Wondering if there is a connection?
While praying my rosary, I noticed and ink stain on the table I paint at. It reminded me of the Angel of Fatima with the flaming sword, from a vision experienced by Sr. Lucia.
While not part of the formal secret, there remains the intriguing "enlightenment" that she revealed to her confreres in 1944 (on the earth's axis): "The tip of the spear as a flame unlatches and touches the axis of the earth. It shudders. Mountains, cities, towns, and villages with their inhabitants are buried. The sea, the rivers, and the clouds emerge from their limits, overflowing and bringing with them in a whirlwind houses and people in numbers that are not possible to count. It is the purification of the world as it plunges into sin. Hatred and ambition cause the destructive war!" - A Pathway Under the Gaze of MaryVisions and locutions, even though from God and even 'approved' by the Church can still mislead us. Our Lady instructed Lucia to write down the account of the visions, but not her interpretation of it. Sr. Lucia always stated that the responsibility for the interpretation belongs to the Church. The reason for this may be explained better by St. John of the Cross:
"[...] Souls are misled by imparting to God's locutions and revelations a literal interpretation, and interpretation according to the outer rind. As has been explained, God's chief objective in conferring these revelations is to express and impart the elusive, spiritual meaning contained in the words. This spiritual meaning is richer and more plentiful than the literal meaning and transcends those limits."
[...] "Anyone bound to the letter, locution, form, or apprehensible figure cannot avoid serious error and will later become confused for having been led by the literal sense and not having allowed for the spiritual meaning which is divested of the literal sense. ('The letter kills, the spirit gives life' - 2 Cor. 3:6)" - Read St. John of the Cross, The Ascent, Bk II, Chapter 18 and 19Ater I noticed the ink blot stain, I proceeded to sketch what I saw, an Angel in battle array with a flaming sword ready to strike the earth.
I wondered if that may not have already happened? I couldn't help think about the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami. It was felt globally, and the earth 'wobbled'.
Because of its enormous energy release and shallow rupture depth, the earthquake generated remarkable seismic ground motions around the globe, particularly due to huge Rayleigh (surface) elastic waves that exceeded 10 mm (0.4 in) in vertical amplitude everywhere on Earth. The record section plot displays vertical displacements of the Earth's surface recorded by seismometers from the IRIS/USGS Global Seismographic Network plotted with respect to time (since the earthquake initiation) on the horizontal axis, and vertical displacements of the Earth on the vertical axis (note the 1 cm scale bar at the bottom for scale). - Wiki
Hurricane Dorian damage.
Step by step, little by little.
The vision Sr. Lucia records reads as if all the disasters happen immediately after the the tip of the spear touches the earths axis, in quick succession, one disaster after another, or possibly in quick succession around the globe. Yet as St. John points out, a literal interpretation may not always be the right one.
After viewing the aftermath of hurricane Dorian, and considering the effects of climate change as well as plate tectonics accelerating after the 2004 quake, I wondered about Lucia's vision. At one time, I believe it was in a letter to JPII, she said we were going towards the chastisement slowly, little by little. Thus, all the natural disasters across the globe may be what Lucia saw in her vision?
Literal interpreters imagine the cataclysm initiated by the angel as something all at once - maybe, maybe not. Many of these people never believed the 3rd Secret was revealed in full. Sr. Lucia said it was. Many believed the consecration of Russia was not accomplished. Sr. Lucia said it was, that heaven accepted it. Subsequently, not a few of these critics insisted Lucia was being manipulated - and or replaced by a fraud. All sorts of absurdities spread to discredit the Pope(s) and Sr. Lucia - all because they insisted upon a literal interpretation of the vision and secret. As St. John cautions: "Anyone bound to the letter, locution, form, or apprehensible figure cannot avoid serious error and will later become confused for having been led by the literal sense and not having allowed for the spiritual meaning which is divested of the literal sense."
Anyway, I think Fatima is still very important for us in our day. Concerning the content of the secret, Sr. Lucia explained, "The part necessary for the people to know was already known since 1917." The effort to discredit the papacy seems to have begun around 1960, when the 3rd part of the secret was not made public, and it has accelerated into our day, when Pope Francis is so much maligned and mocked. Our Lady urged the seers to pray for the Holy Father, because he would have much to suffer. As it turns out, he suffers much from his own children.
I think you are onto something Terry. Literal vs symbolic interpretation and gradual vs sudden cataclysms. I have fond & comforting memories of praying the rosary with neighbors in my parents living room when they hosted the traveling statue. For one week it would be on our street and people went at 7pm to pray the rosary together. My sister cried when my mother declined to take the Christmas Eve slot. With four children she had her hands full with preparations. I remember clearly my sister saying it was like the first Christmas nobody wants to shelter Mary or Joseph. That did it. We hosted the rosary at 7pm Christmas Eve and it is the one I remember the best. I was maybe 5yrs old. We also had a yearly parade with meandering parishes to a large factory parking lot on a Sunday (nobody worked on )Sunday then) lead by Our Lady. The large group then sang hymns and prayed the Rosary. I do believe these devotions had a big part in the fall of Communism. Today, I think the Hispanic and some Italian communities keep these public devotions alive. Every evening I spend an hour or so star gazing, whether permitting. There is not a better show on TV or the Internet. I believe the signs you write of will first come via the sky. I do not expect to be around to witness that, but who knows? Like the Gospel says be alert, on watch for no one knows the hour. Sorry for going on so. I am trying, but failing miserably, to be succinct in my posts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those memories. What an amazing 'sacrifice' it was to take Our Lady in on Christmas Eve! She must be very pleased and will never forget. You were blessed to grow up in such a holy household.
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