ShareAfter Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolours. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel. (Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, pp172-173)The primary historical and religious importance of Mount Carmel is in connection to the prophet Elijah, given that this was the location of the legendary battle between the champion of Yahweh and the prophets of the Phoenician deity Baal Melqart. Indeed, this contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal appears to have been the symbolic archetype for the battle of Armageddon foretold in the Book of Revelation. The word Armageddon is derived from the Hebrew Har Megiddo - the "mountain of Megiddo". A curious aspect of this phrase is that there is no "mountain" in the immediate vicinity of Megiddo, which is in fact situated on a plain at the foot of Mount Carmel. The actual fortress town of Megiddo was situated on a small mound (or Tel) on the plain of Megiddo, strategically located at the head of the Carmel Ridge, overlooking the Valley of Jezreel. The section of hills behind Tel Megiddo (called the Menashe mountains) are actually a lower eastern extension of Mount Carmel. So the most likely point of reference for the "mountain" of Megiddo, is in fact Mount Carmel - the location of the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:20-40. It is here that Elijah emerged victorious over the prophets of Baal, and successfully managed to steer the wayward Israelites back to orthodox praxis.So by appearing as Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the close of the vision experienced by the shepherd children during the Miracle of the Sun, the Blessed Mother was alluding to the prophetic ministry of Elijah and the conversion of the Jews - which would once again be brought into focus during the her vision of the cross of light at Tuy in 1929. It seems to be beyond coincidence that the Miracle of the Sun had taken place just before the publication of the Balfour Declaration calling for a Jewish national homeland in Palestine; or that the Battle of Megiddo in 1918 took place just under a year later, the consequences of which led to the land of Palestine falling under the British Mandate, eventually resulting in the restoration of the land of Israel in 1948. Could it be that Our Lady had chose to appear at Fatima at this moment in history not only to warn of the dangers of the spread of Communism, but also to indicate the opening of the path that would eventually lead to the conversion of the Jews, and consequently, to the Second Coming of Christ?
The secrets of Fatima were predominantly concerned with the impending onslaught of the Second World War, which ultimately resulted in the extermination of one third of the world's total Jewish population in the concentration camps of the Third Reich. It was through the perpetration of this most unspeakably heinous act that eventually led to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, when paralleling the Resurrection of Christ, the Jewish people eventually emerged victorious on the other side of their collective crucifixion. For the modern Jewish people, the path to the Promised Land was truly the way of the cross. But it seems that the restoration of Israel was preordained, since it was only through once again establishing themselves in the Holy Land that will eventually allow for the Jews to witness the great sign of the cross appear over Jerusalem, when they will confess Jesus as the true Messiah as a result of the ministry of the Elijah to come. (Read more.)
The Last Judgment
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