Tradition of Reparation

At this point, I want to return to a point that I made earlier. Our Lady of Fatima, in everything She did, showed a profound respect for tradition, and that the Five First Saturdays was, and still is, a traditional devotion. Of course, doctrinally Our Lady was not teaching anything new. In fact, She was most obedient to the First Vatican Council which taught as an article of faith — de fide — that the meaning of Sacred Doctrine can not change. Vatican I taught:

“The meaning of Sacred Dogmas, which must always be preserved, is that which our Holy Mother the Church has determined. Never is it permissible to depart from this in the name of a deeper understanding.”¹

So whether it is the doctrine of Purgatory, whether it is the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, whether it is the doctrine of confession, whether it is the defined doctrine that there is only one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation, Vatican I taught that the meaning of these doctrines can never change. And we see that Our Lady was completely faithful to this.

Further, at Fatima, Our Lady demonstrates Her continuity with the special revelations given by Heaven to the Church in the 19th Century; whether it be Her appearances at Lourdes, at La Salette, or Our Lord’s manifestations to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre in France in the 1840s. It is all the same urgent message.

Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was a French Carmelite Nun to whom Our Lord revealed His wish for Reparation and Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

When Our Lady came to Lourdes in 1858, She cried out “do penance, make reparation.”

When Our Lady came to La Salette in 1846, She pleaded “do penance, make reparation.” And She warned at La Salette that France would be punished primarily for two sins; for sins against the profanation of Sundays (sins against the Third Commandment), and for taking God’s name in vain (sins against the Second Commandment).

This also corresponds in a very special way to the revelations, approved by the Church, given by Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre in the 1840s. Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre was a Carmelite nun in France who died in her early twenties (a fascinating story that we do not have time to cover in detail).

In these messages (like Fatima), Our Lord called for the great need for reparation. And Our Lord, in particular, called for reparation to His Holy Face. Our Lord gave to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre a special prayer called the GOLDEN ARROW (to repair blasphemy), which I’ll recite for you in a moment. And on November 24, 1843, Our Lord said to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre:

“The earth is covered with crimes. The violation of the First Three Commandments of God has irritated My Father. The Holy Name of God is blasphemed (2nd Commandment) and the Holy Days of the Lord are profaned (3rd Commandment). These crimes fill up the measure of iniquities. These sins have risen unto the throne of God and provoked His wrath which will soon burst forth if His justice be not appeased. At no time have these crimes reached such a pitch.”²

This is the 1840’s, what we consider the “good old days.” Everything is far worse now.

During these revelations, Our Lord asked that an association of Reparation to the Holy Face be formed, and He also dictated the prayer, THE GOLDEN ARROW for reparation against blasphemy:

“May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in Heaven, on earth, and in Hell, by all God’s creatures, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen”³

At that time, one of the greatest promoters of this Devotion to the Holy Face was the “Holy Man of Tours”, Leo DuPont, who hung a large picture of the Holy Face in his parlor before which burned holy oil. So many miracles were worked in the parlor of Leo DuPont that Blessed Pope Pius IX called DuPont “the wonder worker of the 19th Century”.

Now, Our Lady of Fatima is following “tradition”; this unchanging, urgent call for reparation.

And the revelations of Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre call not only for reparation against the 2nd and 3rd Commandments, as did Our Lady of La Salette, but also calls for reparation for sins against the First Commandment. We know the First Commandment is “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” And our traditional Catholic theology tells us that sins against Faith, especially the sin of heresy, are sins against the First Commandment.

Hence, we are called upon not to smile on, and become chummy with, the false creeds of non-Catholics; but we are called to get on our knees and make reparation for these sins against the Faith, these sins against the First Commandment. These sins of heresy that produce the five blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary were enunciated by Our Lord at Tuy on May 29, 1930.

1. Vatican I, Session III, Chap. IV, Faith and Reason.



2. Scalan, The Holy Man of Tours (Tan Books), p. 122.



3. P. Janvier, Life of Sister Saint-Pierre with an approbation by Most Rev. Charles Colet, Archbishop of Tours, (John Murphy & Co, Baltimore, 1884) p. 114.