Consecration to the Immaculata - Preparation Day 9
Day Nine
“You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world”
(Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
The words “You alone have destroyed all heresies in
the whole world” are taken from the divine Office which
the Church requires priests to recite with regard to her. The
Church speaks of “heresies,” not “heretics,” because she,
Mary, loves them and on account of this love wants to free
them from the error of heresy. It also reads: “all,” without
exception. “You alone,” because she suffices. God, in fact,
belongs to her1, with all the treasures of grace, graces of conversion,
and of sanctification of souls. “In the whole world”:
no corner of the earth here is excluded. In this section of the
act of consecration, we implore her to make use of us to destroy
the whole body of the serpent, that is to say the most
diverse heresies that hold the world captive.1
That is to say that God has given Himself to Her with all his treasures of
grace, that He never refuses Her anything. Even though Mary is nothing of
herself, God has, in his infinite mercy, bestowed everything, that He ever
wished to give to mankind, first of all on Mary so that she may pass his
treasures on to us in her capacity of spiritual Mother and Mediatrix of all
Graces.
42
Explanation:
The devil becomes incarnate so to speak, he appears
under different forms and guises. The Church herself often
prays this line (8th antiphon of Matins on Marian feasts)
and relates it to all movements that have fallen away from
the true faith and try to lead souls astray from the true
path. St. Maximilian puts a strong emphasis on the extent
of Mary's role in overcoming heresies.
Perhaps we could elaborate a little more on the Greek origins
of this word: 'haeresis' means 'cutting away' and 'separation'.
Whatever separates mankind from God, whatever separates
it from the tree of life, the Immaculata has already overcome
and destroyed it. There is nothing worse to cut men of goodwill
off from God's grace and separate them from the source of life
than today's modernism, 'the melting pot of all heresies'.
Are we not often saddened and disheartened when
we witness the continuing downward trend, the still
more cruel separation from Christ's truth, way and life?
All the more reason to adopt this phrase as a short prayer:
You alone! Yes, the Immaculata is our last resort, the surest
victory: “My immaculate heart will triumph in the end!”
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Militia Immaculatae and the great secret
of Fatima (Part 2), pp. 243–247
43
**********
THE THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA AND THE THIRD-DEGREE M.I.
We read again in the Book of Revelation:
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth: and
he had two horns, like a lamb: and he spoke as a dragon. And
he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight.
And he caused the earth and them that dwell therein to adore
the first beast…. And he did great signs… and he seduced
them that dwell on the earth; … saying to them that dwell
on the earth that they should make the image of the beast
(Apocalypse 13:11–14).
The second beast is a further emanation [or extension] of the dragon.
Three times the Evangelist calls it the “false prophet” (Apocalypse
16:13, 19:20 and 20:10).
Thus it is a question here of a power that has the ability to prophesy,
therefore a spiritual, religious power that is rooted in evil. This evil is
nothing other than unbelief, which “comes up out of the earth”, i.e.
from within the Church itself; it mimics the teaching of Christ and
of the Church (he had two horns, like a lamb). In reality, however, this
heresy in the Church is inspired by the dragon and is completely in
his service.
Whatever one might think about the publication of the Third
Secret of Fatima, there is no longer any doubt today as to its essential
244
contents: the almost complete destruction of the Church and an unprecedented
throng of ruined souls is the work of the second beast, which
is, as it were, incarnated in a new world religion, which leads whole
nations into the great apostasy in the name of a false ecumenism.
Heaven’s answer, however, is always the same — the Immaculate
Heart of Mary! In this secret the answer is especially important for the
members of the endangered Church itself. Every offensive of the devil,
in spite of his sinister intentions, only demonstrates even more clearly
the greatness of the victorious Queen. That is why heresies develop
at first with dizzying speed: only so that, in the moment of the most
severe trial, when it seems that truth has been definitively crushed, the
Immaculata will conquer them all without exception. In this victorious
role of vanquisher of all heresies, the Immaculata appears especially
as the Mediatrix of all graces of conversion. As Co-Redemptrix she
puts an end to the “horror of the destruction of holy places” and sees
to it that the Sacrifice of our redemption, the Mass of all times, will
once more illumine the world with its eternal splendor. The Mediatrix
of all graces of conversion ends the period of false ecumenism. The
privileges of her universal Motherhood and Queenship annihilate
the cult of man, unmask the utopia of a Masonic paradise on earth
and once again demonstrate the value of the last things, especially the
everlasting beauty of our heavenly fatherland.
