As Pope Francis has made the consecration to the Immaculate Heart specifically naming Russia, there is one essential part connected to the consecration that most people forget.

On July 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima told the seers:

To prevent this [World War II and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father], I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that, on the first Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.

Our Lady gave two requirements in one sentence: the consecration of Russia, and the First Saturday devotions. In a later apparition she fills in the simple details of what the pope needs to do for the consecration and what the Five First Saturdays devotion consists of.

Speaking about Fatima in a 2017 talk, Cardinal Raymond Burke reminded:

The peace of God will come to the world through two means: 1) the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and 2) the practice of the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturday of the month.

Yet today’s religious, cultural and political wars — especially those against God’s laws and commandments — show we still are not listening to our Mother to gain that peace.

Earlier, Father Andrew Apostoli, author of Fatima for Today, said, “With Russia, the Pope [meaning St. John Paul II and his 1984 consecration] did his part. What’s not happened is we’re not making the Five First Saturdays devotion in numbers sufficient.”

So, in light of Russia’s attack on the Ukraine and the consultations on what the world should do now, one answer is missing: the second part of the consecration. Which means it’s up to us to fill the missing part. Let’s ask heaven to give us another chance to fill our part with this latest consecration. Now is the time to relearn or learn anew, then immediately put into practice, one sure way to hurry peace in the world.

“[H]ow many people and societies — how many Christians — have gone in the opposite direction to the one indicated in the message of Fatima,” St. John Paul II said (his italics) in 1982 on his visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. He saw that “sin has thus made itself firmly at home in the world, and denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings.” But “the evangelical call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother’s message, remains ever relevant. It is still more relevant than it was 65 years ago. It is still more urgent …”

If he said that 40 years ago, in light of Ukraine and Russia, how much more so today for Europe, America, Asia and the rest of the world.

Remember that in 1917 during Our Lady’s July 13 apparition, she first spoke about “arms” that would win peace in hearts and nations. Our Blessed Mother began that apparition saying:

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 [World War I], because only she can obtain it.

Do we say the Rosary every day as she requested?

Look again at what she said next:

To prevent this [World War II and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father], I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that, on the first Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.

Concerning the devotion to her Immaculate Heart, she made clear what will happen:

If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred, and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.

In his 1947 book The World's First Love: Mary, Mother of God, Venerable Fulton Sheen pointed to Genesis 3:16 — it is through the power of a woman that evil will be overcome. Looking at Fatima, he reminded that Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to her, it will be converted, and “a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.”

Yet how many people did what the Blessed Mother told us what our role was to bring about that peace and to avoid what turned out to be World War II, as she predicted in 1917? Since 1917 how many people have made the Five First Saturdays devotion which our Blessed Mother called for, and gave us the directions for them? Do you see the devotion practiced widely?

Things continued to deteriorate after World War II.

“If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace,” Our Lady told us in that July 13 apparition. Daily Rosary. Five First Saturdays. Consecration to her Immaculate Heart.

“It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart,” she said.

Lúcia wrote to her confessor in 1936 telling him that she asked the Lord why he did not convert Russia himself without the Holy Father making the consecration. Our Lord answered:

Because I want my whole Church to acknowledge this consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in order to later extend its cult and to place devotion to this Immaculate Heart alongside devotion to my Sacred Heart.

 

Akita Echoes Fatima

Our Blessed Mother gave a very similar message during her visit to a nun in Akita, Japan, on a Fatima anniversary, Oct. 13, 1973. The Rosary is the way. So is reparation. The rock-like foundation to build upon.

There, Our Lady gave a dire warning, yet ended with great hope:

As I 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. The only arms which 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 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.

(The meaning is some will become so obstinate in sin they will refuse to repent.) Sister Agnes, the nun, said a slight expression of sadness seemed to veil the Blessed Mother’s face.

Note well her concluding words that offer hope and a promise too:

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.

Bishop John Shojiro Ito formally approved the Akita apparitions. He said, “It is the message of Fatima.”

“As horrible as are the physical chastisements associated with man’s disobedient rebellion before God,” said Cardinal Burke, “infinitely more horrible are the spiritual chastisements for they have to do with the fruit of grievous sin: eternal death.”

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) explained:

The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgment which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword.

At Fatima Our Lady also warned of the possibility that “various nations will be annihilated.” Our Mother told us, her children, the equivalent of “don’t play with fire.” But did we listen? Are we listening?

 

Glimmer of Hope

Since we did not heed this appeal of Our Lady at Fatima or the later reminder at Akita, we see that Russia invaded the world with her errors. And now they’re committing horrors in Ukraine. And if we haven’t seen yet the end of this prophecy accomplished, we see that we are going toward it if … yet after that “if,” our Blessed Mother told us the exact remedy that would change the situation.

As Cardinal Burke also said, “The second part of the Secret also ends with the sure hope that the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph through obedience to her maternal instruction.”

 

Hope Remains Vital

While what we were told at Fatima is “realistic about the great evils which beset the world and the Church,” affirmed Cardinal Burke, “it is fundamentally a message of hope in the victory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The victory of grace, however, means for us the daily conversion to Christ, purification from sin in our lives through prayer and penance, and reparation for sins committed.”

He made clear that we should make reparation for these grievous offenses against God’s immeasurable love for us “by practicing the devotion of the First Saturdays and by embracing suffering and sacrifice for love of all our brothers and sisters and especially of those in most need.”

Our Blessed Mother also added to the Five First Saturdays something very personal for each one fulfilling her requests. On Dec. 10, 1925, she appeared to Sister Lúcia, gave details of the Five First Saturdays, and said:

Look, my daughter, at my Heart surrounded with the thorns with which ungrateful men wound it by their blasphemies and iniquities. You, at least, try to console me, and announce that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite part of my Rosary [meaning one set of the mysteries], and keep me company for a quarter of an hour meditating on the mysteries with the intensions of offering me reparation.

We can help Ukraine, help convert Russia, help our own way to salvation by finally listening to our Heavenly Mother. “My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and the world will enjoy a period of peace,” she promised. We must do our part, making sure we’re helping Our Lady by living out her requests. Start next Saturday, April 2, to begin the Five First Saturdays.