OUR LADY OF FATIMA

In the spring of 1916, Lucia, age 9, Francisco, age 8, and Jacinta, age 6, were tending their families' flock of sheep at Chousa Velha when a strong wind shook the trees and then a light appeared. As the light drew near they saw a young man in a shining, flowing robe. "Fear not, I am the Angel of peace. Pray with me." He taught them the following prayer: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love you! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you." He then said, "Pray this way. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the words of your prayers." He appeared a few weeks later and urged them to pray and sacrifice. His third and last visit occurred in the fall of that year and he gave Lucia communion, and to Francisco and Jacinta, who had not yet made their first communion, he offered a chalice for them to drink.


May 13, 1917
On May 13, 1917, the children, now a year older, were tending their sheep, when they were startled by a flash of light. Fearing a storm, they ran under a holm oak, or carrasqueira . A second flash of light was even brighter, and frightened, they ran again, until they suddenly stopped in amazement in front of a small evergreen called the azinheira. For there stood the most beautiful Lady they had ever seen. In Lucia's own words, "she was a Lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled with crystalline water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun." She held a rosary in her right hand.

"Do not be afraid. I will not harm you."
They felt peaceful in her presence, and Lucia asked her where she was from.
"I am from Heaven."
The three children asked if they would also be going to Heaven one day, and she said yes, but with gentle reproach, Francisco would first have to say many rosaries. She asked them to return to the same spot on the same day for the next six months and then she would identify herself. She then asked them a difficult question:
"Do you wish to offer yourselves to God to endure all the sufferings He may send you in reparation for sins and for the conversion of sinners?"
With childlike faith they heroically said yes.

"Then you will have much to suffer. But the grace of God will strengthen you and be your comfort."
She then opened her hands and from her palms came two streams of light which in Lucia's words, "made us see ourselves in God more clearly in that light than in the best of mirrors."
The children then prayed in her presence, and then she said,
"Say the Rosary every day, to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war." She then glided towards the east and disappeared in the sunlight.


June 13, 1917
On June 13, 1917, Mary gave the children a prayer to say after each decade of the Rosary:
"Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fire of hell
and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Your Mercy."

She then spoke to Lucia: "I will come soon for Jacinta and Francisco. You will remain on the earth for a long time. God wishes to guide you to make me known and loved, to establish throughout the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I promise salvation to those who embrace devotion to my Immaculate Heart."


July 13, 1917
During the third apparition on July 13, 1917, Mary revealed the three secrets of Fatima. She opened her hands and the rays of light pierced the very heart of the earth, and the children were given the first secret, a vision of hell, described in Lucia's own words: "A sea of fire; and plunged in this fire were the demons and the souls, as if they were red-hot coals, transparent and black or bronze-colored, with human forms, which floated about in the conflagration, borne by the flames which issued from it with clouds of smoke, falling on all sides as sparks fall in great flagrations- without weight or equilibrium, among shrieks and groans of sorrow and despair which horrified and caused us to shudder with fear. The devils were distinguished by horrible and loathsome forms of animals frightful and unknown, but transparent like black coals that have turned red-hot."

She then gave them the second secret:
"You have seen hell, where the souls of sinners go. To save them God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people do as I shall ask, many souls will be converted and there will be peace. This war (World War I) is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, not much time will elapse and during the Pontificate of Pius XI another and more terrible war will begin. When you shall see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign from God that the chastisement of the world for its many transgressions is at hand through war, famine, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father."

"To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heard, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the entire world, provoking wars and persecution of the Church. The good will suffer martyrdom; the Holy Father will suffer much; different nations will be annihilated.

In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.

The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and it will be converted and a period of peace will be granted the world."


Mary then revealed a third and final secret. Sister Lucia had written down the secret in 1944, and it was taken to the Vatican in 1959. There was hope that the secret would be released in 1960, but both Pope John XXIII and later Pope Paul VI decided not to release the third secret. Russia was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984.

The third secret was finally released by Pope John Paul II on June 26, 2000. The Pope believes that he is the Holy Father that is alluded to in the vision, for he feels he was miraculously saved from the assassination attempt on his life in Rome on May 13, 1981.

In Lucia's own words, here is the third part of the secret revealed at the Cova da Iria-Fatima on July 13, 1917, the text of which is from the Vatican internet site:
"I write in obedience to you, my God, who command me to do so through his Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and through your Most Holy Mother and mine. After the two parts which I have already explained, 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 splendour 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!".

And we saw in an immense light that is God: Something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White - we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God."
Following this Our Lady disappeared. The crowd remained in silence, sensing the solemnity of the occasion, when nothing less than the fate of the entire human race may be at stake. On the night of January 25, 1938, the strange illumination of light appeared, serving as a harbinger of World War II, which began later that year.


August 13, 1917
On August 13, 1917, the children were kidnapped by the chief magistrate of the county, Arthur Santos, in an effort to quell the growing publicity of Fatima. However, his effort backfired, as this only infuriated the crowd that had gathered for the event. Our Lady appeared privately to the children later in the week.


September 13, 1917
A crowd of 30,000 gathered on September 13, 1917, and they were astonished when a luminous globe of light suddenly appeared in the cloudless sky. Our Lady asked the children:
"Continue to say the Rosary to bring about the end of the war."
Then she said she would identify herself and perform a miracle in October.
The night of October 12, 1917, a terrible storm and winds descended on Fatima and the surrounding areas. Nonetheless, 70,000 brave souls withstood the onslaught to be present for the day of the miracle.


October 13, 1917
The Lady appeared in the rain on October 13, 1917 over the azinheira.
"I have come to tell you to build a chapel here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary."
Her face became graver as she continued, "Let them offend our God no more, for He is already much offended." The three children then saw a vision of the Holy Family: Mary was standing by St. Joseph who was holding the child Jesus.
Then the crowd of 70,000 saw the miracle of the sun, as described by William Thomas Walsh in his 1954 book Our Lady of Fatima, the primary source for most of this information :
"The sun stood forth in the clear zenith like a great silver disk which, though bright as any sun they had ever seen, they could look straight at without blinking, and with a unique and delightful satisfaction. This lasted but a moment. While they gazed, the huge ball began to dance"-that was the word all the beholders applied to it. "Now it was whirling rapidly like a gigantic fire-wheel. After doing this for some time, it stopped. Then it rotated again, with dizzy, sickening speed. Finally there appeared on the rim a border of crimson, which flung across the sky, as from a vortex, blood-red streamers of flame, reflecting to the earth, to the trees and shrubs, to the upturned faces and the clothes all sorts of brilliant colors in succession: green, red, orange, blue, violet, the whole spectrum in fact. Madly gyrating in this manner three times, the fiery orb seemed to tremble, to shudder, and then to plunge precipitately, in a mighty zigzag, toward the crowd, causing widespread panic. This had lasted about ten minutes, perhaps. Then all saw the sun begin to climb, in the same zigzag manner, to where it had appeared before. It became tranquil, then dazzling. No one could look at it any longer. It was the sun of every day."

The great influenza epidemic of 1918 struck Europe and the entire world, and afflicted the two youngest children. Francisco received his first Communion April 3, 1919, and died the following day. Jacinta died February 20, 1920

Lucia joined the Sisters of St. Dorothy at Vilar, near Porto and became Sister Maria of the Sorrows. There, on December 10, 1925, Mary appeared to Lucia and further explained the Communion of reparation of the First Saturdays: "Look, my daughter, at my Heart wounded... with the thorns of ungrateful men... You, at least, try to console me, and announce that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months, confess, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour meditating on its mysteries with the intention of offering me reparation."

Pope John Paul II in union with the Bishops consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984.

Our Lady of Fatima is an approved apparition of the Catholic Church. The incredible events at Fatima are just beginning to be realized. How could little children in a rural town in the hills of Portugal predict the rise and fall of Russia in the Twentieth Century!


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