KingoftheDayandQueenofAllAges

This is the feast day of one of the great exemplars of the Social Reign of Christ the King was Saint Edward the Confessor. He spent thirty years of his life, from age ten to age forty, in exile in Normandy, growing in sanctity, especially by his devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at which he was once privileged to actually see Our Lord smiling at him. He was solicitous of the poor and the underprivileged. He acceded to the throne at the age of thirty-nine, in 1042, receiving a warm welcome from the Danes who had invaded England and gained political mastery there. Edward was respected by all precisely because of his sanctity, which exhibited itself in his gentleness and his ability to avert conflicts. Although he did repel an invasion from the Welsh and sought to aid King Malcolm III in Scotland as Macbeth plotted to secure the Scottish throne for himself, his twenty-four year reign was one of peace with other kingdoms and justice for the poor in his own kingdom. Saint Edward, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, was ever conscious of his obligation to rule according to the mind of Christ the King. Thus mindful of the rights of private property and the limits of just government Saint Edward the Confessor reduced taxes during his reign in England.

Saint Edward the Confessor was particularly devoted to Saint John the Evangelist. He refused no request made in the name of the Beloved Apostle. Saint John appeared to Saint Edward as a beggar, who asked him for alms. Having no money to give him, the king took off his ring and gave it away. Saint John returned the ring with a note telling him on what day, January 5, he would die in the year of 1066, just nine months before the Battle of Hastings. Saint Edward immediately ordered that prayers be said for him in preparation for his death. The man who was chosen to be a king in this world was ever mindful of his duties to be submissive to the King of Kings, to Whom he would have to make an account of his life and of the secular authority that had been given to him at the moment of his Particular Judgment.

Saint Edward is thus quite a contrast to the egomaniacal, delusional civil potentates of our own day, some of whom believe that God actually speaks to them and "orders" them to rain down bombs on others in order to spread, say, the American concept of civil liberty as the means of a just social order within nations and peace among nations. Saint Edward knew that the basis of peace among men is the peace of Christ in the souls of men that is the fruit of being in a state of sanctifying grace. Saint Edward knew that no man is free who has not been liberated from sin in Christ by means of being baptized as a member of the Catholic Church. Saint Edward knew that no country will be just if it attempts to make idols of his own national myths and ideologies, dismissing as so much "impractical nonsense" the necessity of formal membership in the true Church as the means of the salvation of men and the necessity of kingdoms being subordinated to the King of Kings and the authority of His true Church.

It is therefore no accident in the Providence of God that the date of Saint Edward the Confessor's feast day, October 13, was the one on which the Blessed Mother would make her final public apparition in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which will be the result of the faithful fulfillment of her Fatima Message by the proper consecration of Russia to that Immaculate Heart by a pope with all of the world's bishops, will usher in a "certain period of peace," a new Christendom, if you will, where statesmen of Saint Edward the Confessor's purity of life and ambition to serve Christ the King alone will be the rule of the day. The petty, shallow, self-deluded careerists of the present will be swept away, becoming but footnotes in the annals of world history. Men will emerge who will seek, as Saint Louis IX, King of France did, to root out from their lands the conditions that breed sin and indifference to the Faith as essential in all aspects of daily life.

On a day when it was raining heavily and with nearly 70,000 pilgrims standing or kneeling in the mud as the rain soaked them to the bone, Our Lady told Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta that they must continue to do penance for sins and to pray the Rosary every day

I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.

Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended.

Our Lady then disappeared after opening her hands to the sun, reappearing first to all three children with Saint Joseph as he blessed the crowd at the Cova da Iria by making the Sign of the Cross three times with his foster-Child. It was shortly thereafter that Our Lord was seen carrying His Cross by Lucia dos Santos alone as Our Lady or Sorrows, without the sword in her Immaculate Heart, appeared to her. The final apparition, seen once again only by Lucia, was that of Our Lady, dressed as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with the Infant Jesus. Each of the three apparitions represented the three sets of mysteries of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious.

The long-awaited miracle that Our Lady had promised she would make manifest was seen by the children and by the large crowd of pilgrims. A secular journalist, Avelino de Almeida, who had written pieces that were scathing in their criticism of the children's claims to have seen Our Lady, wrote the following eye-witness report for his anti-clerical newspaper, O Seculo:

One could see the immense multitude turn towards the sun, which appeared free from clouds and at its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: "A miracle! A miracle!" Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws - the sun "danced" according to the typical expression of the people.

People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it with its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively.

The thousands of people who had been soaked to the bone (as I was yesterday, October 12, while out and about in pouring rain in Orange County, New York, and Sussex County, New Jersey) were completely dry within ten minutes of the appearance of the sun. They were dry. Their clothes were dry. The ground upon which they stood, which had was nothing other than mud and large puddles of water, was completely dry.

Three months before, on July 13, 1917, Our Lady had outlined the essence of the Fatima Message that we must continue to spread with all of the strength and courage that her Divine Son can send us:

Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.

To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

Our Lady then told Lucia to add what we call the Fatima Prayer at the end of each mystery of her Most Holy Rosary. It is important to note that the prayer below is exactly what Our Lady told Lucia. We should thus correct one and all who add the words "of thy mercy" at the end of the Fatima Prayer. The prayer ends with the word "need":

When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: "O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need."

Twelve years later, on June 13, 1929, Sister Lucia saw the now famous image of the Holy Trinity during a Holy Hour. Our Lady spoke to her the following words:

The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops in the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.

Our Lord Himself amplified the words of His Most Holy Mother, speaking the following to Sister Lucia:

They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer.

These are particularly chilling words. One of the great mysteries of the past eight decades is why no pope, including Popes Pius XI and XII, understood the urgency of doing precisely what Our Lady had said needed to be done by consecrating Russia, not the world as Pope Pius XII did in 1942 (and as Pope John Paul II did in 1984 and again in 2000), to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. A simple act require simple obedience.

As we know, though, the leaders of the postconciliar church have invested too much of themselves in accommodating the errors of Russia, starting with the prohibition of any mention of Communism in the Second Vatican Council that was imposed by Pope John XXIII. Efforts to seek to convert souls out of any branch of Orthodoxy, no less Russian Orthodoxy, are actively discouraged by the Holy See. It is as though the conversion of Russia to the true Church, which is what Our Lady said would be the fruit of the proper consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, is considered to be too much of a political and/or theological impediment to the "vision" of the Second Vatican Council. Thus, prideful men, many of whom have embraced the secular foundation of the Modern State that would have caused great exemplars of the Social Reign of Christ the King such as Saint Edward the Confessor to weep with sorrow, believe that they know better than the Mother of God herself.

In the midst of all of the inter-related problems facing the Church and the world, however, we must rely tenderly upon the patronage of Our Lady, seeking to fulfill on a daily basis the demands of the Fatima Message, especially by praying the Rosary, making the Five First Saturdays (over and over and over again until we die), going to Confession regularly, and seeking to do penance for our sins and those of the whole world.

Sister Lucia, who died eight months ago today, suffered much throughout her long life in the convent. She was indeed the suffering messenger of Fatima who was kept alive to make known Our Lady's Fatima Message and to sacrifice herself as an oblation for us erring sinners. She spent most of her years in the convent in front of the Blessed Sacrament in prayer.

Sister Lucia reminded us in the 1990s that the penances mentioned by Our Lady are nothing extraordinary. That is, each of us is called to fulfill the daily duties demanded of our state-in-life with great love and attention to detail, offering all to the Blessed Trinity through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Examples of such penances are, well, everything we do if we do and everything we are asked to suffer during the course of a day if it is given to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is, getting up when we would prefer to stay in bed. Making the extra effort to assist at the Immemorial Mass of Tradition even though it might entail many sacrifices and the expenditure of our scarce financial resources. Dealing kindly and patiently with those around us. Bearing insults and misunderstandings with the patient self-abnegation of Our Lord Himself, praying fervently each day for those who insult us or who think they know the inner workings of our hearts and souls. Attending to the mundane duties of daily living, such as taking out the garbage or having to endure the horrors of the modern world when shopping for food or other supplies. Suffering with Our Lord and Our Lady during the cataclysm afflicting Holy Mother Church in her human elements at present. Offering up all of the aches and pains associated with the aging process readily and with joy in reparation for our sins and those of the whole world. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls." "All to you Blessed Mother." "All to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart."

The work of spreading the Fatima Message is the work of our time. If we want to see a world where our civil rulers reflect the sanctity of Saint Edward the Confessor and our bishops and priests reflect the zeal of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney and Saint Josaphat, then we had better pray and make sacrifices for some pope to consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. That sure does not seem likely at present. Miracles are possible. One occurred on this very day eighty-eight years ago. One occurs every day when a mere man utters mere words over the mere elements of this earth, making God Himself incarnate under the appearances of bread and wine. Oh, yes, miracles are possible. We must never cease praying for the miracle of the fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message. The fullness of Catholic Tradition will be restored in the Church. Christendom will be restored in the world.

