At Fatima, the Virgin invited three children to “offer themselves to the Father” and to “console the heart of the afflicted Father.” For us, who are accustomed to thinking of God the Father as the Almighty par excellence, this is a new kind of language that almost scandalizes us: we have managed to accept the Son dying on the cross, but a sorrowful Father who needs to be consoled seems to us absurd.

Perhaps we are making the same mistake as the Jews who, expecting a glorious and triumphant Messiah according to human standards, rejected Him because He presented Himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).

It seems more logical and just to us that the Father, prefigured in the parable of the murderous tenants (Mk 12:1–9), would come to destroy us after we have killed His Son and denied the Faith born of His Blood (Lk 18:8). But our ways are almost never the ways of God—we have always fallen into the error of creating a God in our own image and likeness.

In the last century, the Holy Spirit began to present to the Church and the world a new Face of the Father, through the shepherd children of Fatima and some exceptional souls (Charles De Foucauld, 1856–1916; Fr. Gioacchino Rossetto, 1880–1935; Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio, 1907–1990, and others) who lived the spirituality of the Father intensely, a spirituality summarized in a love that is both strong and tender.

The encyclical Dives in Misericordia by Saint Pope John Paul II confirmed this new and powerful breath of the Spirit in the Church.

For many years, the White Army (Armata Bianca) had among its primary purposes the study and meditation on the merciful Face of the Father, but this mission is now entrusted to other associations.

At Fatima, the Virgin invited three children to “offer themselves to the Father” and to “console the heart of the afflicted Father.” For us, who are accustomed to thinking of God the Father as the Almighty par excellence, this is a new kind of language that almost scandalizes us: we have managed to accept the Son dying on the cross, but a sorrowful Father who needs to be consoled seems to us absurd.

Perhaps we are making the same mistake as the Jews who, expecting a glorious and triumphant Messiah according to human standards, rejected Him because He presented Himself as “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).

It seems more logical and just to us that the Father, prefigured in the parable of the murderous tenants (Mk 12:1–9), would come to destroy us after we have killed His Son and denied the Faith born of His Blood (Lk 18:8). But our ways are almost never the ways of God—we have always fallen into the error of creating a God in our own image and likeness.

In the last century, the Holy Spirit began to present to the Church and the world a new Face of the Father, through the shepherd children of Fatima and some exceptional souls (Charles De Foucauld, 1856–1916; Fr. Gioacchino Rossetto, 1880–1935; Mother Eugenia Elisabetta Ravasio, 1907–1990, and others) who lived the spirituality of the Father intensely, a spirituality summarized in a love that is both strong and tender.

The encyclical Dives in Misericordia by Saint Pope John Paul II confirmed this new and powerful breath of the Spirit in the Church.

For many years, Armata Bianca had among its primary purposes the study and meditation on the merciful Face of the Father, but this mission is now entrusted to other associations.