Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Fatima Book Dedication


I [Damien Francis Mackey] wrote this as a dedication in my Fatima book, "The Five First Saturdays":

"I had only just begun the preparatory work towards revising a previous article of mine on the same subject [Five First Saturdays of Our Lady of Fatima] in the light of new global developments and, hopefully, in the light of a better appreciation of the significance of the book of Esther, when on the 30th of October 1989 my father William Ambrose Mackey died suddenly in Hobart (Tasmania).

Born in May 1917, his busy life spanned the same 72-year period as was the duration of the modern ‘Babylonian Captivity’ of the Church’s suppression by the Bolsheviks in what they called the Soviet Union.

May all who read this kindly pray for the repose of the soul of William Ambrose Mackey. It is with profound gratitude that I wish to dedicate to the memory of him this small book of
The Five First Saturdays of Our Lady of Fatima.

{His father, Private Francis Joseph Mackey, my grandfather, a Tasmanian, who was killed in action at Broodseinde, October 1917, was mentioned by Australia's Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, during a speech at the Tyne Cot memorial service, Belgium, 4 October 2007}.

http://www.gg.gov.au/governorgeneral/speech.php?id=281

For picture, see:

http://blog.awm.gov.au/1917/2007/04/04/private-francis-joseph-mackey/

My sister, Frances Wipprecht, wrote this piece on our grandfather, Francis Mackey:

PRIVATE FRANCIS (FRANK) JOSEPH MACKEY

My grandfather, Francis Joseph Mackey was” killed in action” on 5th October 1917 at the Battle of Broodseinde, Belgium – one of several battles of Third Ypres, usually termed Passchendaele. He was 37 years old.
He enlisted on 30th October 1916 and began training at Claremont Camp. His younger brother, William Ambrose, 32, had died there of meningitis four months earlier, only seven weeks after enlisting.
Frank had no complaints about the training camp and in a letter dated 4-11-16 to his mother, Ellen, who lived at Rhyndaston, near Colebrook he wrote: “I feel very well since I came and I like it very much, they treat us very well, get plenty to eat.”
On 10th February, 1917, Frank sailed with his unit, the Tasmanian 40th Battalion, on “HMAT Seang Bee” for England leaving behind his wife, Cecilia, who was expecting their first child in May. He requested that, if the baby was a boy, he be named William Ambrose, after his late brother.
The ship arrived in Devenport, England on 2nd May 1917 and in a letter dated 25-8-17 to his sister, also Ellen, he wrote: “…after a pleasant trip, we managed to dodge the submarines but had a little excitement the night before we landed our escorts sighted a submarine at dusk and fired on it but it got away, we were about 70 miles from Devenport where we landed.”
On 8th May 1917, my father, William Ambrose, was born at Ranelagh and his doting mother, Cecilia, sent photos and a postcard to Frank overseas, “I hope it will not be long before you are able to see your dear little son in reality.” And the proud father wrote back, “I was so pleased to know that you are well and it was a son, Dear I am anxious to get another letter from you to hear all about it and when it was born. I wish I was coming back to look after you dear, but don’t worry we will look forward to a good time coming. I often think of you although we are a long way apart.”
Frank enjoyed four days leave sightseeing in London but commented to Ellen “but you want plenty of money here, you have to pay through the nose for every thing…but Australia will do me and I won’t be sorry when I get back but I am thinking it will mean another winter in the trenches…” They were given extra training in England and he also spent two weeks with measles in an Isolation Hospital “very nearly all our boys got them…it was only a holiday for us we were well treated.”
In the same letter to his sister he writes, “…we are going to France tomorrow…so when you hear the Australians are in action again you will know I am with them, and trust to God for the rest. I have every confidence I will come through safe we have been well trained here, been through poison gass with helmets on.”
An entry in his notebook reads, “Arrived in France 30/8/17. Went up the line 12/9/17.” The troops were marched many miles through France and Belgium where they were involved in active duty on the battlefields.
Frank was transferred to a stretcher platoon. However, his time spent carrying the wounded was short.
During the heavy fighting on the hellish muddy wartorn battleground he was hit by a shell and died instantly at Broodseinde Ridge near Ypres on 5th October 1917.
Record from Australian Red Cross Society Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files 1914-1918 War:

Informant A. Harman of the 40th Battalion wrote: “I saw him killed at Ypres, Oct 5th 1917. His head was blown off with a shell. Knew him well, a real good fellow. He was a stretcher bearer and did good work and helped many a fellow on his feet. We were carrying the stretcher when we were hit. The stretcher was blown to pieces. I was hit, fractured scull and damaged sight.”

