My spiritual memoir, Its Light Is the Lamb, An Unexpected Spiritual Journey reaches its culmination point when I reveal how the messages of contemporary mystics, as explained by a number of Catholic theologians and priests, gave me a new insight into the role of "private revelations" in God’s Salvation Plan. Although Fatima is an approved private revelation, many good Catholics believe that it can be safely ignored, that it is not binding on them to believe. However, a number of theologians do not fully agree with this position. Furthermore, John M. Haffert has expressed his concern about this very same issue in a number of his books.

When I wrote my first book on the story of my spiritual life after I took early retirement from my career as an Engineering Research Section Head, I was faced with the same problem regarding private revelations. I became acquainted with a number of contemporary apparitions of Mary in different parts of the world. Initially, I ignored them. But then reconsidering, I asked myself: “What if these alleged messages from Our Lady are for real?”

Most of these alleged apparitions, which have occurred since Fatima, have one recurring prophecy associated with them, the pneumatic Second Coming of Christ, that is a spiritual coming. It is important to note that the Catholic Church has not taken a position on a pneumatic Second Coming of Christ. As the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has said: “the Holy See has not yet made any definitive pronouncement in this regard.”

Recently, the new crop of theologians in the Catholic Church have taken an interest in the role of prophecy in the Church and its relationship to private revelations. It is an area of theological study which has long been neglected. Dr. Niels C. Hvidt, one of these new, young theologians, has pointed out that: “Few theological topics have been covered so poorly as Christian prophecy. Such theologians as Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI] have lamented this almost blank space on the theological chart.”

Over the ensuing years after my retirement, I slowly came to this, to me, extraordinary belief in an imminent Second Coming of Christ before the End of Time! As I wrote in my spiritual memoir, the culmination of my years of prayerful consideration convinced me that: “when we pray the Our Father and say ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ [Matt. 6:10] we are praying for this Second Coming! I believe that this Second Coming, which is also called the Eucharistic Reign or the second Pentecost has been predicted in the Book of Revelations.” And I further believe: “The Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph with her Son. Peace will come to the world and goodness will shine forth for all to see as God’s will is ‘done on earth as it is in heaven.’” I realized that God’s revelation was ongoing. As Pope Benedict XVI has said: “the Revelation refers to the action of God in history in which the truth is gradually unveiled. The Revelation is the continuous growth of the Church in the fullness of the Logos.”

After I came to believe that the pneumatic Second Coming was part of God’s Salvation Plan, one statement allegedly made by Our Lady to one of these contemporary mystics, remained a source of puzzlement to me. Referring to this Second Coming or Eucharistic Reign, Our Lady is alleged to have said that what she had been saying was not new theology. To me, however, it was new! Later, when I became acquainted with some of the late John Haffert’s writings, I noticed that he referenced most, if not all, of these very same subjects that some had identified as a “new theology.” But John Haffert did not consider these subjects to be a new theology. Immediately, I determined to learn more about John and his beliefs.

When I started to write this biography of John M. Haffert, I did not anticipate what a daunting task it would turn out to be. I purchased, read and took notes on twenty three of his books, in addition to looking at some SOUL magazines, and a Catholic Traveler, which magazines he had created and developed. I also reviewed some recent copies of the magazine, the Messenger of The World Apostolate of Fatima. There were interviews to conduct, a new experience for me; research to be done on the internet; and relevant books by other authors to be studied. In addition, there were some issues that I did not know initially how to address, so I simply placed them in God’s hands.

What I have learned in writing this biography has literally amazed me. In his book on the Charismatic Movement, Explosion of the Supernatural, Haffert shows that St. Grignion de Montfort predicted that the Second Coming would occur and that it would be in men’s hearts. This statement as well as others made by some of our new, young theologians provided an answer to my question about whether the Second Coming was a new theology. From these sources it became obvious to me that it is not new theology at all, but actually goes back to the early Church Fathers, as will be discussed later in this biography.

Further, John expounds on the Era of Peace predicted by Our Lady of Fatima and the concurrent “new and divine holiness”spoken of by Pope John Paul II. John Haffert believes that the triumph has already begun and that the new and divine holiness is already occurring in the lives of some. John writes: “The flowering of the ‘new and divine holiness’ has already been exemplified in recent saints like Saint Faustina and Blessed Dina Belanger.”

