Beloved in Christ, today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and this appearance of Mary in Portugal begins with children: Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta.
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In the summer of 1916, all of the sudden, an Angel appeared to them, in fact many times. The following year, on May 13, a flash of lightning prepared the way for a beautiful Lady, and this Lady asked the children to pray for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war. Further apparitions took place on June 13 and July 13, and people began to hear about what was happening.
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In August, the children were prevented by local authorities from going. In fact, the Mayor, who was a Freemason, tried to terrorize the children; he put them in jail, and threatened to boil them in oil if they did not give up their stories. But even under such threats, the children simply told the truth of what was happening. Ultimately they were released, and they kept their appointment with the Lady two days later.
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Now the children had been saying that the Lady would provide a miracle on October 13th, and so a vast crowd gathered on that day, estimated to be 70,000 people. It was then that the miracle of the sun occurred, the sun spinning, appearing to tumble from the sky and crash toward earth, and although everyone had been soaked from the earlier rain, they found that they were completely dry. The miracle of the sun was reported by journalists in many newspapers, and of these journalists.
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The Lady identified herself to the children as the Lady of the Rosary. At Fatima, Mary has urged that prayers for sinners be made, that we do penance, and that the Rosary be recited. Why does this Blessed Virgin appear again and again in this world? To help us, and to give us hope.
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‘But I feel lost, I am caught in so many bad habits,’ you say. ‘I try to pray, but fall into so many sins. What will become of me?’ Richard of St. Lawrence[i] says, no matter how nauseous and revolting our sins may be, this good Mother of ours is unable to abandon us when we call on her.
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If we remember that Canaanite woman[ii] in the gospels when she begged Our Lord to deliver her daughter from the devil who possessed her, she said, ‘Lord, have mercy on me, my daughter is troubled by a devil.’ But since the daughter, and not the mother was tormented, she should have said, ‘Have mercy on my daughter;’ but no. She says, ‘Have mercy on ME.’ She says this because the sufferings of their children are felt by the mother as if they were their own. It is precisely in this way that Mary prays for us: ‘Have mercy on ME O Lord,’ ‘help my child,’ she says.
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Let us pray our Rosary very well today.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us and help us.
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