Coming to America
After the apparitions, when my father was 20, he came to America and never saw his parents again. His parents were disappointed that he left, but he came because he felt he had been given a gift and he wanted to spread God’s message. He spent the rest of his life spreading the message of Our Lady of Fatima and telling his story as a witness to this great miracle. My father also built a reproduction of the Fatima scene on the grounds of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Holyoke, Mass., near where he lived. He duplicated the Cova da Iria scene, its figures and how the terrain looked. He was a stone mason by trade and was a custodian of the parish for many years. Recently, I found the only picture of my father standing in front of the scene of the Cova. I have been searching for this picture for 50 years. He was a frequent guest on radio and television stations in the 1950s, and was giving speeches, going to colleges, traveling here and there. Whoever asked, he would stop and talk. He was known to help people in any way he could and to pray with people. He was interviewed by The Blue Army founder, Mr. John Haffert, who wrote a book about the witnesses to the miracle of the sun. During this period, he was also interviewed by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. I traveled with him to New York to do the programs and met Bishop Sheen. I remember his penetrating eyes; he had the most magnificent eyes. Dad died on Sept. 17, 1961. No one knew that he had black lung disease because my parents kept it from us. At the end, I was the only one who was allowed to come in and take care of him. He wanted to die at home, but his pain was so great I called
the ambulance. I was 17 years old at the time, a senior in high school. I have my father’s rosaries. He always carried them with him and always prayed, and was never embarrassed to do so. He adored Our Lady and when he prayed, he went into another world. He was in that Hail Mary and would live it, as if he was going back in time when he was present at the Cova. That was a grace he was given. He was a leader, outspoken where the Church was concerned, but a quiet man. He also spoke of the importance of going to Mass, praying daily and saying the Rosary. He loved to tell the story of Fatima, knowing the gift he had been given.
Open your hearts to Our Lady
The story and the message of Fatima is not just another pious Marian devotion. It is known as the “peace plan from heaven.” St. John Paul II said the message of Fatima is so steeped in the Gospel message and the whole of Tradition that it imposes a commitment on the part of the Church to spread it. He also said the message of Fatima is more important today than in 1917. That is because the errors of atheistic communism stemming from Russia that Our Lady warned about have spread around the world, and we certainly see the damage to our culture and to the faith of millions of people, even here in this country. Please open your hearts to Our Lady, for she told little Lucia, the oldest Fatima seer, “Are you suffering a lot? Do not worry. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
Dominic Reis would have encountered this scene when he came to Fatima with his parents on Oct. 13, 1917.
Alice Reis Israel currently lives in Lewes, Del. After much prayer, she felt called to share with others that she was the daughter of Dominic Reis, and told her story this year for the first time. Alice was the youngest of four children born to Dominic and Emma Souza Reis. She grew up near Holy Rosary parish in Holyoke, Mass., where her father was the custodian for 15 years before he died. Before that, he worked as a stone mason for the construction industry. Her father was president of the Portuguese American Club and taught her mother how to read and write Portuguese so she could help represent the immigrants when they came to America. He also spoke Italian, Spanish and French and loved to play the guitar. Her mother worked in the rectory of the church and later for a doctor, helping with his four children, before she died at the age of 93.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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The power of
Our Lady of the Rosary By Donal Anthony Foley
O
ne of the most important aspects of the Fatima Message was the way in which Our Lady focused particularly on the Rosary. At each of her six apparitions, she emphatically asked for it to be said daily, and in May, she specifically asked that it
be prayed “to obtain peace for the world and an end to the war.” These twin themes were repeated by her through the summer, culminating in her Oct. 13 apparition when she said,
“I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day.” 10
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
At Lourdes, she called herself the “Immaculate Conception,” but at Fatima she took her title from the Rosary. Why this focus on the Rosary? For her to emphasize it in this way must mean it has an extraordinary power with God, and this is just what history tells us. Incidents from centuries ago show this, such as the defeat of the Albigensian heresy by St. Dominic through the power of the Rosary, or the victory gained at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, again through the power of the Rosary. This sea battle was very significant for European and, indeed, world history. It took place on Oct. 7, 1571, and involved a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of southern European Catholic states, which fought against the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire near Lepanto, off western Greece. A powerful call to “arms” Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory and the Holy League won the battle decisively, preventing the invasion of Europe. At the moment of victory, Pius V, who was many hundreds of miles away at the Vatican in a meeting, got up, went over to a window and exclaimed: “The Christian fleet is victorious!” Out of this triumph came the feast of the Holy Rosary, celebrated yearly on Oct. 7. Lepanto was crucial because Europe as a whole would have been wide open to Muslim conquest if the Christian forces had been defeated. In light of this victory, it is significant that Fatima, Portugal, takes its name from the youngest daughter of the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Portugal and Spain were occupied by the Muslims for centuries and during this time the locality around the spot where Our Lady appeared in 1917 — as “Our Lady of the Rosary” — was named Fatima. Mary has a very exalted place in Islam, since she is the only woman named in the Quran, which describes her as being chosen above all other women. All of this indicates a connection between Islam, Our Lady, the Rosary and Fatima. More recently, in 1955, the great efficacy of the Rosary was demonstrated once again. This occurred when, following World War II, the occupying Soviet Army voluntarily left the Eastern zone of Austria after Franciscan Father Petrus Pavlicek organized a Rosary Crusade in the country from 1946 onwards, which eventually had 10 percent of the population of seven million praying five decades of the Rosary daily for peace. This was the only time in the history of the Sovi-
et Union that the Red Army voluntarily withdrew from a European country it had occupied. And it happened on the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. In contrast, the attempted revolutions in Hungary, in 1956, and Czechoslovakia, in 1968, were brutally put down. Even more recently, in Brazil in the 1960s and Portugal in the 1970s, the power of the Rosary was again demonstrated when incipient communist coups in both countries were thwarted. Strength in numbers These historical incidents show that while it is good to pray the Rosary as an individual, it is much more powerful if we pray it as part of a group. This was the teaching of St. Louis de Montfort who said that if we do this, then we multiply the effectiveness of our Rosary. That is, if a person says a Rosary, it is just one Rosary, but if 10 people pray it together, it is the same as if each of them has said 10 Rosaries. And this multiplying effect becomes even more marked with larger numbers; hence, the explanation for the power of all those Rosaries said in Austria. What is really needed in the United States, and indeed in countries around the world, are national Rosary pledge campaigns, like the one organized by Father Pavlicek in Austria. If believers around the world started to pray the Rosary regularly for the moral regeneration of their own country, then we would start to see real changes. This is because such prayers would call down graces of conversion that would lead to lapsed Catholics returning to the practice of their faith and to a general revitalization of the Church. Mary told the shepherd children during the July apparition, “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you.” “Our Lady of the Rosary” is certainly not an empty title; it is up to us to pray the Rosary with heartfelt devotion in order to bring about conversions and peace to our world.
The Battle of Lepanto
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The Fatima connection to the brown scapul ar of Our L ady of Mount C armel
By Joseph Pronechen
W
hile the miracle of the sun immediately comes to mind when one mentions Oct. 13,
1917, there were two other major messages and lessons Our Lady gave us that day. These have to do with how she identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and how she appeared during the miracle as Our Lady of Mount Carmel with a scapular. The message was clear.
“Yes, the Rosary and the scapular are inseparable,” Sister Lucia confirmed during an interview with two Carmelite priests, one a prior who was privileged to visit with her in 1949. The priest asked “if she thought the scapular was a part of the Fatima message. She answered, ‘Most definitely, the scapular and the Rosary are inseparable. The scapular is a sign of consecration to Our Lady.’” The next year on the feast of the Assumption, more Carmel12
ite priests again interviewed Sister Lucia for 90 minutes. She told them, “Our Lady wants all to wear the scapular.” “Can we be sure she meant by her appearance dressed as Our Lady of Mount Carmel and holding the scapular that she wanted the scapular as part of the message?” asked Father Howard Rafferty. “Yes,” Lucia answered. “Now the Holy Father has already told this to the whole world, saying that the scapular is a sign of
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Nobody can disagree now.” She was likely referring to Venerable Pius XII’s letter to the Carmelites that year in which he strongly recommended the scapular. Yet the priest persisted. “In giving the conditions of the Fatima message, is it correct to say that the scapular is one of the conditions?” “Yes, certainly,” Lucia replied. He persisted. “Is the wearing of the scapular as important as
the saying of the daily Rosary?” “Yes,” Lucia affirmed, repeating, “The Rosary and the scapular are inseparable. The scapular is a sign of consecration to Our Lady.’” The interviews were documented by Father Kilian Lynch, the Carmelite prior of Aylesford who also visited with Sister Lucia that year, in his small book, Our Lady of Fatima and the Brown Scapular. This centennial year is a prime time to realize the scapular is a major part of Our Lady’s Fatima message.
A Fatima pope’s example and words
St. John Paul II not only spoke powerfully about both the Rosary and scapular, but he led by example. When he was shot on the Fatima anniversary of May 13, 1981, he insisted that his brown scapular was not removed. Father Mariano Cera reported in Inside the Vatican magazine: “Just before the Holy Father was operated on, he told the doctors, ‘Don’t take off the
scapular.’ And the surgeons left it on.” The pope did not stop there. Writing to the Carmelites, he stated that “the most genuine form of devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, expressed by the humble sign of the scapular, is the consecration to her Immaculate Heart.” Remember, more than once at Fatima Mary said the consecration to her Immaculate Heart was essential. The saintly John Paul II added, “There are two truths which the sign of the scapular brings out: on the one hand, there is the continuous protection of the Blessed Virgin, not only along the pathways of this life, but also at the moment of passing into the fullness of eternal glory; on the other hand, there is the awareness that devotion towards Our Lady cannot be limited to the occasional prayer in her honor, but must become a ‘habit,’ that is a permanent way of Christian living, made up of prayer and the interior life, frequent recourse to the Sacraments and the concrete exercise of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.” Along with the Oct. 13 apparition, St. John Paul II’s Fatima-scapular connection is a clear lesson to either begin or renew our devotion to Our Lady through the brown scapular along with the Rosary this centennial year.
