Even if we had reason to doubt the legitimacy of Sister Lucia’s description of the wave of “diabolical disorientation” that would overtake the world, we see it firsthand today. In his study of the Fatima messages, Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité summarized his interpretation of the Third Secret in a way that accurately describes our current situation:

“The pastors of the Church will fail gravely in the duties of their office. Through their fault, consecrated souls and the Faithful in great number will let themselves be seduced by pernicious errors spread everywhere. This will be the time of the decisive battle between the Blessed Virgin and the devil. A wave of diabolical disorientation will be hurled over the world. Satan will introduce himself even to the highest summit of the Church. He will blind the minds and harden the hearts of pastors. And God will deliver them to themselves as a chastisement for their refusal to obey the requests of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

We no longer need to speculate on the contents of the Third Secret — we simply have to open our eyes and observe what is happening throughout the Church and world.

The same calamities contributing to the diabolical disorientation also confirm the wisdom and authority of the Catholics — especially the popes — who warned that abandoning the true Catholic Faith would have such consequences.

As horrible as this is, God has not left us as orphans. The same calamities contributing to the diabolical disorientation also confirm the wisdom and authority of the Catholics — especially the popes — who warned that abandoning the true Catholic Faith would have such consequences. For those without the true Faith, this may be the most distressing and perplexing time in human history; but those with the Faith know why this is happening and how to respond in a way that honors God and saves souls. We can navigate safely through this sea of diabolical disorientation by keeping sight of the unmistakable Catholic realities of our day:

This is an Uncertain and Extraordinary Situation. Paradoxically, the disastrous situation in the Church provides one of the most important points of reference as we navigate through the sea of diabolical disorientation. This alerts us to the fact that we can no longer hope to sneak into Purgatory by living a lukewarm life of uncritical obedience to wayward shepherds.

In this extraordinary situation, no Catholic can have absolute certainty about how to resolve the crisis in the Church absent divine inspiration. This should inspire humility and a greater reliance on God. At the same time, though, God gives us so many indications that the world is falling apart precisely because it has abandoned Him and the Catholic truths He gave us — this gives us great confidence that we are on the right path if we cooperate with God’s grace to do all we can to adhere to the traditional Catholic Faith.

In these times we should also expect disagreements, even among those who earnestly seek to be as faithful as possible to the Catholic Faith. Satan and those who infiltrated the Church to serve him try to exploit these disagreements to divide those who want to live devout Catholic lives. If we want to oppose Satan’s onslaught as effectively as possible, it seems that we who strive to be faithful Catholics will need to overcome our legitimate disagreements by recognizing that we share the characteristics that set us apart from everyone else:

• We all want (or should want) to be the best Catholics we can be and submit to the Church’s legitimate authority
• We do all we can to find and believe Catholic truth and shun the errors opposed to it (such as false ecumenism and the evolution of Catholic truth)
• We yearn to live by the Church’s traditional liturgy and sacraments, especially the Tridentine Mass
• We would all be united with the same beliefs were it not for this unfathomable crisis in the Church

We can agree to disagree on what distinguishes us from other traditional Catholics while respecting the fact that God wants us to be united in charity against Satan, His enemy and ours.

We can agree to disagree (even vehemently) on what distinguishes us from other traditional Catholics while respecting the fact that God wants us to be united in charity against Satan, His enemy and ours. More often than not, those who would anathematize their fellow traditional Catholics for disagreeing with their response to the crisis swallow a camel and strain out a gnat, ignoring the fact that the magnitude of the crisis we must all accept dwarfs the magnitude of the differences that separate us. God knows that we live in a period of terrible uncertainty and, as always, wants us to humbly and charitably do all we can to build up the Mystical Body of Christ.

God Loves Us and is Permitting This Crisis for a Reason. We know that throughout salvation history God has permitted evils so that souls would realize their failings and turn to Him with greater fidelity and devotion. The following reflections from Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence highlight the wisdom of the Church and all the saints on why God permits the evils we now experience:

“It is then a truth of our faith that God is responsible for all the happenings we complain of in the world and, furthermore, we cannot doubt that all the misfortunes God sends us have a very useful purpose. We cannot doubt it without imputing to God a lack of judgment in deciding what is advantageous for us.”

“God is looking after us and yet we are full of anxiety! We trust ourselves to a doctor because we suppose he knows his business. He orders an operation which involves cutting away part of our body and we accept it. We are grateful to him and pay him a large fee because we judge he would not act as he does unless the remedy were necessary, and we must rely on his skill. Yet we are unwilling to treat God in the same way! It looks as if we do not trust His wisdom and are afraid He cannot do His job properly. We allow ourselves to be operated on by a man who may easily make a mistake—a mistake which may cost us our life—and protest when God sets to work on us.”

