Striking Phenomena During this Centennial Year of Fatima

Fr Richard Heilman July 21, 2017

What does it mean? Is God trying to get our attention? Is something coming?

I begin with the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 2013, when Fr. Michael Gaitley came to speak in Madison, WI about Marian Consecration. We were told the crowd who came to hear him speak was a record number. People were hungry for the message Fr. Gaitley was about to give.

A few of us had some time to meet with him beforehand. It was a vibrant discussion about this “sense that something is coming.” Fr. Gaitley, wholeheartedly, agreed. He would tell this small group, later, that he went backstage before his talk, that night, and completely changed what he planned to speak about. The Lord had set on his heart that he needed to focus upon something very important. That focus was on St. Maximilian Kolbe and “something is coming.”

On October 16, 1917, just 3 days after the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, St. Maximilian Kolbe (oblivious to what had happened three days prior in Portugal), founded the confraternity known as “The Militia of the Immaculata,” a movement whose purpose is “to convert sinners, heretics, and especially Masons, and to sanctify all under the patronage and through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.”

To better “win the world for the Immaculata,” he and his fellow friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a shortwave radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio–he was a true “apostle of the mass media.” St. Maximilian Kolbe was the master of new media in his times. Because of this, hundreds of thousands of people were consecrated to Jesus through Mary!

“While St. Maximilian Kolbe’s push for consecration was the largest,” according to Father Gaitley, “the one going on right now is the second-largest ever, and the largest since St. Maximilian Kolbe’s.” Father Gaitley went on to say now is the “perfect time” to consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary. He said the “culture of death is strangling our country right now.” He added that Our Lady is trying to “bring Christ back there,” saying she comes when things look hopeless. There’s a “historical reason” for the new push to consecration. Fr. Gaitley said. “there’s something happening, something moving, something ahead,” while no one knows specifically what is coming. “Our Lady wants to be embracing all of us,” he added.

Could this centennial year of Fatima be the time when “something is coming?”

In February of last year, I wrote an article that was a compilation of historical pieces to a puzzle. The title of the article was, Our Lady of Fatima, 1917-2017 – Why 100 Years Matters. It is the most shared article I have ever written, at over 61,000 shares. I did my best to piece together what I had noticed about significant events preceding and leading up to this centennial year of 2017. But, what about this centennial year?

My good friend, Emmett O’Regan, has spent years seeking to unveil scripture, prophesies, apparitions of the Blessed Mother, etc.. In fact, he wrote a book on all of this entitled, Unveiling the Apocalypse. While Emmett’s amazing book goes into mind-boggling details, I want to highlight some of the events we are about to experience during this centennial year of Fatima, many of which Emmett O’Regan has brought to my attention.

I’ve recently become aware of St. Michael’s Lent, thanks to Emmett O’Regan. St. Francis of Assisi was especially devoted to Saint Michael and would fast from the Feast of the Assumption (August 15) to Saint Michael’s Feast Day on September 29. In fact, St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata while he was praying and fasting during St. Michael’s Lent. Some Franciscan communities continue to observe the period from August 15 to September 29 as “St. Michael’s Lent”, a time of fasting and prayer.

Shortly after the beginning of this year’s St. Michael’s Lent, August 21, 2017, on the Feast of Our Lady of Knock, there will be a Total Solar Eclipse that cuts across the heart of America.

While St. Michael’s Lent is actually more than 40 days (August 15 to September 29), it is astounding to see that the period from the Total Solar Eclipse, August 21 (Feast of Our Lady of Knock) to September 29 (Feast of St. Michael) is exactly 40 days. Also, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) “happens” to fall, this year, on the Feast of St. Michael (September 29). Emmett O’Regan writes:

We have already noted how the 2017 solar eclipse occurs 40 days before the Jewish feast of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), on 29th/30th September, 2017. According to Jewish tradition, the month of Elul marks a 40-day period of repentance before the feast of Yom Kippur, and was the time during which Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai after the incident of the Golden Calf, in order to prepare for the reception of the second set of tablets containing the Decalogue.

