Newsletter 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 28th September 2025

Newsletter 26th Sunday on Ordinary Time (Year C) 28th September 2025.pdf

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“There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day.  None of these three details is considered to be a crime in our world,

and yet the man was condemned to purgatory when he died. 

The man usually named Dives – is punished, not for what he does wrong,

but for the good he does not do.  In the eyes of Jesus, his sin is indifference to his neighbour.

“For I was hungry, and you never gave me food ...

then it will be their turn to ask,

“Lord, when did we see you hungry... and not come to your help?”

Then He will answer, I tell you solemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these (brothers of mine), you neglected to do it to me.”

And they will go away to eternal punishment” (Mt 25:41-42, 44,45)

Let us examine our own conscience.  Ask:  How generous am I with my wealth?” 

“Is my salvation assured?” 

2017 marked 100 years since Our Mother appeared in Fatima, Portugal.

Basic to the Fatima message is the message Our Mother spoke in August, 1917. 

“Pray, pray very much and make sacrifices for sinners,

for many go to hell because no one makes sacrifices for them. 

Our Mother said that many “sinners are going to hell”, and therefore,

she asks us to pray and make sacrifices.  

The 3 children visionaries are an inspiration to us.

The first time the Blessed Virgin appeared at Fatima May 1917, 

she asked Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta,

“Are you willing to offer up to God all the sufferings He desires to send you in reparation for the sins by which He is offended for the conversion of sinners?” 

Lucia, speaking on behalf of all three replies: “Yes, we will”.  A wholehearted yes.

During the August apparition, she said, “Pray, pray very much and make sacrifices for sinners,

for many go to hell because no one makes sacrifices for them.”

During the July apparition, Our Lady told the three children,

“Make sacrifices for sinners and say often, especially when you make a sacrifice,

“O Jesus, this is for the love of thee, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”   

Our Mother asks for sacrifices for 3 major reasons. 

1.    For the love of Jesus.

2.    For the conversion of sinners; and

3.    To make repetition for the sins which wound our Mother’s Immaculate Heart.

On 10^th December, 1925, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Lucia. 

The child Jesus was at her side. 

Our Lady placed one hand on Lucia’s shoulder and showed Lucia her immaculate Heart which she was holding in her other hand.  

The Immaculate Heart was surrounded by thorns. 

The child Jesus pointed to the heart and said “Have pity on the heart of your blessed mother,

which is pierced and covered with thorns by ungrateful men at every moment,

with no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.”

Our Mother then said:

“I promise to help at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to Confession, (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday) receive Holy Communion, pray five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes – mediating on some of the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of offering me reparation.”

On July 1917, Our Mother showed a vision of hell to the three visionaries, Jacinta was only 7 years old:

This is how the visionaries of Fatima describe the vision of Hell:

“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. 

Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers,

all blackened, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. 

The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.”

This vision lasted but an instant. 

Lucia added:  “How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind, heavenly Mother who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition to take us to heaven. 

Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror”.

After the vision of hell, Our Mother said:

“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go.

It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.

If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.

This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI.

When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.

To prevent this, 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.

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.

The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted,

and the world will enjoy a period of peace. 

In Portugal the faith will always be preserved... 

Remember, you must not tell this to anyone except Francisco.

When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery:

O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell.

Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.”

Extra:

Lucia then said they were given what we know call The Third Secret:

“We saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand;

flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire;

but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God:

‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it'

a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'.

Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain,

at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step,

afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way;

having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him,

and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.

Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.” 

St. John Paul II on October 13, 1997, said:

“The greatness of Fatima is that it gives the specific formula to save mankind from self-destruction.  As we approach the new millennium it seems that the words of Our Lady of Fatima are nearing their fulfilment.”

Our Lady of Fatima has asked us to fulfil three conditions for her Immaculate Heart to triumph and, therefore, for mankind not to self-destruct:

1)    Sanctification of daily duties. We make a good Morning Offering prayer and we do all things for: the love of Jesus, for the conversion of sinners and for reparation for sins against the Immaculate Heart.

2)    Prayer. This includes adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and praying the rosary every day.

3)    Consecration to the Immaculate Heart. This includes wearing the Brown Scapular.