In Akita, Japan, on Saturday, Oct. 13, 1973 — the anniversary of Fatima’s Miracle of the Sun — Our Blessed Mother gave a dire warning for the world. In part, she said:

My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. … As l told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.

Sister Agnes Sasagawa, had just begun the Rosary when she heard Our Lady speak these words to her. But that was only part of the message. Our Blessed Mother also said:

The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confrères ... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

How can we continue to ignore or fail to respond to Our Lady’s warnings of 49 years ago as the news blares about nuclear bomb threats from Russia? Who can ignore the shocking headlines about cardinals and bishops strongly opposing one another on Church doctrine and other matters, such as happening in Germany? And how many, laity included, are openly promoting, supporting or accepting “compromises” to the faith, even down to anti-life and “reversals” of Genesis?

Sister Agnes, who had joined the Sisters of Notre Dame when she was in Nagasaki (another hint of the Fatima connection?), heard Our Lady go on:

The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.

More on that meaning shortly. But as at Fatima, our Blessed Mother gave us hope and a response at Akita as she said:

Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.

“It is the message of Fatima,” Bishop John Ito told pilgrims coming to the convent chapel. He approved the apparitions and messages as authentic.

Bishop Ito would also give an imprimatur and high recommendation to the book Akita: The Tears and Messages of Mary, written by Father Teiji Yasuda, chaplain of the Akita convent. Father Yasuda wrote:

The heart of the third message given by Our Lady at Akita is a warning which can be summed up thus, ‘If men do not repent and better themselves, there will be a terrible chastisement.’ At Fatima Our Lady gave a dreadful warning. If her requests were not heeded, error would spread from an atheist Russia throughout the entire world, fomenting further wars; the good will be persecuted; the Holy Father will suffer much, and several entire nations will be annihilated.’

Have we listened? A terrible, dreadful warning it is. At Fatima, too, Our Lady warned of the possibility that “various nations will be annihilated.” She reminded us again with strong words at Akita. Have we listened?

 

No Coincidences

The connections between Akita and Fatima are striking, beginning with Akita’s major message and Fatima’s Miracle of the Sun both taking place on Oct. 13. The day of the week was the same — a Saturday, our Blessed Mother’s special day. Our Lady’s apparitions ended at Fatima on this date, and on the same date and day she gave her last message to Sister Agnes.

Both Fatima and Akita began with visits from an angel. While Sister Agnes was praying the Rosary, her guardian angel appeared and told her to add after each decade, “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven and especially those who are most in need of your mercy.” It was the prayer Our Lady taught and requested at Fatima. The nun had never heard of this additional prayer to the Rosary since there was no translation of it into Japanese.

Then in Akita as at Fatima, our Blessed Mother gave essentially the same hope for mitigating the chastisements that she warned about. At Fatima, Our Lady had already spelled out what we need to do to avert or lessen them, and she repeated the same ideas at Akita on that Oct. 13. The Rosary is the way. So is reparation. They are the solid rock foundation to build upon.

As a reminder, prior to Oct. 13, Our Lady told Sister Agnes on Aug. 3: Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates.

Akita’s solution is Fatima’s solution. Fatima’s simple instructions are Akita’s simple instructions. In every appearance at Fatima, Our Mother said to pray the Rosary. In Akita on Oct. 13, she again stressed the Rosary four times in that one message, including, “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

In her July 13 appearance at Fatima, Our Lady said to “continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.”

In light of today’s religious, cultural, and political wars getting worse by the day — especially those against God’s laws and commandments — we have to ask, have we and are we really listening in sufficient numbers to our Mother? Both at Akita and Fatima?

 

Simple Solution and Request

Although Akita happened in a slightly different way, it is an update and reminder of Fatima.

“It is specific simplicity which makes the Fatima message so different, so practical, so hopeful,” wrote John Haffert, co-founder of the World Apostolate of Fatima. He reminded that former Fatima Bishop John Venancio compared the simple remedy given by Our Blessed Mother to Naaman the Syrian seeking a cure from the prophet Elisha in the Old Testament (2 Kings: 6-16). The instruction was simple, but at first Namaan did not want to follow it. Convinced by servants, he listened and was cured.

That is a lesson we should learn from Akita and Fatima which both give us Our Mother’s simple instructions for healing the world. Let’s do a quick review of them.

“Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary,” Our Lady instructed at Akita.

And again, “Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”

At Fatima, she requested the Rosary at each appearance. At one she said: “Continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.”

Also, be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart and be enrolled in and wear the Brown Scapular as a continuous sign of that.

Make sacrifices in reparation for sin. The sacrifices Our Lady requires are those required for fulfilling our daily duties. Start the day with the Morning Offering as the foundation to do that.

As at Akita and Fatima, have a devotion to St. Joseph. It was both the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and the First Saturday of the month. Sister Agnes’ guardian angel told her during the Mass and spiritual exercises attended by two groups gathered there, “Attach great importance to this day for the glory of God and of his holy Mother. With courage spread this devotion among the greatest number.” So have a devotion to St. Joseph.

And make the First Saturday devotions, fulfilling its simple conditions. After that, why stop? Continue the First Saturday devotions.

The basic simple trio is to pray the daily Rosary and scapular, offer the sacrifices that daily duty requires in reparation for yours and the world’s sins; do the First Saturday devotions.

“If enough people respond, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will be hastened and a chastisement might be averted or at least lessened by our Blessed Mother’s intercession,” wrote Haffert.

 

Grim Reminder

In an earlier message to Sister Agnes, our Blessed Mother also necessarily revealed, in part:

In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son, I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, his Precious Blood and beloved souls who console him and form a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger.

Haffert explained it, quoting John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit: “It is because this non-forgiveness is linked, as to its cause, to non-repentance, in other words to the radical refusal to be converted” like “the person who claims to have a right to persist in evil, in any sin at all, and who thus rejects Redemption.” In the early 1990s Haffert listed areas including abortion, contraception and “denying God’s teachings to children.” The world has added tremendously to the list since then.

At the same time, Jesus has over and over sent to us his Mother Mary — Mother of Mercy, “Virgin Most Merciful,” as we pray in the Litany of Loreto — to help us and give us the simple solution. Hope remains.

 

Hope Still Abounds

Mary has promised us her Immaculate Heart will triumph, which can happen peacefully if we respond to her requests. Keep that in mind.

If enough people respond to Mary’s message at the two interlocked appearances, Akita and Fatima, the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart can and will be hastened, and a chastisement might be averted or greatly lessened by her intercession.

Fatima and Akita give us the simple instructions we need to follow: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary,” Our Lady instructed at Akita. “Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops, and priests.”

Our Lady said at Fatima: “If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”

And remember her final hope-filled words at Akita: “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

Now to do our part in great numbers.