All of this concerns pastors primarily. The second beast, even worse
than the first, casts the world into the abyss of unbelief and causes
countless souls to fall away from the faith by using the weakness and
betrayal of many shepherds. The victory over this beast will come
from other, zealous and faithful shepherds of souls. But it would be
a mistake to think that the Third Secret concerns only a small group
of clergy, namely the Church’s hierarchy. In every message of Fatima
245
the Mother of God addresses everyone. By offering her Immaculate
Heart as a “refuge”, Our Lady of Fatima gives the world the means of
conquering even the worst possible temptation, that is, falling away
from the faith — a means without which mankind would be utterly
helpless against “the diabolical wave that is sweeping over the world”.
The question still remains: how does the Immaculate Heart of
Mary overcome the lapse of so many shepherds of souls, the great
apostasy and the new anti-Christian world religion? Mary already
answered these questions long ago in various apparitions (e.g. La
Salette), or through St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. Her answer: the little
army of the faithful “apostles of Jesus and Mary”. This answer, like all
of Mary’s other messages, remains extremely pertinent to the world
situation today. The devil’s attack is answered by a no less resolute
counterattack. The dictatorship of liberalism is countered by the ideal
of total dependence upon and subjection to her, who alone vanquishes
all heresies throughout the world.
This is precisely the goal that St. Maximilian had in mind when
he founded the third-degree M.I., with its boundless devotion to the
Immaculata, even to the point of heroism. We might recall here once
more all that the Saint has said about this highest form of the Militia
Immaculatæ. We might also consider the “City of the Immaculata”,
a miracle of our time (see Part Five, Chapter 3). As we have already said,
besides unconditional total consecration to the Immaculata, the third-
-degree M.I. rests upon two pillars, which are intrinsically opposed
to the essence of liberalism and modernism: true obedience and the
spirit of poverty. Is not the new world religion simply disobedience
toward revealed Truth and the Commandments of God, especially the
First Commandment? Does it not consist in the rebellion of unlimited
human freedom against God? The Mother of God opposed this
246
catastrophe in Fatima: total consecration, reparation, the conversion
of poor sinners — that is the quintessential message of Fatima.
SUMMARY
The great mystery of Fatima portrays the three-fold workings of
Satan, who thereby apes the Most Holy Trinity. The dragon endeavors
to bring about the ruin of souls. The two beasts are the means of
attaining this goal. The first is modern liberalism, embodied in the
sects of Freemasonry and in Communism. The second is the new world
religion, constructed on the foundation of false ecumenism. Opposing
this monster in its three embodiments is the “Woman clothed with the
sun”, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her “great mystery” consists
of the fact that she is the one who will crush the head of Satan. By
fulfilling her will, we can save our souls in a simple way (the promise
connected with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary), renew the
Christian world order (which is bound up with the consecration of
Russia) and ultimately rescue the Church (the Third Secret).
In Fatima the Immaculata placed an effective spiritual weapon in
our hands, and at almost the same time she chose her loyal servant,
Maximilian Kolbe, who was to organize this counterattack through
the founding of the Militia Immaculatæ, a Knighthood in the classical
and most noble sense of the word.
The first-degree M.I. demonstrates how important are the works of even
the least significant individual believer. St. Maximilian calls to everyone:
on you depends the salvation of a great number of souls; it depends on you
whether this or that person will someday rejoice in the everlasting vision of
God, or will curse God for all eternity in the fiery ocean of hell.
The second-degree M.I. demonstrates the importance of establishing
structures, without which the zeal of the pioneers would soon flag. One
247
can approach souls more easily by means of a group, a structure, an institution.
The devil knows that all too well, for he is a past master in this
department, i.e. in the art of organizing the forces of destruction. That is
why his rage knows no bounds, either, when here and there little cells
arise in the service of the Immaculata. Opposing the “almighty” power
of Freemasonry and Communism, the little army of the Immaculata
cannot serve the masses, nor does it have great financial resources at
its disposal; but it does not therefore lose courage! Gedeon needed no
more than three hundred soldiers in order to conquer the enormous
army of the enemy, because God was with him.
Finally, the third-degree M.I. answers the greatest need of our
time. It is the call to holiness, to the heroism that the Mother of God
demanded of the clergy when she appeared in Fatima. Through the
City of the Immaculata in Poland and Japan Maximilian Kolbe won
great spiritual victories and worked together in the vanguard of the
renewal of spiritual life in the Church. The answer to the apostasy
of the nations today can be nothing other than the greatest possible
fidelity to the deposit of faith handed down by Tradition. The third-
-degree M.I. — this is no longer just words, lectures, ideas, gestures
which point out the crisis of the Church and do not allow themselves
to be swept away by the diabolical wave. The third-degree M.I. is
the offensive of unconditional devotion to the Immaculata, who
vanquishes all heresies throughout the world and who — through
us, in us and with us — crushes the head of the devil forever. The
great secret of Fatima has no other conclusion than this: In the end my
Immaculate Heart will triumph! Fatima and the Militia Immaculatæ
were granted to us so as to prepare for the fulfillment of this great
promise.