“If you would be convinced that in all He allows and in all that happens to you God has no other end in view but your real advantage and your eternal happiness, reflect a moment on all He has done for you; you are now suffering, but remember that the author of this suffering is He who chose to spend His life suffering to save you from everlasting suffering, whose angel is always at your side guarding your body and soul by His order, who sacrifices Himself daily on the altar to expiate your sins and appease His Father’s anger, who comes lovingly to you in the Holy Eucharist and whose greatest pleasure is to be united to you. We must be very ungrateful to mistrust Him after He has shown such proofs of His love and to imagine that He can intend us harm.”

None of this suggests passive acceptance of evils in our time. We have a duty to fight for truth and goodness insofar as God guides us to do so. But it seems more clear than ever that God wants us to realize that this is a spiritual battle which can only be won through the process of returning to Him. More and more, God is mercifully allowing us to see that we have no other options and are running out of time. Now is the time to become saints.

In one way or another, deviation from what St. Pius X taught has caused every moral and theological problem we have in the Church today.

The Infiltrators Have a Different Religion and Hate Catholics. Perhaps because our Faith teaches to obey our Catholic shepherds — coupled with the charitable practice of giving others the benefit of the doubt when possible — we find many traditional Catholics acting as though the Church’s infiltrators are simply misguided souls seeking the truth as we are. But it has become progressively obvious that these “misguided souls” actually despise the Catholic religion and want to supplant it with something that serves man and Satan rather than God. False ecumenism, acceptance of LGTBQ sins, fables of universal salvation and an empty hell, and attacks on tradition are all from Satan, who mocks the folly of those who follow the false prophets. If Our Lord had wanted us to follow these ravening wolves, He would not have told us to beware of them: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16-16).

In a certain sense we can be grateful for these wolves — Satan has them attack our true Faith because it is from God and leads to God. By attacking the traditional Catholic beliefs and practices, they show us what is most important in the world. We therefore have a sacred duty to fight them as valiantly as we can, thinking nothing of the cost so long as we avoid sin and save our souls.

St. Pius X Still Matters. St. Pius X fought these demons over one hundred years ago, achieving a temporary victory that forced them underground for a time. In one way or another, deviation from what he taught has caused every moral and theological problem we have in the Church today. As such, we will not find our “solution” to the current crisis by ingeniously crafting any doctrines St. Pius X did not himself embrace. His Oath Against Modernism holds the key to restoration:

“I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously.”

Anyone endorsing solutions that conflict with what St. Pius X believed betrays himself as the type of reformer the saint fought throughout his papacy.

Now is the moment when the Mystical Body of Christ and world will undergo increasing horrors until the soldiers of Christ heed the call to fight as saints.

The Pursuit of Holiness is Indispensable. The pursuit of holiness has always been a vital source of strength and wisdom for those who have successfully countered Satan and his minions. In this time especially, God has made it abundantly clear that the spiritual war has reached a point at which we need an army of saints. One who disobeys the call of his commanding officer in times of peace is guilty of simple dereliction of duty; one who disobeys in time of war is more likely to be guilty of a crime approaching treason. Now is the moment when the Mystical Body of Christ and world will undergo increasing horrors until the soldiers of Christ heed the call to fight as saints.

Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Will Guide Us. In his Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, St. Louis de Montfort wrote of the way in which Our Lady will guide souls in our times:

“God in these times wishes his Blessed Mother to be more known, loved and honoured than she has ever been. This will certainly come about if the elect, by the grace and light of the Holy Spirit, adopt the interior and perfect practice of the devotion which I shall later unfold. Then they will clearly see that beautiful Star of the Sea, as much as faith allows. Under her guidance they will perceive the splendours of this Queen and will consecrate themselves entirely to her service as subjects and slaves of love. They will experience her motherly kindness and affection for her children. They will love her tenderly and will appreciate how full of compassion she is and how much they stand in need of her help. In all circumstances they will have recourse to her as their advocate and mediatrix with Jesus Christ. They will see clearly that she is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus and will surrender themselves to her, body and soul, without reserve in order to belong entirely to Jesus.”

Mary is the Star of the Sea, who will lead us by the “safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way of approaching Jesus.” If we are devoted to the Rosary and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, God will not abandon us.

These Catholic lights appear so much brighter in the darkness that envelops us, Deo Gratias! Our Lady, Star of the Sea, guide and pray for us!

God’s Victory is Guaranteed, Ours is Not. We have reason for great confidence in our fight, for we know with absolute certainty that God wins in the end. However, we also know that it may appear as though Satan and his globalist minions will be close to victory before God intervenes. Our task is to fight as valiantly as possible for God’s side from now until the time when we take our dying breath. If we defer our allegiance to God until a moment somewhat closer to our last, we will likely die as we have lived and thus lose our soul.

We are indeed living in a period of diabolical disorientation, which will become worse before God’s ultimate triumph. But God has not abandoned us and we have so many Catholic certainties as we try to navigate to our salvation. These Catholic lights appear so much brighter in the darkness that envelops us, Deo Gratias! Our Lady, Star of the Sea, guide and pray for us!

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(Michael Matt on Pilgrimage)