What is this divine holiness, and why is it called “new”? The new and divine holiness refers to the “Gift of the Divine Will” in our times so that Christ words: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10) will be fulfilled in the coming Era of Peace. It is also called the: “‘eternal mode’ of mystical union.” According to the Rev. Joseph Iannuzzi, PhD., OSJ, whom John Haffert quotes a number of times in his books, “the soul that receives the gift of advancing from the divine modes of Baptism, to Spiritual Betrothal, to Spiritual Marriage, and finally to the eternal mode of Living in God’s Divine Will, experiences the most profound level of mystical union.”

And Fr. Iannuzzi explains that: “Once the soul has arrived at this simple yet most sublime point of mystical union, everything it does, from the most conscious to the most unconscious acts, is sustained and motivated by God’s eternal act that never leaves it so long as it refrains from deliberately offending him.” {emphasis mine} Fr. Iannuzzi believes that this mystical gift of sharing in the Eternal Act is offered to all of God’s children.

It is called “new” because this Eternal Mode of mystical union, this Gift of the Divine Will, has been reserved by God for our times. According to Fr. Iannuzzi, in the past, great saints like John of the Cross experienced this mystical gift of the eternal mode, but they did not experience it continuously. As Fr. Iannuzzi succinctly puts it: “As for the difference between the stages of Spiritual Marriage and Living in the Divine Will, the difference is literally eternal.” That is the major difference, that is why this divine holiness is a “new” experience, because today it is now possible for all God’s children to experience it continuously!

Based on John Haffert’s numerous books on Fatima, as well as his writings on the new and divine holiness, the Second Coming and the Era of Peace, it is clear that John is not only co-founder of the World Apostolate of Fatima [Blue Army], but also one of the major prophets of our times.

John M. Haffert has been described as one of the most renowned Catholic laymen of the 20th Century not only in the United States where he resided, but also across the entire globe. Surprisingly, John’s life was one of high adventure, even though many might think that a life devoted to spreading a spiritual message in this day and age might well be uneventful.

In 1917 the Blessed Mother appeared to three young shepherds in Fatima, Portugal and promised that she would perform a miracle on a specified date at a specified time. On Oct. 13, 1917, what has been called “The Miracle of the Sun” was witnessed by over a hundred thousand people gathered together on the mountain of Fatima. It was seen as far away as thirty two miles. This happening was witnessed and accurately written about by the two most powerful, quasi-atheistic newspapers in Portugal, O Seculo and O Dia. With regard to the Miracle of the Sun, John makes this amazing statement: “It was the first miracle in the history of the world at a predicted time and place ‘so that everyone might believe.’”

Until the mid 1940's, John had only a vague idea concerning the apparitions and messages of Our Lady of Fatima. Because he was a well known Catholic author and journalist, John was allowed to interview the last living visionary, Sr. Lucia. John’s visit to Fatima and his interview with Sr. Lucia changed his whole life.

John realized that few people were responding to Our Lady of Fatima’s requests. Therefore, John teamed up with Msgr. Colgan to found the Blue Army Apostolate for the purpose of promoting the Fatima message throughout the world. John and Sr. Lucia had developed a pledge for people to make as a sign of their commitment to respond to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima. The primary objective of the Blue Army was to make the Fatima messages known throughout the world and to urge that this pledge, which became known as the Blue Army Pledge, be made by as many people as possible in reparation to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. When the Blue Army had collected twenty five million pledges, they stopped counting. However, in 1983 when more than five million pledges were signed in the Philippines in just one year, this record was indeed noted.

In the 1980's, when the Blue Army was encountering serious organizational problems, believing that the Blue Army was important to the Church, Pope John Paul II became personally involved. The Pope sent: “Bishop Edward Egan [subsequently Cardinal Archbishop of NY] to integrate the World Apostolate of Fatima [Blue Army] into the structure of the Church.” Since then, the World Apostolate of Fatima [WAF] has become an International Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right, which was established by the Holy See on Oct. 7, 2005. The WAF international headquarters and secretariat is located in Fatima, Portugal. The WAF is present in five continents and includes six Regional Centers. These are North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. There are millions of members in more than one hundred countries worldwide. According to the international magazine of the WAF: “The mission of the World Apostolate of Fatima is to contribute to the ‘new evangelization’ of the world through the diffusion and living of the Fatima message.”

Father Joaquim Alonso, CMF, who was the official documentarian of Fatima, having written eighty volumes concerning the Fatima apparitions, wrote that one day historians will concede:

that never in the history of the Church have charisms descended in such abundance on the people of God: miraculous cures, conversion of hearts, the movement of great masses of people coming to honor the Virgin, without precedent in the religious history of the Church.

This then is the story of John M. Haffert’s life; as well as his role as the co-founder of the World Apostolate of Fatima, [Blue Army].

During his eight years in the seminary John had a best friend whom he admired very much. They saw each other every day, taking the same classes and eating at the same table. Together they played tennis, skated, took long walks and made “all sorts of friendship pacts.” However, there was one incident that John did not share with his best friend.

For John’s first four years in the seminary, he spent the summer months at home in Sea Isle City, NJ. When he was sixteen years old and at home for the summer, John faltered in his vocation. He met a very attractive girl at a beach-party. He quickly became smitten, spending as much of his free time as possible with her. His infatuation was so great that John says he became “utterly rash” in his devotion to her. Somehow John managed to return to the seminary that fall, and as he buried himself in his regular schedule he soon began to wonder how he “could have been so foolish.”

In the seminary he told no one about this episode, not even his best friend. During his four years as a postulant John had heard much about Brother’s saintly qualities but had never met him. On the New Year’s day which followed that summer of his infatuation, John met Brother for the first time during a gathering which included the novices in a communal recreation. Shortly after John started to talk with the lay Brother for the first time, Brother said these amazing words to John: “When you were faltering in your vocation last year.” John was taken aback. How could Brother, whom John had never talked to before, possibly know? John had told absolutely no one about his secret infatuation of the previous summer.

Interestingly, this meeting was the beginning of what was to be a life long friendship between John Haffert and the Brother. However, since there was a rule in the seminary that clerics should not talk to lay brothers, John had to request permission for their discussions. They soon found that they had a mutual devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and at some point their conversations usually turned to the role of Mary in Christian spirituality.

One day, in the middle of a conversation between John and the Brother about St. Grignon de Montfort’s “true devotion” to Our Lady, John suddenly found himself saying: “Brother, it is for you to find a way to lead men to Jesus through Mary without words.” Startled by his own words, for he did not know where they came from, John stares at Brother, who suddenly appears as rigid as a statue. Then abruptly, without another word, they both parted.

For the rest of the day, John continued to think about that one sentence that he addressed to Brother. Wondering about the experience, he kept telling himself that he hadn’t said those words. Yet, somehow he felt that there was a deep meaning buried in them and that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, it was only sometime later that he was to become convinced he had been inspired to utter a prophetic statement, which was to change his whole life.

The next morning Brother came to John’s room and indicated that he, too, had been thinking about the words John had uttered on the previous day. In his hand was a slip of paper on which he had written a prayer that he said had suddenly come to him the previous night. Then Brother indicated that he thought that the words which John had almost, as it were, proclaimed to him the previous day could be fulfilled in a Scapular apostolate. That such an apostolate would be a devotion to “draw men to the Sacred Heart through Mary, without words.” Without further explanation, Brother left.

Looking at the prayer written on the slip of paper in his hand, John wondered how a prayer could be “the basis of a wordless devotion?” And more particularly, how did this relate to a scapular devotion and in what way would it serve to draw people to union with Jesus through Mary? As he reread the words of the morning offering which Brother had written, John felt “somewhat confused and disappointed”; that it was “a repetition of the well-known Morning Offering of the long established Apostleship of Prayer”; and further that it was “nothing more than the consecration of Blessed Grignon de Montfort.” The only difference he could see was that Brother had added the direction that the person making this offering should kiss the scapular when asking that their prayer be received through Mary Immaculate.

