The Bad News and
the Good News

"If My requests are granted, many souls will be saved and there will be peace." ... Our Lady of Fatima

by Father Nicholas Gruner, S.T.L., S.T.D. (Cand.)

Dear Readers of The Fatima Crusader,

       Now, more than ever, I am deeply concerned for you and me, and all our fellow men. I fear that some of us may be lost eternally in the fires of hell. Yet, I am optimistic that some of you will become great saints, celebrated in Heaven and remembered on earth for generations, possibly even to the end of the world. I am very concerned that this worldwide period of peace Our Lady promised will only come after the greatest war ever, and the annihilation of various nations that we have worked so hard to prevent.

       I am most concerned now because of the danger to your lives, your freedom, your families, your possessions, your Faith, your Church ... and most of all, your souls.

       You see, time is running out fast for all of us. Not simply because we are all getting older and will sooner or later have to give an accounting of the stewardship we have over our own lives, our own graces and opportunities, but time is running out in our time for all of us.

       This becomes more evident if we read the signs of the times, as Jesus told us to do when we are to see the time of the Antichrist descend upon us; when we are to see the time of wars, rumors of wars and great upheavals, even the great portents in the moon, the sun and the stars. Those apocalyptic times may be almost upon us.

       What are the signs? What are the keys to knowing these things?

       Never before has there been such powerful signs to tie in with biblical prophecy and with the Fatima prophecies that tell us that our time is short. That whole, entire various nations will be annihilated. What is most urgent for us in North America is that this continent is the number one target of the missiles of the most powerful nation in the world — namely Russia.

New Signs of War

       Russia, unlike the lying propaganda we have been fed for the past 15 years, really has more powerful arms, more warheads, more armed forces on the land, in the sea, and in the air to launch an attack on the U.S.A. and any other country. This is known widely in the intelligence and military community but not in many other places.

       That is not news to us, but what is of recent development is the Russians’ flexing their nuclear arms in a public display of power. In mid-February 2004, Russia initiated live exercises, a mock attack with their weapons on none other than the United States of America. Father Paul Kramer writes more about this in "The New Cold War", in this Issue. I urge you to read this article which draws much recent information from sources not published in North American media — but his sources are accurate, as you will see for yourself.

More Signs of Apostasy in the Church

       The signs of apostasy within the Church continue to grow. Never before has the Great Apostasy, which must precede the reign of the Antichrist and was predicted by Jesus Christ and by St. Paul in Sacred Scripture, ever been seen like in our day. The closest thing to this was the Arian Heresy in which 90% of the Catholic bishops were, either by their silence or their active connivance, undermining the faith and the salvation of souls between 336 AD and 381 AD.

       Today, the faith and the salvation of souls is in danger, and it would seem that 90% of the bishops in 2004 AD are doing nothing or are actively undermining the faith and salvation of souls on a much vaster scale — because of the present world population of 5 - 6 billion people, as well as the nature of the apostasy.

       The Arians were denying that Jesus is God, but today, the apostates are denying the Supremacy of the One True God!

       This apostasy was foretold in Sacred Scripture. A time of deception when even the elect would be deceived, if that were possible. That is what is going on right now — with the very Rector at the Fatima Shrine promoting interfaith practice with his Congress at Fatima in October 2003. And also with his trial balloon announcement, "two steps forward" — and when it was not welcomed, his "one step backward" denial!

       See John Vennari’s article, "Shrine Rector Confirms New Ecumenical Orientation at Fatima", in this Issue. It explains this growing scandal, which, if it is not stopped, will in the not-too-distant future blossom into full-scale apostasy, the likes of which the world has never seen. To understand why this venture is wrong, read Pope Pius XI’s encyclical "On Fostering True Religious Unity" — in this Issue.

At the pan-religious Conference held at Fatima entitled, "The Present of Man - the Future of God", a Buddhist gave everyone present at the Congress a pamphlet inviting them to visit the Buddhist Shrine of Zenkoji.

       Read the "Open Letter to the Portuguese Faithful" in this Issue, which we plan to publish in the Portuguese newspapers in their language (with your help). Many of the Portuguese are unaware of these atrocities going on under their very nose. We must warn them before it gets further out of hand.

       The post-Conciliar revolution aids the apostasy, and their fellow travellers continue their attempts to revise Our Lady’s Fatima Message. This is explained in Christopher Ferrara’s article "A New Fatima for the New Church".

       Iain Colquhoun, in his article "Who is Behind the Multi-faith Plan?", in this Issue, shows how unconverted Russia and the Leninist, Mr. Gorbachev, are likely behind the attempts to mongrelize and syncretize Fatima and the Fatima Shrine.

