Note: I first want to mention that Cathy's dad is in the hospital - so please pray for him and Cathy, whose birthday it is today. Thanks.
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How bad was it in 1917?
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Since it is the First Saturday of Our Lady in the month of May, just days before the anniversary of the apparition and feast of Our Lady of Fatima, I was wondering this morning; 'how much worse was the world in 1917 than it is today?'
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Think about it. How much worse could it have been that as Our Lady said, "war is a punishment for sin"? There were two world wars in fact. Yet in 1917 there was no such thing as legalized contraception or abortion. Divorce was a huge shame and quite rare. Homosexuality, a psychological term developed in the previous century, was rarely even mentioned, let alone tolerated. Fashions remained modest - to a degree - even after Coco Chanel. Of course there were prostitutes and men who used them, and Vaudeville was the racy entertainment of the day, but nearly fully clothed women were the dirty pictures of the day - not even coming close to the soft porn of Victoria's Secret models. It all seems fairly innocent compared to today's standards - or lack thereof.
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Marxism was taking hold of course, and those 'degenerate moderns' of the arts were emerging, along with the occult, yet these influences and their effects never took hold on a global scale - until now. Now days - without any doubt - things are so much worse than they have ever been in history. Amazing, isn't it.
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So pray your rosary. Every day. Make everything you do a sacrifice. Take the Immaculate Heart of Mary for your refuge - and she will lead you to God.
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You don't have to join a group of fanatics or wear blue berets, strange costumes, nor avoid modern life. (Wearing the brown scapular under your clothing may be the only exception.) You don't have to pray in Latin or attend the Extraordinary Form of Mass: The message of Fatima is ordinary spirituality, ordinary Catholicism. Ordinary, ordinary, ordinary. The penance Our Lord asked is to renounce all that is contrary to the teachings of the Church, to fulfill the duties of your state in life - your daily duty, fidelity to prayer and the Church joined to the daily recitation of the rosary, and of course, the First Saturday devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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"If you know how to accept the trials, worries, sufferings, and fatigue arranged by God throughout the days and hours of life, you will practice a lot of asceticism, and you will not have to look for more of it." - Pere Eugene-Marie, OCD
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Art: Mosaic from new basilica at Fatima.