Captain F.C. Green of the 40th Battalion wrote: “My runner took his identity disc and papers and they belonged to 3147 Pte. F.J. Mackey. I made a note of it at the time, and noted that his people lived at Ranelagh, Tasmania. His body was buried by a burial party of the Battalion. The grave is near a place called Beecham on the Zonnebeke Map.”

My grandmother, Cecilia, was notified on 28th October 1917 that her husband was wounded in action and was reassured on November 3rd by the Defence Dept that “it is to be assumed that he is making satisfactory progress towards recovery..” However, a letter dated 5th December 1917 informed her that Frank was “Previously reported wounded, now reported killed in action.” He had been dead already for two months.
His personal possessions – wallet, photos, purse, coins and prayer book were returned to his wife.
Cecilia never remarried and grieved all her life for her beloved Frank. She wrote numerous letters in the hope of acquiring a photograph of his grave which did not exist. She passed away in 1973.
In 1977 when I was living in Holland with my Dutch husband we drove to Ypres in search of my

grandfather’s grave. We were directed to the Menin Gate Memorial where we found Francis Joseph’s nametogether with other members of the 40th Battalion who died on the battlefields and were buried where theyfell.
The names of 55,000 missing British and Empire troops are engraved on the Menin Gate Memorial, 6,000 of whom are Australians.

The inscriptions on the monument read:

TO THE ARMIES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE WHO STOOD HERE FROM 1914 TO 1918
AND THOSE OF THEIR DEAD WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE

Above the staircase arches is inscribed:

IN MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM
HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL
IN YPRES SALIENT, BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

Photos of the monument and my grandfather’s name were promptly sent to my father in Tasmania and he wrote back, “It touched me greatly to think of my little daughter and her husband visiting that battlefield scene nearly 60 years after his death. God bless you both for what you did.”

On the 4th October 2007, the 90th anniversary of the battles of 1917 in Flanders, a huge honour was bestowed on Francis Joseph and Cecilia Mackey when they were mentioned in an address given by the then Governor-General Michael Jeffery at the Tyne Cot Memorial Service in Belgium. He urged us never to forget the families of soldiers at home waiting for news of their men.
Quote from the Governor General’s speech: “Mrs Cecilia Mackey of Tasmania wrote a simple yet anxious plea to the Secretary of Defence seeking official advice about conflicting news of her husband’s welfare: this is what she wrote: “Could you oblige me with particulars as to date that my husband was wounded as I have since been told that he was killed in action. Only three days ago I got word that his wound was not serious.
Please oblige as I am anxious.”

To be remembered 90 years later on the now peaceful battlefields of the Western Front was indeed an honour for my grandparents.

The names of Francis Joseph Mackey and his brother William Ambrose Mackey are also inscribed on the war monument at Richmond.

LEST WE FORGET

[End of Frances' article]


The Fatima apparitions took place between May 1917 and October 1917.
William Mackey was born in May 1917 and his father died in October 1917.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Fatima the Antidote to Apostasy


Fatima: the Antidote to Today’s
“Insidious Apostasy” from the Father’s House

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Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. …. She is the icon of God’s tenderness for us.
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Graces and Mercy

John Paul II had spoken of the Fatima apparitions of 1917 (-1929) in terms recalling Moses and his efforts to restore Israel to the one true God. The popes have indeed likened Fatima to a new Mount Sinai and the altar of the world. Unlike false apparitions, the true and authentic visitations of the Blessed Virgin Mary are deeply rooted in the Scriptures. And they also profoundly affect contemporary history.
The above picture illustrates the Fatima seer Sister Lucia’s great Trinitarian vision at her convent in Spain, with ‘Graces and Mercy’ flowing down onto the altar. Scott Hahn, in “a Father Who Keeps his Promises” (Charis, 1998), has taken up this very theme of Grace and Mercy, when combined, as “the single greatest attribute of God”; and he has done so in connection with Moses’ encounter with God at Sinai (pp. 159f.):

Mercy Me!

Did Moses end up with less intimacy with God than when he started? It might look that way, judging from his apparent loss of face-to-face access with [the Lord]. Upon closer examination, however, the narrative may lead us to the opposite conclusion.
Before the collective bargaining session had begun, Moses was able to enjoy very close encounters with God on a regular bass – he beheld [the Lord] with his own eyes. But whatever natural capacity Moses possessed that enabled him to see the glory of God physically manifest, still it was just that, a natural capacity. And that is all that he lost.
In exchange, Moses was ordered to hide his face “in the cleft of the rock”, so that the Lord could pass by and proclaim his name (see Ex 33:17-23): “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (v. 19). So “Grace and Mercy” are God’s very name, his own identity. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, divine grace and mercy combine to form the single greatest attribute of God.
Thus, the Lord more than compensated Moses for whatever he lost by way of a natural vision of divine glory; for in return, Moses received a far greater revelation of God’s supernatural glory, as it is revealed in his covenant grace and mercy. This is the deepest and most glorious mystery of all, unknowable by the human mind and invisible to the natural eye. It is the essence of God’s inner life and the heart of the covenant. We may be sure then, that Moses came out a winner that day, not a loser; for he gained much more than he lost, infinitely more.
[End of quote]

THE CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

On the eve of the first Friday of June 1929, Sister Lucia in prayer near the tabernacle, saw a supernatural light which lit up the whole chapel, while a cross of light rising right to the ceiling, appeared on the altar. She saw a more intense light, at the upper part of the cross, God the Father and His body down to the waist, a luminous dove (the Holy Spirit) on His breast and the Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. A chalice was seen above His waist, surmounted by a large host suspended in midair and drops of blood fell from His face and from the wound on His side upon the host and from there into the chalice. Our Lady was under the right arm of the cross. In her left hand was her Heart encircled with thorns and surmounted with flames. Under the left arm of the cross large letters, made of crystalline water flowing down upon the altar formed the words, "GRACES AND MERCY".

Lucia understood this to be the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lady then told her, "The moment has come when God is asking the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart, in union with all the bishops of the world. He promises to save it by this means."

Sister Lucia, representing the chosen people at the new Mount Sinai - where now, not Moses, but the very Mother of God was ‘standing in the breach’ as the mediator (or Mediatrix, not however replacing Christ’s essential mediation) with the Godhead - was also the recipient of this tremendous ‘Sinaïtic’ mystery. Now it was in this awesome context that Our Lady of the Rosary (of Fatima) would ask for the collegial Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart - She had already, in 1925, asked for the Communion of Reparation (known as the Five First Saturdays) - to save the world from disaster, and, even more importantly, to save souls from Hell.
In September of 2007 Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State for the Vatican, referred to this Trinitarian aspect of the Message of Fatima, and to Fatima’s profound impact on contemporary history, when he said:

The profitable meeting of charisma and institution, of the Trinitarian mystery and the Christological mystery, is realized in the message. Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. She gives us indications like a road sign to fight the battle between good and evil. Mary is the icon of God’s tenderness for us. [Fatima] is something that taps into and impregnates contemporary history like no other Marian apparition, and the density of its message touches the hearts of mankind, inviting to conversion and the shared responsibility for the salvation of the world.
[End of quote]

The comparison with Sinai is also most fitting given that our Third Millennium world, is like that of the nation of Israel, lost in a ‘Sinai wilderness’, drifting far away from God, lured again by the seductive ‘Golden Calf’ in its many forms. This, too, was explicitly noted by Cardinal Sodano in his homily of 13th May, 2007 (90th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition), especially in relation to Europe:

Today, 90 years have passed since the apparitions at Cova da Iria. We would like to ask Mary to continue to show all her motherly tenderness for the men and women of our time, who are sometimes tempted to forget God and set their hearts on the golden calf of earthly fatuity. Mary knows that the eternal salvation of her children is at stake, and for this reason repeats to us Jesus’ call: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Mary’s call, it is strong and decisive, such as a mother would address to her children at the important moments of their life….
Today, we feel the need to address her with the invocation of a well-known hymn of the liturgy: “Monstra te esse Matrem”; “Show us, O Mary, that you are Mother!”
Many people today seem to be drifting away from the Father’s house, and we cluster around our Mother so that she may enlighten their consciences and bring prodigal sons back to the Father’s house.
It is particularly the children who live in Europe who are tempted to forget the faith that was their strength down the centuries. An insidious apostasy is taking place in our countries, which should give us cause for concern.
Today, let us entrust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the future of the people and peoples of our Continent, committing ourselves to restoring to the heart of our society that Gospel leaven which permeated history down the ages. Let us also promise Mary to work intensely for this noble end, seeking to be “salt of the earth and light of the world”. With our prayers, our work and our Christian testimony, we will thus respond to Mary’s call and foster the dissemination of Christ’s Gospel in today’s world. Indeed together with the Second Vatican Council (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 10), we believe that the “key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in her Lord and Master … Jesus Christ, [who] is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Amen!