CCCXIX – Thoughts During A Meeting of the Legion of Mary

FATIMA

The Second Apparition of Fatima happened on June 13th. Our Lady of Fatima offered warnings for the trouble to befall the world, and offered many (MANY!) resources available to us to help avert or soften the time of troubles. The culmination of this medicine–which is still an option open to us, I think–would be the conversion of Russia and an era of Peace.

What goes somewhat unstated is that Our Lady was not just randomly threatening calamity to test our piety. She is Our Blessed Mother, coming down to our common home, Earth, and saying “This place is a mess, clean it up…

…or I’ll Fix It For You.”

We have not yet gotten our house in order, which means we still have a chance. I hope she has not already started counting to ten.

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JUDGEMENT

It occurred to me that when we face our particular judgement, it is probably not a simple “Do you want to go to Heaven? Y/N”.

A certain member of my family is addicted to dipping tobacco. The story goes that one New Years Eve he threw his can of dip over the balcony and shouted “Never again!” Early the next morning he was on the ground scooping the dip back into the can.

Obviously, freeing himself of addiction is the better choice. It takes work and diligence and short term suffering but the long term reward is health and a more enjoyable life. In that moment, this member of my family was unable to make the choice.

When we face our particular judgement, I imagine we are offered our favorite sin, or purgatory. Purgatory is an indeterminate period of suffering, but with a long term reward of the Beatific Vision. Or–the short term satisfactions of our favorite sin. If we can’t say no to that, then nothing else matters, no other exigencies or extenuating circumstances. If you can say no to that–the sacrament of Reconciliation is a good way to practice flexing that muscle–then surely other considerations are weighed.

A lot of the intercessions of our Lady–the Brown Scapular and other devotions–seem to be aimed at delivering us from this initial test.

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PRAY

One of the Legionaries used a phrase I like: “Proceed with Prayer“. I don’t think they were using it idiomatically, just as a practical solution to how to solve an awkward problem. But I thought it was a good phrase. Whatever problems you face, remember that you can proceed with prayer. Whenever you don’t know what to do, or how to move forward, you can always proceed with prayer.

There are a lot of things wrong in the world. There are a lot of things right in the world, too, lets not forget. If we want to help tip the scales to right the world, we need only proceed with prayer.

AMDG