"Have you made the Five First Saturdays?"

"Yes!"

"What was the purpose for which you offered them?"

Almost every time I ask these questions, I am answered with a blank stare. This amazes me; but even more astonishing than that is the vast amount of Catholics who have never even heard of Fatima. Last week I met a woman who attended Catholic Schools for thirteen years. She has two sisters and two cousins who are nuns. Yet, she had never heard of Fatima. Yesterday, I was interviewed by a Catholic News Editor and he did not know about the Five First Saturdays. These are not unique or isolated instances. Moreover, those of us who know about Fatima and think we have made the Five First Saturdays, may be shocked to learn that we have not really kept them after all. If you do not know the story of Fatima, or if you have forgotten it, read it again.

There is no excuse for Catholics not to know of the miraculous events which transpired at Fatima. Priests who say that Fatima is a private devotion, and not part of the deposit of faith, are correct. However, the example of every Pope since Pius XI, all of whom have talked about, written about or visited Fatima, should be enough for any priest to realize its importance. Paul VI used Fatima as his reason for the Encyclical "Signuma Maguma," (THE GREAT SIGN) of May 13, 1967 by stating that ". . .the religious ceremonies which are taking place at this time, are in honor of the Virgin Mother of God in Fatima, Portugal. "

Briefly, the story of Fatima tells us that the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared to three children in 1917 at Fatima, Portugal. She told the children of the future rise and fall of Communism, the rise and fall of Russia, the end of the Masonic government in Portugal, the early death of the two youngest children, the long life of the oldest of the children, Lucia, and of a secret given to the Pope in 1960.

One of the many stories of Fatima took place on December 10, 1925. Lucia, the eldest of the three children and now Sister Lucia of St. Dorothy, was kneeling in prayer in the convent chapel when the Virgin Mary and Christ Child appeared to her. The Christ Child said to Lucia:

"Have pity on the heart of your Most Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, while there is no one who does an act of reparation to withdraw them from Her."

Lucia saw the crown of thorns around the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Then Our Lady spoke to her, saying:

"Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled with thorns, with which ungrateful men wound it every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Give me consolation, you, at least; and announce for me that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION TO ME."

Now I would like to ask these questions again. What is the reason for which you offered up the Five First Saturdays? How have we blasphemed against the Mother of God? How have we shown Her our gratitude, or have we been ungrateful toward Her? St. Maximillian Kolbe was haunted all his life by the words of Our Lady to Bernadette of Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception".

I, too, have been haunted all my life by those works which cause me to ask, "How might I have sinned against my Mother by putting thorns into Her Immaculate Heart?"

At first, I thought any sin is a sin against Her Son and, therefore, very painful to Her. However, this does not hold true against the two words, "Blaspheme and Ingratitude". With some pride we Catholics say we are not like Protestants who totally disregard the Mother of God and thus assume we are not

guilty of sins against Her. But She cannot be speaking to or about Protestants. Her words would be useless to their deaf ears. She is speaking to Catholics, who think by honoring Her are incapable of sinning against Her.

My thinking today, after painful reflection, is that there are many ways in which I have sinned against Mary. Therefore , I was one of the ungrateful men who placed thorns into Her Immaculate Heart. I Placed these thorns by my failure to defend Her against the attacks of those who don't understand Her place in the master plan of God. I placed thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary by my failure to learn all that can be learned about Her. I placed thorns into Her Heart by my failure to understand the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary as is revealed in Holy Scripture and logic.