Wisdom from the Carmelites
The scapular is “a tangible symbol and sacramental of the deeper reality of Mary clothing and protecting us with her own mantle,” reminds Carmelite Father Justin Francis
Cinnante, who promotes the scapular at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, N.Y., and everywhere. “It’s a sign of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and that Mary will assure the salvation of those devoted to her.” Understanding it’s not a goto-heaven-free pass; we have do our part, too. Father Cinnante explains that along with being enrolled in the scapular and wearing it always, the conditions include daily Marian devotion like the Rosary (another Fatima connection), and observing chastity in our state in life. Eighteen-year-old Sara Raciti, who works at the shrine, wears the scapular 24-7 “because I consecrated myself to Our Lady, and the scapular is one of the main ways I show true devotion to her.” She emphasizes something else she loves about the scapular, that is, “being under Our Lady’s protection, having her mantle on us and her being our advocate.” On Oct. 13, Mary gave us more than the miracle of the sun. She again led us to the vital devotions of the invincible Rosary and scapular.
EDITOR’S NOTE PLEASE SEE THE RELATED ARTICLE BY JOSEPH PRONECHEN ABOUT THE STATUE OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL IN OUR ARTS REVIEW SECTION, PP.26-27.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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Why little children for
God’s big missions? By Most Rev. Joseph N. Perry
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ere and there, people ask the question why children are often the subjects of apparitions by the Blessed Mother, for example, the three children, Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia at Fatima or Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes. These children were charged with meeting head-on the hostility of
adults who found the children’s reports of visions childish and suspect in a world that is not disposed to the spirit world or happenings outside sensate experience. In some instances, these children can be said to have experienced mistreatment by adults in the face of describing what they had seen and heard.
Why doesn’t God use adults for these kinds of interventions, some ask? We can say simply that “our ways are not God’s ways.” The adult world is usually unprepared for a reception of such spiritual interventions without skepticism or at least scientific inquiry through which God cannot or does not choose to function. Children, on the other hand, are naturally open to mystery and the spirit world — things beyond this world. Looking through Scripture, we can trace God’s use of children and young people and find that children and youth are not ineligible for God’s revelations and messaging or ambassadorship. Think of the young David and his fight against 14
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
the giant Goliath (1 Sm 17), or the young Samuel who was called to prophecy in Israel, “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will,” the lad said (1 Sm 3). Think of the young lad Jeremiah who thought himself to be too young for mission until the Lord corrected his self-assessment (Jer 1, 6). Think of Mary of Nazareth, to whom the Archangel Gabriel appeared announcing to her that she had been chosen to be the Mother of Jesus (Lk 1, 26). She could have been no more than 12 or 13 years of age then, according to Bible scholars. Think of Jesus’ own praise of children before the surprising looks of adults welcoming children around him and his words about the importance of children,
“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mk 10, 15). These biblical references would indicate that adults should be attentive to children and not so easily brush off their needs and messaging. God can speak to the world through children as surely as he speaks through adults. Pope Pius X understood this when he made it possible for children to receive the Holy Eucharist insofar as they can understand what it is they are receiving. Children have an innocence that leaves their experience most often unfiltered and undoctored. What you see is what you get, and the truth children voice can be surprising at times to adults. Children are uncomplicated beings. Their purity of heart makes them adequate vessels for God’s presence and messaging. It all brings to mind Matthew 11, 25 where it quotes Jesus speaking to the Father, “You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to children.” What more can be said? Unfortunately, so many incidents we read about in newspapers and hear about on newscasts remind us that children are not immune from the world’s suffering, and are often vessels themselves of suffering, victims of pain and persecution through the sins and mistakes and neglect of adults. Clearly, the Fatima seers were asked to absorb suffering in body and psyche in carrying Mary’s message to the world about the need for personal repentance and sacrifice for sins and sacrilege. God used their suffering to save countless souls. A child’s prayer is heard by Almighty God. Their childlikeness is attractive to God, in the words of Jesus. Children remind us of our own childlikeness that we cannot afford to lose. Children are
naturally open to the otherworldly, lacking a complicatedness that would prevent God from penetrating their hearts. Children are apt vessels for communicating the will of God in our lives. The ministry of children is a reminder that we should make sure children are saved by the graces of God through baptism and that they have ways to find intimacy with God through proper religious instruction, their reception of the Holy Eucharist and other prayers and devotions. Spiritual neglect of children is just as profound as their material and physical neglect. Our Lady employed three children of Fatima, Portugal, in hopes that the common citizenry would appreciate the pure vessels they were with these heavenly messages. Her choice of children for the Fatima catechesis highlights her heavenly motherhood of all of us. Children all have in common a great love for their mother. Mary does with the Fatima children what all mothers do for their children — teach them right from wrong, teach them their prayers and ways to win the love of God for them, teach them to stay clear of the wiles of the world and anyone or anything that could harm them. Children also run errands for their mothers. And true Christian mothers bring their children to Christ.
Bishop Perry gave this talk at the Chapel of the Apparitions at Fatima during a pilgrimage with The Blue Army in July. Used with permission.
“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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The previous century, in June 1832, a curious phenomenon appeared in Balasar – overnight a large earthen cross appeared on the ground. It was lighter than the surrounding soil and an inch or two higher than the surrounding ground. The parish priest reported this to his superiors and said that he had tried to brush — and wash — away the cross, but to no effect. Whatever the weather, the cross remained and in the end, a chapel was built over it. The subsequent life of Blessed Alexandrina showed that she was the victim soul whose vocation it was to symbolically mount that cross and live a life of suffering in Balasar, until her death on the very significant date of Oct. 13, 1955 — the anniversary date of the last apparition at Fatima and of the miracle of the sun.
Ble s sed A le x a ndrina d a Co s ta — T he F o urt h Seer of Fati m a By Donal Anthony Foley
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lessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa has been described as the “fourth seer” of Fatima. She was born in the little village of Balasar, in the north of Portugal, on March 30,
1904, just over 13 years before the first of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima to the three shepherd children in May 1917.
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Called to suffer When Alexandrina was 14, on Holy Saturday 1918, she was with her elder sister, Deolinda, and another young woman. They were sewing in her home, when three local men, who had been drinking, entered the house and attempted to sexually assault them. In order to escape, Alexandrina jumped out of a window and fell about 12 feet to the ground, seriously injuring her spine. This was the beginning of her long Calvary, as she progressively became paralyzed and had to endure great pain. Finally from about the age of 20, in April 1924, until her death more than 30 years later, she was immobilized and completely bedridden. She gradually came to realize, though, that she was called to a life of suffering in union with
Christ, and over time she actively began to pray for a love of suffering, so she could be more like Jesus crucified and offer herself up as a victim soul. The mystical phenomena associated with Alexandrian began in 1931 and in 1934 Christ asked her to be a crucified victim of His love. She agreed to this request and every Friday from October 1938 until March 1942, she re-lived His Passion in her own body. While she was undergoing these sufferings, her paralysis temporarily ceased and she was able to move about and experience in her body all the sufferings of Christ, including His being nailed to the cross. For the last 13 years of her life, she existed exclusively on Holy Communion. Fatima Mystic By now, many pilgrims were coming to visit her and ask for her prayers, and her power of intercession began to become well-known. To those who came to see her, she reiterated the message of Fatima, the necessity of prayer and penance, and she herself lived the principle of reparation for the sins of mankind. Alexandrina’s connection with Fatima really dates from 1938, when, following a retreat under her spiritual director, the Portuguese bishops petitioned the pope, asking that he consecrate the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that it could be saved from disaster, just as Portugal had been delivered from the threat of communism by the consecration of the country that had been carried out in the early 1930s. In 1940, Sister Lucia wrote to the new Pope Pius XII, telling him the second part of the secret
Shrine dedicated to Blessed Alexandrina in Balasar, Portugal.
Alexandrina spent most of her life in this bed, a suffering soul.
that concerned the consecration of Russia and the First Saturday communions of reparation. She also asked the pope to extend the First Saturdays devotion to the whole world, and revealed that Jesus had made it known to her that He would shorten the “days of tribulation” that mankind was then undergoing. But this was on condition that Pius XII “consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the Bishops of the world do the same …” The time was not ripe then for the particular consecration of Russia, but God was prepared to accept a general consecration of the world, with mention of Russia, as a means of shortening the war. This approach fit with the request to Rome from Alexandrina da Costa that the world
be consecrated to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. So we can say that Alexandrina played an important part in bringing this crucial consecration about, a consecration that has indeed been credited with shortening World War II. To the end of her life of suffering, it was always the message of Fatima that she passed on to her thousands of visitors. She urged them to make reparation to Our Lord in the Eucharist, and to do penance. She also spoke of the necessity of praying the Rosary devoutly every day, practicing the Five First Saturdays devotion, and of consecrating themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by means of wearing the brown scapular. The “fourth seer” of Fatima was beatified by St. John Paul II on April 25, 2004, and her feast day is Oct. 13. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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The International Statue is welcomed to Hawaii in early 2017.
The impact of the Pilgrim Virgin Statues in 2017 By Barb Ernster
A cro s s Americ a , hundred s of thous and s of people have been e xp o sed to the me s s age of Fatim a through the Pilgrim Virgin Stat ue tour s this ye ar .
Alaska was the 41st state to receive the International Statue during the Tour for Peace.
