 Well, as a former U.S. president once said, I won't mention who because he may not be from the correct party. That would be an introduction that my father would appreciate, but my mother would actually believe. Although it is true that I was flying up from Florida yesterday and there were a series of storms and then some mechanical difficulties, and I thought better not to tell Petrock because both Petrock and I, this last year, had a heart stint placed in, and I figured, well, let's let his flow just fine, even if mine is backing up a little bit. We call each other kind of the buddies of the Immaculate Heart because we both have this heart. I think we initialed, you know, BVM on our stints so that we make sure it's going in the right direction. Now, and of course, let's begin with a prayer. You can remain seated. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, we endlessly thank you for your gifts, both spiritual material. We ask you to send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel. Help us to better know her who is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son, the spouse of the Spirit, and our own Mother Mary. As we pray, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. St. Joseph, patron of the Church. St. John Bosco. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I'm actually very privileged to have a little connection with who we affectionately call as Don Bosco, right? Father Bosco. Because my family is from Pimonte, but also Asti, and at the parish that my family came over the boat, you know, over from Italy many years back, there was the Miracolo della Pioggia, and that's the miracle of the rain. How many of you have ever heard of the miracle of the rain? That's fine, because I'm just going to invent it. No, true miracle, and what happened was, it's a grappa area, and if you ever had grappa, it's like five bottles of wine distilled into one. I mean, you could run diesel engines on grappa. And so they're very dependent on moisture, and there was a three-month drought, and the Italian vicar general who described it says it was like a negation of bronze on the whole region. And so it was three days before the assumption. This is back in 1864. So Don Bosco comes to the parish and says what he believed was just an exhortation. He said, I believe if everyone in this parish went to confession, and if everyone in this parish received Holy Communion, our lady would intercede for rain. Well, he said it, as it is later commented, as a type of encouragement, but that's not how it was received. Word went out that Don Bosco has promised rain through our lady if everyone goes to confession and to mass. Well, indeed, the whole town, a little town called Montemagno, the whole town goes to confession, the whole town goes to mass, and they're at mass, and Don Bosco hears that this is how it was received, like it was a promise. And so Don Bosco sends the sacrosan, masses started, and it's the feasts the assumption, and dry as a bone. Masses started. Don Bosco sends the sacrosan over the hill and says, can you see any clouds at all? And the sacrosan comes back, he said, ce un piccolo piccolo cuba. There's a little, little cloud coming. And Don Bosco said, well, give him my stole. So Don Bosco puts his stole on, he goes out and preaches to the people, and he said, our lady always comes through with your needs. And as he says that, there's a crack of thunder, and it pours down, rains cats and dogs, and all the Italians are crying because that's what Italians do. So they're all... Now, I was told this story by a cousin of mine who was a solution priest from the area. He added the following, but I don't know if it's apocryphal or not, so I give it with that condition. He said the last thing Don Bosco asked for was one vocation to his brothers and one vocation to the solution sisters, spontaneously. And as the priest relayed this, one young gentleman stood up, the other young woman stood up, and that's when the crack of thunder happened. Now, I didn't include that in the original story, A, because I can't confirm it, B, I was concerned that some of our younger catechists might be heading for the exit in case I was going to try to Don Bosco them for some weather relief. So you can see whether or not that's authentic or not. Okay, now, of course, Don Bosco is also known for his catechetical genius, right? His ability to make the mysterious simple. But remember, my friends, that the catechetical and the mystical are not enemies. The mystical does not replace the catechetical, but the mystical confirms the catechetical. And so you have this genius of catechesis, who's also a mystic, who's also a prophet. And so, in his catechesis, he would oftentimes say, don't be too concerned about the highest elements of faith. Stay within the triangle. This is Don Bosco. What's the triangle? Stay within the triangle. The triangle of the Eucharist, our Blessed Mother, and obedience to the Holy Father. If you're inside that triangle, then you're safe. Now, this is the same man who had, of course, the great dream, the great dream of the two pillars, which you've heard about many times, with the Eucharist on one pillar, our Blessed Mother on another pillar, and the Holy Father bringing the bark of the ship into a era of peace. So remember, the mystical is not the enemy of the catechetical. They come together to bring as many