Our Lady of Fatima

 

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. The year before Mary began to appear to the children, an angel of peace appeared to them. The angel said to the children, "Fear not, I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” Kneeling on the ground, he bowed low and cited this prayer three times, with the children repeating it after him: "O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You." The angel showed us the importance of believing in God, adoring God to have hope in God and to love God.

The angel of peace also explained it was necessary to pray in order to have peace. The angel said, "Pray! Pray a great deal. The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs concerning you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High. Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. Bring peace to our country in this way...I am the Guardian Angel of Portugal. Accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you."

The angel as a messenger of God reveals that in order to have peace we need to make reparation for sins which have offended God and we are to love others by being concerned for their salvation. We show our love for others by making sacrifices for them and praying for their conversion.

The angel also said something very important about how to obtain peace. The angel said, “Accept and bear with submission all the sufferings the Lord will send you."

The angel offered the children Holy Communion. Lucia received the Host, and Jacinta and Francisco drank the Precious Blood from the chalice.

When Our Lady began to appear to the children in 1917. She told them that from Russia would come a threat, which could cause the annihilation of the nations. To prevent this, she asked that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and asked for world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

She came to ask for reparation for sins against Her Immaculate Heart, by doing the first 5 Saturdays.

During every apparition, She asked the children to pray the Rosary. She gave the children 3 secrets. She showed the children a vision of hell.

There is controversy over the 3 secret. The children saw a man dressed in white walking over the bodies of dead people killed by soldiers. An angel appeared saying, "Penance, Penance, Penance". Some believe the Vatican didn't reveal the full secret and some contend that the secret involved apostasy in the church.

Mary said that the consecration would come, but that it would be late and she said it would cause the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.

Mary appeared on the 13th of each month. However, one month, the couldn't come to the apparition site because the children were arrested by the communist government and placed in jail. The authorities threatened to boil them in oil if they didn't renounce

At Her last apparition of the children, She identified Herself as Our Lady of the Rosary. Lucia also saw St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, who was blessing the world and she saw Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It had rained for days and so on Oct 13th, the ground was muddy and soaked.

But suddenly the crowd saw the sun grow larger as it swirled out of control and appeared as though it was going crash into the ground.

Thousands of people witnessed the phenomena. After the sun returned to the sky in its normal position, the people were shocked that their clothes and the ground were completely dry.

Jacinta and Francisco would do great penances. Francisco would spend hours before Jesus in the tabernacle consoling the hidden Jesus. Jacinta became known as a mystic and predicted such things as immodest clothing, that would greatly offend Our Lord. The two children would die shortly after from the flu. Jacinta would later be found incorrupt.

Lucia would become a religious sister. First she entered the Dorothean convent and then later became a Carmelite sister. While at the Dorothean convent, she had visions of the Child Jesus and Mary, asking her to promote the first five Saturdays and in one vision she saw the Blessed Trinity above the altar, with blood dripping down from the wounds of Jesus onto a Host, which then dripped into a chalice. She saw what appeared to be water coming down from the wounds of Jesus, with the words "graces and mercy".

She lived to be 97 years old. However, some have analyzed photos of Sister Lucia, and believe the woman, who lived in the Carmelite monastery, was actually a woman who impersonated her. They claim to have scientific evidence that its not the real Sr. Lucia, which they say disappeared in the 1960s.

Pope John Paul II was shot on May 13th, the anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima and then several years in 1983, later consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which resulted in the fall of communism in the world. He however did not specifically consecrate Russia.

Due to the Russia and Ukraine war, Pope Francis consecrated Russia but also the Ukraine, which some believe still did not fully do was Our Lady asked, which is the consecration of Russia in union with all the bishops of the world.

There is definitely a re-surge of Communism in the world today. Many are praying and hoping for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Let us do as Our Lady requested, daily pray the Rosary, do penance, make sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and may we continue to do the First Five Saturdays and promote devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.