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Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
The Fatima Centennial U.S. Tour for Peace with the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue (IPVS) has been especially impactful during its two-year daily tour of America. As of July 31 this year, the statue has traveled to 41 of the 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and visited nearly 400 parishes, schools and shrines, with 108 more on the schedule before the tour ends on Dec. 18. The goal of the tour is to allow Our Lady of Fatima to claim her dominion over America through her Immaculate Heart, and to bring the urgent message of Fatima — “the peace plan from heaven” — to a world in need. It also encourages devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, something God wanted established. From the response of people, we can say these goals are being met. Wherever Our Lady travels, she is welcomed with joyful tears, processions, Marian hymns, waving hankies, roses and rosaries. Thousands of people have been enrolled in the brown scapular, made a personal consecration to the Immaculate Heart and signed a commitment to do what Our Lady requested for the conversion of sinners and salvation of souls. They are learning about and taking up her particular request for the First Saturday devotion. In addition, numerous parishes, dioceses and whole states (Wisconsin) have been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady is claiming her dominion.
Ave Maria University parish visit in Florida.
The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima statue at the FOCUS consecration ceremony.
Thousands commit to offering their daily sacrifices
Besides the IPVS, the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue (NPVS) will visit more than 150 parishes in nine dioceses by the end of this year. The NPVS program introduced a simple way to do what Our Lady asked by starting each day with nine seconds of prayer — the Pardon Prayer that the Angel taught and a morning offering “to accept and bear with submission whatever crosses God permits” in their lives each day for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart. Even nine seconds of prayer every day is part of the tremendous work of converting America and bringing everyone back to God. “Since we started making people aware of the need to do reparation in addition to prayer, 65,000 members have made a promise to do their best to offer every day their trials and tribulations as reparation for the conversion of America. It has been very successful,” says statue custodian Bill Sockey, who has distributed thousands of our fliers on this program. The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima statue, which was blessed by Pope Francis in Oct. 2013, will also tour nine dioceses by the end of 2017. This statue was present on June 13 for the consecration of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart. It was also at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., which Vice President Mike Pence attended. Through the work of our statue custodians and the Pilgrim Virgin Statue tours, millions of people have been touched by Our Lady of Fatima. While there is no way we can tangibly measure the impact of this important evangelization mission, we know that souls are being saved and sinners are converting.
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue has been on diocesan tours throughout 2017.
The IPVS will make a special appearance at the Fatima Centennial Summit in Dallas (see back cover) where Cardinal Raymond Burke and other speakers will address the modern-day crisis and the Fatima solutions. On the important Oct. 13 anniversary, it will be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Bison, Okla., in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The city has been home to a Satanist who has repeatedly performed Black Masses, desecrated a statue of the Blessed Mother and mocked Our Lord and Our Lady in the public square.
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue visited Green Bay, Wisc., in June 2017.
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THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF OUR LADY’S SEPTEMBER APPARITION
“I will cure some but not others” By Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR
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mong the things Our Lady mentioned in her September apparition to the children was a reference to healings
of the sick and infirm. When Lucia asked the Blessed Mother to heal certain persons, Our Lady answered, “I will cure some but not others.” As we reflect on Our Lady’s words, we spontaneously ask ourselves, “Why some or why not others?”
We should ask, first of all, where did suffering, sickness and infirmity come from? The Catholic Church’s answer is that they are, in general, the effects of original sin. Before their sin, our first parents enjoyed a freedom from all forms of physical suffering, as well as from ignorance, disordered passion (called concupiscence) and even death itself. As a result of their fall, they lost these freedoms for themselves and for us too. Consequently, suffering entered into human history. Suffering may take the form of disastrous events in nature such as earthquakes, tornados or drought. Most times, it is experienced in personal forms such as accidents, cancer or other illness. 20
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
When suffering comes our way, it is always related to God’s will. Either He wants it to happen or He at least permits it to happen, but always for His own purpose. This purpose may be to convert someone back from a life of sin. How many people turn to God during times of disaster or personal difficulties who otherwise forget Him? Sometimes suffering is meant to purify a good person from the remnants of their sinful habits. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “It is good for a Christian to get into a lot of hot water; it keeps him clean!” Or God may even send suffering to certain people who bear these sufferings heroically in union with Jesus for the salvation of souls. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta did this with the sufferings God sent them. “They must amend their lives.”
Many times when people are suffering, they ask God to take their sufferings away. Sometimes He does, sometimes He does not. We cannot understand all the workings of God’s mysterious will, but we can gain some insights from Our Lady and sacred Scripture. In the October apparition when Lucia asked her again for cures, Our Lady replied, “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.” The Gospels show us that sometimes suffering is directly connected with sin. For example, after Jesus healed a man at the side of a pool who had been paralyzed for 38 years, He told him, “You have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you” (Jn 5:14). Maybe this was also the reason why Jesus first forgave the sins of another paralyzed man who was brought to Him by his companions before He healed him of his paralysis (Mt 9:2-8). We may conclude that the presence of unrepented mortal sins in the hearts of certain individuals could be one reason why God does not cure some people of their illnesses. After all, God listens to those who listen to Him! Perhaps some who sought cures at Fatima were refused because their hearts still clung to sin, thus remaining far from God. Now, not all sufferings are directly resultant from sin. This is clear from Our Lord’s words about the man born blind (Jn 9:1 ff). When Jesus’ disciples had seen this man, they asked Our Lord, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?” (The Pharisees taught the preposterous idea that an unborn infant can sin in the womb of his or her mother. At the same time, it was commonly held that if parents sinned, God sometimes punished them by inflicting infirmity on their children.) Jesus responded, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” This blind man did, in fact, receive his sight from Jesus because he believed in Him! Faith needed for cures
Faith is probably the greatest factor in the case of cures. Faith, which places trust in God’s goodness, moves the Lord to exercise His power to help us. St. Therese put it this way, “We will get from the Lord what we expect!” The Canaanite woman, who persevered in her petitioning the Lord’s mercy, received the miraculous healing she requested: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you have believed.” And her daughter was healed instantly (Mt. 15:28). St. Paul We cannot understand cured a crippled man at Lystra all the workings of who was listening intently to him preach when the saint obGod’s mysterious Will, served that the man “had the but we can gain some faith to be healed” (Acts 14:9). Lack of faith is a mainsights from Our Lady jor obstacle to the grace of and Sacred Scripture. healing. It is recorded in the Gospel that Jesus, when He had returned to His hometown of Nazareth, “did not do many deeds of power there because of their unbelief” (Mt 13:58). No doubt, there were many sick and suffering in Nazareth who needed to be cured, but their lack of faith in Jesus prevented His divine power from working freely! At Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917, there were many atheistic Masons and government officials as well as skeptics who simply did not believe Our Lady was truly appearing. The presence of their disbelief actually diminished the magnificence of the “miracle of the sun.” Their hearts were closed. Some of these persons were, no doubt, among those people who did not experience the miraculous cures Our Lady wanted to obtain for them, but they did not believe. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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N E W S F R O M T H E WA F
Rosary Garden Update L
ast year in the summer issue of Soul, we asked for help in refurbishing the Rosary Garden, located in the northeast portion of the Shrine property.
We are grateful for the many contributions we have received for this project. The staff has been at work removing brush and dead branches, as well as painting and repairing the wooden enclosures at the individual mysteries. All these representations are open to the elements throughout the year and, even though we store the statues until spring, the winter weather takes its toll on the structures. This work will continue. Any contributions will be greatly appreciated and you will be remembered in our prayers. If you are able to volunteer some time to help with this project, please contact Dorothy Carollo at 908.246.6626. Contributions can be mailed to: Blue Army Shrine of our Lady of Fatima “Our Lady’s Rosary Garden,” P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882.
sisters moved into a convent built on the adjacent property that John Haffert helped them obtain. Sister Miranda came up with an idea for a Rosary Garden and laid out its design. The garden has three circular paths that lead you through 15 decades of the Rosary. The joyful mysteries are each depicted by life-sized statues, the sorrowful mysteries by bronze reliefs and the glorious by carved marble panels. The paved paths wind through a tranquil setting of pine and cedar trees where one can often spot a passing deer. Adjacent to the Rosary Garden is the Stations Walk, also inspired by Sister Miranda, where 14 Stations of the Cross are similarly laid out. If viewed from above, these two heart-shaped gardens could easily depict the two hearts of Jesus and Mary.
A little history
Luminous Mysteries added
The Rosary Garden exists thanks to Sister Mary Miranda Plachta, CSSF, a Felician sister of the Lodi, N.J., province. She visited the shrine in 1950 when it was known as the Ave Maria Institute and was enchanted by the natural beauty of the area. She returned on Aug. 2, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with her companion Sister Mary Wesotowske, CSSF. They came to ask Our Lady and St. Joseph to reserve a place for a Felician convent “where their Son could be loved and glorified.” Their dream came true and by the early 1970s, the 22
The Rosary Garden offers a tranquil place of prayer and meditation for Shrine visitors.
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
In 2016, our head of maintenance, Daniel Wagner, began expanding the Rosary Garden to include the luminous mysteries in preparation for the 100th anniversary of Fatima. Recently, the shrine introduced Mary Walks where visitors are invited to come and pray the Rosary every Monday evening from 7 p.m.-8 p.m. and imitate Mary on her walk to visit Elizabeth. We appreciate the efforts of all of our volunteers, staff and benefactors who continue to keep Sister Miranda’s dream alive.