248
“You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world”
(Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
The words “You alone have destroyed all heresies in
the whole world” are taken from the divine Office which
the Church requires priests to recite with regard to her. The
Church speaks of “heresies,” not “heretics,” because she,
Mary, loves them and on account of this love wants to free
them from the error of heresy. It also reads: “all,” without
exception. “You alone,” because she suffices. God, in fact,
belongs to her1, with all the treasures of grace, graces of conversion,
and of sanctification of souls. “In the whole world”:
no corner of the earth here is excluded. In this section of the
act of consecration, we implore her to make use of us to destroy
the whole body of the serpent, that is to say the most
diverse heresies that hold the world captive.1
That is to say that God has given Himself to Her with all his treasures of
grace, that He never refuses Her anything. Even though Mary is nothing of
herself, God has, in his infinite mercy, bestowed everything, that He ever
wished to give to mankind, first of all on Mary so that she may pass his
treasures on to us in her capacity of spiritual Mother and Mediatrix of all
Graces.
42
Explanation:
The devil becomes incarnate so to speak, he appears
under different forms and guises. The Church herself often
prays this line (8th antiphon of Matins on Marian feasts)
and relates it to all movements that have fallen away from
the true faith and try to lead souls astray from the true
path. St. Maximilian puts a strong emphasis on the extent
of Mary's role in overcoming heresies.
Perhaps we could elaborate a little more on the Greek origins
of this word: 'haeresis' means 'cutting away' and 'separation'.
Whatever separates mankind from God, whatever separates
it from the tree of life, the Immaculata has already overcome
and destroyed it. There is nothing worse to cut men of goodwill
off from God's grace and separate them from the source of life
than today's modernism, 'the melting pot of all heresies'.
Are we not often saddened and disheartened when
we witness the continuing downward trend, the still
more cruel separation from Christ's truth, way and life?
All the more reason to adopt this phrase as a short prayer:
You alone! Yes, the Immaculata is our last resort, the surest
victory: “My immaculate heart will triumph in the end!”
Spiritual reading:
Chapter: The Militia Immaculatae and the great secret
of Fatima (Part 2), pp. 243–247
43
**********
THE THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA AND THE THIRD-DEGREE M.I.
We read again in the Book of Revelation:
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth: and
he had two horns, like a lamb: and he spoke as a dragon. And
he executed all the power of the former beast in his sight.
And he caused the earth and them that dwell therein to adore
the first beast…. And he did great signs… and he seduced
them that dwell on the earth; … saying to them that dwell
on the earth that they should make the image of the beast
(Apocalypse 13:11–14).
The second beast is a further emanation [or extension] of the dragon.
Three times the Evangelist calls it the “false prophet” (Apocalypse
16:13, 19:20 and 20:10).
Thus it is a question here of a power that has the ability to prophesy,
therefore a spiritual, religious power that is rooted in evil. This evil is
nothing other than unbelief, which “comes up out of the earth”, i.e.
from within the Church itself; it mimics the teaching of Christ and
of the Church (he had two horns, like a lamb). In reality, however, this
heresy in the Church is inspired by the dragon and is completely in
his service.
Whatever one might think about the publication of the Third
Secret of Fatima, there is no longer any doubt today as to its essential
244
contents: the almost complete destruction of the Church and an unprecedented
throng of ruined souls is the work of the second beast, which
is, as it were, incarnated in a new world religion, which leads whole
nations into the great apostasy in the name of a false ecumenism.
Heaven’s answer, however, is always the same — the Immaculate
Heart of Mary! In this secret the answer is especially important for the
members of the endangered Church itself. Every offensive of the devil,
in spite of his sinister intentions, only demonstrates even more clearly
the greatness of the victorious Queen. That is why heresies develop
at first with dizzying speed: only so that, in the moment of the most
severe trial, when it seems that truth has been definitively crushed, the
Immaculata will conquer them all without exception. In this victorious
role of vanquisher of all heresies, the Immaculata appears especially
as the Mediatrix of all graces of conversion. As Co-Redemptrix she
puts an end to the “horror of the destruction of holy places” and sees
to it that the Sacrifice of our redemption, the Mass of all times, will
once more illumine the world with its eternal splendor. The Mediatrix
of all graces of conversion ends the period of false ecumenism. The
privileges of her universal Motherhood and Queenship annihilate
the cult of man, unmask the utopia of a Masonic paradise on earth
and once again demonstrate the value of the last things, especially the
everlasting beauty of our heavenly fatherland.