people home as possible. It's also an interesting fact that Pope Francis' father was an immigrant from Pumonte. So we think of the Pope as being Argentinian. Well, it's like you going to Canada, don't mean to offend any Canadians or any Americans either. Anyway, you going to Canada and saying, well, I'm a Canadian now, but you've just been there for three years. Well, you're still kind of American, right, because, well, the Pope's father came from Pumonte to Argentina. And who did he marry? A woman also from Pumonte, who had been born in Argentina, but her parents. So it's a continuity there as well that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, is from this region. And again, my friends, sometimes we have to state what is obvious, out of love for the church and the good of souls. But we need to be true to each one of those elements of the triangle, the Eucharist, the heart and summit of our faith. You will never consider it a waste of time when you're on deathbed. You know, doctors and priests come together with this thing. There's two things that people talk on their deathbed. Number one, two regrets. Number one, I wish I would have spent more time with my family. Number two, I wish I would have spent more time with God. On your deathbed, you will never say, I wish I didn't spend so much time in Eucharistic adoration. That's not going to happen. So it's the Eucharist. It's, of course, our Lady, which we'll discuss today. And it's third, obedience to the vicar of Christ. That's what makes us Catholic. That's what always will make us Catholic. And if there's ever a temptation not to obey the vicar of Christ, see it. See it as a temptation against our holy faith. We always obey the vicar of Christ on earth. I was mentioning, could you imagine this to a couple of friends over the weekend. Imagine a Protestant Christian walking by a table of Catholics and he overhears them discussing how much or how little they're going to obey the Pope. And the Protestant Christian would scratch her head and say, well, I'm confused. Isn't that what makes you Catholic? Why are you discussing how much you're going to obey the Pope? That confuses me. So let's not add confusion to a situation which calls for fidelity. The Eucharist, our Lady, and the Holy Father. Now, we have the joy of talking about our Lady today and I thought Patrick's theme was remarkable. Our Lady's accompaniment, how she accompanies us. And I want to focus on one reference of the Second Vatican Council, Lumengensium 62, because it's very clear about how she does this. This is, again, Lumengensium 62, quote, taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office, but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. What dawned on me in the Fort Myers Airport last night as the flight was getting delayed and delayed and delayed, this, my friends, is exactly what our wonderful, though confused, Protestant brethren reject. They reject that after she's been taken up into heaven, they believe that she has laid aside this saving office. They believe that she has stopped accompanying us. And this is absolutely quintessentially tragic. She's more with us now than she was with us on Earth. Her intercession is all the more powerful. And we can also rest assured the more there's a need for the people of God, for the mother that Jesus gave them from the cross, the more she will be with us. And we'll talk about that need. We'll talk about the message of our Lady to the church and the world today. But that message cannot cause discouragement. It can only cause encouragement about A, our need to spread the faith. B, the assurance that the mother is with us. And C, of course she's going to appear in apparitions because that's the experiential expression, the experiential manifestation of who she is. A mother to us in the order of grace. Now, Lumen Gentium 62 goes on to call our Lady the Mediatrix and the Advocate. And as most of you know, this is her role of distributing the graces of salvation. And also her role as a protectress for us. A good mother, as basic psychology and anthropology tells us. A good mother does three things for her children. Number one, she suffers for her children. I'm blessed with my seventh daughter who was married in January and is now three months pregnant. And every evening, she understands this first principle very seriously. She said that I think men came up with the expression morning sickness because this is hurting a lot at night. So why is it called morning sickness? So she's suffering with this child. That's what mothers do, right? Sometimes soon after conception. Secondly, a mother nourishes her children. Another forms her children. And thirdly, a mother intercedes and protects her children. Well, these are the three ways our Lady is mother to us. She was not only intended to be the daughter of the father, the Immaculate Masterpiece, the mother of the son, the woman who actually gave carnage to the incarnation. It's a wonderment of nature that a creature gave birth to her own creator. We'll never fully understand that and it will never happen again. And how the Holy Spirit calls her his beloved spouse. How can you have the third person of the Trinity see a human being as a spouse because of what happens at the incarnation? The divine spouse in intimacy with the human spouse brings forth the word made flesh. So that's true about our