I had failed to learn that it is Our Lady that the Holy Spirit is speaking about in Chapter 12 of Apocalypse. I had failed to understand how to read Holy Scriptures and therefore did not know the extent of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Mary; and how that relationship mirrors the perfection of the relationship of Christ to his Church. From the saints I learned that Chapter 21 of Apocalypse "the Heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven is the bride of the Holy Spirit, Mary; and it is also the bride of Christ, the Church. It is the Holy Spirit speaking of Mary and I is Christ speaking of His Church. From the saints I learned that Psalm 44 is the Holy Spirit speaking of his spouse, Mary; and it is Christ speaking of his spouse, the Church. I learned that the Song of Song (Canticle of Canticles) is the Holy Spirit singing of His Bride, Mary; and it is Christ singing of his bride, the Church. I learned that it would be Mary who would crush the head of Satan from Genesis 3:15 and that I am one of Her children if I keep the commandments of Her Son from Apocalypse 12:17. I learned that it was Mary and the Christ child seen in a vision by the angles as a test before the world was created in Apocalypse 12 and that Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven for not accepting Her in

Apocalypse 12:9 and that there has been a battle between Satan and Mary every since in Apocalypse 12:17.

I learned from St. Maximillian Kolbe that,

and God has put together the Holy Spirit and Mary so completely as to become one body. God has put together Christ and the Church so completely as to become one body. The Holy Spirit dwells in Mary so fully that you cannot find Him without Her help. From Kolbe and Catherine Laboure (the Miraculous Medal) I now see how all grace, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit come through Mary and in no other way. I knew everything about the Bible and could quote from every chapter; and yet I knew nothing. I know now that God first thought of a perfect creation, Mary; and that all other creations put together would not equal Her perfection because She would become the first Child of the Father, the bride of the Holy Spirit and the Mother from whom God would enter the world.

Today I can defend my Mother against the attacks from liberal Catholics, Protestants, Moslems, and atheists; and to not do so is to sin against my Mother.

Even to not know how to is to sin against the Spirit of Truth, Her Spouse.

How many times have I sinned against Mary by my ingratitude.

Every grace that ever came to me came from Her Hands, and I failed to thank Her.

Every time Satan attacked me, She defended me, and I failed to thank Her.

How many times thought out history has She appeased the wrath of God and saved mankind from chastisement and I have failed to thank her.

Even now, She converted Russia and overthrew communism in more than forty countries, and how many of us have thanked Her.

How many of us have written to Lucia of Fatima and said,

"Thank our Lady of Fatima for me, for the conversion of Russia."

Sister Lucia De Jesus

Convento De Santa Terresa

3000 Coimbra, Portugal

In 1943 Christ appeared to Lucia and said,

Have we recognized this? Or are we guilty of ingratitude. When Mary offered the Five First Saturdays, it was a promise and a prophesy. A promise to assist us at the hour of our death, and a prophesy that  millions of Catholics would blaspheme the Holy Mother of God. What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray to and honor a false Mary? What greater blaspheme can there be than to pray rosaries to Satan disguised as Mary. Someday there will be an anti-Christ pretending to be Christ. Good Catholics will pray to him.

These prayers will be from the heart and from a clear conscience, but they will receive no grace from them and their conscience will not save them from the wrath of God (Veritatis Splendor). In the same way these rosaries to false Mary's will not produce grace and will not save them from the wrath of God, who sees the blaspheme against His Mother by people attributing to Mary the words of demons , psychotics, and frauds.

To believe that the loving sweet Mother of God could say of us, "my cohort" (which means evil spirits of darkness or a Roman division of warriors) is blaspheme. To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that Pope Paul VI, who wrote Humani Vita , Marialis Cultus, and Signum Magnum, was a false Pope is to blaspheme Our Mother. To believe that Our Sweet Mother could say that all religions are equal in the eyes of God or even that all religions are God's religions is to blaspheme Our Lady. To believe that the most obedient human in history could advocate disobedience to a bishop is the greatest of all blasphemies against our Sweet Mother.

Christ said to Lucia in 1925, " Have compassion on the heart of your Most Holy Mother, which is covered with thorns that ungrateful men drive into it every instant, ----" Make absolutely sure it is not you who are driving thorns into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, For God cannot forgive an unrepentive sin against the bride of Truth. If you have made the Five First Saturdays and have offered them up for sins against Mary, do them again and again and again, for eight out of ten Catholics in the world today are blaspheming against Mary by following false Mary's.

                                                                                          the publican