All of this concerns pastors primarily. The second beast, even worse
than the first, casts the world into the abyss of unbelief and causes
countless souls to fall away from the faith by using the weakness and
betrayal of many shepherds. The victory over this beast will come
from other, zealous and faithful shepherds of souls. But it would be
a mistake to think that the Third Secret concerns only a small group
of clergy, namely the Church’s hierarchy. In every message of Fatima
245
the Mother of God addresses everyone. By offering her Immaculate
Heart as a “refuge”, Our Lady of Fatima gives the world the means of
conquering even the worst possible temptation, that is, falling away
from the faith — a means without which mankind would be utterly
helpless against “the diabolical wave that is sweeping over the world”.
The question still remains: how does the Immaculate Heart of
Mary overcome the lapse of so many shepherds of souls, the great
apostasy and the new anti-Christian world religion? Mary already
answered these questions long ago in various apparitions (e.g. La
Salette), or through St. Louis-Marie de Montfort. Her answer: the little
army of the faithful “apostles of Jesus and Mary”. This answer, like all
of Mary’s other messages, remains extremely pertinent to the world
situation today. The devil’s attack is answered by a no less resolute
counterattack. The dictatorship of liberalism is countered by the ideal
of total dependence upon and subjection to her, who alone vanquishes
all heresies throughout the world.
This is precisely the goal that St. Maximilian had in mind when
he founded the third-degree M.I., with its boundless devotion to the
Immaculata, even to the point of heroism. We might recall here once
more all that the Saint has said about this highest form of the Militia
Immaculatæ. We might also consider the “City of the Immaculata”,
a miracle of our time (see Part Five, Chapter 3). As we have already said,
besides unconditional total consecration to the Immaculata, the third-
-degree M.I. rests upon two pillars, which are intrinsically opposed
to the essence of liberalism and modernism: true obedience and the
spirit of poverty. Is not the new world religion simply disobedience
toward revealed Truth and the Commandments of God, especially the
First Commandment? Does it not consist in the rebellion of unlimited
human freedom against God? The Mother of God opposed this
246
catastrophe in Fatima: total consecration, reparation, the conversion
of poor sinners — that is the quintessential message of Fatima.
SUMMARY
The great mystery of Fatima portrays the three-fold workings of
Satan, who thereby apes the Most Holy Trinity. The dragon endeavors
to bring about the ruin of souls. The two beasts are the means of
attaining this goal. The first is modern liberalism, embodied in the
sects of Freemasonry and in Communism. The second is the new world
religion, constructed on the foundation of false ecumenism. Opposing
this monster in its three embodiments is the “Woman clothed with the
sun”, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Her “great mystery” consists
of the fact that she is the one who will crush the head of Satan. By
fulfilling her will, we can save our souls in a simple way (the promise
connected with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary), renew the
Christian world order (which is bound up with the consecration of
Russia) and ultimately rescue the Church (the Third Secret).
In Fatima the Immaculata placed an effective spiritual weapon in
our hands, and at almost the same time she chose her loyal servant,
Maximilian Kolbe, who was to organize this counterattack through
the founding of the Militia Immaculatæ, a Knighthood in the classical
and most noble sense of the word.
The first-degree M.I. demonstrates how important are the works of even
the least significant individual believer. St. Maximilian calls to everyone:
on you depends the salvation of a great number of souls; it depends on you
whether this or that person will someday rejoice in the everlasting vision of
God, or will curse God for all eternity in the fiery ocean of hell.
The second-degree M.I. demonstrates the importance of establishing
structures, without which the zeal of the pioneers would soon flag. One
247
can approach souls more easily by means of a group, a structure, an institution.
The devil knows that all too well, for he is a past master in this
department, i.e. in the art of organizing the forces of destruction. That is
why his rage knows no bounds, either, when here and there little cells
arise in the service of the Immaculata. Opposing the “almighty” power
of Freemasonry and Communism, the little army of the Immaculata
cannot serve the masses, nor does it have great financial resources at
its disposal; but it does not therefore lose courage! Gedeon needed no
more than three hundred soldiers in order to conquer the enormous
army of the enemy, because God was with him.
Finally, the third-degree M.I. answers the greatest need of our
time. It is the call to holiness, to the heroism that the Mother of God
demanded of the clergy when she appeared in Fatima. Through the
City of the Immaculata in Poland and Japan Maximilian Kolbe won
great spiritual victories and worked together in the vanguard of the
renewal of spiritual life in the Church. The answer to the apostasy
of the nations today can be nothing other than the greatest possible
fidelity to the deposit of faith handed down by Tradition. The third-
-degree M.I. — this is no longer just words, lectures, ideas, gestures
which point out the crisis of the Church and do not allow themselves
to be swept away by the diabolical wave. The third-degree M.I. is
the offensive of unconditional devotion to the Immaculata, who
vanquishes all heresies throughout the world and who — through
us, in us and with us — crushes the head of the devil forever. The
great secret of Fatima has no other conclusion than this: In the end my
Immaculate Heart will triumph! Fatima and the Militia Immaculatæ
were granted to us so as to prepare for the fulfillment of this great
promise.
248