Given the fact that the date of Yom Kippur this year falls on the feast of St. Michael and the Archangels (Michaelmas), there is yet another disparate period of 40 days of repentance coming into play around the time of the solar eclipse, this time rooted in a long-standing Catholic tradition. Although it is not widely celebrated today, there is a custom in Catholicism dating back to the Middle Ages known as St. Michael’s Lent, which was a 40-day period of fasting in preparation for the feast of Michaelmas, lasting from the Solemnity of the Assumption on 15th August to Michaelmas on 29th September. We should note that while the period of St. Michael’s Lent actually extends to 45 days, it is still held to be a symbolic 40-day fast in keeping with Lent itself. If we are to count 40 days back from Yom Kippur/Michaelmas on 29th-30th September this year, we arrive at the date of the solar eclipse itself on the Feast of Our Lady of Knock, 21st August, 2017, rather than the Solemnity of the Assumption.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, it was also during St. Michael’s Lent (September 20, 1918) that St. Padre Pio had his first occurrence of the stigmata: bodily marks, pain, and bleeding in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ. This phenomenon continued for fifty years, until the end of his life. Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968. Of course, 1968 was the year Pope Paul VI published his encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which re-affirms the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the continued rejection of artificial contraception. Many believe that contraception may have been the fissure through which the “smoke of Satan” entered, as contraception (while now known to be a class one carcinogen) has led to the explosion of the sexual revolution and much of the spiritual illnesses today, including fornication, adultery, divorce, sodomy, abortion, etc. … as well as the advent of the notion that one’s conscience supersedes the will of God, not just in the case of contraception, but is now applied to all of what the Church teaches.

What is most fascinating is that September 23, 2017, the Feast of St. Padre Pio, also marks the day we will see another phenomenal astrological event. Patrick Archbold wrote about this on October 29, 2015 …

What if God gave us a sign, would we even notice it? What if God, like He has done before, gave us a heavenly sign, a portent of great and terrible events? Would we even take notice? Are we, like so many that have come before us, so busy in our day-to-day lives that we never bother to even look up anymore? What if God gave us a heavenly sign today, would we notice? And if we did notice, would we care or just ignore it as some superstitious nonsense?

What if I told you that there is a forthcoming astronomical event that closely mirrors a sign from the Book of Revelation, stunning in its precision, context, and timing? Would you look up?

Revelation 12:1-5

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars:

And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.

And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his head seven diadems:

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son.

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne. “

Patrick Archbold went on to write …

On November 20, 2016, an astronomical event begins that will last nine and a half months, culminating in startling concurrence with the vision of Revelation 12. While I am not an astronomer, all my research indicates that this astronomical event, in all its particulars, is unique in the history of man.

On November 20, 2016, Jupiter (the King planet) enters into the body (womb) of the constellation Virgo (the virgin). Jupiter, due its retrograde motion, will spend the next 9 ½ months within the womb of Virgo. This length of time corresponds with gestation period of a normal late-term baby.

After 9 ½ months, Jupiter exits out of the womb of Virgo. Upon Jupiter’s exit (birth), on September 23, 2017, we see the constellation Virgo with the sun rise directly behind it (the woman clothed with the sun). At the feet of Virgo, we find the moon. And upon her head we find a crown of twelve stars, formed by the usual nine stars of the constellation Leo with the addition of the planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars.

That is a truly remarkable and, as far as I can determine, unique series of event with a startling degree of concurrence with the vision of Revelation 12.

So what does it mean, if anything? The obvious and truthful answer is that we simply do not know. That said, we are not entirely without possible context.

It just so happens that these events transpire during the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of “the woman clothed in the sun,” Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. The culmination of these astronomical events occurs just 3 weeks before the 100th anniversary of the great miracle of Fatima, in which the sun “danced” (another heavenly sign), an event that was witnessed by many thousands.

… I must also note that the date the astronomical event begins, November 20, 2016, is the very day that Pope Francis’ declared “Year of Mercy” comes to an end. The very same day is the Feast of Christ the King.

Novena for Our Nation – Join Today!!

Last year, as we approached the centennial year of Fatima and during a contentious Presidential election season, we asked Americans to join together in prayer, as we called out to the Mother of God to heal our nation … 54 days of prayer from August 15 to October 7, just days before the election. Over 20,000 signed up for daily emails of reflections and prayers, and it is believed that tens of thousands more participated by going, daily, to the novenaforournation.com website.

Now, here we are, in the “womb” of the centennial year just as the Revelations 12 celestial sign sees the King (Jupiter, the king planet) in the womb of the woman clothed with the sun. Does anyone else have the feeling that “something is coming?”

Why is the Total Solar Eclipse traveling directly though the heart of America, just as it traveled directly though Nineveh at the turn of the 20th century? As Patrick Archbold wrote, at this point “we simply do not know.”

*It’s interesting to note that it is 33 days (span of Christ’s life) from the Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 to the Revelations 12 sign on September 23.

**It’s also interesting to note that it is exactly 54 days from the Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 to October 13, the anniversary of the Fatima Miracle of the Sun.

I don’t know about you, but I *do* know this is a time for prayer and penance. America has become the New Babylon, and God cannot be none too happy. We must pray for conversion!! Conversion, first, for ourselves.

This year, we are concluding our 54 Day Rosary Novena for Our Nation with St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Marian Consecration. We will be encouraging folks to join the Militia Immaculata … this is also the centennial year of the Militia Immaculata. And, we are also encouraging the enrollment and wearing of the Brown Scapular (or Scapular Medal). So, Rosary, Scapular and Consecration … we want to do precisely what Mary asks.