By José Ferreira
Through you the world was consecrated to my Blessed
Mother.
Jesus to the Bld Alexandrina (1954)
The Decree of the Bld Alexandrina’s Heroic Virtues states
that “in the year 1936, (Bld
Alexandrina) asked the Pope the
Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Pius XII made
on 31st October 1942”.
Let’s see in a short overview the way that took to it.
I will do you great things
through you
In the letter to Fr. Pinho of 27th
September 1934, Alexandrina wrote:
“My beloved Jesus told me that He would be my Director and my
continuous, frequent, usual Master and your Reverence there by far; but that I
had to obey to you first and then than to Him.
He also told me to tell your Reverence that my pilgrimage on earth would
not last long, but that great things awaited me”.
On the first Saturday December 1934, Jesus insists on
these “great things”, very clearly
“I will do great things through you”.
I want an act of
Consecration to be made
The first time Jesus asks the Consecration is on 30th
July 1937. He orders:
“My daughter, I require you to tell your spiritual
father that, in proof of the love that you bear for my most Holy Mother, I want
an act of Consecration of the entire world to be made every year, on one of the
days of her feasts, chosen by you – the Assumption, Purification or
Annunciation – asking that the Virgin without stain of sin to shame and confound
the impure ones, so that they return to the to the true path and cease to
offend Me”.
Like I asked Holy Margaret Mary to be the world
consecrated to my Divine Heart, so I ask you to be it consecrated to Her with a
solemn feast”.
Fr Marian Pinho, Alexandrina’s first Spiritual
Director, was at that time a remarkable Jesuit, who had embraced the task of
promulgate in the country the Eucharistic Crusade for Children, for which he
created a successful magazine, who collaborated in other magazine, the Messenger of the Sacred Heart, and more,
who directed the main Jesuit magazine, Brotéria.
His name was known all over the Portugal.
But the task he then received from Jesus was not a common one.
He felt himself even not entirely sure if that order
came from Jesus or if it was only a pious mistake of Alexandrina. Therefore, he
waited a year without making any diligence. But, then, the order came again and
in circumstances that convinced him:
“Why are my orders not accomplished? Didn’t I give enough
signals your Spiritual Father that is my Spirit who guides you?... I want the
world to be consecrated to my Mother, Blessed Mary; this is the remedy for so
many evils that threaten it!”
From now on begin the several diligences: letters to
the Holy Father, examinations by ecclesiastical order and so on. In 1938, Jesus gives a proof, his Passion
physically relived by Alexandrina. This suffering stops as soon the
consecration is made.
Let´s see these words of Jesus that Alexandrina heard
on 25th April 1938, but that don’t still concern the Passion:
“I want penance
and prayer to be made. It is you who are shortening the divine justice and you
must suffer this until he consecrates it (the
world)”.
On 4th January 1941 Jesus relates to the
Passion in these words:
“My daughter, ask the Holy Father to have compassion for
your martyrdom (the Passion) and
satisfy the divine desires of Jesus, which is to consecrate the world to my
Blessed Mother”.
This way of reliving the
Passion stopped after the consecration.
Bld Alexandrina reliving the
Passion. Painting contemporary of the event.
Our Lady of the Victory
Soon in 10/IX/36 Jesus shows his desire that his
Mother be invoked as Lady of the Victory:
“I’ll say you as will be made the consecration of the
world to the Mother of the men and my Blessed Mother. I love her so much!
The entire world will be in Rome by the Holy Father
consecrated to her and later by the Fathers in every churches of the world
under the title of Queen of the Heaven and of the Earth and Lady of the Victory…”
On 2nd May 1940, Our Lord commands to say
the Pope:
“If he wants that the world to be saved, that he rushes the hour of its Consecration to my
Blessed Mother. That he places her in front of the battle and that proclaims
her Queen of the Victory and the
Messenger of the Peace”.
Here she is declared not Lady but Queen. But the title
Lady of the Victory will come again.
