We publish new letter by Father Karl Stehlin, Director of the Militia Immaculatae.
Dear Knights of the Immaculata
Why does Satan surround himself with gigantic armies on earth? Why the beasts of the Apocalypse? The reason is to spread his impiety with more efficiency, to deprave men so that they stop worshipping God and join the chorus of the ungrateful and indifferent ones. What joy for the infernal serpent to see God insulted and Christ driven out of his Kingdom! On focusing on the devastations brought about by these armies, like the triumph of Freemasonry, the distress of the Church in agony, the errors of the sects, the persecutions against Christians, the anti-Christian laws, the destruction of Christian civilization, etc., we run the risk of neglecting and even forgetting the main reason for the work of all this infernal machinery i.e. the eternal loss of all and each one of us.
Sometimes there are fervent Catholics (and even priests) who vigorously warn against the extreme danger in which souls are of being lost forever, but they say almost unconsciously “since I am such a faithful servant and apostle of the Blessed Virgin, I have nothing to fear.” Thus, while speaking of the salvation of souls, they do not take the great affair of their own salvation seriously enough.
As Satan works with large armies, the Blessed Virgin surrounds herself with an army too; her little army of faithful instruments with and through which She dispenses graces in the world. For what purpose? For the safeguarding of Catholic Tradition and the Faith of all times, for the triumph of Christ the King and his Mother on earth, for the destruction of the errors and bastions of impiety, for the conversion of the modernists and the Glory of the Holy Mother Church etc. Though important as they are these goals are but secondary; the first and foremost purpose of Our Lady’s work is to save her beloved children from eternal misfortune.
Let us then make sure that we have our priorities right and meditate from time to time on the purpose of the Militia Immaculatae: the conversion and the sanctification of all by the Immaculate for their eternal salvation and for that alone!
These two hostile armies oppose each other in a war that will end only at the end of the world. In the last days leading to it, the fighting will increase in ferocity. And what is the desired result of this struggle on both parts? For the armies of the devil the goal is “to crush the infamous” (Voltaire), that is to destroy the true Church. For us, the goal is the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the conversion of Russia and the world, the loss of influence of Communism and the Freemasons in public life, the restoration of Christendom and the Catholic States, the return to Tradition of our Blessed Mother, the Catholic and Roman Church … But again, beware! Although all these would be very important achievements, there remains the danger of considering this war as a mere struggle for power, with the goal of increasing our ranks and defeating our enemies in concentrating all efforts to see the means realized (consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, success of our apostolic actions …).
Saint Maximilian Kolbe had very harsh words when he saw that the Knights were beginning to lose sight of the “only thing necessary” and to be absorbed by the means. He called it “treachery of the true cause of the Immaculate, loss of the supernatural spirit, rejection of the true ideal of the Militia.” Therefore, we must take this subject very seriously, especially at the decisive moment of the great centenaries of the two opposing armies (Communism, Freemasonry — Fatima, M.I.)
What is the true ideal of the Knight? To bring all men at the feet of the Immaculate so that they may be converted, sanctified and saved! And the first man to be led to the Immaculate is myself.
What is the essential message of Our Lady of Fatima? What is the deepest reason for revealing Herself and offering her Immaculate Heart? It is her immense desire to wrest all his children from the clutches of the devil, from sin and error, and thus to preserve them from the ocean of hell fire. All her words revolve around this imminent danger for souls to lose themselves forever. The devotion to her Immaculate Heart with its First Saturday communion, its consecration of self and consequently the conversion of Russia, and the famous Third Secret are all expressions of the cry of the Heart of our Mother: “You see so many souls that will lose themselves in the everlasting Fire. To preserve my poor children from the worst, I give you my Heart as the sure way, amid so much danger, to God.”
We cannot be true apostles of Our Lady of Fatima, nor can we be true Knights of the Immaculate if we put aside the imminent danger in which we are to lose ourselves forever! We are in the worst times in the history of the world and we have to be aware of the power of the immense armies of the Prince of Darkness: all this liberal and materialistic atmosphere we live in, all these threats and temptations are laid to make us commit sin, lose the sanctifying grace, get accustomed to sin, and if possible lose the light of the true Faith, and finally make us fall into eternal flames.
It is thus absolutely necessary that we realize how many times in the past we would have been damned if we had died at a particular moment. Let us see how the saints dealt with the affair of their salvation. Realizing the extreme weakness and wounds of original sin in man, they had great distrust of themselves. They were vigilant, often thinking of death, judgment, hell, purgatory, heaven. They endeavoured not to waste the precious time given to them here on earth in vanities and pleasures, but to make the maximum use of every minute, every opportunity to grow in the love of God and neighbour. If we neglect the meditation on our (imminent) death, on the brevity of life, the uncertainty of the hour of death, the death of the sinner and the righteous, the absolute importance of the present moment to do good and avoid Evil, the malice of mortal sin, our life as a journey to eternity etc., I repeat, if we neglect all this, we are not taking Our Lady seriously nor her many alarming messages, especially the one of Fatima!
How can we be an instrument in the hands of the Immaculate to help save souls, if we hardly realize what it means “to save a soul, to convert a sinner, etc.”? We are then in great danger of falling into a certain naturalism in our apostolate of knights, either in considering the superficial success of an apostolic action, the shine brought to the IM (the great number, the quantity of leaflets distributed, etc.), or on the contrary, the lack of success that leads to weariness and despondency.
One hears about the great things that might happen in 2017, terrible things, important things for the Church and the world. But we must realize that these “great things” are mostly Her business, not ours. From us it is asked to be Her true instruments, to deepen and put into practice as much as possible all that She tells us and that She asks us to do. The more we raise our minds to the level of eternal things, the more we live (using the teaching of so many saints) in the atmosphere of the last ends. This is exactly why little Jacinta of Fatima saved so many souls: because she knew what “fire of hell” meant, she lived and suffered for “my poor sinners” only, so that they be preserved from the eternal flames. This is the deep motivation that makes us generous in our efforts as Knights of the Immaculate.
What will be the real success of this year? If each of the 30,000 current knights helps the Immaculate to save a soul a day, then it will have snatched from Satan and prevent the eternal loss of 11 Million souls in 2017!!
Let us therefore take seriously our sublime vocation of confirmed Catholics, soldiers of Christ, Knights of the Immaculate. Let us endeavour to live more in an atmosphere of eternity which will very soon come for each one of us at the moment of death! What a joy for the Immaculate Heart of Mary to find the hearts of her children, slaves and knights who live in the same way as She! Let us make this year 2017 a HOLY year by an unceasing interest in the honour of the Virgin Most Holy, and zeal for our own holiness and that of all the poor children of Eve.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a blessed season of Lent, a fervent Passiontide and a joyous feast of the Resurrection of Our King: “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God.”(Col 3, 1–3).
Singapore, on the 2nd Sunday of Lent 2017
Fr. Karl Stehlin
