Heaven's Peace Plan in
Simple Terms

The “enlightened” minds of the “modern world” scoff at the notion that a simple public ceremony con secrat ing Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary could produce the conversion of that nation bringing with it enormous benefits to the whole world, including peace among all nations. However, the “modernworld” scoffs at miracles in general, and in deed at the di vine claims of the Church whose saints have performed miracles in such abundance.

But a consecration of Russia is precisely what God had or dained in the very Message He authenticated with the solar miracle of Octo ber 13, 1917. We recall that in the Message of July 13, 1917, Our Lady had promised Lucy that “I shall come to ask for the Con secration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays.” True to Her word, the Virgin appeared again to Lucy on June 13, 1929 in Tuy, Spain, where Lucy — by then Sister Lucia dos Santos, a Dorothean nun (she would not be come a Carmelite until 1948)

— was in prayer in the convent chapel during the Holy Hour of Adoration and Reparation. Even among the annals of recognized heavenly appartions to the saints of the Catholic Church, this one was extra-ordinary.

We will let Sister Lucy recount the aparition in her own simple but quite dramatic words — and remember that here also we are dealing with an apparition that the Church and the Popes, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, have pronounced worthy of belief.

The Vision of Tuy

“I had re quested and ob-tained permission from my superiors and confessor to make the Holy Hour from 11:00 p.m. until mid night from Thursday to Friday. Be - ing alone one night, I knelt down be fore the Comu-nion rail in the middle of the chapel to say the prayers of the Angel, lying prostrate. Feeling tired, I got up and knelt, and continued to say them with my arms in the form of a cross. The only light came from the sanctu-ary lamp.

“Suddenly a super natural light illumined the whole chapel and on the altar ap-peared a cross of light which reached to the ceiling. In a brighter part could be seen, on the upper part of the Cross, the face of a Man and His body to the waist. On His breast was an equally lu-minous dove, and nailed to the Cross, the body of an-other Man.

“A little be low the waist, suspended in mid-air, was to be seen a Chalice and a large Host onto Which fell some drops of Blood from the face of the Crucified and from a wound in His breast. These drops ran down over the Host and fell into the Chal-ice. Under the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady (Our Lady of Fatima with Her Immaculate Heart in Her hand) ... Under the left arm (of the Cross), some big letters, as it were of crystalclear water running down over the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy’.

“I under stood that it was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that was shown to me ...”⁴²

FrPre Michel has rightly called this apparition “the Trinitarian The ophany.” (See an art ist’s rendition on next page.) While the God head can - not, of course, in a lit eral sense be seen by human eyes as Christ in the flesh can be, this “The ophany” was granted by God as a visual representation of His Trinitarian nature. As with the Miracle of the Sun, there is no phenomenon like it ever recorded in the his tory of the world. Thus did God Him - self signify the singular im por - tance of what Our Lady of Fatima was about to tell Sister Lucy in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. She said:

“The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, prom is ing to save it by this means.”⁴³

God Him self re quests this. Sis ter Lucy re ceived this re - quest from the lips of the Mother of God Her self, speak-ing in God’s Name, in the pres-ence of the very God head, the Most Holy Trinity. Sister Lucy im me di ately con veyed the di-vine request to her confessor, Fa ther Gonçalves, as re flected in her published correspon-dence with him.⁴⁴

For the next seventy-five years Sister Lucy — he same Lucy who would not deny the truth of Fatima even though she was im prisoned and threat ened with a horrible death by the Masonic Mayor of Ourem — gave the same testi - mony: Our Lady, as God’s messenger, had re quested the solemn public Consecration of Russia in a ceremony to be

A Foretaste of What the World Would Enjoy

As if to dem on strate the ef-ficacy of the Consecration the Virgin had requested, God saw fit to allow a demonstra-tion, as it were, in Portugal. On the anniversary of the first ap-parition at Fatima, May 13, 1931, and in the presence of 300,000 faithful who had come to Fatima for the event, the bishops of Portugal solemnly consecrated their nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These good bishops placed Portugal under the protection of Our Lady to preserve that nation from the Communist contagion that was sweeping through Europe, and espe-cially Spain. In deed, the Vir-gin’s prophecy of the spread of Russia’s errors throughout the world was already be ing ful-filled with relentless exacti-tude. Who, in July of 1917, could have fore seen the emer-gence of world communism emanating from Russia — months before the Bolshevik revolution and Lenin’s ascent to power? Only Heaven could have fore seen it; only the Mother of God, in formed by Her Divine Son.

A Threefold Miracle

As a result of this (1931) Consecration Portugal experi - enced a three fold miracle. Here, we will give only the barest details.