Enthrone Jesus and Mary in your home By Kristin Stravinsky
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or the 100-year celebration of Our Lady of Fatima this year, I cannot think of a more special way to celebrate than to
have your home enthroned to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart. The hidden graces and blessings that flow from having this done are immeasurable and there is no greater protection for your family than Jesus’ most loving Sacred Heart and Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
Throughout the Fatima message, the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary are promoted together and Jesus made it clear to Sister Lucia that he wanted devotion to the Immaculate Heart placed alongside devotion to His Sacred Heart. The first to speak of this was the Angel of Peace in the spring of 1916: “The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.” The Angel speaks again in the summer of 1916: “The Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you.” Again in the fall of 1916, he dictates a prayer that, in part, says: “And through the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg of Thee the conversion of sinners.” Jesus and Mary are at the heart of the message of Fatima and they are inviting you to answer their gentle call of welcoming them into your home. In my work as the home enthronement national coordinator for the World Apostolate of Fatima, the testimonies of people who have had their homes enthroned witness to the power of this devotion. Here’s a story shared by a wife and mother: “I recently had my home enthroned. I decided to do this after my husband and I had some serious marital issues. He had left me, partly because he felt like he was under a spiritual attack, feeling like something in this house was tormenting him, and he was drinking more and more, which made everything worse. For months we lived apart and talked about getting divorced. Anytime I talked to him or saw him, it was like he wasn’t the man I had married. I prayed a lot while we were apart,
him living an hour away, and me at my mom’s place. Eventually in January, he said he wanted to work on the marriage, and a few months later we moved back into my house. I decided to have the home enthronement because I was afraid, not of evil spirits in my house, but of him leaving again. If anyone was under attack, it was him. So I hoped that if the house was blessed, it would keep the negative energies away. So I set up the appointment, even though my husband didn’t want me to. We argued quite a bit about this; my husband’s feelings about religion and mine differ a lot. But when they came out and blessed the house, he changed his mind about whether it was a good idea or not. He said to me after it was over, “When everyone was praying, I felt a cold draft come out of the basement, smelled a foul odor, as something went past me. It was like something was leaving.” He also apologized for the hard time he had given me and said, “You were right” — three words I never heard before and will probably never hear again. LEARN MORE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOME “The house feels ENTHRONEMENT, VISIT WAFUSA. different now, lighter, ORG/THE-APOSTOLATE/ like someone opened HOME-ENTHRONEMENT/ OR CALL KRISTEN STRAVINSKY the curtains and let AT 903.495.2020 OR the light in.” KSTRAVINSKY@BLUEARMY.COM. Please prayerfully consider this one-hour celebration in your home with a priest who will conduct the ceremony. May your home become a domestic church with the Hearts of Jesus and Mary at your side. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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The Queen of Heaven takes Britain by storm By Donal Anthony Foley
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017 has become a very important year for the World Apostolate of Fatima in England and Wales. Over the last couple of years, we made plans for an ambitious program that would involve taking the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and relics of Sts. Jacinta and Francisco around the two countries. We are now
about halfway through a program, which involves visiting 20 out of the 22 dioceses in England and Wales, and it is succeeding beyond our expectations.
The Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady, like many of those which have been sent around the world, was blessed by Pope Paul VI at Fatima in May 1967. It was then given to this country by the bishop of Fatima in 1968. It was also blessed by St. John Paul II during his visit to Britain in 1982. The program got off to a tremendous start when the statue and relics visited Westminster Cathedral in London last February. Cardinal Vincent Nichols presided at Mass on the day of the visitation and received, blessed and crowned the statue. He actually crowned it with a new, specially made silvergilt centenary crown, produced by the same firm in Portugal that made the crown used at the Capelinha in Fatima on the 13th of each month. During the celebration, Cardinal Nichols also renewed the consecration of the country to the 24
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
Immaculate Heart of Mary that had been made by Cardinal Griffin on July 16, 1948, a few years after the end of the Second World War. The cardinal also preached a very inspiring and solid homily in which he focused on the importance of the Rosary and devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. After Mass, the congregation, which may have been as many as 3,000 people, venerated the relics of Sts. Jacinta and Francisco and participated in devotions to Our Lady. After this, a Fatima Symposium, which involved members of the WAF England and Wales committee, was held in nearby Westminster Cathedral Hall and was filmed by EWTN. In sum, the Westminster Cathedral visitation was a truly joyful and uplifting occasion, at which the genuine Marian devotion of ordinary Catholics of London was very much apparent.
Since then, the statue and relics have visited over a dozen cathedrals, abbeys, churches and shrines, and everywhere they have gone they have received a great reception. The other big event has been the visitation to Southwark Cathedral — also in London, but in this case south of the River Thames — on May 13, the day Pope Francis canonized Jacinta and Francisco at Fatima. Again there was a large and enthusiastic crowd, and this event was followed by a procession with the statue and relics to a church about two miles away. Another highlight was the visitation to Arundel Cathedral, which is located near the south coast of England in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. This beautiful church was built in the 19th century by the then Duke of Norfolk near his ancestral home, Arundel Castle. It now holds the relics of St. Philip Howard, the first Earl of Arundel, who died in 1595 in the Tower of London during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. He suffered greatly when he refused to give up his Catholic faith. An important upcoming visitation is the one to Walsingham, the premier Marian shrine in England. In medieval times, it was regarded as one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Europe, alongside Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Rome and Jerusalem. The shrine dates back to 1061, just before the time of William the Conqueror. It arose following a vision of Our Lady to Richeldis de Faverches asking her to build, in honor of the Annunciation, a replica of the holy house in Nazareth where the Holy Family had lived. At the time of the Reformation, the shrine at Walsingham was destroyed, but it has
An enthusiastic crowd processes the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima through the streets of London. © ANGELICA MACABANGON - A/M PHOTOGRAPHY
Cardinal Vincent Nichols crowned Our Lady at Westminster Cathedral, February, 2017.
seen a revival since the late 19th century. Britain very much needs the message of Fatima, since, like the rest of Europe, and the world in general, we are struggling from the effects of the “errors of Russia” that Our Lady spoke about to the Fatima children in July 1917. Those errors have now been transmuted into the modern secularism, materialism and atheism, which are having such a devastating effect on the countries of the West. We would be grateful if WAF-USA members could pray for the continuing success of the visitation programs in both England and Wales and Scotland, and that during this centenary year the message of Fatima will make a real impact among the Catholics of Britain. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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ARTS REVIEW
The statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel according to Sister Lucia By Joseph Pronechen
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ess than 70 miles from the World Apostolate of Fatima, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, N.Y., has a significant connection to the Oct. 13 apparition and this year’s 100th anniversary of Fatima. In the sanctuary, there is a glorious shrine of Our Lady
of Mount Carmel. Her statue from Portugal, which has a history connected to Sister Lucia, was enthroned here on Feb. 4, 2017.
In the late 1940s, two Carmelite priests from the province in New York, which is in charge of this national shrine, also spoke with Sister Lucia at Coimbra. Then, with the help of a Portuguese Carmelite, they commissioned sculptor José Ferreira Thedim to carve a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel according to Sister Lucia’s direction and interpretation of the October vision. Thedim was the premiere Fatima sculptor who carved the original statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima that is today venerated in the Chapel of the Apparitions, the Capelinha, since being placed there on June 13, 1920. Then under Lucia’s guidance, he sculpted additional statues of Our Lady of Fatima, one in 1947 that 26
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is the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima that travels worldwide under the custody of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, and is currently on tour across America for the Fatima centennial. When Thedim completed the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the bishop of Fatima blessed it on Sept. 13, 1949. When it arrived in America for the Carmelite parish of Our Lady of the Scapular in Manhattan, Cardinal Francis Spellman blessed it on July 16, 1950, Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s feast day. The parish was eventually combined with another, then the Carmelites left in 2007. When the parish closed in 2014, the Carmelites asked
that the statue be returned to the St. Elias Province. In July 2015, the statue arrived in Middletown, where the Carmelites had it restored. Today, Our Lady again appears in the original baldachino fashioned for her and also restored. Recalling the Oct. 13 vision, the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel stands on a cloud. In her left hand, she holds the Child Jesus and with her right hand offers us a scapular. Her expression is very motherly, full of love, kindness and care for us as she offers this magnificent gift. The scapular she originally held was woven by Sister Lucia herself. Somewhere along the years, it disappeared; to where, no one knows. On the pedestal, a golden relief below Our Lady portrays her giving the scapular to St. Simon Stock. Remember her words to him on July 16, 1251 in Aylesford, England:
“Take this scapular, it shall be a sign of salvation, a protection in danger and a pledge of peace. Whosoever dies wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”
The inscription in gold across the top of the baldachino reads, Tu Soror Nostra Es from Proverbs 7:4 — You are our Sister. It’s an affectionate Carmelite address for her. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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YO U N G H E A R T S
A Facebook question –
a book full of answers
C
By Barb Ernster hristopher Sparks, 30, asked Facebook friends to finish the question: How can you still be Catholic when ... ? He quickly got all the questions he needed for his book, “How Can You Still be Catholic? 50 Answers to a Good Question” (Marian Press 2017). He sat down with us at the Catholic Marketing Network in Chicago
and gave his story of seeking true answers to the tough questions of today.
Why do you think you got such an overwhelming response to your Facebook question?
Because it’s such a common question, either because of all the abuse scandals or because of the history they teach in high schools. My high school textbook talked about the reason the Church opposed witchcraft was because the Church wanted to maintain its monopoly on magic. They are teaching that as serious history in a public high school and it has no connection to reality. So much of it is myth left over from the Reformation. It’s not really malice on most people’s part, or even a rejection of the faith or Christ or His Church; they don’t know what on earth Christ and His Church really are. (Bishop) Fulton Sheen had a great quote about the fact there are millions of people who hate what they believe is the Catholic faith; there are not 100 people in this country who actually hate the Catholic Church. This book will hopefully clear away the misconceptions to bring some people home to the Church, but at the very 28
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least make it easier to talk with people, make the Church less threatening. Yeah, we’ve got our problems, but there’s a lot of grace and good here. I’d love to share it with the world. What are some of the questions you answer in the book?
