Dear Parishioners, This week’s reflection comes from one of the nation’s leaders of higher education… Just before the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, I made a short video called The World is in Danger. Mary said at Fatima, “unless there is repentance, unless there is turning back to God, a worse war is going to come.”

Unfortunately, we can admit that there has not been repentance. In fact, just the opposite is happening. All kinds of people are turning away from the Lord and mocking God. When St. Jacinta was dying, Mary told her that wars are a punishment for sin. May the Lord have mercy on us, and may we also pay attention to what Mary said. She said if Russia is consecrated to the world, eventually there will be peace, but if not, Russia is going to spread its errors throughout the whole world.

Well, the errors of Russia are being spread throughout the whole world in atheistic materialism. The rebellion against God that was at the heart of Soviet Communism is spreading around the world. Hostility is growing, hatred is growing once again like in World War I and World War II. Christians are killing Christians. The devils must be having a field day, so let's heed Mary’s exhortation. The only request she made in all six of her apparitions was that we say the rosary every day for world peace, so let's intercede for world peace. 
I invite you to join me now in praying the rosary, because the world is in danger.

Since posting that video, I’ve become convinced that the pace of the “troubles” is picking up. When Covid first broke out, one of my friends had the sense that this was the first of the chastisements that were coming. He said, “This is the frogs”— recollecting the plagues the Lord sent to Egypt until the pharaoh finally decided to do God’s will and “let His people go!” Then, when I was recently in North Carolina, the man driving me said he felt the Lord was showing him that the coming chastisements would progress like contractions in childbirth. They begin reasonably gentle and far apart, before increasing in intensity with shorter intervals between them. I believe we may be seeing exactly this unfold.

The hostility toward Christians unleashed by the decision of the majority of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade was shocking. There really are two world views that are diametrically opposed to one another. One, respecting God, the Ten Commandments, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, calls for repentance and obedience to the will of God. The other explicitly rejects the Christian worldview and declares that human beings can do and be anything they wish, irrespective of the will of God. Large parts of humanity are in rebellion against God. In God’s mercy, He is sending chastisements to try to bring us to our senses. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!! Ralph Martin