Fatima "Our Lady of the
Rosary" "Fatima is the key Marian
apparition of the Twentieth Century. Pope Pius XII noted that the message of
Fatima is one of the greatest interventions of God through Mary in world
history since the death of the Apostles. Only in the name of God does the
Blessed Mother intervene. She does not say a word, does not take a step
without the explicit will of God. The message of Fatima cannot be understood
if you do not know atheistic communism, if you do not know what happened in
Russia."
On 13 May 1917, three
children were pasturing their little flock in the Cova da Iria, parish of
Fatima, town of Vila Nova de Ourém. today the diocese of Leiria-Fatima. They
were called: Lucia de Jesus, aged 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta
Marto, aged 9 and 7.
About midday, after praying the Rosary, as was their custom, they were
amusing themselves building a little house of stones scattered around he
place where the Basilica now stands. Suddenly they saw a brilliant light,
and thinking it to be lightning, they decided to go home. But as they went
down the slope another flash lit up the place, and they saw on the top of a
holmoak (where the Chapel of Apparitions now stands), "a Lady more brilliant
than the sun", from whose hands hung a white rosary. The Lady told the three little shepherds that it was necessary to pray much,
and she invited them to return to the Cova da Iria during five consecutive
months, on the 13th day at that hour. The children did so and the 13th day
of June, July, September and October, the Lady appeared to them again and
spoke to them in the Cova da 0a. On the 19th of August, the apparition took
place at Valinhos, about 500 meters from Aljustrel, because on the 13th the
children had been carried off by the local Administrator to Vila Nova de
Ourém.
At the last apparition, on October 13, with about 70,000 people present, the
Lady said to them that she was the "Lady of the Rosary" and that a chapel
was to be built there in her honor. After the apparition all present
witnessed the miracle promised to the three children in July and September
:the sun, resembling a silver disc, could be gazed at without difficulty
and, whirling on itself like a wheel of fire, it seemed about to fall upon
the earth.
Afterwards, when Lucia was a Religious Sister of Saint Dorothy, Our Lady
appeared to her again in Spain (10 December 1925 and 15 February 1926, in
the Convent of Pontevedra, and on the night of 13/14 June 1929, in the
Convent of Tuy), requesting the devotion of the five first Saturdays (to
pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, confess and
receive Holy Communion, in reparation for the sins committed against the
Immaculate Heart of Mary), and the Consecration of Russia to the same
Immaculate Heart, This request had been announced by the Apparition on 13
July 1917, in what is called the "Secret of Fatima". Years later, Sr. Lucia related that, between April and October of 1916, an
Angel had appeared to the three seers on three occasions, twice in the
Cabeço and once at the well in the garden behind Lucia´s house, who exhorted
them to prayer and penance. Since 1917 pilgrims have not ceased to come to
the Cova da Iria in thousands upon thousands from all parts of the world, at
first on the 13th of each month. later during the summer and winter
holidays, and now more and more at weekends and any day all the year round.
The Secrets of Fatima:
The Prophecies provided at Fatima serve merely as a reminder to
people of what they already know - but try to deny. God is
Great, God Made Us, Sin is bad, Sin brings us away from God.
If we continue to Sin and offend God - there will be consequences.
The detail of the prophecies and their historical accuracy should
serve as a wakeup call to us all --
The First Secret : A Brief Vision
of Hell to remind us that Hell is real.
"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which
seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons
and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all
blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the
conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued
from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now
falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without
weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and
despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The
demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive
likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and
transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever
be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already
prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to
heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and
terror."
The Second Secret : The creation
of the Soviet Union and the persecution of the Church in Eastern
Europe.
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To
save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my
Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will
be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but
if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out
during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night
illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great
sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for
its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions 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 heeded, Russia will be
converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her
errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of
the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have
much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end,
my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will
consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a
period of peace will be granted to the world."
The Third Secret:
An outright attack on the Catholic Church and its leaders.
"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 splendor 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, Religious men and
women 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,
Religious men and women, 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"
