Our Lady of Akita and the Mass
This past year I have had the opportunity to read many books on Marian Apparitions, from the Middle ages, to the more recent in the late 70’s. These fascinating occurences have leaded me to a deeper understanding of Marys role in the Church, and in our lives. The recurring message or theme I have found throughout many of the messages were of repentance, warnings of chastisement, and a return to personal holiness. Most of the visitations of our Mother, were during times of upheavel, times when morality among people was lacking, and during times when the breakdown of common worship of God in our society. Many people traded morality for their own depravities, and what they “feel” is right. Most of these situations involved warnings, and simple ways to correct our errors, so that God’s wrath may be averted. The call back to holiness was strongly emphasized and this should extend from the context of the Mass. I truly believe that there is a strong connection between the Mass and the various Marian apparitions. I will focus however on Our Lady of Akita because it is recent and is closely related to Our Lady of Fatima.
In 1973 our Mother Mary visited Sr. Agnes Sasagawa of Akita, Japan and gave three messages. I have summarized the first two messages and pasted the entire third:
- Call to prayer, obedience, and reverence to the Holy Eucharist
- Expressed how angry our Lord was with humanity, and that soon he would chastise humanity; however prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger.
Is what you think in your heart true? Are you truly decided to become the rejected stone? My novice, you who wish to belong without reserve to the Lord, to become the spouse worthy of the Spouse, make your vows knowing that you must be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are poverty, chastity, and obedience. Of the three, obedience is the foundation. In total abandon, let yourself be led by your superior. He will know how to understand you and to direct you.
After a short silence:
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. 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. The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them. With courage, speak to your superior. He will know how to encourage each one of you to pray and to accomplish works of reparation. It is Bishop Ito, who directs your community. And She smiled and then said:
You have still something to ask? Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice. From now on you will obey the one sent to you and your superior. Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.
This apparition and the messages were approved by the local Bishop, and by Cardinal Ratzinger. We see in our common worldview now that many things just 100 years ago seen as sinful are now acceptable. These sinful behaviours eat away at our moral fiber that include violence towards other humans in different forms such as sexual lusts & concupiscence’s, eastern occult like activities, disobedience to all manors of authority, theft/counterfeiting, greed, gluttony, dispair or lack of hope, and many other sins that cry out to heaven. We see that many of these behaviors are very self-oriented and inwardly drawn, instead of sacrificial. This is a problem, because when we focus on our own selfish desires, more than our Creator, and of the things of God, we roll the dice on losing our soul to the evil one for all eternity.
The Catechism notes that The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” The Eucharist extends from the Mass and gives to the Mass, it is the epitome to the worship of God here on earth. However the travesty is that many Masses in our world, and particularly in North America have turned the Mass from the worship of God in his Holy Place into the worship of self. Such things include using popular and secular music during Mass, exchanging reflection and prayer in the Church for community activities, idle chatter in front of our Lord, stripping the Churches of beautiful and sacred objects, removing altar rails, removing kneelers, introducing pagan rituals and customs into our midst, disobedience to our Priests and Bishop, and so on. These symbols and traditions that were used in the past have been thrown away, but without proper discernment!! If our goal is to spend our eternity with God in heaven, then we should make our Church as near to that experience as we can, while on this earth. Unfortunately with contemporary style masses, teen masses, and masses for every other type of theme, it totally erodes the whole point of Mass. It dumbs the experience down to an experience to what the hippies did at Woodstock. When our Catholic Mass is no longer Catholic, is it any wonder that many of the moral issues in our society are taking place? Are these sinful behaviours outside of church not also the ones seen inside the Church during Mass but in a different context? These are things that are easily identifiable in our world as factual from the point of view of the Church. The more I think about this, the more I tend to believe (My opinion) that we have been under the “softened” chastisement that Our Lady of Akita has warned us against. What better way to chastise humanity than to remove the one gift to us that outlasts, and is more sacred than anything in history, the Mass! Without a reverent, and Holy Mass, we have essentially chastised ourselves from Christ, and from God. Have you noticed the blank stares and have ever wondered why people walk out or in to church before and after communion? Why does Church seem like a social club, rather than the house of Christ, in which we revere, and worship. Did God give us up to our sins, lusts, and errors because we did not repent? History will tell us. If we are indeed at the tail end of the chastisement I would like to thank the faithful Saints of the middle and later part of the 20th century for minimizing the wrath we could of inccured. But if we haven’t been spared and are still awaiting it because of our sinful and disobedience behavior, may Christ have mercy on us and may St. Peter, pray for us!
I was also inspired to write this article because of another written by a Priest, called the “Spirit of Vatican II”, and what has happened since Vatican II. This article can give you much further insight than what I have outlined. Please read it here. https://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0540.html