Marian Apparition Quotes

But we have no [Marian] apparitions cautioning the Church against, say, accepting the delusion of an Earth-centered Universe, or warning it of complicity with Nazi Germany — two matters of considerable moral as well as historical import.... Not a single saint criticized the practice of torturing and burning “witches” and heretics. Why not? Were they unaware of what was going on? Could they not grasp its evil? And why is [the Virgin] Mary always admonishing the poor peasant to inform the authorities? Why doesn’t she admonish the authorities herself? Or the King? Or the Pope?

Mary isn’t simply another saint; she is the singular mode through which Christ came and comes to us. She has been given a unique role in salvation history through the Trinity. She makes this clear in her apparitions, and many a pope, saint, and Church document has reiterated this over the ages. Pope St. John Paul II explained that we are living in very unique times and facing a struggle unlike that of previous generations. He said, “We are today before the greatest combat that mankind has ever seen. I do not believe that the Christian community has completely understood it. We are today before the final struggle between the Church and the anti-Church, between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel.”4

Salette, France (1846) The next apparition at La Salette happened four years later, in 1846. High up in the French Alps, Mary appeared to two children—Maximin, eleven; and Mélanie, fourteen—as they tended sheep. What they saw when they came upon her was unique among apparitions; she sat as a lady sobbing, her hands covering her face in grief. Indeed, looking at the turmoil in France and beyond, Mary had much to grieve over. France’s anti-Catholic streak had even reached the small village of La Salette, where Mass and the sacraments were neglected as fewer and fewer people valued the faith of their fathers. Cursing was preferred to prayer, sexual license erased purity, and greed and self-indulgence superseded piety and sacrifice. Even the children to whom Mary appeared had little faith or formation. They rarely went to Mass and were barely able to muddle through the Our Father or Hail Mary. The messages from La Salette are significant because of their length and detail.

The children remained kneeling for a few moments in the marvelous light that enveloped them. Then our Lady made another request of them: “Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war.”8 The children, in their innocence and simplicity and living far from the fields of battle, would have understood little about the harsh realities of the war. However, our Lady’s request that they daily pray the Rosary for peace was the only request she repeated in all six of her apparitions to the three visionaries. How powerful this prayer must be if it can obtain peace for the world. We, too, need to put into practice our Lady’s request to pray the Rosary daily for peace in our time and an end to the culture of death so prevalent today.

O, my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven Especially those most in need of thy mercy!

Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.

Do not offend the Lord our God anymore because He is already so much offended.

Oh my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need,

Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: Oh Jesus, it is for love of you, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

More souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason; Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much; Many marriages are not good - they do not please Our Lord and are not of God; Priests must be pure, very pure - they should not busy themselves with anything except what concerns the Church and souls; The disobedience of priests to their superiors and to the Holy Father is very displeasing to Our Lord; The Blessed Mother can no longer restrain the hand of her Divine Son from striking the world with just punishment for its many crimes; Tell everybody that God gives graces

This supernatural light does not constitute a way that is independent of or parallel to the way of reason; rather it is joined to that way inseparably.[

1917, marked the first of six visits that three children—Lúcia dos Santos and cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto—claimed Mary, mother of Jesus, paid them. The sixth and final visit would occur in October of the same year. This Marian apparition has since been famously named Our Lady of Fátima. Since the events of 1917 the Marian visitations have been popularized and considered true by

In one of Mary’s apparitions to Bernadette, Our Lady asked her to dig in the dirt. As she dug, a spring trickled through the dirt. The water from the spring proved itself to be miraculous, healing those who bathed in it. Even today, six million visitors come to Lourdes annually. The humble Bernadette and the healing waters of Lourdes confounded both the medical community and the enlightened philosophes, such as Émile Zola, who had poisoned the minds of millions with atheism and an uncritical worship of science. Zola even made a visit to Lourdes in the hopes of discrediting it, only to witness the miraculous healing of a woman suffering from three incurable diseases. Upon seeing her restored to wellness, he puffed, “To me she is still ugly,” and dismissed the miraculous event. He dug his heels in even deeper, saying, “Were I to see all the sick at Lourdes cured, I would not believe in a miracle.”7

St. Andrew of the Woods, Rome, Italy (1842) The next apparition took place in 1842 and was directly related to the first. Alphonse Tobie Ratisbonne was a twenty-eight-year-old Jewish man in the prime of his life who had just gotten engaged to marry. He was a lawyer from a wealthy family and was charming, good looking, and good humored. Prior to his wedding, he decided to spend the winter in Malta. At all costs, however, he wanted to avoid Rome because he hated Catholicism; the conversion and ordination of his brother Theodore had only fanned the flames of his already intense hatred of the Faith. But somehow, because of a delay with boats out of Naples and his own restlessness, Ratisbonne found himself in the Eternal City. With a few days to spend before his boat left for Malta, Ratisbonne caught up with some friends, including Baron Theodore de Bussières, who gave Ratisbonne a Miraculous Medal as a challenge to Ratisbonne’s fierce anti-Catholicism. The baron argued, “If it is just superstition, then it won’t harm you in the least to wear this or to read the memorare prayer.” Then on January 20, 1842, while waiting for the baron in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte (“St. Andrew of the Woods”), Ratisbonne saw a vision of the Blessed Virgin. The brief vision of blinding beauty didn’t include an exchange of words, but by the end of it, Ratisbonne said he knew “all the secrets of divine pity.”3 He immediately converted to Catholicism, joined the priesthood, and moved to Israel with a ministry to convert the Jews. Ratisbonne’s conversion was so significant that even the pope heard of it and wanted to learn more about this “miraculous medal” and the nun who had it cast. The medal’s popularity swelled and Sister Catherine’s waned as she remained just another cloistered nun among many.