In the prayer of the consecration Pope Pius XII used the title “Victress of all God’s battles”
which, according Fr Marian Pinho, corresponds to Lady of the Victory[1].
Joy for the Consecration
It seems that since 22/5/1942 the Pope definitively
took the decision on the consecration. Indeed, on that day Jesus says to
Alexandrina:
“Glory, glory, glory to Jesus!
Honour, honour and glory to Mary!
The heart of the Pope, the golden heart has decided to consecrate the
world to the Heart of Mary!
What great happiness and joy to the world, to belong more than ever to
the Mother of Jesus!
The whole world belongs to the divine Heart of Jesus; everything will belong
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary”.
A week later Alexandrina prayed during an ecstasy as
follows:
“Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus!
Honour, glory, triumph to your Immaculate Heart!
Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of the whole Universe!
Who will not want to belong to the Mother of Jesus, the owner of the
Victory?
The whole world is going to be consecrated to her maternal Heart!
Keep, pure Virgin, keep, Virgin Mother, all your children in your most
holy Heart!”
On the eve of the Consecration Jesus addresses to Alexandrina as follows:
“The Heaven, the Heaven full of glory! The Heaven full of triumph!
A lovely crown, more beautiful than the sun and the stars is prepared
for the crazy one of Jesus.
Jesus is everything for His crucified one.
Jesus gives her everything to receive everything from her!”
The
act of consecration
On 31st October, at the conclusion of the Fatima jubilee[2]
(25th anniversary of the
apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima, in 1917), the whole world could listen,
on the radio, the voice of the Holy Father consecrating the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Portuguese!
As far as we can see, even the Catholic Authorities didn’t expect the
Consecration. The following day
newspapers ignore it. All attention was concentrated on the Jubilee of the
Apparitions and it was an honour for the country to hear the Pope speaking Portuguese…
Besides, we must remember that Portugal was not in war.
Only after some days did people begin
to pay attention to the final words of the papal speech where the Act of the
Consecration had been referred.
But there were people who noted it: Fr. Marian Pinho and Alexandrina.
However, he was forbidden to write to Alexandrina, so he sends a short telegram
from Fatima to Balasar…
Let’s read now the papal prayer:
“Queen of the Most Holy Rosary,
Help of the Christians,
Refuge of the human race,
Victress of all God’s battles,
we humbly prostrate ourselves before thy throne,
confident that we shall receive mercy, grace,
and bountiful assistance and protection on the present calamity,
not through our own merits, but solely through
the great goodness of thy maternal Heart.
To thee, to thy Immaculate Heart,
We, as Common Father of the great Christian
Family,
as Vicar of Him to whom all power was given in
heaven and on earth
and from whom We received the care of all souls
redeemed by His Precious Blood,
— to thee, to thy Immaculate Heart, on this
tragic hour of human history,
we confide, deliver and consecrate,
not only the Holy Church, the Mystic Body of
Jesus,
now in such suffering and agony in so many places
and sorely tried in so many ways,
but also the entire world torn by fierce strife,
consumed in a fire of hate, victim of its own
wickedness.
May the sight of the widespread material and
moral destruction,
of the sorrows and anguish of countless fathers
and mothers,
husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and
innocent children,
of the great number of lives cut down in the
flower of youth,
of the bodies mangled in horrible slaughter, and
of tortured
and agonized souls in danger of being lost
eternally,
move thee to compassion.
O Mother of Mercy,
obtain peace for us from God,
and above all provide for us those graces which
prepare for, establish, and assure peace.
Queen of Peace,
pray for us and give to the world now at war the
peace for which all people are longing, peace in the truth, justice, and
charity of Christ.
Give peace to the warring nations and to the
souls of men,
that in the tranquillity of order the kingdom of
God may prevail.
Extend thy protection to the infidels
and to all those still in the shadow of death;
give them peace and grant that on them, too, may
shine the sun of truth,
that they may unite with us in proclaiming
before the one and only Saviour of the world:
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
to men of good will!”
