October 13, 2020
JUDGMENT, MERCY
& REPARATION
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I send this pastoral letter out to you on the anniversary of the final apparition of Our Blessed Mother in Fatima. The content of the first part of this letter should not be shared with children.
It is with a heavy heart that I write the first part of this letter. I have outrage and also deep sadness over a blasphemous satanic act of pagan worship which recently took place on the main altar of a Catholic Church in Louisiana. This diabolical act involved a Catholic priest and two women prostitutes. There are no further details necessary, except to say that the bishop’s response was swift and thorough, and included the removal of any future ministry of the mentally deranged and demon “possessed” priest . The bishop’s response also included the actual burning a of the altar and its immediate replacement and subsequent consecration of the altar and the church which had been desecrated . May the Lord help the new administrator and the people of that parish to press on in the Lord.
This grave offense against God is one of many attempts of the evil one to mock the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ in Holy Mass and also to cause dishonor to the holy priesthood of Christ. This is also an attempt of the enemy of our souls to silence the teaching and preaching role of the Church in society. Truly, as Pope St Paul VI once said: “The smoke of Satan has entered the Church.” These are serious times requiring serious measures.
There are two words that the Spirit is stirring in my heart. As your parish priest I wish to share them with you.
The first is that we must do reparation. I’ll explain this in a moment.
Secondly, this latest scandal is part of a wave of revelations of sin which are a kind of peeling away of layers of filth that have seeped into the Church. The exposure of this evil is a painfully necessary part of the Lord’s purification of His Bride, to be ready for His coming.
As Holy Scriptures say: “The time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)
We are also seeing a temporary loosening of the chains of the lawless one, as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved….
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore we will continue to see a further revelations of sin and increased manifestations of the lawless one in society- until there will be what is sometimes called an illumination of hearts or consciences that we pray every person in the whole world will have before our individual judgement and/or before the Lord comes in glory (whichever comes first).
To know our sins (Come Holy Spirit!) and have the grace to repent of them is always a cause for rejoicing because of the abundance of God’s mercy for the sinner.
For this reason, this is not a time to delay repentance and conversion. For any sin that has not been repented of and confessed in the Sacrament will one day be revealed for all to see. This is a time of mercy, an opportunity for conversion before the time of judgment. This is where reparation comes into the picture.
What is reparation? Why do we need to even think about this if Jesus has already won salvation for us? How do we make reparation?
Reparation is love. An act of reparation is a prayer, devotion or sacrifice with the intention to repair and to “make up” for the sins of others and to bring consolation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Jesus certainly accomplished the work of our salvation on the Cross, but He chose to leave something yet to be completed in His sufferings by us, that is, through his Body the Church. As St Paul proclaimed: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body–for the sake of His body, the church– what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ” (Col 1:24).
Jesus does not need us to add to His merits, but He wills to make use of us that He may increase our participation in his redemptive offering on the cross. “It is the duty of every Christian to make REPARATION because our Lord has willed it so” (Pope St John Paul II).
Reparation is an act of love for God to console the Heart of Jesus, that is so wounded by our sins. What we do is akin to what the angels did for the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, and what his mother, the Beloved Disciple and Mary Magdalen did for Him (and John & Magdalen did for his mother) at the foot of his cross.
Reparation is an act of love for poor sinners, including our own family members, who are lost in their sins and cannot find their way out. When the Mother of God appeared in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 to three small children with a plea for prayer and penance, part of her message included the following warning:
“Pray, pray very much, make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to offer prayers and sacrifices for them.”
What Our Lady is asking for in this plea is reparation on behalf of sinners. She is asking that we do for them what her Son did for us. Our Blessed Lord took upon His shoulders the burden of our sins, and paid the price for them. We are not able to shoulder the whole burden, pay the whole price for the sins of others; but what little we can do we place in the hands of Our Blessed Mother. She can accomplish much towards lessening their debt of punishment, and opening their hearts to the healing and strengthening grace of God.
It is true that these souls have rejected the graces and inspirations offered them by God (perhaps we have done so as well), but Our Lady implies that many of them can be saved by the prayers and sacrifices of others, if among her children some are generous enough to put themselves out for this purpose. (Our Blessed Mother on Reparation, By Father Paul A. Duffner .)
MAKE REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS BY EUCHARISTIC ADORATION AND COMMUNION OF REPARATION
The Angel of Fatima came to the three children of Fatima and taught them to make acts of Adoration and Reparation. He taught them by word and example to prostrate themselves before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament and to pray in this manner:
“O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly. I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in all the Tabernacles of the world, in reparation for all the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. By the Infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.”
He then taught them to console their God by receiving Holy Communion as an act of Reparation. “Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly insulted by ungrateful men. Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”. More
In light of both the brazen works of the devil and the grave and blasphemous sins of man, especially in recent times, as well as the prophetic words of Our Lady and recent popes, here at St Antoninus we will be doing the following:
1. Instituting a nightly conference call, Precious Blood Rosary of Reparation at 6:30pm (7pm on Wednesdays). See next section below,
2. Urging every person to make a weekly Holy Hour in Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel or in the lower church. For now just call (except on Mondays) to enter either location or simply stay after a daily Mass. More details on hours will be available soon.
3. Take advantage of more times for Sacramental Confession:
- Fridays & Saturdays: 11am-12noon & 3:30-4:30 in lower church
- Sundays in Main Church: 9am- 9:40am- in main church
During all Confession times, there will also be EucharisticAdoration.
4. First Friday Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – 12
Noon & 7:30pm . This is followed by Alliance of Two Hearts Eucharistic Vigil (Communion of Reparation)- starts at 9pm.
5. First Saturday Mass in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: 12 Noon in lower church
- First Saturday Reparation Prayers to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 2pm
During this month of the Holy Rosary, please sign up to help lead one of the nightly rosaries or simply renew a habit of praying a daily rosary with your family. Come by yourself or with the entire family to Adoration & confession.
Jesus is and always will seated on his throne. He will sanctify his Bride, the Church. We are called to holiness and to intimacy with Him. We are also called to be his missionary disciples to bring His salvation to others. Let’s pray for one another that that Jesus may have his way in us and through us. May God bless you and your family, and may God bless St Antoninus Church.
In Jesus thru Mary
Fr Joseph A Meagher
