The spirit that inspires Armata Bianca

«O Lord our God,
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That you may silence the enemy and the avenger» (Psalm 8)

«Children will save the world» (Padre Pio of Pietrelcina)

John Paul II, speaking about our times, said that a terrible battle between good and evil is taking place in the world. This battle began when our ancestors - regal creatures clothed with light - lost their dignity because of sin and, from sons of God, became slaves of Satan.

The original serpent, after millions of years, has become a terrible dragon with seven heads and ten horns who has made men in his likeness, becoming desecrators of the ten commandments and of the seven virtues which make man regal creatures: it is today’s humanity which has substituted God with its own “self”, striving only for money and pleasure, well-described in the Babylon of Revelation (Rev. 18,22).

However, when abomination will have reached its peak, the heavenly Jerusalem will come down (Rev 21,2) and will take the place of the silenced Babylon; this is Jesus who will return with the Father’s power (Mt 24,30) in order to accomplish a new creation – «new heavens and a new earth» – that is, a new humanity renewed in body and spirit.

It won’t be a painless birth because «satan, knowing that he has only a short time», will attack humanity in order to sweep them away in his «great wrath» (Rev 12,12); but the «Woman’s children» will fight him and overcomehim «by the blood of the Lamb» – the Eucharist – and «by the word of their testimony, because they didn’t love their lives unto the death» (Rev 12,11) that is, in the total offering of themselves to the Will of the Father by consecrating themselves to Him.

Therefore Eucharist and consecration are the elements that will distinguish the «victors» of the Revelation, those who St. Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort calls the «apostles of the last times», the «heel» of Mary that will crush the head of the serpent.

The standard bearers of the “victors” are the three children of Fatima: «Here the Woman clothed with the sun appeared (Rev 12)» John Paul II said on May 13, 2000, during the homily for the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, thus proclaiming to the world that the great confrontation between the Woman and the serpent which was foretold in Genesis began on earth on May 13, 1917, with the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin to Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta.

These children, poor and illiterate, had received first Communion by drinking the «Blood of the Lamb»in the Chalice which St. Michael the Archangel gave to them. A few months later the Virgin Mary invited them to offer their own lives to the Father in Heaven, that is, to consecrate themselves to Him, in order to obtain peace in the world and the conversion of sinners.

The children answered «yes», Mary opened her arms and from her hands came forth two rays of Light which struck their chest; «That Light entered inside of us, commented Lucia dos Santos in her Memoirs, that Light was God».

This «yes» begins the marvellous reality of Fatima, «the greatest manifestation of the Spirit after Pentecost», as His Holiness Pius XII said. The salvation of the world depends on the reception which men will give to the Blessed Virgin’s invitation by consecrating themselves to the Father. This invitation is of worldwide importance and the fulfilment on earth of the reign of Love which Jesus tells us to ask for in the Our Father: «Thy kingdom come!» depends on its acceptance.

«Children will save the world»

The Blessed Virgin, in order to convince us of the importance of her message, made a big promise to the three children who had accepted her invitation: «(Because of the three of you) I will protect your Homeland from the next world war». Portugal was actually spared from World War II because of Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta’s generosity. For us this is a powerful teaching which is deducted from an elementary equation: if with three children Mary can save a Nation from the devastation of war, with millions of children She will save the world, as St. Pio of Pietrelcina had prophesied on numerous occasions.
Armata Bianca is this army of “little children” who, guided by their Queen, will fight and win on earth the last battle against evil, just as Michael and the faithful Angels won it in Heaven (Rev 12,7). Because of them, «in the end the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph».