Our determination to live an ascetic lifestyle is deepened by the fact that, under God’s providence, the Society is to be born the year after the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima during which Our Lady called for penance:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
As Professor Roberto de Mattei stated:
“Our Lady in person, at Fatima, foreseeing the spiritual apostasy of the XX century, urged once more the need for penance.
“Penance is nothing other than the rejection of the world’s false words, the struggle against the powers of darkness contending with the angelic powers for the dominion of souls and the continuous mortification of sensuality and pride, rooted in the depths of our being.
“Only by accepting this combat against the world, the demon and the flesh (Eph. 6, 10-12) will we be able to understand the significance of the vision we celebrate the centenary of in a year’s time.
“The little shepherds at Fatima saw: ‘at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance,Penance, Penance!’.” (Roberto de Mattei, “Penance: requested by Heaven and hated by the world” (http://www.corrispondenzaromana.it/ )