As Lent approaches, one begins to let go of the celebratory Christmas season and all the feasting that comes with it and settle into a new season of penance.
Making sacrifices does not come natural to us, especially here in the United States. It’s hard to discipline ourselves in the practice of it. But as the world propagates wanton disregard for civil stability, civil discourse, truth, justice, righteousness, calling good evil and evil good, we need to ramp up our spiritual might. We cannot disregard Our Lord and Our Lady’s persistent call to do penance and make reparation for sin.
The Angel of Peace at Fatima told three little children to make of everything a sacrifice and offer it to God. “You will thus bring down peace upon your nation!” Later, this same angel appears with a flaming sword about to set the world on fire, calling for “Penance. Penance. Penance!” If we are to have peace, if we are to overcome evil, we have to do penance.
People devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary feel a particular urgency in offering more fasting and rosaries, Eucharistic reparation, masses, and novenas. One hears often among faithful Catholics who have a sense that things are not sitting right in the world, “Keep your eyes on Christ. Stay close to Him. Pray and fast.”
St. John Paul II warned many times about a new spiritual crisis developing in the West, even as we celebrated the fall of atheistic communism in the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. This crisis was nothing short of a new form of atheism emerging from the ashes of Marxism. It involved mankind’s transcendent flight from the Creator, “deliberately blotting out God from the world of human thought, led by those at the highest levels of the political and scientific communities who were turning away from objective truth, embracing moral relativism, and building a global system without reference to the Creator. …Unless this spiritual crisis was averted,” he warned, “mankind would delay the Springtime and face a new era of barbarism.” (Pope John Paul II Springtime of Evangelization © 1999 Basilica Press)
We can see a global system today being built on Artificial Intelligence and nations racing against each other to dominate this revolutionary technology, with no safeguards in place. Tech billionaire Elon Musk has warned repeatedly of AI as potentially destructive and a serious risk to the future of civilization without these safeguards. He noted the importance of ensuring AI technologies pursue truth instead of repeating inaccuracies. “That can be very dangerous,” Musk said in a podcast interview reported by CNBC. “Truth and beauty and curiosity. I think those are the three most important things for AI.”
In one church in Switzerland, people are interacting with an AI-generated Jesus in the confessional, who answers questions and gives “guidance.” High school students are using chatbots intended for educational purposes as companions and confiding in them as “therapists” to address their loneliness and anxiety. In one case, a mother told me her daughter was “chatting” with Google Gemini who, seeing only the daughter’s side of things, told her that her parents were “too controlling” and gave advice on how to counter this.
Could this be the global system that is being built without reference to the Creator or objective truth that Pope John Paul II warned? I would argue artificial intelligence is simply the technology that is bringing to the forefront all that we as human beings have been propagating in our rejection of God and embrace of sin. In a sense, AI is the mirror reflecting what we have become.
We are also awash in news about the Epstein files and a global network of pedophiles among the most powerful and elite that seem protected from having to face justice. Child and adult sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business that is so overwhelming most people feel only God can overcome this. One cannot even imagine that human beings with any flicker of a conscience can sink to such levels of depravity. Yet it’s happening daily in our communities.
We know that God conquers all evil, but He wants us to participate. He asks for prayers and sacrifices, but we have to be willing to do it. The three Fatima children looked for ways to offer little sacrifices to God. The vision of hell propelled them to increase their sacrifices for sinners, and eventually offering their lives after much suffering. They firmly believed Our Lady when she told them sacrifices could save souls and rosaries could bring peace to the world. We may not have seen hell, but as the world turns away from God, the toll it is taking on humanity is hellish.
There is, of course, much good happening in the world. And I am reminded of St. Louis de Montfort who foresaw the latter days when God would raise up people especially devoted to the Blessed Mother, who would “fight with one hand and rebuild with another.” Who would drive out all idolatry, schismatics, impiety, and with the Holy Mother crush the head of the serpent. We are those people, consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, fighting with one hand and rebuilding with the other.
As Lent approaches, let us truly be penitential. Seek ways to sacrifice. Increase our fasting. Pray more rosaries. Do more Holy Hours. Attend more Masses.
As a member of the Coalition for Eucharistic and Marian Apostolates (CEMA), the Blue Army is asking all members and devotees of Our Lady to participate in the 54-Day Rosary Novena for Mercy, sponsored by Divine Mercy for America, Ash Wednesday to Divine Mercy Sunday (Feb. 18-Apr. 12). You can learn more and register to receive daily emails at https://divinemercyforamerica.org/54-day-novena-for-mercy/
Thousands of people are joining in this spiritual effort to overcome evil and pray for peace. Together we can move mountains.
Barb Ernster is the National Coordinator/Communications Manager/Editor for the World Apostolate of Fatima USA.