John relates that his heart “bounded” as he suddenly thought “Scapular Apostolate. . .wordless. . .that was it! The Scapular is a silent bond of union with Mary. Advertence to that bond would make it alive…alive to the point that all we might do or think or say would be through, in union with, the Immaculate. . .who is One with the Sacred Heart.” For some unspecified reason the more John thought about all this, the more he became convinced that Brother must have had a vision that somehow related to these words.

As we mentioned earlier, the “Brother” to whom John refers, was Brother Aloysius Scafidi, a lay brother in the same Carmelite community as John. Brother had a reputation for sanctity among some members of the community, while others thought of him as being a man of extreme goodness, and a few thought him eccentric. John thought that Brother was most likely saintly, but as is the wont of many young spiritual idealists, he nonetheless observed him very closely to see if he could find any major flaws in Brother’s conduct. John ultimately decided that: “this little man, who seemed so ordinary, was practicing extraordinary virtue.”

John relates a number of unexplainable happenings involving Brother. One instance, involved his mother who was from Sicily. She had joined a cloistered order there, but had to return home because of poor health. Although his mother did not speak English she came to America, married the owner of a butcher shop and bore seven children. One day after she had prayed fervently to St. Therese of Lisieux for her seven children she was amazed to find under a picture of the Saint in another room of her house, seven roses of which six were red and one was white. She decided that the white rose was for Brother and that her hopes for her son’s future in religion would be realized.

In another instance, John was deep in conversation with Brother, when suddenly Brother becomes distracted, saying that he thinks someone is looking for him. In that comradely way that men sometimes address each other, but that rarely occurs between a man and a woman, John says: “Oh, nonsense, Brother! Whatever could give you that idea? We’ve been here an hour and there has been no sign of someone looking for you.” Brother responds that he will only be gone for a brief time and asks John to wait for him. As he waits for Brother, John experiences a peculiar feeling: “whether eeriness, amazement, incredulity, or curiosity, or all four together. It really seemed as though some person in the room, whom I could not see, had spoken to the Brother.” As it turned out, Brother found someone at the cellar door delivering produce. This was only one of a number of times that John witnessed similar occurrences.

In the descriptions in which John relates his interactions with Brother he almost seems to badger the Brother, as it were, repeatedly asking him questions about his spiritual life. He tells us that because of Brother’s deep humility, his usual response was simply not to answer John’s probing questions. However, there are two very interesting pieces of information that Brother does ultimately reveal. John writes: “I could never get Brother to talk about himself. The greatest commitment I was able to have him make was: ‘To me, prayer is an embrace with God, and it can last for hours.’” This brief description, which John elicited from Brother, would certainly seem to indicate that Brother was well advanced on his contemplative journey.

The second very revealing story that, only with much hesitation, did Brother eventually tell John Haffert, was the fact that he had a vision of Mary. And as he spoke, as was his wont, Brother repeatedly emphasized that little importance should be given to such things. Here is what John Haffert writes:

“One night, not knowing whether I was awake or dreaming,” Brother said: “I saw a very beautiful lady writing in an immense book. The letters, as she inscribed them, shone like real gold, gleaming in the brilliant light that radiated from her. When she had finished, I saw that it was my name she had written! And then she turned and smiled at me.”

It was almost as though Brother were seeing his lady for the first time. I was spell-bound. His deep brown eyes were like pools reflecting some beautiful, hidden radiance.

“It was the Blessed Virgin!” I said. To that the Brother made no answer. With an air of heavy seriousness, almost as though to share the secret were to lose it, he said: “That smile was so sweet that it impressed itself indelibly in my heart so that I need but think of it to see it again.”

John Haffert writes: “Little though I may evidence the fact. . . .I am really quite skeptical about extraordinary favors.” Nonetheless, based on the high regard, almost awe, in which John held Brother, it does not seem surprising that he suspected that Brother had another vision and that it somehow related to John’s words, quoted above, “Brother, it is for you to find a way to lead men to Jesus through Mary without words.” And furthermore, that the note that Brother had given John was most likely written after the alleged vision occurred. However, it was only after persistent questioning that Brother finally told John: “Frater Mathias, I saw a series of pictures so real that they woke me, leaving me with a feeling. . .a feeling that they were supernatural.” [It should be noted here that John was known as Brother Mathias in the Carmelite Seminary].

