Mary and Prophecy.

Forecasting the future. It’s something we all try to do, forecast the future. If you are a College football fan, as I am, you try to forecast the outcome of upcoming contests. We do it for all types of sports, and even a lucrative industry has popped up that can reward one handsomely if they can forecast the results correctly.

It’s never totally changed. For centuries, since the beginning of man’s existence, we’ve tried to forecast the future. The Jewish elders of the Old Testament tried to put into a box exactly what their Scriptures were telling them. They had it all figured out. The Messiah was to be a military leader, who would lead a great army and give the Romans their come-uppins. When that is not what they got, they had the Messiah nailed to a cross, and even demanded the release of a violent revolutionary, Barabbas.

In every century, and in every major event that has happened since, they’ve predicted the end times. In the USA, they had the Civil War all figured out as it related to the book of Revelation, the “King of the North, vs. King of the South”. World War 1 had the entire world at war, and it was to be then. World War II even worse. Now, today it seems like the world has never been in as bad a shape as it is, and personally, I agree. There has been enough signs through Scripture and other information that has been given to us that it would appear that the time is near. The answer we don’t know, and really don’t have to, is how and when.

Now, I’m a devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some of you who are familiar with some of my earlier work will know that, as it is no secret. I am not going to get into a discussion regarding the pros of that devotion (I don’t know of any cons), so any comments to detract from that would be better made on one of my earlier pieces.

I KNOW that Mary is very definitely very involved in the world today. This was confirmed to me during the removal of a brain tumor several years ago by incidents I have not disclosed. But, I know she is here, and very much involved in each of our lives should we let her. And, I honestly believe that Christ definitely wants us to invite her involvement. After all, He did.

We are coming up on 100 years since the first apparition at Fatima, Portugal. I do believe that there is some significance in that, and tied with other approved and yet to be approved apparitions of Mary in the world, things are coming to a climax. The Fatima visits began in May, 1917, and capped off with the “Miracle of the Sun” on October 13, a miracle that was witnessed by tens of thousands, all over Europe. We also know that some of the prophecies, the coming of WWII, the persecution of the Church, and others have and are being fulfilled. We also know that at the climax of all these things, it would be shown the “In the End, My Immaculate Heart will Triumph”. It’s going to happen. Guarantee it.

A waste of time, in my opinion, is trying to figure out exactly how and when it will happen......for me, losing that time and energy, gets in the way of our God given ability to follow Him and His Mother. And, in my opinion, way too many folks are focusing on that.

In those apparitions, Our Lady definitely made the statement advising of the importance of consecrating Russia, and that in the end Russia would glorify God the most. She said it, I believe it, so that settles that.

One of the more alarming things going on today by many is the view that they seem to see Christ orchestrating another military solution. The problem is that He didn’t create a military solution the first time, and I honestly don’t know that He will, this time, either. And, I do not think that His mother, at Fatima or in current apparitions, is alluding to it. In the years I’ve been studying Scripture I’ve come to one major conclusion: What Christ is talking about is never what we are talking about. When we use our own finite logic and understanding to analyze what we are being told, we get in trouble. As a result, especially in today’s tumultuous world, we tend to equate Scripture and divine revelation into a political statement, because that is what we can relate to.

As a result, at the current time, there are some who seem to want to canonize the President of Russia, as some kind of Christian warrior. They see the rise of Russia in the world today, and the rise of Russian nationalism as the tool God is going to use to get the bad guys, the United States and the west included. Just like in Christ’ time, when he was tossed from the temple for not speaking of God’s ‘vengeance’, so many Christians seem to think that God will raise the Russian people spiritually, to ‘get’ the west which has certainly slipped in that area. Christ, in His day, was to be the military leader who would give the Romans their come-uppins. In my humble opinion....that is both an abuse of Scripture, and an abuse of Our Lady’s messages to us. It was done then, and is being done now.

The President of Russia is a former KGB Officer that dreams of restoring the old Soviet Empire. In my opinion, he uses the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool to that end. He uses it to stoke nationalism, and to use aggression to overrun former Soviet acolytes. To his credit, he is actively working against the evil of extremists in that part of the world, as any leader would in that part of the world would. With as many faults as I think the current US administration has, if we were located in the part of the world where this struggle was close enough to directly effect the US, we would be more involved, as well. We’d have to be. But, there are some Catholics who are obsessed with this...they see every move by Russia as some kind of verification that they have it figured out.

The fact that there is a renewed spiritualism of faith among the Russian people, while the same is waning in the west is no doubt true. However, there is a long way to go. As Catholics, we are aware that the Roman Catholic Church is the Church founded by Christ. Despite the renewed faith among the Russian people, the Church that we belong to is still widely persecuted in Russia. It is not recognized as a valid faith in Russia, with only roughly 170,000 Catholics within the entire country. Access to the Sacraments, the Eucharist, is not readily available.

Even with the alarming decrease of faith in the United States, in our rural area there are still seven Catholic parishes within five miles of me, all active and vibrant. My parish is among them, and I travel back and forth several times a week. So, despite the current alarming direction that the US government is taking against the Church, it is still free and open. I have yet to be arrested for attending Mass.

Russia has not been consecrated to Mary’s Immaculate Heart yet, as she had requested, for reasons unknown*. Now, Our Lady has said at Fatima that Russia will glorify God the most. I believe that. But, it’s the ‘how’ that is the tricky part. There is a powerful movement to interpret Russia’s move and military aggression of today as the move of God to bring folks back to Him by the use of military force. Maybe. However, my guess is that we will be all wrong on this, too, as we have on so many things pertaining to ‘what’ God is going to do. Yes, I believe Russia will glorify God the most. Yes, I believe in the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart. In fact, I count on both happening. But, I’m much more content to just trust Her to get it done, and do what Christ directs me to do, through Her intercession. Why try to predict this? Just let Her drive, trust God through Her, and let it go. Let Our Lady drive, just like She did the first time. No one does God’s will better than Mary. Christ works directly through Her. I’m betting She gets us home this time, as well.

Editor's Note- Pope Pius XII (1942), Pope John Paul II (1984) and Pope Francis (2013) consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart, with Pius XII also specifically consecrating "the peoples of Russia" in 1952, Sister Lúcia Santos declared that the consecrations of 1942 and 1984 were accepted in Heaven. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consecration_of_Russia; https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/FatimaConsecration.htm.