Some are the obvious: How can you still be Catholic after the Crusades? ... after the Inquisition? ... after the abuse scandal? Think of your hot topics and I think I’ve pretty much hit them. How do you answer them? Do you present more accurate history?
Yes, in places. Sometimes what’s really needed is to acknowledge there are problems as well. Though the Crusades were far more justifiable than most people would think, at the same time, there is always something questionable about violence in the name of Christ. Christ didn’t come to raise an army for the world, He didn’t come to lead us into physical battle; He came to raise a spiritual army. Yet, we had to defend
the innocent, Europe had to defend itself, Islam was invading and our response was reasonable. And really, there is something noble about the Crusades, an ideal that is lost in a lot of these conversations, even though we didn’t live up to the ideal consistently. In 2,000 years, we’ve had sinners and done some really awful things. On the other hand, I really wish we could clear up some of these myths in the age of the internet and the age of publishing, with such access to information. The fact that these endure is almost intolerable. Did you address some of the hot social issues of our time?
Yes, for example, the sexual issues were unavoidable, but this is what people are so blasé about. There’s an analogy that in the ‘50s, everybody couldn’t care less about what you ate, but they had very passionate opinions about what you did in bed. Now, everybody cares about what you eat — how dare you not be vegan and how dare you eat GMOs — but they don’t care what you do in bed. It’s amazing how this cultural flip-flop has occurred. In one way, people have a really keen sense of the natural law. They have a keen sense that the human body is made for certain ends that must be respected, so they eat organic and want to live a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, in the name of the sexual revolution, they want to do whatever they want with their body, never mind the ends. So even though people would never have chemicals on their food, they are delighted to take chemical contraceptives. It’s a fascinating almost double-blind from the enemy, if you will.
I was stunned to consistently find really good answers for the Catholic position, and deep answers.
When did you start trying to answer these hard questions yourself?
I love the truth. I come from a family of fairly bright people (mathematicians and scientists) who, if I asked, ‘Why is the sky blue?’ would give me graphs and equations on a napkin. They showed me that there are real answers, true answers to these kinds of questions. Both the Protestant side of the family (dad)
and the Catholic side (mom) agree on the essentials and everybody gets along. Who’s right? I decided that, to be intellectually honest, I should figure out what I think is true. So I went looking online for the hardest arguments and most fervent atheists and got involved with online apologetics. I was stunned to consistently find really good, deep answers for the Catholic position. I discovered that usually the questions were wrong. The atheist objections were typically founded on bad premises, bad facts or bad logic. Occasionally, you have certain solid objections — evil and suffering consistently throughout history — this will always be a real challenge to the faith. And we honor the saints who were heroic in the face of evil and suffering and were a real witness to the truth and the Gospel. But so many other arguments come from bad history. Pius the XII was “Hitler’s pope,” for instance. So, as I kept finding the Church winning every argument, I was pretty solidly convinced this was true. So many of the youth have a cynical view of the world. You sound like you have a lot of hope.
I do, especially, as you know, our great prophetic expectation right now is the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. Our Lady promised an era of peace. So the next thing we are looking forward to is not a disaster. It’s not a triumph of the devil. It’s a triumph of Our Lady. And peace as the Church teaches us involves a rightly ordered civilization. That suggests a deep conversion of our culture, a culture of life, leading to a civilization of love as the Holy Father has been talking about for decades now. So that’s what’s next for us as a world. Yes, there possibly is a secularist globalist thing being built and I think the Church will inherit it. It’s very much like it was with the Israelites and the Egyptians; the Israelites took the treasures of Egypt with them on their way to the Promised Land. That’s what we’re looking at.
Christopher Sparks has a BA in history and philosophy from Gonzaga University, and an MA in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. See page 43 for how to order his book.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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A LOOK BACK
THE SIXTH APPARITION: OCTOBER 13th, 1917 By Vincent J. Covello
When Our Lady appeared to the three children in August 1917, she stated, “In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”
OCTOBER APPARITION
Lucia relates that on Oct. 13, “We left home quite early, expecting that we would be delayed along the way. Masses of people thronged the roads. The rain fell in torrents. My mother, her heart torn with uncertainty as to what was going to happen, and fearing it would be the last day of my life, wanted to accompany me. “On the way, the scenes of the previous month, still more numerous and moving, were repeated. Not even the muddy roads could prevent these people from kneeling in the most humble and suppliant of attitudes. We reached the holm oak in the Cova da Iria. Once there, moved by an interior impulse, I asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary. A little later, we saw the flash of light, and then Our Lady appeared on the holm oak. “’What do you want of me?’ I asked. 30
“I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes. “... Looking very sad, Our Lady said: Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended. “Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself.” Lucia then directed the crowd to look at the sun. “... After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the sign of the
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
cross with their hands. When a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolors. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel.”
THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN
While the children were watching the apparitions, the crowd saw something completely different. Our Lady had said a miracle would occur on Oct. 13. This is the only time a known miracle has been witnessed, that was predicted for a specific time and place and actually occurred exactly as predicted. What has been described as the miracle of the sun is described by an eyewitness, one Mary Allen: “As we approached the hillside upon which the appearances were supposed to have taken place, I saw a sea of people. (Some newspapers said there were 70,000 people there). I didn’t count, but it was more people than I have ever seen in my life, even to this day. “We had just arrived there when suddenly my attention was drawn by a sudden bright light from the heavens, lighting up the whole countryside. Suddenly the rain ceased, the clouds separated and I saw a large sun, brighter than the sun, yet I could look at it without hurting my eyes, as if it were only the moon. This sun began to get larger and larger, brighter and brighter until the whole heavens seemed more brilliantly lighted than I have ever seen it. Then the sun started spinning and shooting streams of light, which changed to all colors of the rainbow. “At the same time, it started getting bigger and bigger in the sky as though it were headed directly for us, as though it were falling on the earth. Everyone was frightened. We all thought it was the end of the world. Everyone threw themselves on their knees praying and screaming the Act of Contrition. Suddenly, the sun stopped spinning and returned to its place in the sky. Everyone started shouting: ‘Miracle. This is a miracle.’ Just then I noticed that both the ground and my clothes were bone dry. Everyone seemed to rush forward to see the children. Unfortunately, I was only able to see them at a distance.”
THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA The message Our Lady brought to the world at Fatima has often been called “Heaven’s Peace Plan.” It was a message we are all called to hear and fulfill. It can be summed up into four parts that we all must try to achieve:
1 Prayer, especially the daily Rosary.
2 Sacrifices for sinners.
3 The daily faithful fulfillment of our duties in life according to our vocation and specific situations.
4 The patient bearing of the trials and sufferings that come our way each day.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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SAINTS ALIVE
St. Camillus de Lellis Patron of Health care workers By Rev. Matthew R. Mauriello
S
t. Camillus was born on May 25, 1550, at Bocchianico in central Italy. Giovanni, his father, had a bad temper and had served in the Neapolitan and French armies. His mother, Camilla Compelli, was already 50 at
the time of his birth, and when she died in 1562, Camillus was left to the care of relatives who neglected his well-being. Since he was a big man, six feet six inches tall, he entered service in the Venetian army at the age of 17 and fought against the Turks until his regiment was disbanded in 1575. Unfortunately, he became addicted to gambling and found himself penniless in Naples. As well, he was seriously injured with a painful wound to his leg that he suffered while serving in the army, which would not heal. Due to financial need, he worked as a laborer at the Capuchin friary at Manfredonia.
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Although he was quarrelsome and had a gambling problem, the guardian of the friary saw a better side to his nature and brought that out in him. The advice of the friar penetrated his heart, and on Feb. 2, 1575, he had a spiritual conversion. He then followed a strict ascetic life, performing many penances, such as wearing a knotted hair shirt. Although he
desired to enter the novitiate of the Capuchins, his wound was declared incurable by the physicians and he was denied admission to the order. He entered the Hospital of St. James in Rome, which cared for incurable cases. There, he soon became a care-giver and eventually the director. He observed the poor attention the sick received from the staff of the hospital and invited a group of pious men to express their faith through the care of the patients at the hospital. Together with his companions, they began service at the Hospital of the Holy Spirit where they assumed responsibility for the care of the patients. The large red cross on their habit remains the symbol of the congregation. This emblem is universally recognized today as the sign of charity and service. This was the original Red Cross, hundreds of years before the International Red Cross. In 1582, St. Camillus established the Order of Clerics Regular, Ministers of the Infirm, which became known as the Camillians after his death. His spiritual director and confessor, a charismatic local priest, St. Philip Neri (1515-1595), encouraged him to study for the holy priesthood and he was ordained on Pentecost Sunday 1584 at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. Members of the order devoted themselves to victims of bubonic plague. It was due to the efforts of the brothers and supernatural healings by St. Camillus that the people of Rome credited him with ridding the city of a great plague and subsequent famine. For a
time, he even became known as the “Saint of Rome.” To serve the sick at no cost
His concern for the proper treatment of the sick extended to the end of their lives. They added a fourth religious vow unique to their order: “to serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life.” In 1586, Pope Sixtus V gave the group formal recognition as a congregation and assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome, where they still maintain. On Dec. 8, 1591, Pope Gregory XIV raised the congregation to the status of an order. They began to serve the infirm in Naples in 1588 and went to Milan in 1595 working at the main hospital there. His experience in wars inspired him to establish a group of health care workers dedicated to helping soldiers on the battlefield. In 1591 and 1605 respectively, St. Camillus sent members of his order to minister to wounded troops in Hungary and Croatia, the first field medical unit. Heroic dedication
Although St. Camillus’ own ailments caused him suffering, he allowed no one to wait on him and would even crawl to visit the sick when unable to walk. It is said that he possessed the gifts of healing and prophecy. He assisted in a General Chapter of the Order in 1613, and accompanied the new superior general on a visitation of all the hospitals of the order throughout Italy. In the course of that tour, he fell ill and he died at Genoa on July 14, 1614 at the age of
“A l t h o u g h S t. C a m i l l u s ’ own ailments c aused h i m s u f f eri n g, h e a l l o w ed n o o n e to wa i t on him and would even cr aw l to v isit t h e sick w h e n u n a b l e t o w a l k .”
