Chapter Three
REQUIREMENT OF THE THIRD DAY
The burning question of the moment must be: Is the requirement of Our Lord for this "third day " being fulfilled?
Our Lord Himself clearly explained that requirement. He said that after the consecration, and after the change in Russia (which He would then bring about), devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother was to be placed alongside devotion to His Own Sacred Heart, especially by means of the First Saturday Communions of Reparation.
As I said in my last book Too Late?, most do not seem to realize the gravity of this. Most lay persons feel it is not up to them, but up to "the Church," as though they were not a responsible part of the Church.
Some say: Why doesn't the Pope cry out to the world that it must listen?
He has cried out in word and deed.
Strong Message of the Pope
Pope John Paul II, who week after week led the First Saturday Rosary in the company of thousands and on radio and TV, said in his special letter to Fatima on October 13, 1997, Fatima is one of the greatest signs of our time not so much because of the miracle but because it shows us the alternative, and tells us the specific response needed to meet that alternative: To choose peace or self-destruction!
Those are the words of the Pope: "Greatest signs of our time...specific response...the alternative...to save mankind from self-destruction."
As we have said, the Pope has for years personally lead the Rosary in the presence of thousands and on radio and television every First Saturday.
The question is not what is the Pope doing. The question is what am I doing to make the Pope's voice heard?
Popes Anticipated Our Lady
In that October 13, 1997 letter, the Pope explained the reason for it all. He said Our Lady of Fatima came with specific requests "to save mankind from itself."
Those specific requests call for national and personal consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for Communions of Reparation on the First Saturday of five consecutive months. And, this devotion was established before the Fatima apparitions.
Two Popes, one after the other, anticipated this request from Heaven. The devotion was instituted by the Church before Our Lady indicated that it was part of God's "final effort."
The First Saturday Devotion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart was introduced, in 1904, by St. Pius X. The same Pope granted additional indulgences to encourage it on June 13, 1912.
Five years later, on that same day (June 13), in the second appariton of Fatima, Our Lady told Lucia she was to remain in the world because "Jesus wishes to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart."
On July 13th, in the third apparition of Fatima, Our Lady said She would ask for the First Saturday Communions of Reparation. This She did on December 10, 1925. Again, five years before (November 13, 1920) the Church, in the person of Pope Benedict XV, had encouraged the First Saturday devotion established by St. Pius X with still further indulgences.
This action of the Church, before and therefore completely independent of the apparitions, was also evident in the revelations of the Sacred Heart.
Warning and Promise
In this message of the First Saturday devotion, the two dates of July 13, 1917, and December 10, 1925, stand out because of a warning and a promise:
On July 13, 1917, Our Lady prophesied "annihilation of several entire nations" and then said: "To prevent this I shall come to ask for consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and for First Saturday Communions of Reparation."
On December 10, 1925, when She came to request these First Saturday Communions of Reparation, She made a great promise for all those who would complete the five consecutively: "I will assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary..."
Great Incentive
The value of an act is often measured by its reward. So is its importance. And the reward for this devotion of Communions of Reparation is great almost beyond understanding.
The Queen of Heaven will prevent atomic war if we do as She asks, and She promises at the hour of death "all the graces necessary" to those who respond.
Her Divine Son had already promised the graces necessary for salvation for those who complete nine consecutive Communions of Reparation on First Fridays. And we have reason to believe that "all the graces necessary" include the grace of a peaceful death-the ultimate grace of joyful transition to our eternal reward.
Most people fear death so much they try never to think about it. Many in the face of death are seized with fear. It is the ultimate, decisive point in the lives of each of us. All the treasures and honors of the world are, in that moment, nothing.
At that dreaded and critical moment, the greatest possible gift, exceeding every other possible gift in this world (other than the Sacraments themselves), is what Our Lady is promising to those who fulfill Her simple request.
Is it not almost unbelievable that, even with so great an incentive as
this, and despite the looming threat of atomic destruction to be avoided
if enough persons embrace this same devotion, this awesome message from
Heaven is widely ignored?
This and other books by John M. Haffert
God's
Final Effort | Too Late? | The Day I Didn't Die