Lady. She is the awesome revelation of the daughter of the father, the mother of the son, the spouse of the spirit. And that's why you can never fear my friends to love her too much. Just say that again. You can never fear about loving Mary too much. Your love for our Lady will never compete with the love of Jesus for his mother. And in fact, in a beautiful way the more we try to love her with the fullness of the heart the more it's a consolation to the heart of Jesus. But Mary was not simply intended to be in a relationship with the Trinitarian persons. She's meant to accompany us. And that's Lumen Jensim 62. And that's why we need her today. And that's why she continues. Now, why is it, for example, that many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have a tough time with something like an apparition? Well, that's actually very logical. Why would they accept an apparition of Mary when they don't accept the intercession of Mary? They don't accept that she is still being mother to us in the order of grace. Well, now the Second Vatican Council also tells us why Mary is the Mediatrix and Advocate. And sometimes we pass over Lumen Jensim 58 to get to 62, but as we'll see to be the Mediatrix and Advocate she must first have suffered. And this is Lumen Jensim 58. This is, by the way, what John Paul II did his whole encyclical on Our Lady based on this paragraph. Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith and faithfully persevered in her union with her son under the cross, where she stood in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was born of her. That means my friend my friend that not only did Our Lady endure Calvary, she consented to Calvary. And in the beauty of what it meant to hear those words from Jesus woman, behold your son and then behold your mother, from that moment this is almost painful to ponder from that moment that Mary had to express the same love for the Romans for the guards, for the Pharisees, for the hecklers as she did for her son on the cross. Why? Because she was now their mother. She had to pray for their souls and as we all know you can't pray with intensity unless it's supported with love. This is why St. John Paul II would say that Mary was spiritually crucified with her crucified son and that her role as co-redemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her son. What does that mean? That term co-redemptrix St. John Paul II used seven times it's been used by many saints and mystics and popes. It means in single word, Mary's unique role with and under Jesus in the work of redemption. This is really very simple. Who else would dare claim that they did more to assist Jesus in the work of redemption than our lady? My mother Teresa said of course she's the co-redemptrix. She gave Jesus his body and his body is what saved us. I said yes mother that's the difference between you and theologians. You just said in 30 seconds what it takes us books to write. Of course she's the co-redemptrix. But what's important for us to remember my friends is she's only the co-redemptrix and advocate. She only accompanies us in the order of grace right now in virtue of her suffering with Jesus. And that's why pope after pope for the last three centuries has said specifically that she is the mediatrix only because of her role in suffering with Jesus to obtain the graces of redemption. Now why is it that again our brothers try so wonderful in so many ways but tragically missing that they have a mother Pope Francis has used this expression now five times. A Christian without Mary is an orphan. That's a bold statement. A Christian without Mary is an orphan. Why? Because the Heavenly Father wanted us to have a mother. Jesus wanted us to have his mother to be our mother. Now historically this is what 2,000 years testifies to. So if you'll bear with me I want to go through about 20 centuries of Mariology just in about 10 minutes. We'll do this briefly. But I do this so that we're clear this did not come out of the 16th century. This even these apparitions didn't come out of a lacking of a tradition of her who is mother to us in the order of grace as Vatican to Lumen Jensim 61 says. Let's go through briefly the history because I want to show you the continuity. In other words of course our lady is appearing to us now. Why? Because she's our mother. How do we know? Because she's been our mother for two millennia. And the Christians understood it from the beginning. So in the second century as you know she was called the new Eve by Justin and Irenaeus and saying Jerome would summarize this by the expression death through Eve life through Mary. That in the second century of the church Irenaeus said that it is through Mary that we obtain grace. He literally says Mary is the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race. That's about 180. In 180 three continents of the world were teaching Mary as the new Eve. And then in the third century we have the subtum presidium. We fly to your protection a holy mother of God despised not our petitions and our necessities but deliver us from all dangers over glorious and blessed virgin. Why is that so important? It's direct prayer to Mary under trial in the third century. This isn't new. In fact if we're following the tradition of the church we should be praying to our Lady more not less. In the fourth century we have St. Ephraim that Mary cum mediator mediatrix torius mundi. That with the mediator you were the mediatrix of the entire world. Fifth century liturgies in the east Armenian, Syrian liturgies calling Mary the salvatrix, the liberatrix and in the great Akathist hymn mother of God save us. They understood the intercession of the mother from the beginning. We go to the seventh and the eighth century we have the great eastern fathers St. John Damascene, Germanic of Constantinople, Andrew of Crete saying that Mary is the immaculate mediatrix of law and grace. 10th century the Byzantine monk John the Geometer. I always thought that an interesting name. George the Triangle or I don't know how to do it. We're thinking names, you know when the kids are having kids you're thinking names. Anyway what does John the Geometer say? That there's an inseparability between Jesus and Mary at Calvary. The suffering is a united suffering. And that's the beginning of the term redemptrix. A woman who's suffering with the redeemer, a woman working with never in competition. My friends the idea that Jesus and Mary are in competition, I'm sorry that comes from hell. That's a diabolical idea that you would have Jesus and his mother in competition with each other. You imagine if your mom came to town and you had a best friend and you said my mom's coming to town and I'd love you for you to meet her and your friend says you know what I don't feel very comfortable with that because it could compete with our love. Well that would be problematic, right? That would be an odd response. That would not be a whole response. Let's do that with Jesus and Mary. No one is hurt more than the Immaculate Heart of Mary if anyone puts her in the place of Jesus. No one suffers more than the mother herself. Her whole very being is to bring the light of Christ into the world. So we have the 12th century. We have St. Bernard of Clairvaux and his disciple Arnold of Shark. Bernard talks about the compassion of Mary and Arnold talks about that on Calvary Mary co-died in her heart with Jesus on the cross. And that it was one united offering Mary in her heart and Jesus in her body to save souls. 14th century she's called the Chorydemtrix in a hymnal from Austria. 15th to 16th century this whole new understanding even in terms of liturgy of her role as a Mediatrix and Intercessor the principal theologian of the Council of Trent Alphonse Salmaram and the general Jesuits defends her titles of Chorydemtrix Mediatrix and Advocate in the 16th century. 17th century is the era of Catholic counter-reformation over 300 references to our Lady as the Chorydemtrix and Mediatrix. Why? Because it was being denied. It was being rejected. 18th century we have including the 17th with St. Louis Riedel-Monford we have the great St. Alphonse the grace we receive is mediated through our Lady. And then of course we enter the 19th century which has now been called the Age of Mary. Why my friends? Why the Age of Mary? Because in no other period of the Church's history have you had more Marian dogmas more Marian popes and more Marian apparitions approved by the Church. We, through new choice of our own, happen to be living at the climax of the Age of Mary. That bears responsibility for each one of us. It's a tremendous gift. It also bears responsibility. Now I want to summarize this Marian message to the modern world but I just want to be very clear and again we have to this will cost me time in purgatory but we have to skip over Guadalupe because of time. Guadalupe anticipates the 19th century Age of Mary in the 16th century. Greatest tool of evangelization second only to the Apostolic evangelization. Eight million people in seven years. It would lead to the greatest Catholic continent in the world in terms of number which is Latin America. I just brought that into lesson my time in purgatory but we still have to skip over. So we're at the 19th century I want to summarize the Marian message to the modern world with five church approved apparitions okay? The miraculous medal Lourdes Fatima Amsterdam Okita So let's start in 1832 with the apparitions of the miraculous medal technically speaking excuse me 1832 technically speaking the apparitions at Rudabach the miraculous medal apparitions are the apparitions which begin the Age of Mary so very briefly what do we have we have St. Catherine Labarre who receives visions of Our Lady and she's instructed to strike a medal after two visions okay so let's briefly describe the visions because from a catechetical perspective there is more myriology in those two one inch images that many of us wear than sometimes treatises on Our Lady so the first image Our Lady's hands are outstretched there's graces flowing from those hands she is stepping on a serpent around the image are the other words Oh Mary conceived without sin pray for us who have recourse to thee now then the image as it were turns and it's as this St. Catherine Labarre sees a second vision and on the second vision you have an M connected to a cross under the M cross are two hearts the sacred heart of Jesus, the immaculate heart of Mary and those are all surrounded by 12 stars now I'm going to give you 10 seconds to see how many individual dogmas and doctrines you can come up with those two images I'll be generous let's go 15 seconds just think see if you can count how many dogmas and doctrines are in those two images well we don't have time to wait so we're going to go on ok plus you were only at one and a half anyway so let's go to the beginning ok so Mary's crushing the head of the serpent what's that? that's her role as co-redemptrix that's Genesis 3 15 she's mediating graces that's her role as mediatrix of all graces in the prayer oh Mary conceived without sin that's the immaculate conception pray for us who have recourse to thee that's her role as advocate on the back side there's only one doctrine that's repeated and that's again the doctrine of Marian co-redemption the M connected to the cross then we have the hearts of Jesus and Mary I'll say a word about those in just a moment and then the images surrounded by the 12 stars representing her queenship that means my friends in those two brief visions in those two little images you have almost every Marian dogma and doctrine that the church teaches the only thing that's not explicit is her virginity which of course can't be illustrated that way and her assumption and if you had to do the assumption she'd have to be here and here and here and you have to make a bigger medal so that's not going to work either so it's packed with truth now a quick word about the two hearts it has been said and this is for a potentially another discussion that the entire Marian message to the modern world is summarized in those two hearts that we are seeking that our lady is asking for a triumph of her immaculate heart which will lead to the reign of the sacred heart of Jesus which will be a reign of peace and a reign of the Eucharist now again, longer to develop that but that's the power of those two hearts I've got to tell you a quick story by Father Garagula Grange a very famous Thomistic scholar he helped pious the 10th right in cyclicals and pious the 12th used to stop into his classes at the Angelicum and he tells the story that as a child he had great devotion to the two hearts but as he grew in theology he realized well these devotion it's more for the common people more for the quote laity and I'm getting into deep dogmatic and doctrinal and spiritual theology, biblical and by the time he had finished and received his doctrine and then later the master which is the highest level Dominicans can give he said I then realized that the greatest most sublime theological truth all contained in devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary so we must never minimize the power of those two hearts so let's go from the miraculous metal to our second apparition to Lourdes okay 1858 you have the apparitions to Bernadette, Subaru and in these apparitions our lady asks for two things principally number one is reparation something we have to theologically discuss reparation to God and prayer for the conversion of sinners okay now let's talk about these two pillars reparation my friends is vertical reparation is what we give to God and in light of the fatima message to our lady conversion of sinners is horizontal that's what we do for each other that's the sacrifices we do you know as St. Augustine says it wonderfully God can create us without us but he can't redeem us without us we've got to cooperate that's the whole key of our holy catholic faith cooperation and mediation we as a catholic church my friends implement what's called the more the Marian principle the more we have the happier we are and our goal is not just to make it to heaven by ourselves it's to bring as many people as we can by the grace of God reparation is this incredible gift that God gives us to actually console the heart of God that we as creatures through our prayers and sacrifices can balm the heart of God himself and by the way that's balm I had a couple students on midterm say reparation is where we balm the heart of God doesn't need the balm he needs the consolation amazing what you get on mariology tests when kids said I love them all yeah Mary was consumed in 1950 that's kind of a frightening image just leave it as the church teaches it's always safer that way so let me give you an example of reparation reparation let's use a domestic example let's say the family's home for Thanksgiving and let's say you have a typical Catholic family let's say there's a fair number of children and in the middle of the meal which mom has prepared with great love and beautiful meal the oldest son says you know mom and dad have just come to realize all my sins all my faults all my shortcomings are actually your fault and he gets up from the table and he walks away mom and dad are stunned the next son says you know he's right I didn't realize it but yeah you really are responsible for everything I've done wrong and off he goes and let's say for the sake of brevity let's say there's five or six kids the other two take off and mom and dad are stunned the ten year old is there not sure what to say but he says mom and dad I don't know what they're talking about you are so loving and good and you've sacrificed all I can say is I'm really sorry now does that apology make up entirely for the rejection of the other children no but it's a balm and my friends and Jesus and Mary we are all called to be that fifth kid we are all called to say to the hearts of Jesus and Mary I'm sorry that your love has been rejected I'm sorry that what you did on the cross has no meaning to so many I'm sorry but as a child I can say I praise you I thank you I love you that's reparation and we