Michael October - November

Between May 13 and October 13, the Virgin Mary

appeared six times in Fatima, Portugal, to three little

shepherds: Jacinta Marto, aged 7, her brother Fran-

cisco, aged 9, and their cousin Lucia Dos Santos, aged

10. As Our Lady had predicted, the first two died very

young: Jacinta in 1920 at the age of 9, and Francisco

in 1919, at the age of 11. As for Lucia, the Virgin Mary

had told her that she would have to stay «a little long-

er» on earth: she became a Carmelite nun and died at

the age of 97 on January 13, 2005.

Fatima has become one of the most visited shrines

in the world, and the apparitions of Mary there have

been officially recognized by the Church: Pope Paul

VI went to Fatima in 1967, and Benedict XVI in 2010.

John Paul II went three times — the first time in 1982,

to thank the Virgin of Fatima of having saved him dur-

ing the attempt on his life on St. Peter’s Square on

May 13, 1981 — and the last time on May 13, 2000, for

the beatification of Jacinta and Francisco, which made

them the youngest blesseds in the Church. Here are

excerpts from John Paul II’s homily on this occasion:

“According to the divine plan, ‘a woman clothed

with the sun’ (Rv 12: 1) came down from heaven to

this earth to visit the privileged children of the Father.

She speaks to them with a mother’s voice and heart:

she asks them to offer themselves as victims of rep-

aration, saying that she was ready to lead them safely

to God...

“‘Another portent appeared in heaven; behold,

a great red dragon’ (Rv 12: 3). These words… make

us think of the great struggle between good and evil,

showing how, when man puts God aside, he cannot

achieve happiness, but ends up destroying himself.

“How many victims there have been throughout

the last century of the second millennium! We remem-

ber the horrors of the First and Second World Wars

and the other wars in so many parts of the world, the

concentration and extermination camps, the gulags,

ethnic cleansings and persecutions, terrorism, kidnap-

pings, drugs, the attacks on unborn life and the family.

“The message of Fatima is a call to conversion,

alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the

‘dragon’ whose ‘tail swept down a third of the stars

of heaven, and cast them to the earth’ (Rv 12: 4,

which means that one third of the angels in Heaven

followed Lucifer in his rebellion and fall). Man’s final

goal is heaven, his true home, where the heavenly

Father awaits everyone with his merciful love...

“In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin

came here to Fatima to ask men and women ‘to

stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very

offended’. It is a mother’s sorrow that compels her

to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For

this reason she asks the little shepherds: ‘Pray, pray

much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go

to hell because they have no one to pray and make

sacrifices for them’.

“

Jacinta had been so deeply moved by the vi-

sion of hell during the apparition of 13 July that no

mortification or penance seemed too great to save

sinners... Dear boys and girls, Our Lady needs you

all to console Jesus, who is sad because of the bad

things done to him; he needs your prayers and your

sacrifices for sinners. Ask your parents and teachers

to enrol you in the «school» of Our Lady, so that she

can teach you to be like the

little shepherds, who tried

to do whatever she asked

them. I tell you that «one

makes more progress in a

short time of submission

and dependence on Mary

than during entire years of

personal initiatives, relying

on oneself alone» (St Louis

de Montfort, The True Devo-

tion to the Blessed Virgin

Mary, n. 155). This was how

the little shepherds became

saints so quickly... Devoting

themselves with total gen-

erosity to the direction of

such a good Teacher, Jacinta

and Francisco soon reached

the heights of perfection.”

What is the message of

Fatima? Prayer, penance

and conversion. In 1917, the

Virgin Mary gave a secret to

the three shepherds; Sister

Lucia unveiled the first two

parts in her memoirs in 1941, and the third part of the

secret was unveiled at Fatima on May 13, 2000, on the

occasion of the beatification ceremony. Here is what

Sister Lucia wrote about the first two parts:

“The secret is made up of three distinct parts, two

of which I am now going to reveal. The first part is the

vision of hell. 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 transpar-

ent 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 ter-

rifying 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 ter-

ror.

“We then looked up at Our Lady, who said to us

so kindly and so sadly: ‘You have seen hell where the

The message of Our Lady of Fatima

The three children of Fatima who saw the Virgin:

Lucia Dos Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

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 illumined by an

unknown light, know that this

is the great sign given you by

God that he is about to pun-

ish the world for its crimes,

by means of war, famine, and

persecutions of the Church

and of the Holy Father. To pre-

vent 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 Im-

maculate 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’.”

Upon the request made by Pope Francis to the

cardinal patriarch of Lisbon, José da Cruz Policar-

po, his pontificate was consecrated to the protec-

tion of Our Lady of Fatima, during a Mass held at

the famous Portuguese shrine on May 13, 2013, in

the presence of 300,000 people. Here are excerpts

from the prayer:

“We consecrate to you, Lady, Mother of the

Church, the ministry of the new Pope. Fill his heart

with the tenderness of God, which you felt like no

one else, so that he will be able to embrace all

the men and women of this time with the love of

your Son Jesus Christ... Give him the gift of dis-

cernment, to be able to identify the paths for the

renewal of the Church. Give him the courage not

to hesitate in following the paths suggested by

the Holy Spirit. Shelter him in the harsh hours of

suffering, to overcome in charity the trials that the

renewal of the Church will bring. Be always by his

side, saying with him those words you know well:

“I am the Handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto

me according to Thy word.”

MICHAEL October/November/December 2013