Mary's Hour

Fr. Faccenda and Brother Zeno at the canonization
of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Oct. 10, 1982

The presence of Mary has been significant in combating the various errors in the crucial moments of history.

Homily to Father Kolbe Volunteers of the Immaculata, August 1983

transcribed and translated by the Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata

You’ve heard it more than once. I’ve repeated it many times in my fifty years as a priest. You’ve heard it from other Marian apostles. “This is Mary’s hour.” This affirmation began a long time ago, precisely twenty centuries ago. This is Mary’s hour. When the angel says to Mary, "You will be the mother of the Savior,” Mary accepts and thus confirms that this is Mary’s hour. The hour of Mary becomes the hour of Christ the Redeemer; it becomes the hour of the triumph of the Most Holy Trinity. This is Mary’s hour. Jesus wanted to confirm this on Calvary: “Woman, behold your son.” “Behold your Mother.”

This is Mary’s hour. Throughout the centuries we hear it repeated, when the Arian heresy denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Then, the Council of Ephesus proclaimed Mary the Mother of God, because the humanity and divinity of Christ are united in the person of Christ. The church acknowledges through this Council against the Arians that this is Mary’s hour. In Ephesus the population entered the streets in festive manner, with lit candles in hand and singing to Mary because they had understood that it was Mary’s hour. And, being Mary’s hour, it was the hour of Christ, and the hour of the Reign of God.

We go forward and we find ourselves before the Turks and the Muslims who want to destroy Christianity as they were “destroying” it in Asia Minor. The famous battle of Lepanto. The Christian forces against the Muslim forces that wanted to destroy the Church in Italy. Pope Pius V organizes prayer and invites everyone to pray the rosary, when at a certain point he stops before a vision: the victory of the Christian forces. One more time it is proclaimed that this is Mary’s hour. Mary continued with her triumphs in souls, bringing about the reign of Christ, the reign of Salvation.

We arrive in France. It is the era of the French Enlightment (600-700). The “rationalization” of religion begins, and so do the Marian schools of Louis de Montfort to Saint John Eudes and  Chaminade, who through a deepening of the knowledge of Mary and especially her mission and presence in the Christian people, want to save the faithful from rationalism that distances Christianity from Revelation. De Montfort’s is the first to speak of consecration to Mary, through his book “True Devotion to Mary.” He had to hide the manuscript underground because even the clerics and bishops did not want to comprehend the reality that it was Mary’s Hour and they feared that de Montfort and this school, favoring Mary, would displace Christ.

Going forward, we arrive to the 1800s and there are new errors. Marxism is about to take root and once again Christians look at each other and ask: Who can save us from these new errors? Again, this is Mary’s hour. Proclaimed at La Salette with the apparition to two shepherds, proclaimed and renewed at Rue de Bac with the miraculous medal, renewed and confirmed more universally through the apparitions at Lourdes in which Our Lady comes to underline that it is not material things that must prevail, but faith. Faith triumphs at Lourdes and spreads to the entire world to this day. This is Mary’s hour.

The maturation of Marxism arrives, through atheistic materialism, that is – communism. We see all the East, Russia and nearby countries dominated fully within the talons of Marxist, Leninist, tyrants. These not only deny the presence of God, but give supernatural value to matter, reason, and man before God. The response? Our Lady of Fatima appears with her message that will be fully acknowledged by the Church: This is Mary’s hour. “If you listen to my request, there will be peace, Russia will convert.”

This is Mary’s hour, repeats Pope Pius XII when, listening to the message of Fatima, he consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and consecrates Russia to her Immaculate Heart.  This is Mary’s hour. This is the Marian era, the era in which the souls breathe Mary as the bodies breathe air. (St. Catherine Laboure)

In the face of this materialism, not only doctrinal, but also practiced in the form of masonry, sects, false religion; in front of this vulgarity that seems to bring down humanity: Providence is always ready, Father Maximilian Kolbe through devotion to Mary and awareness of her role in the mystery of Christ and the Church, repeats again: this is Mary’s hour.

Then, John Paul II in front of a dominant materialism, hedonism, and a people that remain with faith turned on its head. What happens? The new evangelization, and it repeats: This is Mary’s hour.  

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