It was warned about during revelations to a nun named Sister Sasagawa at Akita, Japan, where Mary was quoted as warning that “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful." This reminds us of the Wisconsin message: "Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them."

If they do not convert... if they do not repent.

We all know about Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, Pompeii.

Did fire figure into the site in Missouri?

“Before 1170, the East St. Louis site was heavily populated, and the Cahokians living there and across the Metro-East region were known for their special … religious buildings or elite houses,” Dr. Tim Pauketat of the University of Illinois writes. "But after 1170, Cahokians stopped constructing these special buildings. At the same time, East St. Louis site was burned and emptied of its people. Only temple mounds were constructed at the site in later years, as if the place had become a ghost town, remembered and celebrated, but not lived in."

The question is not only how the fire started, but exactly how large it was. Perhaps caused by invaders, it destroyed a hundred residential buildings but apparently -- at least according to a recent theory -- triggered or added to a decline of this site that was the greatest spot of Indian settlement north of Mexico, with a population of 15,000: at the time, one of the most populous cities in the world. Was it just a large fire (perhaps set by enemies) or a massive "mysterious" one?

More clues are needed. Until then, it is intriguing enough that such a large settlement with mounds existed there near St. Louis. Whatever the effect of the fire, and however small or large, it reminds us too of the third secret of Fatima, whereby an angel was seen ready to set a torch against the world (but for Mary's intercession).

That secret, full of images, remains mysterious. As Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) noted about images concerning future events, they “do not describe photographically events in the future, but synthesize and compress against a single background facts which extend through time in an unspecified succession and duration… Not every element of the vision has to have a historical sense. It is the vision as a whole that matters… The center is found where the vision becomes a summons and guide to the will of God…"

[resources: Fear of Fire and Our Lady of Good Help video]

[Retreats: North Carolina]

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