64. He was entombed at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. In that church is the cross which spoke to St. Camillus and asked him, “Why are you afraid? Do you not realize that this is not your work but Mine?” This is the motto associated with him, as well as health care workers who were inspired by his example. Patron saint of the sick and infirm
St. Camillus de Lellis was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV on April 7, 1742 and on June 29, 1746 was canonized by the same pope. He was declared patron of the sick along with St. John of God on June 22, 1886 by Pope Leo XIII, and in 1930, Pope Pius XI proclaimed him the patron saint of the infirm. His feast day is July 18 and he is the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians and is also invoked for those addicted to gambling. There are currently 11 provinces of the Ministers of the Infirm serving throughout the world.
SAY A PRAYER PRAY FOR ALL OF THOSE WHO “SERVE THE SICK,” THAT THEY MAY FULFILL THIER JOB DUTIFULLY AND FAITHFULLY TO THE LORD’S TEACHING.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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FROM THE GOOD BOOK
By Vincent J. Covello
Psalm 36 contrasts the thoughts of man’s wickedness, which leads him to forget or ignore the just punishments due to his sins, with God’s loving care for mankind. It is the sinfulness in man’s heart that inspires him to wickedness. Yet in verse 10 we see a recognition that the symbol of light is God’s goodness by which we can enjoy true happiness. The psalm begins with the thought that the wicked have no fear of God: 1.
S in directs the heart of the wicked man; his eyes are closed to the fear of God.
2. For he lives with the delusion: his guilt
will not be known and hated. 3. Empty and false are the words of his mouth;
he has ceased to be wise and do good. 4. On his bed he hatches plots; he sets out on
a wicked way, he does not reject evil. Here is acknowledged that God actively controls the entire world. 5. Lord, your mercy reaches to heaven;
your fidelity, to the clouds. 6. Your justice is like the highest mountains;
your judgments, like the mighty deep; human being and beast you sustain, Lord. 34
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
7. How precious is your mercy, O God!
The children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8. They feast on the rich food of your house;
from your delightful stream you give them drink. 9. For with you is the fountain of life, and
in your light we see the light. 10. Show mercy on those who know you,
your just defense to the upright of heart. 11. Do not let the foot of the proud overtake me. 12. There make the evildoers fall; thrust them
down, unable to rise.
Psalm 145 is a song of praise by David to the infinite majesty of God. It professes the greatness and goodness of God. It tells us about the supreme majesty of God and how deserving He is of our praise. However, it also reminds us that God seeks a personal relationship with each of us. While we may continually fall, he is always ready to save us by forgiving and welcoming us back to Him. In this psalm we see praise to God for His greatness and goodness: 1.
I will extol you, my God and King; I will bless your name forever and ever.
2. Every day I will bless you; I will praise
your name forever and ever. 3. Great is the Lord and worthy of much praise,
whose grandeur is beyond understanding. 4. One generation praises your deeds to the
next and proclaims your mighty works. 5. They speak of the splendor of your majestic
glory, tell of your wonderful deeds. 6. They speak of the power of your awesome
acts and recount your great deeds. 7. They celebrate your abounding goodness
and joyfully sing of your justice. 8. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger and abounding in mercy. 9. The Lord is good to all, compassionate
toward all your works. 10. All your works give you thanks, Lord
and your faithful bless you. 11. They speak of the glory of your reign and
tell of your mighty works.
12. Making known to the sons of men your
mighty acts, the majestic glory of your rule. 13. Your reign is a reign for all ages, your dominion
for all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all his words, and loving in all his works. 14. The Lord supports all who are failing and
raises up all who are bowed down. 15. The eyes of all look hopefully to you; you
give them their food in due season. 16. You open wide your hand and satisfy the
desire of every living thing. 17. The Lord is just in all his ways, merciful in
all his works. 18. The Lord is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth. 19. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them. 20. The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he destroys. 21. My mouth will speak the praises of the Lord;
all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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I BELIEVE By Vincent J. Covello
Divine Mercy IN TERV EN TION Carmen, a New York City resident, wrote about her strong devotion to reciting the Divine Mercy Chaplet. One day when watching her uncle’s apartment, she planned to attend a special Mass service, but her husband called to tell her their daughter was sick. He asked Carmen to be downstairs, at noon when he would pick her up. “Before going downstairs I stood before a Divine Mercy picture and expressed my feelings of disappointment, though I knew Jesus understood.” Outside, Carmen stood against a black iron fence to the left of the building entrance. “Directly across the street was a large clock. When it was 12:20 p.m., I became anxious since my husband was seldom late and the heat was intense. There was shade in front of the building, so I walked over to sit on a concrete bench. As I approached it I heard the words, ‘Don’t sit down’ — as if someone stood by me. An eerie feeling came over me.
THO UGHT S FR O M
Jesus
Stephanie from New Hampshire told us how, “I woke up one morning and my thoughts immediately went to the terrible condition of the world. I looked at my picture of Jesus and asked out loud, ‘How are you?’ Immediately I received an interior locution: ‘Impassable in my divine nature, but sorrowful in my human nature.’ Those were not my own thoughts, as I don’t use such formal language. But it just goes to show that we need to console the Heart of Jesus and pray and make sacrifices for the conversion of the world.”
I didn’t understand my experience, but I walked back to stand against the iron fence to wait.” When it was 12:45 p.m., Carmen walked back to the bench again, but hearing the same words, a terrifying feeling came over her as if something terrible may occur. She walked back to the fence wondering why her husband was so late. When the clock turned 12:50 p.m., “I saw huge chunks of masonry falling from the rooftop and landing where I would have sat. I was astonished in disbelief as I watched the masonry cover the bench in a heap.” Her husband soon arrived and she told him the whole story. “Extraordinary experiences like this true testimony are very difficult to comprehend and explain. I believe and acknowledge it occurred through the intervention of the Divine Mercy and God’s saving grace.” 36
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
“I Believe” comments about yourself or family, not about others, for possible publication may be sent to: • Email: soul@bluearmy.com Subject: Soul I Believe • Mail: Soul (I Believe) P.O. Box 976 Washington, NJ 07882 Editor’s Note: The “I Believe” reports are events people experienced that they believe to be extraordinary or divinely influenced. We cannot evaluate their claim, only the Church, with much time, evidence, scrutiny and caution, can authenticate a miracle. We present these personal experiences with the hope that it will help our readers develop a greater appreciation for the power of prayer and encourage them to increase meditation and contemplation on Christ, Our Lady and the saints for their own spiritual development.
GUARDI AN ANGEL ,
My Messenger
Carol, from the state of Washington wrote
about an incident that happened to her. It was several years ago when her husband planned a one-week hunting trip with other family members at a camp, 1½ hours away. It was Saturday and Carol planned to go to church for confession, but her car made a terrible noise, so she left it in the garage rather than taking a chance on it breaking down en route. After making several phone calls to family and friends, there was no one who could take her to church on Sunday morning. “I was dismayed and spoke out loud to my guardian angel, ‘Please go to my husband and tell him that I need him.’ “That same Saturday night, as I was getting ready for bed, I heard the sound of a pick-up truck coming down our driveway. I went down the hallway to the back door and there was my husband standing there who said, ‘I thought you needed me.’ Those were the exact words I gave my angel to convey to him! “I truly believe my guardian angel wanted me to know that he heard my prayer and came to my aid!”
Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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S O U L M A G A Z I N E U P D AT E
By Vincent J. Covello
Soul Magazine receives Catholic Press Association awards The Catholic Press Association, with more than 250 members working in the Catholic media, announced its magazine awards for articles published in 2016.
Soul
Soul Magazine received three awards: • F irst Place in the prestigious Magazine of the Year category for Prayer and Spirituality magazines.
Publication of the World Apostolate of Fatima A Public Association of the Faithful
ZINE MAGASummer 2016 Issue 3 of 4
Soul
Publication of the World Apostolate of Fatima A Public Association of the Faithful
Publication of the World Apostolate A Public Assoc iation of the Faithfu of Fatima l
MAGA ZINE Spring 2016
Soul
MA GA ZIN E Issue
Issue 2 of 4
4 of 4
Entries in this category are judged on the selection of stories, originality, quality of writing and headlines, quality and appropriateness of art and graphics, and overall design. The judges commented about Soul: “Earnest, straightforward writing with story packed content. The size of type seems a thoughtful accommodation to the likely readership of this publication. Writing and leads are thorough and clear. Design includes some strong photography. Topics of stories are widely varied and perhaps a bit of organization by category seems worthy. Soul Magazine excels with suggested prayer and spirituality and entries that place its suggestions into context.” • T hird Place in the Best Regular Column category for Rev. Matthew Mauriello’s “Saints Alive,” which features a different saint each issue. The judges commented that the column provided “Wonderful and informative writing.” • H onorable Mention in the category Best Reporting on a Special Age Group for Joseph Pronechen’s article, “The Children’s Rosary Circles the World,” which ran in the Fall issue. The judges commented, “A good story about a worthwhile topic.” 38
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
OF FATIMA SPREADIN G DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
OF FATIMA SPREADIN G DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
SPR EAD ING DEV OTI ON TO OU R LAD Y OF FAT IMA
The credits for these awards go to our editorial and graphics team: Barb Ernster, Vincent Covello, Megan Pritchard and David M. Carollo. The World Apostolate of Fatima deeply appreciates this recognition of its efforts by the Catholic Press Association. For more than 60 years, Soul has always worked to help people learn, live and spread Our Lady of Fatima’s message by bringing inspiring and informative articles to its readers.