know from the devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus we're all being asked to do that let's move to Fatima 1917 in Fatima we have the same Marian message as we find in 1830 and in 1858 but it's more specified Our Lady of Fatima who of course is not our Lady of Fatima right she's our Lady of the Rosary that's her title asks number one for daily rosary number two for consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary number three for five first Saturdays of reparation and as was said to Yashinta make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to the most high God well that's reminiscent of what St. John Paul II said on three occasions he said all of us must be co-redeemers with Christ that's what the Fatima kids were they were co-redeemers that's what Padre Pio was he was a co-redeemer par excellence you know when Pope Benedict blessed the people of Fatima in his last trip to Fatima he blessed the six with the blessed sacrament and he said I call you all to become redeemers in the redeemer small R capital R redeemers in the redeemer and so this is the message of co-redemption the message to make of everything we can Padre Pio mentioned that the greatest loss is when human beings do not offer their sufferings because guess what the sufferings here anyway when we don't offer them it's such a missed opportunity for grace now I also want to make reference and again we're not doing any of these messages justice but I want to give you the kind of the unity of the Marian message at Fatima our lady excuse me sister Lucia later in the apparitions she was asked by her spiritual director why are there five first Saturdays why aren't there seven or ten and sister Lucia said I don't know I'll ask Jesus which is always a great first you know primary source and she did and Jesus gave the five major offenses against the immaculate heart number one the denial of her virginity number two the denial that she's mother of God and spiritual mother of all peoples number three the denial of her immaculate conception now before we go to four and five notice this about the first three they're all denials of doctrine that's why what you do is so important is catechists you're giving the truth you're proclaiming the truth you're instructing in the truth and if people think well that's kind of ivory tower stuff that doesn't really help the people that's also a lie from hell it's the truth that respects the person of Jesus it's the truth that respects the person of Mary and when it's rejected it's another piercing of the two hearts so the first three are rejections of the truth is when images of our lady are treated disrespectfully number five and this shows a mother's heart is when children are led astray from her so this is why we have five first saturdays and my friends when people talk about well I don't think the Fatima message is over well of course it's not over and we still have five first saturdays to do we still need reparation that's very clear from Fatima to Amsterdam 1945 apparitions approved by the local bishop in 2002 now there's 28 years between Fatima and Amsterdam and then there's 28 years between Amsterdam and Akita the last church approved apparitions in Japan and the Vatican ambassador from the Philippines Howard D said Mark you know there's 28 years between these and he said yes Howard what does that mean he said I have no idea and up until three weeks ago I still had no idea but three weeks ago I was giving a conference to 200 leaders of men's groups in Dallas, Texas and of course you know Texas has the answer for everything so I was saying it facetiously so I sent me these 200 guys I said you know there's 28 years between Fatima and Amsterdam and Akita two hands shot up right away one guy was more learned and said oh that's a lunar cycle another guy in the back shot his hand up and said I was a surfer for 30 years that's a lunar cycle that's every 28 days and even 28 years for long time surfing and so lunar cycle our lady the moon and I told them both that I would be using material in later conversations and I would not be quoting them and now I've just done that one guy's name was bear I'm not going to quote a guy who calls himself bear you know Texas you know anyway now in Amsterdam our lady appears from 1945 to 1959 she gives a series of what you might call geopolitical prophecies now a political prophecy is something about a change of politic or a change of geography obviously but what kind of prophecies did she give at Amsterdam by the way Jim Caviesel gave what I would believe to be the greatest testimony to our lady by any Hollywood star in the last 100 years and he did it in Amsterdam on June 1st so I strongly encourage you to google this YouTube it's Jim Caviesel's tribute to the Virgin Mary and he's giving it in Amsterdam on June 1st of this year on the National Prayer Day it's a phenomenal presentation what does our lady ask for well first he gives these prophecies prophecies like what that Israel would be reunited that China would fall to a red flag that there would be warring in the Balkans the visionary Edda Perteman a very ordinary Dutch woman saw an image of Korea with a line through it and saying that line would cause difficulty not only at that time but in future times that's called North Korea a great series of prophecies 1947 she had a prophecy of flags colliding in Cairo which