Give peace to the peoples separated from Us by
error or by schism,
and especially to those who profess such
singular devotion to thee
and in whose homes an honoured place was ever
accorded thy venerable icon
(today perhaps often kept hidden to await better
days);
bring them back to the one fold of Christ under
the one true Shepherd.
Obtain peace and complete freedom for the Holy
Church of God;
stay the spreading flood of modern paganism;
enkindle in the faithful the love of purity, the
practice of the Christian life, and an apostolic zeal,
so that the servants of God may increase in
merit and in numbers.
Lastly, as the Church and the entire human race
were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
so that in reposing all hope in Him,
He might become for them the sign and pledge of
victory and salvation:
we in like manner also consecrate ourselves
forever to thee and to thy Immaculate Heart,
our Mother and Queen,
that thy love and patronage may hasten the
triumph of the kingdom of God,
and that all nations, at peace with one another
and with God,
may proclaim thee blessed and with thee may
raise their voices to resound from pole to pole in the chant of the everlasting
Magnificat of glory, love and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus,
where alone they can find truth, life and
peace”.
Pius XII making the Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Jesus’s and Alexandrina’s
reaction
How did Alexandrina react? On 7th November she wrote to her
director:
“When I learned about the consecration of the world to
our beloved heavenly Mother in a telegram, Jesus allowed me to have some
passing moments of consolation.
I was out of myself; I didn’t know how to thank Jesus and our heavenly
Mother. I raised my hands to Heaven and
said: blessed be Jesus, blessed be our heavenly Mother!”
Alexandrina’s diary of 7th November begins
with these words of Jesus:
“Be happy, beloved daughter, be happy dear daughter, because the desires
of Jesus are realized!
Be happy, because great blessings have come to this guilty earth!”
The WW2
The Consecration was made and it was a step forward
leading to the end of the war. Let’s remember the words of 2nd May
1940:
“If he (the
Pope) wants the world to be saved, that he rushes the hour of its
Consecration to my Blessed Mother. That he places in front of the battle and
that proclaims her Queen of the Victory
and the Messenger of the Peace”.
The time of the Consecration was that of the fights in
North Africa that ended with the battle of El Alamein. It is very interesting
to read these words of Winston Churchill about the importance of the moment:
“Before Alamein we never
had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat”.
Through you (Alexandrina) the world was consecrated to my Blessed Mother.
Through you (Alexandrina) the world was consecrated to my Blessed Mother.
“The noted Mariologist Gabriel Roschini
called the 1942 consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the
greatest honor, which anyone can imagine. It is the highest manifestation of
the Marian cult. It opens new perspectives for salvation history”.
Twelve years later hears Jesus confirms what we saw on
the Decree of Alexandrina’s Heroic Virtues:
“Through you I want this love (to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart) to be ablaze in
all humanity, the same way as through you the world was consecrated to my
Blessed Mother. Dear spouse, let the love of our Hearts spread all over the
world!”
When might it be possible a monument be erected in
Balasar to commemorate such a great event?
Translation into English by Assunção Gomes.
Bibliography
COSTA, Alexandrina
Maria, For Love Alone! (organized by Eugénie Signorile and translated into
English by Leo Baron Madigan of Lumiar): http://alexandrinabalasar.free.fr/for_love_alone_index.htm
PINHO, P.e Mariano, No Calvário de Balasar, (second edition),
Apostolado da Oração, Braga, 2005.
[1] In the Fr. Marian Pinho’s letter to Cardinal Pacelli, on 11th September 1936, the author informs: Agitur enim de impetrando Summo Pontifice, ut in tantis rerum discriminibus et angustiis, mundus totus Reginae Coeli et Terrae ac Dominae a Victoria consecretur. “It is the case of asking the Roman Pontiff to consecrate, in a moment of so many difficulties, the entire world to the Queen of the Heaven and of the Earth and to the Lady of the Victory”.
[2] This anniversary was commemorated in Lisbon, because there was still no Basilica in Fatima.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_XII_Consecration_to_the_Immaculate_Heart_of_Mary
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