Fall 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Priest encourages study of ‘the best fruit’ of Vatican II By Mary Morrell
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READ THE BOOK! THE BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN OUR FATIMA GIFT SHOP AT BLUEARMY.COM OR CALL 1.866.513.1917. IT IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT CATHOLICSPIRIT.COM/ VATICANII.
et’s be honest. Books containing the original 16 documents of Vatican II are not likely reading choices for parishioners, catechists or the lay person simply wanting an inspirational Catholic book to nourish their faith.
After all, the 16 documents were created by brilliant theologians, priests and bishops, and are assumed by many to be the scholastic stuff of experts. Better to let them read and interpret the documents for us. Not so, writes Father John G. Hillier, a priest of the Diocese of Metuchen, who has one main goal for his book, “Breathing Life into the Church: Making Sense of Vatican II,” which includes an introduction to the Second Vatican Council and an engaging examination of the 16 documents that came out of Vatican II. “Over more than 50 years that have passed since the second Vatican Council, we have been challenged by all the popes to study and reflect on the primary sources — the actual documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism — and not only on what others have said about the documents,” Father Hillier writes. To help readers get to that point, Father Hillier has prepared a welcomed resource, a springboard from which those who may have shied away from the remarkable, historical event of the Second Vatican Council can move forward, with a new understanding of the documents as pastoral letters meant to inform, guide and nurture Catholics in every walk of life. Fortunately, Father Hillier’s experience as vice-rector/associate professor of Dogmatic Theology in Holy Apostles Seminary, Cromwell, Conn., is reflected in the breadth and depth of his knowledge, adding to the richness of the text without being overbearing or difficult to understand. Of the 17 chapters, 16 are devoted, individually, to one of the documents. Each of these chap-
ters is graced with a personal story or reflection that helps readers connect to the document on a deeper level — that of life experience. Father Hillier seems to instinctively know that when we can connect with Church teaching in a personal way, one that makes sense for our families and the circumstances of each unique generation, our level of engagement is strengthened. Complementing the text is an array of historical and personal photos. At the end of each chapter, there are also reflection questions perfect for the individual reader seeking faith enrichment, or for use within a small group desiring to share and grow in an understanding of their Catholic faith. Throughout the book, which is published by the Diocese of Metuchen (and available in our Shrine gift shop) Father Hillier encourages us to respond to the challenges put before us by the documents of Vatican II, integrating them for the life of the Church and for our own intellectual, spiritual and pastoral development. But first we have to read them. Father John G. Hillier, Ph.D., is a native of St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada. He currently serves as assistant chancellor to Bishop James Checchio and oversees the Metuchen diocesan Office for Persons with Disabilities. Father Hillier also writes a regular column in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper for the Diocese of Metuchen. He is the diocesan censor for Soul magazine. This review appeared in the 5/18/17 issue of The Monitor, newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Trenton. An excerpt is reprinted here with permission. The full review can be found at trentonmonitor.com. Summer 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Fatima Fatima: 100 Years of Grace, Commemorative Issue 100 Years of Grace
PLUS
191 7 – 201 7 TH E FATI MA CENTE NNI AL ANNI VERSARY ISSUE
70 th Anniversary of Our Lady’s Blue Army
A 76-page soft-cover book, featuring stories and interviews covering a century of Fatima; plus the 70th anniversary of The Blue Army, which helped spread the message of Fatima around the world. 76 PAGES | $9.95 | ITEM #2017-1
Fatima: A Message of Hope 100th anniversary special edition DVD This compelling new documentary presents the monumental events at Fatima with historical footage and insightful interviews with Fatima experts. A great educational tool that tells the story of Fatima to the modern world. 52 MINUTES | $19.95 | ITEM #FMOH-M COMING SOON — AVAILABLE WITH SPANISH, GERMAN, CHINESE, RUSSIAN, POLISH AND ARABIC SUBTITLES.
Fatima: The Apparition that Changed the World Fatima and the Triumph of Mary A compilation of more than 30 inspirational articles written by Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR, giving the reader a deep appreciation for the spiritual richness of Our Lady’s message at Fatima. $17.95 | ITEM #FATM-P
BY JEAN M. HEIMANN FOREWARD BY DAVID CAROLLO
This beautifully illustrated volume will be treasured by longtime devotees of Our Lady of Fatima, as well as those, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, who seek to learn more about the dramatic events related to the apparition that has unfolded over the course of the last century. $24.95 | ITEM #2680T
Fatima for Today Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR presents the historical facts on the events that took place at Fatima, an analysis of the request for prayer, sacrifice and holiness of life and the questions and objections that have been raised regarding the message of Fatima. 288 PAGES | $17.95 | ITEM #FATIMA-P 40 Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
Meet the Witnesses of the Miracle of the Sun This report of events happening on Oct. 13, 1917, has the freshness of a news report, using interviews and depositions of eyewitnesses of the miraculous event, including those of non-believers and skeptical reporters. $9.95 | ITEM #MTW
TO ORDER
TO VIEW OUR FULL LIST OF PRODUCTS OR PLACE AN ORDER, VISIT OUR FATIMA GIFT SHOP AT WWW.BLUEARMY.COM OR CALL 866.513.1917. DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR BULK ORDERS.
Official Commemorative Fatima Centennial Rosary from Portugal Designed by local artisans in Fatima, Portugal, the rosary is made of glass beads in a mix of colors of white, yellow and royal blue. The Heart of Mary centerpiece and the crucifix were specifically made by hand for the centennial. Each rosary is individually numbered and comes gift boxed with a booklet printed in six languages, including a certificate of authenticity. 8MM BEAD | $24.50 | ITEM #FPTC2017
Anniversary Medal Description here description here description here description here description here description here description here $3 | ITEM #ANNMED
100th Anniversary Icon Plaque
Anniversary Mission Rosary
Anniversary Decade
$13 | ITEM #L-281
$8 | ITEM #L70-281
The Icon Plaque was created by Vivian Imbruglia for the 100th anniversary. The vibrant colors are stunning! It has a bevel gold border with a glossy finish. The finish is water resistant, which allows you to have your icon blessed without the possibility of water damage. Beautiful gift for yourself or a loved one. Makes a wonderful keepsake for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. 8” x 12” $39 | ITEM #F8X12PL
100th Anniversary Key Chain
100th Anniversary Fatima Magnet
$2.50 | ITEM #KCO-BA9-IRR $5 | ITEM #MAGBA9
All proceeds from the gift shop and SOUL magazine sales go to help us spread Our Lady of Fatima’s Message. Help us continue spreading Our Lady’s Message by sending your donations to: The World Apostolate of Fatima — Our Lady’s Blue Army, P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882.
Spring 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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Read Sister Lucia’s books to learn the message A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary Biography of Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart Sister Lucia spent her entire life fulfilling her mission of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her biography, written by the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra, Portugal, is based on Sister Lucia’s oral narrations, letters, memoirs and her private notes never before published.
‘Calls’ from the Message of Fatima This work is a long letter written entirely by Sister Lucia that addresses the needs of all who wrote to her concerning their doubts, questions and difficulties, and their desire to live with greater fidelity the message of Fatima. 300 PAGES | $19.95 | ITEM #39276
497 PAGES | $19.95 | ITEM #41315
Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words
Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words II
Sister Lucia’s first four memoirs.
Sister Lucia’s 5th and 6th memoirs.
290 PAGES | $17.95 | ITEM #37362
200 PAGES | $17.95 ITEM #37364
The Rosary with Sister Lucia Sister Lucia’s own meditations on all 20 mysteries of the Rosary, including her insights on the Fatima call for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 88 PAGES | $5 | ITEM #RSL-P
Lucia Speaks and Prayer Cell Flip Book Two books in one: Lucia Speaks and Fatima Prayer Cell Program. Lucia Speaks flipbook consists of Sister Lucia’s memoir and the Fatima Prayer Cell program in one book; a perfect companion for prayer cell members and those wishing to delve deeper into the message of Fatima. $5 | ITEM #020311
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Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
How Can You Still be Catholic? 50 Answers to a Good Question BY CHRISTOPHER SPARKS
Cradle Catholic Christopher Sparks takes the question head on, addressing an array of controversial issues and offering the same answer given by St. Peter 2,000 years ago: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:60).
TO ORDER
TO VIEW OUR FULL LIST OF PRODUCTS OR PLACE AN ORDER, VISIT OUR FATIMA GIFT SHOP AT WWW.BLUEARMY.COM OR CALL 866.513.1917. DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR BULK ORDERS.
Sister Faustina Prayer Book for the Conversion of Sinners BY SUSAN TASSONE
$14.95 | ITEM #BCBB
“A much-needed treasure which allows us to glimpse the mercy of God and his call to conversion.” Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.
Breathing Life into the Church: Making Sense of Vatican II
$16.95 | ITEM #T1815
BY FATHER JOHN G. HILLIER
Gain a fresh, new understanding of the documents of Vatican II as pastoral letters meant to inform, guide and nurture Catholics in every walk of life. $19.95 | ITEM #BLTC-P
The Secret of Glaston Tor BY DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
The Secret of Glaston Tor introduces us to Matt Bergin and his cousins, Luke and Annie. Together they learn the secret of Glaston Tor and find themselves propelled back in time to 1940s France and World War II, and embark on a series of time-traveling adventures. Ages 12+ $11.99 | ITEM #TSOGT
The Dark Tower
Champions of the Rosary Father Donald Calloway tells the powerful story of the history of the Rosary and the champions of this devotion. It is the spiritual sword that can defeat sin, overthrow evil and bring about peace. $16.95 | ITEM #CRBK
Rosary Gems Father Donald Calloway has assembled the largest collection of quotes on the Rosary. The daily readings in this book inspire us to pray the Rosary with greater confidence in the power of this spiritual “sword.” $12.95 | ITEM #RGEM-P
BY DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
The second book in The Glaston Chronicles series delivers a powerful message to young people about the dangers of the occult and the spiritual battle we face between good and evil. A thrilling adventure story that engages the reader immediately. Ages 12+.
