p/c Fr. Palma on X.
There is a mysterious line from Our Lady of Akita which continuously haunts me. If what happened in Akita, Japan is a genuine apparition, then the Mother of God said the following: “The only arms [weapons] which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son.” I believe that means the Rosary and the Sign of the Cross with be the best (and possibly only) prayer weapons during a certain dark time of Church history which would probably come upon man in the 21st century.
Many Catholics believe Akita is the rosetta stone to understanding Fatima. If true, the Mother of God appeared to a deaf nun named Sr. Agnes Sasagawa for several apparitions and locutions (yes, miraculous since she was deaf.) On the 13th of October 1973 (the same year abortion was legalized in the USA and only a few years after the end of Vatican II) Sr. Agnes claims Mary said the following to her:
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres… churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
Many people believe this is upon us with the current scandals in the Church reaching fever-pitch as never before. But right before that warning, Sr. Agnes said Our Lady warned even more specifically:
“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 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 priests.”
Could this mean nuclear war? Could this mean most Catholics would be left without the sacraments? It seems to say that the only prayer for many Catholics will become the Rosary and the Sign of the Cross. That seems to imply either a loss of civilization or valid sacraments or both.
But perhaps the message is not to depress us so much as to prepare us. It is great to go to weekly confession, but we must be spiritually prepared to not need it. It is great to go to daily Mass, but we may have to become spiritually prepared to not even have weekly Mass. (I’m not saying I want any of these things, of course, but it appears such a punishment could be upon us if Akita is a valid apparition.)
If such is the case, then we shouldn’t mope about but rather we must maintain great courage and hope that the Rosary itself will then bring down the necessary graces for perseverance in this time of Church history. This is because it seems to me that never in any Marian apparition in 2,000 years have we ever heard a warning like this: “The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son.”
I assume that is the sign of the cross, so we should get good at that too. And by “good,” I mean slow, not fast.