Catholic Renaissance

There was, first of all, a magnificent Catholic Renais-sance, a great rebirth of Catho-lic life so striking that those who lived through it attributed it unquestionably to the work of God. During this period, Portugal enjoyed a drastic up-surge in priestly voca tions. The number of religious almost quadrupled in 10 years. Reli-gious communities rose like-wise. There was a vast renewal of Chris tian life, which mani-fested it self in many areas, in-cluding the development of a Catholic press, Catholic radio, pilgrimages, spiritual retreats, and a robust movement of Catholic Action that was in te-grated into the frame work of diocesan and parish life.

This Catholic Renaissance was of such magnitude that in 1942 the bish ops of Portugal declared in a Collective Pasto-ral Letter: “Any body who would have closed his eyes twenty-five years ago and opened them now would no longer recognize Portugal, so vast is the transformation worked by the modest and in-visible factor of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima. Really, Our Lady wishes to save Portugal.”⁴⁵

Political and Social Reform

There was also a miracle of political and social reform, in accordance with Catholic so-cial principles. Shortly after the 1931 Con secration, a Cath-olic leader in Portugal as-cended to power, Antonio Salazar, who in augurated a Catholic, counter-revolution-ary pro gram. He strove to create, as much as possible, a Catholic social order wherein the laws of government and social institutions be harmo -nized with the law of Christ, His Gospel and His Church.⁴⁶ A fierce adversary of socialism and liberalism, he was op- posed to “every thing which diminishes or dissolves the family.”⁴⁷

Miracle of Peace

In addition to these aston-ishing religious and political changes, there was a two fold miracle of peace. Portugal was preserved from the Commu-nist terror, especially from the Spanish Civil War which raged (1936-39) next door, and Por-tugal was also spared from the devastation of World War II.

With regards to the Span-ish Civil War, the Portuguese bishops had vowed in 1936 that if Our Lady protected Por-tu gal, they would express their gratitude by renewing the National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. True to their word, on May 13, 1938, they renewed the Conse-cration of Portugal to the Immaculate Heart in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s protec-tion. Cardinal Cerejeira ac - knowledged publicly: “Since Our Lady of Fatima appeared in 1917 ... A special blessing of God has descended upon the land of Portugal ... especially if we re view the two years which have gone since our vow, one can not fail to recognize that the invisible hand of God has pro-tected Portugal, sparing it the scourge of war and the leprosy of atheistic communism.”

Even Pope Pius XII ex-pressed astonishment that Portugal was spared the hor-rors of the Spanish Civil War and the Communist men ace. In an ad dress to the Portu-guese people, the Pope spoke of “the Red Peril, so menacing and so close to you, and yet avoided in such an un ex pected manner.”⁴⁸

The Portuguese passed this first danger unscathed, but immediately there was a second staring them in the face. World War II was about to break out. In yet an other fulfillment of the Virgin’s prophecy of July 13, 1917, the war would begin “in the reign of Pius XI,” following “a night illumined by an un-known light ...” (Jan. 25-26, 1938)

On February 6, 1939, seven 27 months be fore the declaration of war, Sister Lucy wrote to her bishop, Msgr. daSilva. She told him that war was imminent, but then spoke of a miraculous promise. She said “in this horrible war,

Portugal would be spared be cause of the national consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary made by the bishops.”⁴⁹

And Portugal was spared the horrors of war, the details of which are too numerous to recount here.50 Even more remarkable, Sister Lucy wrote to Pope Pius XII on December 2, 1940, to tell him that Portugal was receiving special protection during the war that other nations would have received if the bish ops would have con secrated their nations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She wrote: “Most Holy Father, Our Lord promises a special protection to our country in this war, due to the consecration of the nation, by the Portu guese prelates, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; as proof of the graces that would have been granted to other nations, had they also consecrated themselves to Her.”⁵¹

Likewise, Portugal’s Cardinal Cerejeira did not hesitate to attribute to Our Lady of Fatima the great graces that She had obtained for Portugal during this time. On May 13, 1942 he said: “To ex press what has been going on here for twenty-five years, the Portuguese vocabulary has but one word: miracle. Yes, we are convinced that we owe the wonderful transformation of Portugal to the protection of the Most Holy Virgin.”⁵²

Cardinal Cerejeira maintained what we maintain here: that the miraculous blessings Our Lady obtained for Portugal as a heavenly re ward for the 1931 consecration of that nation were only a fore taste of what She will do for the entire world, once Russia is also properly consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart.⁵³ As the Cardinal said: “What has taken place in Portugal proclaims the mira cle. And it foreshadows what the Immaculate Heart of Mary has prepared for the world.⁵⁴