In the first picture of his vision, Brother sees himself opening a large wooden crate that contains vessels as if for a banquet. His Prior who was only there for a short time, confirms to him that a banquet is to be held at the Church of Our Lady of Peace. In the second picture, Brother suddenly realizes that what he is unpacking are not banquet vessels, but rather thousands of mutilated statues of the Immaculate Conception. In every case, either an arm, or a leg or Mary’s head is broken. Almost in tears, the Brother sets out to glue each statue back again. But to his surprise he finds that each statue lacks some part. Then he suddenly comes upon a large, unbroken statue of the Sacred Heart in perfect condition.

In the third picture, the scene changes and Brother finds himself seated at a banquet table on a lawn beside the Church of Our Lady of Peace. A large platter of food was being handed down the table. Brother noticed that there was a strange piece of food that he had never seen before and that no one seemed to be taking. When the platter came to him, since no one seemed to want that unusual piece of food, Brother decided to put it on his plate. Just as he did so, a hand removed it. And the vision ends.

In his humility, Brother explains to John that he does not want to make the claim that what he has just related was, without doubt, supernatural. However, he goes on to say that personally he feels that it was indeed supernatural! And Brother relates that he “awoke with the understanding that, lacking in our devotion to the Immaculate Conception is moral union with Her, in all that we do. I understood that if we do live through Mary by the Scapular, assuming, as it were, Her immaculate purity of heart and divine charity, we shall quickly become united to the Sacred Heart. And I understood that at the banquet table [at which he was seated in his vision], where truths about Our Lady are passed down from century to century, this one was saved for general propagation until now, placed before me, and taken by you to be made known to the world.”

John and Bother decided to reveal Brother’s vision to John’s uncle, Fr. John, who had founded the Middletown Carmel in New York, and subsequently became the Novice Master there. Since Fr. John was spiritual director for both of them, they thought that it was appropriate to tell him what had happened and how they interpreted this mystical phenomena that they had experienced. Together they prepared a long document citing everything they remembered and sent it to Fr. John. They asked Fr. John for his opinion regarding what had occurred to them, and what they should do about it.

John was full of excitement and curiosity. He felt that “Brother could never be deceived.” So he expected a positive response from Fr. John. Instead, Fr. John directed them to put together any and all material they had gathered and notes they had made and: “burn them at once.”

John’s response was interesting and reveals much about his character at that time. In the few weeks that the two of them had put this information together, John points out that for Brother it was a serious period accompanied by a prayerful attitude of seeking God’s Will. John writes: “I was enjoying everything that happened because it was as though Butler’s Lives of the Saints had suddenly come to life and I was in the midst of them. But brother did not live in feathery idealism as I did, but in an idealism tried and plodding; he lived not so much by enthusiasm as by earnestness. . . .I can not help admitting that I took the letter to him with a great deal of curiosity, wondering just how he would react to its humiliating message.”

Showing no emotion whatsoever, Brother read the letter. Then he turned to John and said: “Will you bring down the papers, Frater?” John did, and together they threw everything they had written about the vision into the blazing furnace!

In retrospect, as we look back at John’s life, Brother’s vision takes on a potentially new meaning. John and Brother thought that the main meaning of the vision was to promote the Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. For many years John devoted his life to this endeavor. But this effort turned out to be only the beginning of John’s apostolate, as Our Lady of Fatima lovingly drew John gradually under the mantle of her scapular, in order to guide John to the Sacred Heart of her Son.

Is there a deeper meaning to the vision of the mutilated statues of the Immaculate Conception, each of which is missing some part? In comparison, why is the statue of the Sacred Heart in perfect condition? Is it possible that Brother’s interpretation of the vision is incomplete? Considering the importance of this vision on John’s life, on his becoming the herald of the Fatima apparitions, further study by an expert in this field might be very enlightening.

In addition, it certainly seems that John’s words to Brother, quoted above, that the apostolate would be a devotion to “draw men to the Sacred Heart through Mary, without words” needs further theological elaboration in terms of mystical contemplation as well as the “New and Divine Holiness” of which Pope John Paul II spoke.

Copyright © 2002-2009 Edna McGrew. All rights reserved.