Well, it is clear enough on the surface—mission accomplished—but in ancient times it went further.
Tetelestai (τετέλεσται) is the Greek term used in ancient times. It means “it is finished,” “it is accomplished,” or “paid in full,” often denoting the successful completion of a task or debt. In ancient papyri, it was written across tax documents to mean “paid in full,” while priests used it to signify a perfect sacrifice.
The new book we’re carrying, Holy in a Hurry (Daily Meditations on the Prophecies and Wisdom of Saint Jacinta Marto of Fatima), certainly shows the extraordinary wisdom and holiness of this mere child, who died in 1920 at age nine.
Jacinta’s experiences had begun four years before, with a vision of the Angel of Peace, and then the Blessed Mother, whom she and her brother and cousin saw in apparition in 1917. Jacinta received additional if unofficial visits from the Blessed Mother periodically until her death, as is now the case in Medjugorje, Hercegovina, where a Vatican commission authenticated the first week of apparitions but this far not ones since.
Talk about words of wisdom.
“Be very patient,” she said before her death. “For patience brings us to Heaven. Mortifications and sacrifices please Our Lord and sacrifices please Our Lord a great deal.”
Interesting, as she suffered illness that ended her life, was a comment of Saint Jacinta’s on the medical profession: “Doctors do not know how to cure people properly, because they have not the love of God.”
The great plague of our time is pride, something not rare to find in doctor offices.
Jacinta’s favorite prayer was a simple one: “Sweet Heart of Mary be my salvation.”
The young seer’s messages were especially memorable when it came to what women wore. “Woe to women wanting in modesty!” she said. “Women are worse than men on account of the fashions.”
Her messages often focused on purity as well as kindness. “Have charity even for bad people.”
Listening to superiors?
“Disobedience of priests and religious to their superiors displeases Our Lord very much,” she said.
Her life and that of the other seers demonstrated the importance of simplicity and avoidance of overindulgence. “Luxurious living must be avoided; people most do penance and repent of their sins. Great penance is indispensable.”
We’ll leave it so as not to spoil the book, which comes along with those meditations on each quote.
[resources: Holy in a Hurry]
[Footnote: The illness Saint Jacinta was during the great and global “Spanish pandemic,” which infected about one-third of the world and killed at least fifty million people worldwide, including about 675,000 in the United States. A striking feature was its unusually high mortality among healthy adults roughly twenty to forty years old. In 1920 there were no antivirals, no antibiotics for secondary bacterial pneumonia, no ventilators, and no vaccines, although masks in public were mandated under threat of arrest in countries such as the U.S.]