Gonzaga Witness

Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: Features

In 1917, Europe was at war. Portugal's soldiers had been in the trenches in France and Africa for a year. In the small rural village of Fatima, near Lisbon, local families farmed and raised herds of livestock. One afternoon, three children returned from watching sheep and told their families a very strange story about their day in the pasture. Ten-year-old Lucia described the beautiful lady in white clothes who had appeared in a bright light and spoken kindly to them. Of course, her parents dismissed it as a story or some kind of game. Nine-year-old Francisco and seven-year-old Jacinta, Lucia's cousins, had no more luck convincing their own family. The village pastor remained skeptical for many years that the "Beautiful Lady" was really the Blessed Virgin Mary and not a demonic illusion.
The event witnessed by the three children on May 13 was the first of six such occasions. Lucia relates what happened in her Memoirs. A bright flash of lightning caught their attention twice, and then a lady standing above a small tree shining a very clear and intense light. Lucia and Jacinta heard her tell them to pray the rosary every day for peace in the world and to end the war. Lucia asked if they would all go to heaven. The answer was "Yes, but Francisco must say many rosaries first." The Lady promised to return in exactly one month.
On June 13 a small crowd of curious neighbors gathered at the pasture while the children prayed a rosary. Disappointingly, they saw only a bright light above the tree. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta all saw the beautiful Lady during these apparitions, but Francisco never heard her words. Lucia alone spoke to the Lady, who described herself as "the Immaculate Heart." She told the children that Francisco and Jacinta would be in heaven soon, but Lucia would spend many more years on earth working to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart. In addition to her earlier request that they pray the rosary, she also asked Lucia to learn to read. The children then saw a vision of her heart, pierced with thorns symbolizing the neglect and offenses of humanity-similar to the Sacred Heart of her Son.
News of the monthly apparitions spread rapidly, bringing visitors who had travelled long distances and several curious local officials to the field on July 13. After praying the rosary with the crowd, Lucia asked the Lady for a sign that would convince the crowd that the apparitions were from heaven. She answered that she would work a miracle in October and that she would also reveal her name. She asked the children to sacrifice for sinners and say the following prayer: "O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." Then she spread her hands and the three children saw the ground in the pasture open up to reveal a sea of fire with demons and people moving around like glowing embers. Lucia writes that thousands more were falling continuously into this sea "like snowflakes". The Lady explained that this was a vision of Hell, and that these souls could be saved by devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She predicted the end of the first World War but warned that a second and worse war would begin if nations did not convert and do penance. A mysterious light at night would signal that God was going to punish the world with "war, famine and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father." She continued the prediction. "To prevent this I will 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 will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

Continued...

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