King of the Day, Queen of All Ages

by Thomas A. Droleskey

October 13, 2005
King of the Day, Queen of All Ages by Thomas A. Droleskey This is the feast day of one of the great exemplars of the Social Reign of Christ the King was Saint Edward the Confessor. He spent thirty years of his life, from age ten to age forty, in exile in Normandy, growing in sanctity, especially by his devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at which he was once privileged to actually see Our Lord smiling at him. He was solicitous of the poor and the underprivileged. He acceded to the throne at the age of thirty-nine, in 1042, receiving a warm welcome from the Danes who had invaded England and gained political mastery there. Edward was respected by all precisely because of his sanctity, which exhibited itself in his gentleness and his ability to avert conflicts. Although he did repel an invasion from the Welsh and sought to aid King Malcolm III in Scotland as Macbeth plotted to secure the Scottish throne for himself, his twenty-four year reign was one of peace with other kingdoms and justice for the poor in his own kingdom. Saint Edward, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, was ever conscious of his obligation to rule according to the mind of Christ the King. Thus mindful of the rights of private property and the limits of just government Saint Edward the Confessor reduced taxes during his reign in England. Saint Edward the Confessor was particularly devoted to Saint John the Evangelist. He refused no request made in the name of the Beloved Apostle. Saint John appeared to Saint Edward as a beggar, who asked him for alms. Having no money to give him, the king took off his ring and gave it away. Saint John returned the ring with a note telling him on what day, January 5, he would die in the year of 1066, just nine months before the Battle of Hastings. Saint Edward immediately ordered that prayers be said for him in preparation for his death. The man who was chosen to be a king in this world was ever mindful of his duties to be submissive to the King of Kings, to Whom he would have to make an account of his life and of the secular authority that had been given to him at the moment of his Particular Judgment. Saint Edward is thus quite a contrast to the egomaniacal, delusional civil potentates of our own day, some of whom believe that God actually speaks to them and "orders" them to rain down bombs on others in order to spread, say, the American concept of civil liberty as the means of a just social order within nations and peace among nations. Saint Edward knew that the basis of peace among men is the peace of Christ in the souls of men that is the fruit of being in a state of sanctifying grace. Saint Edward knew that no man is free who has not been liberated from sin in Christ by means of being baptized as a member of the Catholic Church. Saint Edward knew that no country will be just if it attempts to make idols of his own national myths and ideologies, dismissing as so much "impractical nonsense" the necessity of formal membership in the true Church as the means of the salvation of men and the necessity of kingdoms being subordinated to the King of Kings and the authority of His true Church. It is therefore no accident in the Providence of God that the date of Saint Edward the Confessor's feast day, October 13, was the one on which the Blessed Mother would make her final public apparition in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which will be the result of the faithful fulfillment of her Fatima Message by the proper consecration of Russia to that Immaculate Heart by a pope with all of the world's bishops, will usher in a "certain period of peace," a new Christendom, if you will, where statesmen of Saint Edward the Confessor's purity of life and ambition to serve Christ the King alone will be the rule of the day. The petty, shallow, self-deluded careerists of the present will be swept away, becoming but footnotes in the annals of world history. Men will emerge who will seek, as Saint Louis IX, King of France did, to root out from their lands the conditions that breed sin and indifference to the Faith as essential in all aspects of daily life. On a day when it was raining heavily and with nearly 70,000 pilgrims standing or kneeling in the mud as the rain soaked them to the bone, Our Lady told Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta that they must continue to do penance for sins and to pray the Rosary every day I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes. After telling the seers that people must amend their lives, Our Lady said: Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended. Our Lady then disappeared after opening her hands to the sun, reappearing first to all three children with Saint Joseph as he blessed the crowd at the Cova da Iria by making the Sign of the Cross three times with his foster-Child. It was shortly thereafter that Our Lord was seen carrying His Cross by Lucia dos Santos alone as Our Lady or Sorrows, without the sword in her Immaculate Heart, appeared to her. The final apparition, seen once again only by Lucia, was that of Our Lady, dressed as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with the Infant Jesus. Each of the three apparitions represented the three sets of mysteries of Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary: Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious. The long-awaited miracle that Our Lady had promised she would make manifest was seen by the children and by the large crowd of pilgrims. A secular journalist, Avelino de Almeida, who had written pieces that were scathing in their criticism of the children's claims to have seen Our Lady, wrote the following eye-witness report for his anti-clerical newspaper, O Seculo: One could see the immense multitude turn towards the sun, which appeared free from clouds and at its zenith. It looked like a plaque of dull silver and it was possible to look at it without the least discomfort. It might have been an eclipse which was taking place. But at that moment a great shout went up and one could hear the spectators nearest at hand shouting: "A miracle! A miracle!" Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose aspect was Biblical as they stood bareheaded, eagerly searching the sky, the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws - the sun "danced" according to the typical expression of the people. People then began to ask each other what they had seen. The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and dancing of the sun; others affirmed that they saw the face of the Blessed Virgin; others, again, swore that the sun whirled on itself like a giant Catherine wheel and that it lowered itself to the earth as if to burn it with its rays. Some said they saw it change colors successively. The thousands of people who had been soaked to the bone (as I was yesterday, October 12, while out and about in pouring rain in Orange County, New York, and Sussex County, New Jersey) were completely dry within ten minutes of the appearance of the sun. They were dry. Their clothes were dry. The ground upon which they stood, which had was nothing other than mud and large puddles of water, was completely dry. Three months before, on July 13, 1917, Our Lady had outlined the essence of the Fatima Message that we must continue to spread with all of the strength and courage that her Divine Son can send us: Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. Our Lady then told Lucia to add what we call the Fatima Prayer at the end of each mystery of her Most Holy Rosary. It is important to note that the prayer below is exactly what Our Lady told Lucia. We should thus correct one and all who add the words "of thy mercy" at the end of the Fatima Prayer. The prayer ends with the word "need": When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: "O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need." Twelve years later, on June 13, 1929, Sister Lucia saw the now famous image of the Holy Trinity during a Holy Hour. Our Lady spoke to her the following words: The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops in the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray. Our Lord Himself amplified the words of His Most Holy Mother, speaking the following to Sister Lucia: They did not wish to heed My request. Like the king of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church; the Holy Father will have much to suffer. These are particularly chilling words. One of the great mysteries of the past eight decades is why no pope, including Popes Pius XI and XII, understood the urgency of doing precisely what Our Lady had said needed to be done by consecrating Russia, not the world as Pope Pius XII did in 1942 (and as Pope John Paul II did in 1984 and again in 2000), to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. A simple act require simple obedience. As we know, though, the leaders of the postconciliar church have invested too much of themselves in accommodating the errors of Russia, starting with the prohibition of any mention of Communism in the Second Vatican Council that was imposed by Pope John XXIII. Efforts to seek to convert souls out of any branch of Orthodoxy, no less Russian Orthodoxy, are actively discouraged by the Holy See. It is as though the conversion of Russia to the true Church, which is what Our Lady said would be the fruit of the proper consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, is considered to be too much of a political and/or theological impediment to the "vision" of the Second Vatican Council. Thus, prideful men, many of whom have embraced the secular foundation of the Modern State that would have caused great exemplars of the Social Reign of Christ the King such as Saint Edward the Confessor to weep with sorrow, believe that they know better than the Mother of God herself. In the midst of all of the inter-related problems facing the Church and the world, however, we must rely tenderly upon the patronage of Our Lady, seeking to fulfill on a daily basis the demands of the Fatima Message, especially by praying the Rosary, making the Five First Saturdays (over and over and over again until we die), going to Confession regularly, and seeking to do penance for our sins and those of the whole world. Sister Lucia, who died eight months ago today, suffered much throughout her long life in the convent. She was indeed the suffering messenger of Fatima who was kept alive to make known Our Lady's Fatima Message and to sacrifice herself as an oblation for us erring sinners. She spent most of her years in the convent in front of the Blessed Sacrament in prayer. Sister Lucia reminded us in the 1990s that the penances mentioned by Our Lady are nothing extraordinary. That is, each of us is called to fulfill the daily duties demanded of our state-in-life with great love and attention to detail, offering all to the Blessed Trinity through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Examples of such penances are, well, everything we do if we do and everything we are asked to suffer during the course of a day if it is given to God through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is, getting up when we would prefer to stay in bed. Making the extra effort to assist at the Immemorial Mass of Tradition even though it might entail many sacrifices and the expenditure of our scarce financial resources. Dealing kindly and patiently with those around us. Bearing insults and misunderstandings with the patient self-abnegation of Our Lord Himself, praying fervently each day for those who insult us or who think they know the inner workings of our hearts and souls. Attending to the mundane duties of daily living, such as taking out the garbage or having to endure the horrors of the modern world when shopping for food or other supplies. Suffering with Our Lord and Our Lady during the cataclysm afflicting Holy Mother Church in her human elements at present. Offering up all of the aches and pains associated with the aging process readily and with joy in reparation for our sins and those of the whole world. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we love you. Save souls." "All to you Blessed Mother." "All to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart." The work of spreading the Fatima Message is the work of our time. If we want to see a world where our civil rulers reflect the sanctity of Saint Edward the Confessor and our bishops and priests reflect the zeal of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney and Saint Josaphat, then we had better pray and make sacrifices for some pope to consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart with all of the world's bishops. That sure does not seem likely at present. Miracles are possible. One occurred on this very day eighty-eight years ago. One occurs every day when a mere man utters mere words over the mere elements of this earth, making God Himself incarnate under the appearances of bread and wine. Oh, yes, miracles are possible. We must never cease praying for the miracle of the fulfillment of Our Lady's Fatima Message. The fullness of Catholic Tradition will be restored in the Church. Christendom will be restored in the world. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint Edward the Confessor, pray for us. Blessed Jacinta, pray for us. Blessed Francisco, pray for us. Sister Lucia, pray for us.


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