       We must continue to make ourselves well aware of the "bad news", to be informed and to know what to do; and to be armed with the truth so that we can defend our family, our homes, our Church, our Faith, and above all, our souls.

       The good news is that, despite the ingratitude and insults the people of our time have given God, Our God, in His compassionate kindness and in His Goodness, is offering us one more worldwide great grace for most, if not all, men of our time.

       That great grace, you, yourself, can experience and that is to see The Passion of The Christ, Mel Gibson’s new movie. While it is not perfect, it is the best movie ever made on the subject of Jesus Christ and His Passion.

       You might ask, "New movies come out all the time, some are even wholesome or harmless movies, which therefore are not an occasion of sin (and for people who need entertaining, such movies are more or less harmless for their souls); so why the lavish praise for this event of the successful production and launching of Mel Gibson’s movie to a worldwide audience?" This particular movie has some chance of helping to convert millions of people.

       This event is a special grace for us now, today, as I will further explain:

       First of all, it was a great grace that a few powerful and very influential and menacing people were successfully prevented from stopping this film. It proves, in a practical way, that we should not stop trying to do great good simply because the ignorant, the powerful, the influential people in society and even in some of the Catholic Church’s bureaucracies, locally or overseas, tell us to stop.

       Nor should we be deterred when they attempt to convince us that we are wrong. They claim to be scandalized if we do not obey — the pharisaical scandal, the hypocritical, the two-faced scandal of the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not stop Jesus from doing good, even when they, so to speak, yelled at Him. Nor should we stop doing positive good because it cramps our enemies’ style because it prevents them from doing all the harm they intend to do.

       So it is certainly a lesson our age needs because too many people who could make a big difference with their time, their money, their influence, are just too afraid to stand up and do good when the powerful in the media, in the world of finance, even in the Vatican bureaucracy, tell them to stop, or to not even begin.

       So, indeed, this film of Mel Gibson’s is a great grace, a triumph over the forces of the devil and the world that tried to stop it. And we all know from the many newspaper reports how hard they tried.

       Mel Gibson was publicly accused of being a fool, an anti-Semite; he was publicly accused of all sorts of lies. We contacted a number of our readers by mail and asked for prayers for him and his project. One of the priests associated with this apostolate offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He did this every day for seven weeks, on the production site. The Mass was attended by a number of those making this film, where the film was being made in Italy. We are grateful for the grace of God that has made this film possible.

       We thank you all for your prayers and sacrifices to make this film a reality, and we thank Mel Gibson for staying the course and producing and directing and distributing this film, despite, even, threats on his life.

       We thank, too, Jim Cavezeil, who also has had threats on his life for doing such a fine job of acting the role of Jesus Christ. Our prayers are offered for them and their loved ones. There are, no doubt, others who also did their part to support this film — when it was most vulnerable and most likely to be closed down or radically altered before it came out, some of whom have paid a price for their faithfulness to grace. But they will be rewarded by Jesus Christ, Whose story needs to be told to our age, on the big screen and on home videos.

A Great Grace

       But even more important than this is "Why" the movie itself is a great grace for our time. This grace ultimately given to us by the Goodness, the Kindness of God, is an antidote for what the film can do for each of us if we let God’s grace touch us, as we watch it.

       You see, when we hear that God loves us, as indeed He does, it does not touch most of us deeply enough. We tend to think that it is a pious thought that should be respected but it doesn’t change our life, it doesn’t seem to deeply matter to us.

       People of our time, people you and I both know — our family, our friends, our neighbors, perhaps someone we know most intimately, perhaps even ourselves — are taken up with what today is considered really important, like making lots of money, getting the latest and greatest gadget, car, toy, or visiting the most exotic, interesting far-off land, etc.

       People, with their supposedly important goals today — their life, career, friends, possessions, power — don’t see any advantage to God loving them. So shortly after hearing this, they forget it, or deem it unimportant to them and they stop thinking about it, so as to focus on their "really important" things in life.

       This is unfortunately what too many people are doing and it will cost many of them, maybe most of them, their eternal salvation. It may even cost me, and you, if we are also not attentive, because we, too, can be too much influenced by the spirit of the age, if we are not careful.

       That is why this movie is a great grace for the people of our time, a grace for you and me, too. You see, first of all, God does love us, but not in the manner, or to the limited degree that anyone else loves us. God, Who is Love, Who is Infinite, loves us with an immense love, with a holy, pure love which is entirely looking out for our great and everlasting happiness. No one else can love us to the degree that God loves us. They are incapable.

       No one else loves us so much. No one could possibly. No one else’s love is so passionate, so pure, so all-consuming, and yet enhances, enlightens, uplifts and embraces us so much as the love of God. And all He asks for and wants in return is that you, me, each of us, love Him in return with our whole heart, our whole mind, all our strength and all our will.

