Secrets | WHY OUR LADY

SECRETS

Our Lady gave us secrets at 6 of her apparitions included in this website as follows:

1846 - La Salette, France
1917 - Fatima, Portugal
1932 - Beauraing, Belgium
1933 - Banneux, Belgium
1981 - Medjugorje, Herzecovina
1994 - Itapiranga, Brazi

All are encouraged to study the Secrets provided at each of these apparitions very carefully. However, a brief overview of the secrets at La Salette, Fatima, and Medjugorje will be herein provided:

At La Salette, Our Lady appeared in 1846 of the 19th century with a warning of threatened punishments that also served as a forerunner to her subsequent apparitions at both Fatima and Garabandal. Its timeliness asserts itself to our world today as we find ourselves at the same crossroads that Europe found herself in the middle of the 19th century; a great falling away from Christianity and its resulting universal denigration. Catholic Churches were (and unfortunately still are) abandoned and the Sacraments neglected, just as Our Lady prophesied in Quito, Ecuador in the 16th century. As we ponder this apparition, the message of Our Blessed Mother is as pertinent now as then: How many people forsake Sunday Mass but take time for the newspaper, sports, shopping? How many have not been to Confession in years? How many use Our Lord's name as a common profanity? How many fail to pray each day? How many entertain such blasphemies as the DaVinci Code? Oh yes, the message still resounds. The world and each of us is in need of conversion, as is frequently emphasized at Medjugorje.

Our Lady gave a lengthy secret to Melanie at La Salette. Unfortunately, most of the prophesies included within this secret came true, and France and its people have suffered greatly. In a letter relating to the Secret given to her, Melanie said the following: "I anticipate with great pleasure the 'Secret' being circulated at full extent; the more it spreads the more it will arouse salutory fear and numerous returns to God. Mary will bless those who help at the diffusion as she absolutely wants this passed on to all of the people. We are punished for having neglected the absolute order from the Mother of God."

"The great chastisement will come, because man will not be converted; yet it is only their conversion that can hinder these scourges. God will begin to strike men by inflicting lighter punishments in order to open their eyes; then He will stop, or may repeat His former warnings to give place for repentance. But sinners will not avail themselves of these opportunities; He will, in consequence, send more severe castigations, anxious to move sinners to repentance, but all in vain. Finally, the obduracy of sinners shall draw upon their heads the greatest and most terrible calamities."

"We are all guilty! Penance is not done, and sin increases daily. Those who should come forward to do good are retained by fear. Evil is great. A moderate punishment serves only to irritate the spirits, because they view all things with human eyes. God could work a miracle to convert and change the aspect of the earth without chastisement. God will work a miracle; it will be a stroke of His mercy; but after the wicked shall have inebriated themselves with blood, the scourge shall arrive."

Our Lady also gave a "secret" to Maximim at La Salette. His secret was much briefer than that given to Melanie. Here are the first 2 of 10 parts of the secret given to Maximum:

1. "Three fourths of France shall lose the faith, and the other fourth, that will preserve it, will practice it with tepidity."

2. "Peace shall not be given to the world until men be converted."

The next apparition at which Our Lady gave us secrets was at Fatima where she gave three.

The first secret of Fatima was a vision of Hell which terrified the visionaries: "As she opened her hands, the light reflecting from them seemed to penetrate into the earth, as into a sea of fire, and we saw immersed in that fire were devils and souls with human form, as if they were transparent black or bronze embers floating in the fire and swayed by the flames that issued from within themselves along with great clouds of smoke, falling upon every side just like the falling of sparks in great fires, without weight or equilibrium, amidst wailing and cries of pain and despair that horrified and shook us with terror. We could distinguish the devils by their horrible and repulsive figures of frightful animals, but transparent a the black coals in a fire."

Frightened, deathly pale, the little visionaries raised their eyes to Our Lady for help and then the Blessed Virgin explained that devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was a means to save souls from going to hell: "You have seen hell, where the poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish the devotion to My Immaculate Heart".