of course is what we called the Arab Spring a few years back now we're not so clear how spring like it is at any rate why so many geopolitical prophecies it was to support her one request and her one request in Amsterdam was for the proclamation of the dogma of Mary as co-redemptrix mediatrix and advocate she literally says in a message of May 31st 1954 that only with the proclamation of this dogma would there be peace in the world now let's go back to the theme of catechesis the metaphysics of catechesis which is to proclaim and to instruct the truth why was it so important to Fatima that these truths about our lady be accepted why would be so important in Amsterdam that the truth about our lady as our spiritual mother in these three ways be proclaimed because one thing we learned from Jesus he wants truth proclaimed let's go to Peter when Jesus says in Matthew 16 who do they say that I am my friends Jesus not having an identity crisis he kind of knows who he is he wants to hear it from them he wants to hear it freely from them and once Peter says who he is then we get the papacy and then we get all the graces of the papacy and so it's a parallel in this situation our lady wants to hear it from the Holy Father a proclamation of the truth that she is co-redemptrix, mediatrix, and advocate she gives a beautiful prayer I strongly recommend this prayer I pray daily our lady said it has great power before the throne of God the prayer of the lady of all nations asking Jesus to send a new Pentecost a new descent of the Holy Spirit into the hearts of all nations to prevent degeneration disaster war and as we know those happen to be the three major headlines of today moral breakdown natural disaster and war ok let's jump from Amsterdam to Akita 1973 Japan the Akita apparitions were approved in 1984 by the local bishop the local bishop literally said quote Akita is a continuation of Amsterdam why? because it's a statue of the lady of all nations that's her title in Amsterdam that weeps a hundred and one times over a period of the next decade and on October 13th in 1973 our lady gives a very strong message to the visionary sister Agnes now you will recognize October 13th as the day of the solar miracle of Fatima it's a message that in fact I should preface this by saying before Bishop Ido approved the apparitions of Akita he had a three hour meeting with Cardinal Rothsinger and after this meeting Cardinal Rothsinger said approve it and so the bishop did and in this message it talks about a conditional chastisement for the world it talks about great infighting cardinal versus cardinal versus bishop and it calls for a return to the importance of the rosary and the sign left by my son in our lady's words now this again is a call to action no one likes to hear about chastisement but you can't make a reference a summary of the Marian message of the modern world without them because they're in every single message the goal is not to focus on the chastisement the goal is to focus on the remedy on the peace so in this age of Mary which continues in our own time of course it is a call to speak the full truth about our lady do not give in to minimalization regarding the truth about our lady it doesn't serve the church it doesn't serve the faith sometimes in our effort to quote apologize and by apologize I mean good healthy catholic apologetics we tend not to want to take on more than we have to and so I don't want to talk about apparitions or other elements again if heaven is sending these messages there's reasons for them the mystical is the complementary to the catechetical so I would I want to leave you with this the power of our lady's message right now her accompaniment which you've been talking about all week could not be more tangential more experiential more direct than right now why because we need it right now but that's a positive each one of you were created in the mind of God to be living right now during the climax of the age of Mary that means it's not a mistake you're here it's God's purpose you're here to evangelize to cataclyse and to respond to the full truth regarding our lady because she is the remedy I want to end by uh quoting two quotes these are two quotes united by our holy father he says quote where the Madonna is at home the devil does not enter where there is the mother disturbance does not prevail fear does not win who of us does not need this who of us is not sometimes upset or restless how often the heart is a stormy sea where the waves of problems overlap and the winds of worry do not cease to blow Mary is the sure arc in the midst of the flood on our path we are not alone from the beginning Mary accompanied and sustained the community of the disciples by her maternal presence she helped the community not to lose its bearings by breaking up into closed groups or by thinking that it could save itself by her faith she helped them to persevere amidst perplexity trusting that God's light will come we ask her to keep us united and persevering as on the day of Pentecost so that the spirit will be poured forth into our hearts and help us in every time and place to bear witness to the resurrection that's our task my friends that our hearts are open at the Holy Spirit to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will give power and grace and peace to our hearts to bear witness to the resurrection thank you God bless