+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

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O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

 

St. Ignatius of Loyola: pray for us.

 

Introduction

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Preparatory Prayer①: “the preparatory prayer is to ask grace of God our Lord that all my intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the service and praise of His Divine Majesty”.

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Composition of Place②: We are going to imagine “with the sight of the imagination the length, breadth and depth of Hell” .

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Petition③: “[It] is to ask God our Lord for what I want and desire. We are going to ask God the grace of an “interior sense of the pain which the damned suffer, in order that, if, through my faults, I should forget the love of the Eternal Lord, at least the fear of the pains may help me not to come into sin”.

 

Corpus of the Meditation

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I. Our Lady of Fatima’s Revelation

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We all heard about our Lady of Fatima, how she told three little shepherds to pray the rosary every day, in order to venerate our Lady of the Rosary, in order to pray for the peace of the world, the end of war, because only she could intercede and obtain these graces.

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“After having arrived to Cova da Iria, near the tree, among a huge number of people (about 4000), praying the rosary, we saw the same light as always, and then, we saw our Lady on the tree”.

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“What do you want of me?” Lucia asked.

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“I want you to come here on the 13th of next month and to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary”, the Lady answered…

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“I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to perform a miracle so that everybody may believe that you are appearing to us”, Lucia pleaded.

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The beautiful Lady answered: “Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe”.

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“Then I made some requests I don’t remember very well what they were about. What I remember is that Our Lady said it was necessary to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the graces during the year”. In the end, the Lady said: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make a sacrifice: ‘Oh 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’”.

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“As Our Lady spoke these words” – Lucia continues – "she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the previous two months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent black coals, floating about in the fire, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves like great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid screams and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and disgusting likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror. 

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We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly: 

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‘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”.

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“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”.

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"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”.

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Lucia asked if there was anything more, and after assuring her that there was nothing more, Mary disappeared off into the distance.

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II. Influence of Vision of Hell on the Shepherds

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The influence of our Lady’s message, including the entire so-called "secret", with its three parts, was really great on the shepherds. They preferred jail and even death rather than reveal the secrets to the civil authorities that obliged them to do so. In a particular way, the first secret, that is, the vision of hell, had a bigger impression on Blessed Jacinta, the youngest of the shepherds. She was only 6 years old when Mary showed her hell. Lucia herself remarks this, criticising those people –even good ones- who don’t want to talk about hell to children. Nowadays, even priests don’t preach about hell in homilies, which is a serious mistake and a serious responsibility.

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In her Memoirs, by request of the Bishop of Fatima, Lucia describes how the vision of hell influenced Jacinta:

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“Your Excellency, as I told you in the writings I sent to you after I had read the book about Jacinta, she was greatly impressed by some things revealed in the secret. As a matter of fact, this was one of them. The vision of hell frightened her so much that she did all the penances and mortifications she could to prevent more souls from going there.

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Now I shall answer the second question which is asked from all sides. How had Jacinta, still a child, understood such a spirit of mortification and penance, and how had she conquered it?

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In my opinion, it was, first of all, through a special grace God granted her through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and secondly, through the vision of hell and the unfortunate souls falling into it. There are people, even devout ones, who are afraid to speak about hell to children lest they frighten them, but God did not hesitate to show it to three children, one of whom was only seven years old. He knew she would be horrified to the point — I would say — of dying of fear.

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Frequently she sat, meditating, on the ground or some stone, and began to exclaim, “Hell! Hell! How sorry I am for the souls that are going to hell! And people burn there alive, like wood in fire!” And trembling a little, she would kneel on the ground with her hands joined and say the prayer Our Lady had taught us: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls into Heaven, especially those who are most in need of Thy Mercy!”

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Now you can understand why I got the impression that the last words of this prayer are concerned with souls who are most in danger of damnation or nearest to it. Jacinta stayed for a long time on her knees, repeating the same prayer. Every now and then, as if waking us, she called to me or her brother, Francisco. “Francisco, are you praying with me? We need to pray a great deal to save souls from hell. So many are going there! So many!”

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At other times she asked, “Why doesn't Our Lady show hell to sinners? If they saw it, they would never sin again and wouldn't have to go there. You must tell Our Lady to show hell to all those people. (She meant the people staying in Cova da Iria at the time of the Apparition.) You will see that they will be converted.” Some days later, a little unhappy, she asked, “Why didn't you tell Our Lady to show hell to those people?”