All proceeds from the gift shop and SOUL magazine sales go to help us spread Our Lady of Fatima’s Message. Help us continue spreading Our Lady’s Message by sending your donations to: The World Apostolate of Fatima — Our Lady’s Blue Army, P.O. Box 976, Washington, NJ 07882.
$11.99 | ITEM #TSOGT Spring 2017 | www.bluearmy.com
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LEARN, LIVE AND SPREAD THE Message
Say “Yes” to Our Lady prayer booklet
of Fatima Our Fatima statue prayer cards with the Fatima prayers
$2 | ITEM #SYTOL
$15 (PK OF 100) ITEM #IPVS-100, #NPVS-100, #IHMS-100
First Saturday Aid
The Angel of Portugal at Fatima
This booklet contains information on the five First Saturdays devotion, meditations on the 20 mysteries, the Fatima prayers and how to pray the Rosary.
This book retells the Angel’s lessons to the three shepherd children and how they, following his guidance, grew in a short time to heroic sanctity and were prepared for the Blessed Virgin’s coming at Fatima.
114 PAGES | $2 | ITEM #49538 51 PAGES | $4.50 | ITEM #AP-2016
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Our Lady of Fatima Gold Stamped Italian Bio Folder
Our Lady of Fatima Novena and Prayers Book
This folder contains a short bio of Our Lady of Fatima, her feast day and a prayer to her.
This beautifully illustrated book contains prayers and devotions to Our Lady.
5.25” X 3.125” | $2 | ITEM #F5-229
24 PAGES | $3.50 | ITEM #2432-225
Sterling Silver Our Lady of Fatima Medal
Our Lady of Fatima Pendant (boxed)
This round sterling silver Our Lady of Fatima Medal is hand engraved and made by New England silversmiths. Comes on a 24” rhodiumplated chain.
This rhodium-plated pewter medal has a colored enamel center depicting the apparition scene. It comes on an 18” adjustable pearl bead necklace in a gift box.
1.0625” | $65.50 | ITEM #5356124
.75” | $22 | ITEM #RC747
Soul | World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. | Our Lady’s Blue Army
October Centennial Events Join us at the National Blue Army Shrine in New Jersey
Friday, Oct. 13th Rev. Andrew Apostoli, CFR SPEAKER
• • • •
for the 100th Anniversary of the 6th Apparition
Most Rev. Frank J. Caggiano CELEBRANT
10:30 a.m. – Confessions 1 2 p.m. – Rosary/Procession with the Pilgrim Virgin Statue 1 2:30 p.m. – Speaker Rev. Andrew Apostoli, CFR 1 p.m. – Holy Mass with Most Rev. Frank J. Caggiano, followed by Benediction and Eucharistic procession. Obtain the Fatima Centennial Plenary Indulgence Visit bluearmy.com or call 908.689.1700, ext. 210
FATIMA FEST Pilgrimage FATIMA FEST Pilgrimage FATIMA FEST FATIMA FEST Pilgrimage Pilgrimage
The 100th Anniversary Celebration at Catholic Familyland The 100th Anniversary Celebration The 100th Anniversary Celebration at Catholic Familyland at Catholic Familyland
OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER 13-15, 2017
The 100th Anniversary Celebration at Catholic 13-15,Familyland 2017
13-15, 2017 Presented by:
OCTOBER
Apostolate for Familyby: Consecration Presented
Presented Apostolate for Familyby: Consecration Register online at store.afc.org Catholic Familyland Apostolate for Family Consecration
13-15, 2017 AFC.ORG
3375 County Rd 36
Speakers include Most Reverend
Jeffrey M. Monforton Deacon AFC.ORG Bob Ellis of the Blue Army, AFC.ORG Dr.by: Scott Hahn, Father William An unforgettable experience Presented Bloomingdale, Ohio 43910
800.77.FAMILY (773-2645)
Wagner and more Apostolate for Family Consecration
for the whole family
Adult and kids programs, recreation, prayer, Mass, musicians and speakers
AFC.ORG
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Waseca, MN Permit# 13490
World Apostolate of Fatima, Blue Army 674 Mountain View Rd. E Asbury, NJ 08802-1400
PLEASE JOIN
PLEASE JOIN CARDINAL RAYMOND PLEASE JOINBURKE CARDINAL RAYMOND CARDINAL BURKE AT THE 2017 ATRAYMOND THE 2017
BURKE
PLEASE JOIN CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE AT THE 2017 AT THE 2017
FATIMA FATIMA
Centennial Summit FATIMA Centennial Summi FATIMA HeavenlyCentennial Solution to OurSummit Modern Day Crisis
Heavenly Solution to Our Modern Day Crisis Heavenly Solution to Our
Centennial Summit Heavenly Solution to Our
Modern Day Crisis Heavenly Solution to Modern Our Day Crisis Modern Day Crisis FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 ST. MONICA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
9933 MIDWAY RD, DALLAS, TX 75220 SATUDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017 IRVING CONVENTION CENTER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 ST. MONICA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
500 WESTFRIDAY, LAS COLLINS BLVD. IRVING, TX 75039 OCTOBER 6, 2017
9933 MIDWAY RD, DALLAS, TX 75220 ST. MONICA'S CHURCH I n c CATHOLIC luding...
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2017 * THE MIRACULOUS INTERNATIONAL 9933 MIDWAY RD, DALLAS, TXPILGRIM 75220 SATUDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017 ST. MONICA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH VIRGIN STATUE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA IRVING CONVENTION CENTER 9933 MIDWAY RD, DALLAS, TX 75220 SATUDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017 * FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTION ON THE FEAST OF LAS COLLINS BLVD. IRVING, TX 75039 500 WEST OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY & THE IRVING CONVENTION CENTER ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO SATUDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2017 Including... 500 WEST LAS COLLINS BLVD. IRVING, TX 75039 * INSIGHTFUL ANALYSIS OF THE FATIMA MESSAGE IRVING CONVENTION CENTER * THE MIRACULOUS INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM WITH EXPERT I n SPEAKERS c l uAPPLICATION d i n g .PROVIDING .. VIRGIN STATUE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA 500 WEST LAS COLLINS BLVD. IRVING, TX 75039PRACTICAL
* THE MIRACULOUS INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM * RELEASE OF INSPIRING NEW BOOK ON THESATURDAY DEVOTION ON THE FEAST OF *OF FIRST VIRGIN STATUE OF OUR LADY FATIMA WONDERS OF THE PILGRIM VIRGIN OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY & THE * THE MIRACULOUS INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM ANNIVERSARY OF THE• BATTLE OF LEPANTO * SNEAK PEAK OF NEW FATIMA MOVIE * FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTION ON THE FEAST INCLUDING: INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM VIRGIN STATUE OF OUR LADYOF OF FATIMA FIRST SATURDAY VIRGIN STATUETHE OF MIRACULOUS OUR LADY OF FATIMA OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY & THE DEVOTION ON THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF THE HOLYMASS ROSARY • INSIGHTFUL ANALYSISANALYSIS OF THE FATIMA MESSAGE WITHMESSAG *HOLY CELEBRATED BY LEPANTO * INSIGHTFUL OF THE FATIMA ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF * FIRST EXPERT SATURDAY DEVOTION ON THE FEAST OF BURKE OF SPEAKERS • RELEASE OF INSPIRING RAYMOND NEW BOOKCARDINAL ON THE WONDERS THE PILGRIM VIRGIN • SNEAK PEAK OF WITH EXPERT SPEAKERS PROVIDING OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY & THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION NEW MOVIE *•OF HOLY MASS CELEBRATED BYOF RAYMOND CARDINAL BURKE • BANQUET DINNER INSIGHTFUL ANALYSIS THE FATIMA MESSAGE *BANQUET DINNER ANNIVERSARY OFFATIMA THE BATTLE LEPANTO WITH EXPERT SPEAKERS See the back for more detailsPROVIDING * RELEASE OF INSPIRING NEW BOOK ON THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION INSIGHTFUL ANALYSIS OF THE FATIMA MESSAGE WONDERS OF THE PILGRIM VIRGIN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, PROVIDING 2 017 SATUDAY, SPONSORED BY OCTOBER 7, 2 017 REGISTRATION WITH EXPERT SPEAKERS * RELEASE OF INSPIRING NEW BOOK ON THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION ST. MONICA’S CATHOLIC CHURCH IRVING CONVENTION CENTER Early Bird Pricing Until August 31st: $137 * SNEAK PEAK OF NEW FATIMA MOVIE WONDERS OF THE PILGRIM VIRGIN 9933 MIDWAY RD, 500 WEST LAS COLINAS BOULEVARD, After August 31st: $159.00 * RELEASE OF INSPIRING NEW BOOK ON THE DALLAS, TX 75220 IRVING, TX 75039 www.catholicaction.org/fatimasummit2017 *HOLY MASS CELEBRATED BY * SNEAK PEAK OF NEW FATIMA MOVIE WONDERS OF THE PILGRIM VIRGIN RAYMOND CARDINAL BURKE *HOLY MASS CELEBRATED BY * SNEAK PEAK OF NEW FATIMA MOVIE
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