How Do We Know It’s True?

       You might say, "It’s easy to say such things, but how do we know it is true? How do we know that this love is as real and as great as you say it is?"

       God knows us. He knows how we think. He knows that the human heart is not going to be moved to love Him just by words, even though the words are true. God wants us to love Him and He has set out to prove His love for you. He proved it by His Passion, His sufferings and death on the Cross for you.

       But even this truth is now, for many of our distracted age, only words. That is because our time, and each of us, is infected to some extent by the spirit of our age — our time is afflicted with dissipation of spirit. We do not reflect, we do not think over in our hearts the really great things, the really important topics, such as the love of God — such as how much Jesus the Son of God loves us — how He proved it beyond any doubt whatsoever.

       We are too distracted by what moves, what’s new, whatever the advertising people offer to us for sale, etc. So God had a movie made — to help us refocus on the most important love of our lives, the most important purpose of our lives — to save our souls.

       This film is a means to recall us to reflect on the love, the truest, the deepest love that anyone has for you personally, for me personally. We must get to love Him in return. But we can’t do that if we don’t know Him. We cannot love anyone personally if we don’t know them personally — we need to know Him and we need to think about Him. We need to reflect on what He did for us and what He continues to do for us. We need to visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament. We need to have before our eyes, before our memory as much as possible, continually, what and just how much He did, He suffered, He endured, He patiently bore, He embraced for you.

       Like no other film, The Passion of The Christ is a good start for you to reflect on these things.

       But although it is a great grace, it is only a start. You and I need to do more, and we need to help others on our path.

       To do more for ourselves, we should reflect — with the help of St. Alphonsus’ book, The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ — on what it means for you personally and your love for Him and His love for you.

Jesus is Waiting for YOU

       We need to visit Him where He is physically present today. Jesus is waiting for you to come, to visit, to talk to Him, to thank Him, to tell Him of your trials and joys, to ask His help, to ask Him to help your family, friends and neighbors.

       He is there waiting for you, every day, 24 hours every day He is there, all the time, waiting for you, for me. He is waiting now for you to visit Him. He wants you to come back tomorrow and visit Him again. Please do not ignore, spurn or be indifferent to His love.

       And when you find it hard to converse with Him on your daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament, use the little booklet Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and The Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Alphonsus Liguori — available from The Fatima Crusader Book Service for $5.00 each.

       There is so much to say about the Passion and Death of Jesus that I cannot say it all — in my whole life — but these are just some reflections to help you realize that, "now is the acceptable time, now is the moment of salvation," as Sacred Scripture tells us. Let us not lose this opportunity, this moment of grace.

       Let us not lose it for ourselves, nor for our neighbors. That is why I have designed a little prayer card for all those who have seen or who will see the movie The Passion of The Christ. We hope you ask us for it, so that it will remind you of the great love Jesus has for you, personally.

       This prayer card has a picture on the front of it like the picture on the Table of Contents page of this issue of The Fatima Crusader. If you would like a free prayer card with some biblical passages, plus a few words of Our Lady of Fatima, sent to you, I’ll be glad to send you a copy absolutely free. In my letter accompanying it, I’ll explain the card further, for those persons who ask you about it.

Reflect on the Love of Jesus

       Now is the acceptable time for us to reflect on the love Jesus has for us, and the love and gratitude we owe Him and His Most Holy Mother, Mary, for accepting, willingly, to be His Mother, the Mother of Sorrows, for nurturing Him, supporting Him, and being with Him as He offered the sacrifice of His time, His comfort, His possessions, His very body and His life itself, for you, for me.

       St. Louis de Montfort tells us that devotion to Mary is necessary for Saints in these Last Times. We are all destined for sainthood. Please read this excerpt taken from True Devotion to The Blessed Virgin (see the article "Devotion to Mary Necessary for Saints of these Last Times") and apply it to your life. You, too, can become a saint if you learn and apply the secrets of sanctity taught by St. Louis de Montfort. His book is available from The Fatima Crusader.

       We must take courage. We need to do our part, even though each of us is very little.

       If we are truly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, then we will be victorious. She will crush the serpent’s head.

       Yet we must remember, if we vigorously and effectively respond — by our prayers, by our sacrifices, by our amendment of life, by our alerting others to do the same; i.e. pray, sacrifice, amend their lives, and in turn, alert others to do the same, and so on — we could stall, and even reverse, this almost inevitable tide of evil around us. It is up to you and I to do our best. If we do not succeed at this time, Jesus will reward us for our efforts — even if our fellow man does not respond to our efforts and the grace that Jesus offers them. Let us stand up to the moment and give a good account of our lives, our opportunities and graces.

       "You have been redeemed, not with perishable things, silver or gold, but with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ." (St. Peter)

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