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“I forgot,” I answered.

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“I didn't remember, either,” she said sadly. Sometimes, she also asked, “What sins are committed by those people to make them go to hell?”

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“I don't know. Perhaps not going to Mass on Sundays, stealing, saying wicked words, cursing, swearing.”

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“What would it cost them to keep quiet and go to Mass! I am sorry for sinners! Oh, if I could only let them see hell!”

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Sometimes she hugged me and said, “I am going to Heaven, but you have to stay here. If Our Lady lets you, tell everybody what hell is like, so that they can escape it by not committing sins.”

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Other times, after thinking for a while, she said, “So many falling into hell! So many in hell!” To reassure her, I said, “Don't be afraid. You are going to Heaven!” “Yes, I am going there,” she said calmly. “But I also want everyone to go there!”

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When, to mortify herself, she didn't want to eat, I said, “Jacinta, come on, eat now.” ”No, I am offering this sacrifice for sinners who eat too much.” When she was sick but was going to go to Mass anyway, I said, “Jacinta, don't. You aren't able. And it's not Sunday today.” “It doesn't matter. I will go for sinners who don't even go on Sundays.”

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If she happened to hear any loud cursing, she covered her face with her hands and said, “Oh my God, these people don't realize this kind of talk might send them to hell! Forgive them, Jesus, and convert them. They certainly don't know they are offending God. Oh, what a pity, Jesus! I will pray for them!” And she repeated the prayer Our Lady had taught us, “O my Jesus, forgive us” etc.

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Now, your Excellency, I have revealed the first part of the secret. The second part refers to the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As I mentioned to you previously, Our Lady, on July 13th, 1917, told us that God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart and to prevent the forthcoming war. She came to ask the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays...

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And I still say, prayer and penance as done in Portugal has not yet placated Divine Justice, for they have been accompanied neither by contrition nor amendment. I hope Jacinta is interceding for us in Heaven.

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As I said in the writings I sent about the book “Jacinta”, she was very impressed by some things revealed in the secret. For instance, the vision of hell, the misfortune of so many souls falling into it, the forthcoming war whose horrors, it seemed, were present to her. All this filled her with consternation. When I saw her deep in thought, I asked, “Jacinta, of what are you thinking?”

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Often, she answered: “Of that war which is coming, of the many people who are going to die and go to hell. What a shame! If they would stop offending God, neither the war would come nor would they go to hell!”

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III. Teaching of the Church

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Some people don’t believe in this apparition, some others don’t believe in Mary’s message, and –unfortunately inside the Church - some others don’t believe even what the Bible and the Church say about hell.

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Regarding hell, we believe that there are two kinds of punishment:

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Main punishment: Separation from God, why? It is because the person who lives in the state of mortal sin, freely chooses to live separated from God, and if that person dies without repentance, without accepting God’s mercy, he will descend into hell; the condemned ones know very well that they would be very happy if they could see God, but also know very well that they will never see Him, because that is what they chose in their earthly life: to live far from God living in the state of mortal sin, without repenting, without accepting God’s forgiveness.

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Punishment of the body: Jesus mentioned them many times: “the eternal fire” (Mt 18, 8), soul and body will suffer eternally.

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The punishment is forever, there is no end.

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No one knows the day or the hour of death, so we gotta be ready.

 

Colloquy

 

At the end of this meditation, let’s spend a little time talking with Jesus, thanking him, because he came to us to give us life, forgiveness, peace, and for that reason he died on the Cross.

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We should realise how patient God was with us, for not letting us died in mortal sin, but on the contrary, he kept our life, so that we may have time to repent, to ask for pardon.

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We may also talk with Mary, and repeat what we usually pray when we say the “Hail Mary”: “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”.

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Let us imagine for a while, the people who are in hell, dividing them into three periods of time: those who lived in the world before Jesus’ coming and didn’t believe in him, those who lived when Jesus was in the world and didn’t want to believe in him, and finally those who lived after Jesus’ death and resurrection and didn’t want to believe in him. And let us thank God, because He didn’t allow me to die in those periods of time, but gave me time, had patience, and is ready to forgive all kinds of sins.

 

 

Footnotes:

① SE 46.

② SE 65.

③ SE 48.