From: CCCAMPER@MIZZOU1.BITNET (Elizabeth Stevens)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Subject: Re: Mary & colour blue
Date: 14 Aug 92 18:31:18 GMT
Organization: University of Missouri-Columbia Campus Computing, 314-882-2000
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
              14 Aug 1992 17:50:31 GMT from <nlt@GBORO.GLASSBORO.EDU>

On Fri, 14 Aug 1992 17:50:31 GMT N. L. Tinkham said:
>
>(For the record, I don't have a firm opinion on the meaning of the
>passage.  Identifying the woman with Israel (throughout the chapter)
>seems to me to fit the symbolism best, but I can see the case for some
>of the alternatives, including Mary.  My chief question in interpreting
>Revelation is "How would the author and his first-century readers have
>used these symbols?" -- so, for Mary, the question would be whether Mary
>was widely venerated as early as the first century and whether a first-
>century Christian audience would have thought of Mary when they pictured
>a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with 12 stars, sustained in the
>wilderness, and so on.  I don't have enough information on the history
>of Marian devotion to give a confident answer at this point.)
>
Another reason one may choose to believe that Mary is the Woman
Clothed in the Sun is because she identifies herself as such quite
often. At Fatima, which is an approved apparition(s), she came as
the Woman Clothed in the Sun.

Fr Don Stephano Gobbi, who has been receiving messages from Mary
for about 20 years (interior locutions) recorded this message on
October 13, 1987, anniversary of the last apparition at Fatima.

"These are the seventy years during which I have descended from heaven
into your midst as the Woman Clothed with the Sun. These are the
seventy years during which my Adversary, Satan, has come up from the
abyss into your midst, to manifest himself as the Red Dragon in all
his terrible power. In fact, he has succeeded in extending his reign
in many nations and in spreading his action of denial and of
rebellion against God to every part of the earth. Thus,during the period
of these seventy years, the Red Dragon has bound men with the chain
of his slavery.
  He has made of you slaves of pride and of haughtiness, with the
deceptive illusion of bringing you to getting along without God,
of putting your own selves in the place of God, so that in you he
may be able to renew his act of rebellion and of defiance against
the Lord. Thus he has spread everywhere the error of atheism and has
driven humanity to build a new civilization without God.
  He has made you slaves of pleasure and impurity, to replace the true
God with new idols, followed and adored today by many; sex, amusement,
money, comfort. Thus sin has stretched out it tenebrous veil of
coldness and of death over the world.
  He has made you slaves of egoism and avarice, by leading you on in
the consuming quest for your own affirmation, for superiority over
others and you have become insensible to the great needs of the poor,
the little ones, the sick, the needy. Thus the world has become a
real desert for lack of love and,in this immense desert, how many of
my children there are who, each day, become swept away, stricken
down and defeated.
  You have lived seventy years as slaves of my Adversary, who has
succeeded in transforming the world into the city of Babylon,
perverse and sinful, which with the cup of pleasure and of luxury,
has seduced all the nations of the earth. But now the period of
this babylonian slavery is about to end. I will put an end to your
slavery. In this Marian Year, the heavenly Mother is opening the
door upon the new era of your liberation.
  For this, you will see very soon the extraordinary signs which I
will give, in order that you may prepare yourselves for the very
great miracle which is at this time about to be accomplished. The
miracle of the sun, which took place during my last apparition
(Fatima) was only a prophetic sign to indicate to you that you
should all look at the Book which is still sealed, in order that
the secrets may be revealed to you.
  Thus everyone will at last be able to understand to what
incomparable depth and universality of renewal the victory which
will be brought about by means of the triumph of my Immaculate Heart
in the world.

( at Fatima Mary warned that if the world did not convert to God
there would be another war, which came true, and also requested
the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. "I come to
ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and communion
of reparation on the first Saturdays (of the month). If they listen
to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.
If not, she will scatter her errors through the world provoking wars
and persecution of the Church".
"In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will
consecrate Russia to me and it will be converted..")

This consecration did not take place when requested, hence the long
reign of the "errors".
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia