May 13th is the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. I started reading everything that I could find on apparitions or visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the 1990s. My children were young, and one of our favorite activities was reading stories.
The story of Our Lady of Fatima caught my children’s (and my) attention because Mary appeared to little children and told them secrets. There is something exciting and intriguing about a secret. We all wanted to know more. Mary also encouraged the children to pray and to pass that message on to the world. Encouragement to pray was a good message for all of us.
Mary appeared to 3 Portuguese children 6 times over the course of as many months in the small village of Fatima in west-central Portugal. These visions began on May 13,1917, during the First World War. The children, Lucia(9), Francisco(8) and Jacinta(6), were in the fields tending the sheep when they saw a number of bright flashes and a vision of a lady dressed in white as bright as the sun and holding a rosary. The lady instructed them to return to the same place at the same time (about noon) on the 13th of the next 6 months.
When asked, the “lady of light”, told the children that she came from heaven and identified herself as the Our Lady of the Rosary. Over the course of 6 months, always on the 13th, Our Lady of the Rosary appeared to the 3 children urging them to pray & make sacrifices, showing them visions and sharing 3 prophetic secrets. Our Lady implored them to pray the Rosary every day for peace and the conversion of sinners. She also taught them many prayers and told them they would suffer greatly.
Each month Our Lady of the Rosary continued to instruct the children to pray, but also shared them several visions and predictions such as a vision of Hell with demons and tormented souls, the prediction that Francisco and Jacinta would go to heaven very soon, and an attack on a bishop in white.
While the 3 young children suffered much from the skepticism and insults of neighbors and civil officials, many believers across Portugal came to Fatima to see the miracle of this vision, their numbers increasing each month until 70,000 were present on October 13, 2017, for the great Miracle of the Sun.
There is so much more to the story of Fatima and Our Lady of the Rosary. The Angle of Peace, the content of the three secrets, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and much more can be found by visiting the World Apostolate of Fatima-USA site linked above.
On this Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, a title officially given to the Blessed Mother by the local bishop in 1930 when the visions were approved, I think about my prayer life. The power of prayer is so great as witnessed by Our Lady of Fatima each time she appeared to the children. I listen to the news, read accounts on the internet and think what can I do to affect our war-torn world? Our world needs peace, and Mary has assured me that my prayers make all the difference.
Will you join me? Let us pray…
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