Tis_Bearself
Patron
I’m just wondering if anybody is familiar with the Fatima writings and other devotional materials written by Lester M. Dooley, SVD (Society of the Divine Word aka Divine Word Missionaries) in the 1950s. I have been using an old meditations book of his called “Meditations for Fatima Saturday” for a while to do my First Saturday meditations and occasional Rosary meditations. I found the booklet for free on Internet Archive while I was searching for free online meditation helps.
Now I just found in another book on Google Books a mention of the same author Dooley, where a more contemporary scholar said that Dooley’s writings reflected Fatima spirituality as practiced in the 1950s. I know in the 1950s there was perhaps a greater Cold War emphasis on Mary interceding to end Communism and protect us from nuclear attack, but I hadn’t run across any of that in Dooley’s meditation book. It’s pretty standard meditation stuff and the only odd part was where he said something about Mary that associated her with priests in a way that nobody would do today because of the concern it would be taken as supporting women priests. Since the rest of his writing is very traditional in tone, I presumed he wasn’t concerned that what he wrote would be taken wrong, because back in the 50s everybody pretty much agreed women couldn’t be priests and that was the end of it.
I also wasn’t aware that “Fatima spirituality” had changed much since the 1950s except that since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Fatima devotees nowadays seem more concerned about ending abortion, preserving the sanctity of the family and of our clergy, etc. rather than about Communism.
In addition to “Meditations for Fatima Saturday”, he apparently wrote several other Fatima books including “Are You Heeding Fatima?” and “Fatima and You”. Just wondered if anybody, particularly older people or traditionalists, have read these or used them for prayer.
Now I just found in another book on Google Books a mention of the same author Dooley, where a more contemporary scholar said that Dooley’s writings reflected Fatima spirituality as practiced in the 1950s. I know in the 1950s there was perhaps a greater Cold War emphasis on Mary interceding to end Communism and protect us from nuclear attack, but I hadn’t run across any of that in Dooley’s meditation book. It’s pretty standard meditation stuff and the only odd part was where he said something about Mary that associated her with priests in a way that nobody would do today because of the concern it would be taken as supporting women priests. Since the rest of his writing is very traditional in tone, I presumed he wasn’t concerned that what he wrote would be taken wrong, because back in the 50s everybody pretty much agreed women couldn’t be priests and that was the end of it.
I also wasn’t aware that “Fatima spirituality” had changed much since the 1950s except that since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Fatima devotees nowadays seem more concerned about ending abortion, preserving the sanctity of the family and of our clergy, etc. rather than about Communism.
In addition to “Meditations for Fatima Saturday”, he apparently wrote several other Fatima books including “Are You Heeding Fatima?” and “Fatima and You”. Just wondered if anybody, particularly older people or traditionalists, have read these or used them for prayer.
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