Fatima, Events and Messages
Zilkia Aimee Jimenez
Fatima
is important because nothing in the ways of God is by chance. Every single apparition in Fatima, had important purpose.Messages
Our Lady came to mankind with an extremely important message. This message was given to three very young children ages 10, 9 and 7 years old. I have to share with you that as I began to read about Fatima in order to refresh my mind a little, I was very moved when I saw the ages of the children. I knew the approximate age but couldn’t remember exactly. My children are 10, 9 and 7 right now and they are just so young! Besides the fact that the children of Fatima were peasant children, they were so very young! Aren’t these the Lord’s ways…always choosing the smallest, the youngest, the unqualified, the unexpected.
So, in order to prepare the children to encounter our Blessed Mother, our Lord sent an angel to visit the children. The angel visited the children three times.
Angel appears the First time-PRAYER
The first angelic apparition was in the spring of 1916. He introduced himself as an Angel of Peace. He first told the children to be at peace and then asked them to pray with him. He taught them a special prayer. He knelt, touched the ground with his forehead and with great reverence prayed:
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 repeated the prayer three times and assured the children that the hearts of Jesus and Mary would listen. So the angel taught them PRAYER.
Second appearance-PENANCE/SACRIFICE
The Angel of Peace returns a second time in the summer of 1916, this time with greater seriousness. The children were relaxing when the angel suddenly appeared. He said:
What are you doing? You must pray! Pray! The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you. You must offer your prayers and sacrifices to God, the Most High.
The children ask him how, to which he replies:
In every way you can offer sacrifice to God in reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for sinners. In this way you will bring peace to our country, for I am its guardian angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, bear and accept with patience the sufferings God will send you.
So the angel taught them to sacrifice and do penance for the salvation of souls.
ADORATION/MASS
The final apparition takes place in September/October of the same year. This time, on his left hand he was holding a chalice with a Host suspended above the chalice. Drops of blood fell on the chalice. The angel leaves the chalice and Host suspended on air, knelt next to the three children and taught them another prayer, which he repeated three times:
Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And by the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
He then rose, took the chalice and Host, gave Lucia the Host (she was the only one that had had her first communion) and gave Jacinta and Francisco the Blood of Christ from the chalice. The angel said:
Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ terribly outraged by the ingratitude of men. Offer reparation for their sakes and console God.
The angel bowed once more and repeated the prayer three more times before leaving. So the angel taught them the importance of ADORATION and the MASS.
The children imitated the angel in all these things.
FIRST Appearance of our Lady
Our Blessed Mother first appeared to the children on May 13, 1917. The first thing She set out to do was to calm the children assuring them that She was not there to harm them. She asked them to return on the 13th of each month for the following six months. She then asked them:
Will you offer yourselves to God, and bear all the sufferings He sends you? In atonement for all the sins that offend Him? And for the conversion of sinners?
"Oh, we will, we will!"
Then you will have a great deal to suffer, but the grace of God will be with you and will strengthen you.
Our Lady asked the children to pray the Rosary every day for peace and for an end to the war (WW1).
SECOND Appearance of our Lady
On June 13th, our Blessed Mother appeared again. She asks them to return in July and reminds them to continue praying the Rosary. She then asked the children to include the Fatima prayer after each decade: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Take all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.
Our Lady tells Lucia that the Lord wishes for her to establish devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.
THIRD Appearance of our Lady
This is the famous apparition. On this third apparition on July 13th, our Blessed Mother tells the children to pray the Rosary daily in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain peace and for the end of the war. It is in this apparition that our Blessed Mother promises the children a miracle so that others may believe. Our Lady tells them:
Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often, especially while making a sacrifice: O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
It was in this apparition that our Lady shows the children a vision, known as the Secret. The first vision in this three-part Secret was of hell. The second part concerns our Lady’s request to consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary AND for the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. The “Third Secret” was a vision of future events and is a call to penance, atonement, sacrifice, conversion. This was not revealed to the world until the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II.
FOURTH Appearance of our Lady
On August 19th, once more our Blessed Mother visits the children. This time a few days later, due to the pressures from local authorities the children were enduring. As usual, our Lady reminds them to pray the Rosary and promises a miracle on Her last visit. Lucia would usually bring the petitions of others to our Lady. On this occasion, She told the children that She would cure some, and then looking sadly at the crowd She said:
Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell, because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice.
FIFTH Appearance of our Lady
This September visit was shorter then the others. Our Mother repeated the usual request of praying the Rosary. She asked that they pray it daily for the end of the war. She promised to return in October, together with Jesus and St. Joseph.
SIXTH Appearance of our Ladys
Our Lady continues to ask the children to pray the Rosary. She assures them the end of the war is near. She wants a chapel built. As Lucia had done before, she brought Her petitions from others. Our Mother said:
Some I shall grant, and others I must deny. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord any more, for He is already too much offended!
It was during this apparition that the "Sun danced" in the sky. Now, what is amazing is that an approximate 70,000 people saw this miracle. However, the Fatima children saw something different all together. Sister Lucia:
After our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our lady; it seemed to me to that it was Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolors). Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel. [Only Lucia would see the later, presaging her entrance into Carmel some years later.]
An additional three appearances.
Sister Lucia would have an additional three private revelations. The first one was in 1925 in which Jesus and Mary asked Sister Lucia to devote herself to spreading the First Saturday devotion.
The second visit was in 1926, Jesus appeared to Sister Lucia asking if she had done anything to spread this devotion. She had tried, but her superiors were skeptical.
Finally, the third revelation took place in 1927. It was then that our Lord gave Sister Lucia permission to share the first two parts of the Secret and asked that she remain silent with regard to the third.
Pope John Paul—The Fatima Pope
When reflecting on the message of Fatima, I, like many others, cannot help but think of our newly canonized, Saint John Paul II…the Fatima Pope as many called him. Pope John Paul loved our Blessed Mother tremendously. He had a great love for our Lady from his youth. He consecrated himself to Her following St. Louis de Montford’s Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary. His love for our Mother marked his pontificate, as is clearly seen in his Coat of Arms and in his motto, Totus Tuus.
Knowing of his great love for our Lady, it is easy to understand his reaction and response when an attempt on his life was made. The attack took place on May 13, 1981 and for the Saint, this was no coincidence. He could not dismiss the fact that this attack happened on the anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition to the children at Fatima. It was then that he requested to read the Third Secret of Fatima, which had not yet been revealed, but which he would be reveal at the Beatification Mass of Francisco and Jacinta on May 13, 2000.
After reading the Third Secret, John Paul felt he understood he was the "Bishop dressed in White" mentioned in the Third Secret. He also understood that our Blessed Mother saved him. It is recorded that the bullet miraculously missed vital organs, as though "a hand guided the bullet". You see, in the vision, this "Bishop dressed in white", dies. This is why Saint John Paul felt that our Lady saved him. He felt that, through our sacrifices, penances and prayers, this vision need not be so. Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in a commentary of the Third Secret, "…the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them."
During the time of recovery in the hospital, our beloved Saint John Paul pondered all that had occurred very much. Naturally, he was very grateful to Her for saving his life and so he set out to fulfill Her request of consecrating Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. He wanted to fulfill this desire of Hers, which he did.
Now, you can easily find much information on all of this. You can research the message, find commentaries from various Popes, read books, etc. So, I will let you do that because we could be here hours.
The most important point I would like to make today regarding Saint John Paul and Fatima, is that he understood that this message is very much for today as it was for 1917. In fact, he said it was MORE important for our times. He made a statement when he visited the United States in 1976, which many have heard before:
“We are today before the greatest combat that mankind has ever seen. I do not believe that the Christian community has completely understood it. We are today before the final struggle between the Church and the anti-Church, between the Gospel and the anti-Gospel.”
Our beloved Saint understood the need for mankind to respond to the requests of our Blessed Mother even before the attempt on his life.
So what is Message of Fatima and how does it relate to today.
What is heaven requesting from us? The July 13th apparition has received so much attention, and with good reason. But there is so much more for us in these messages. Sister Lucia once said before the message was released:
“If they would just devote their energy to living out the real essence of the message, which has already been revealed…All they care about is what hasn’t yet been said, rather than the fulfillment of our Lady’s request for prayer and penance.”
So, lets take a closer look at what the essence of the message is.
From the apparitions of the angel, we learn:
- To pray and to do it with much reverence
- To sacrifice and do penance for the salvation of souls
- To adore our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament and the importance of the sacrifice of the Mass, the importance of receiving communion.
And this is how we prepare to receive our Blessed Mother and our Lord in our lives as well. Our Lord and Blessed Mother desire an intimate union with us as well. Perhaps we may never experience an actual apparition, but our Lord desires for an intimate union, but we must prepare accordingly.
Our Blessed Mother had much to teach us and much She asked for.
- Pray the Rosary every day and First Saturdays devotion
- Pray Rosary for peace and the end of war (much turmoil in world toay. Also, what is our personal war? much fighting among ourselves, families, communities.)
- Our Lady invites us to offer ourselves, to “bear all things God sends us in order to atone for sin and for the conversion of sinners.”
- She shows us how to sacrifice and offer all things for others
- Fatima is an invitation!!! An invitation to join Jesus and our Mother of Sorrows for the salvation of souls!!! Through sacrifice for salvation.
- White Martyrs-Third Secret speaks of angels which are collecting the blood of the martyrs “and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God”.
- How do we sacrifice? The angel tells us, "make everything a sacrifice". The little way of St. Therese offering everything.
These things are not new to our church…We have many examples from the lives of the Saints that lived in such a manner. St. Therese of Liseaux with her little sacrifices…pretty much every saint knew prayer/sacrifice is sure way to heaven. When you love Christ with all your heart, when you are ONE with Him, you want what He wants…and He wants the salvation of all.
I have been pondering the life of these three young children very much lately, particularly Jacinta who was only seven years old. I am in awe when I read about her willingness to sacrifice and do penance for sinners. She gave herself completely for love! She was only seven!
Last week, a student gave me a little prayer card from his visit to Poland. It is the image of the Divine Mercy together with John Paul and on the back is the chaplet of Divine Mercy. I remembered that our beloved Saint John Paul was also known as the Divine Mercy Pope. He canonized St. Faustina and instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy. And so, the Lord immediately placed in my heart that…the message of Fatima is a call to conversion, a call to a deeper prayer life, a call to sacrifice and penance for the salvation of sinners, it’s a warning-the children see hell, the Third Secret. And at first, perhaps to some, this might seem a bit difficult. However, our Lord placed strongly in my heart that He sent His Mother with this message of Fatima, because of His Divine Mercy…because of His great love for us.
Dear friends, here is the dilemma. Very few people respond to God’s call. We see this in society, in the world today. We see how far many are from the ways of God. Dear friends, very few people respond to God’s call. Very few people take this message of Fatima into their hearts and truly live it out.
Today, on this day of our Lady of Fatima, we all receive an invitation. Our Lady invites us today to join Her, at the foot of the Cross, to be one in Her Sorrows and join Her son, our Lord in His Sacrifice for the salvation of souls. She invites to be ONE with our Lord in the work of redemption! Sure, our Lord made the ultimate sacrifice, He did it all. However, take a prayerful look at these words again and you will see a clear invitation. The question right now is, will we respond? If we do, She promised us that in the end, Her Immaculate Heart would triumph.