... "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace".

The second secret of Fatima prophesied the imminent end of World War I, but also accurately warned that a "worse war" would break out (World War II) during the reign of Pope Pius XI and that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world. Our Lady explained: If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end. But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign that God gives you, that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father."

Our Lady promised however, that these calamities could be avoided if Russia were publicly consecrated (set aside for a sacred purpose) by the Pope and the Catholic bishops, an act the Virgin said she would come to request at a later time (and she did twelve years later in 1929).

The second secret was then followed by Our Lady's mysterious interrupted reference to Portugal and the dogma of the faith: "In Portugal, the dogma of the faith will always be preserved, etc."

Our Lady gave Sister Lucia an express order that the third secret of Fatima was to be revealed in 1960 to the Bishop of Fatima or the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, and thus to the whole world. When asked why 1960, Sister Lucia responded: "because the Blessed Virgin wishes it so" and "it (the third secret) will be clearer then".

There has been and still is much controversy as to whether or not the entire third secret of Fatima has been released. This is well documented in the Fatima apparition report included under the 20th century apparitions on this website. All are encouraged to read and study carefully this information provided.

The on-going story of Fatima continues even to this day! Has the entire third secret yet been revealed? (And, has Russia been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary exactly as Our Lady requested?)

At Medjugorje, there are six visionaries to whom Our Lady has been appearing since June 24, 1981. Our Lady has given some of the visionaries ten secrets; not all of them have received all ten. Very little is known about the ten secrets, though we do know that some of them have to do with chastisements for the world.

Our Lady appears annually to Mirjana on her birthday, March 18. According to Mirjana "Only when the things contained in the secrets start to happen will the world understand why she chose the 18th of March. The significance of the date will be clear. She also said that I would experience some additional apparitions. She then held out something like a roll-up scroll, explaining that all ten secrets were written on it, and that I should show it to the priest I choose when the time comes to reveal them. I took it from her hand without looking at it".

Mirjana has chosen Father Petar to be the one to reveal the secrets. He has accepted this responsibility and, according to Mirjana, he does not have the choice whether to reveal the secrets or not. He has accepted the responsibility and must fulfill it. Father Petar is now 75 years old. The average age of a male in Bosnia is 74-75 years old. Therefore, one can only assume that the events prophesied in the secret will become known and will take place soon.

Here is some of what is known at this time about the secrets:

The first secret will break the power of Satan and his followers whom the Blessed Mother told Mirjana have been given tremendous powers never available to them before. After the first secret is revealed, these powers will never be given to them again.

The third secret has been described by all six visionaries as a permanent, indestructible, and beautiful sign on Apparition Hill at the site of the first apparition of our Lady at Medjugorje.

Before the visible sign is given to mankind, there will be three warnings to the world. The warnings will be in the form of events on earth. Mirjana will be a witness to them and her witness will be a confirmation of the apparitions and a stimulus for the conversion of the world.
After the first admonition (warning), the others will follow in a rather short time. Thus, people will have some time for conversion. That interval will be a period of grace and conversion.
After the admonitions (warnings) the visible sign will appear on the site of the apparition at Medjugorje for all the people to see. The sign will be given as a testimony confirming the apparitions and in order to call people back to faith.
After the sign appears, those who are still alive will have little time for conversion. For that reason, the Blessed Virgin invites us to urgent conversion and reconciliation. The invitation to prayer and penance is meant to avert evil and war, but most of all to save souls.
The ninth and tenth secrets are serious. They concern chastisement for the sins of the world. Punishment is inevitable, for we cannot expect the whole world to be converted. The punishment can be diminished by prayer and penance, but it cannot be eliminated.
Mirjana says that one of the evils that threatened the world, the one contained in the seventh secret, has been averted thanks to prayer and fasting. That is why the Blessed Virgin continues to encourage fasting and prayer: "You have forgotten that through prayer and fasting you can avert wars and suspend the laws of nature."