OUR LADY APPEARS TO
FRANCISCO, JACINTA, AND LUCIA
May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima, Portugal in 1917.
BACKGROUND
Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three Portuguese children, Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia dos Santos received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria near the city of Fatima. Mary had instructed the children after the first apparition May 13 to meet here the following 5 months on the 13th.
Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, pray for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia. Mary gave the children three secrets.
LUCIA and FRANCISCO and JACINTA
FATIMA SECRETS
The First Secret: the Vision of Hell
As the Lady was finishing the prayer, she opened her hands again. It seemed to open the earth! It revealed a very terrifying scene as the children were shown a vision of hell! It was only for a brief moment that they saw the fires of hell, the ugliest demons, and the poor charred and transparent burning souls of people suffering tremendously.
The Second Secret:
WORLD WAR 1 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, (KRISTALLNACHT) know this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
To prevent this, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart, and the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.
The Third Secret is revealed but Kept Secret at instructions of Blessed Mother.
When Lucia grew up, she wrote down the secret
THIRD SECRET:
“a bishop dressed in white…the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him….,
Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white.” Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981.
FATIMA WARNINGS
In the apparition of July 13, 1917 Our Lady warned the three children that if people did not stop offending God, He would punish the world “by means of war, hunger and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.
Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated.”
In a 1957 interview, Sr. Lucia, elaborated more on Persecution of the Church by adding the diminishment of the shepherding of the Church. The devil found the easiest way to seize souls was to undermine those consecrated to God, especially priests and bishops leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders. ie. pedophile priest scandals
MIRACLE OF THE SUN
On October 13, 1917, Our Lady of Fatima made her last public appearance with a great miracle, the miracle of the sun. A great throng of 70,000 spectators witnessed the miracle of the sun. It had rained all during the apparition.
CROWD VIEW THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN OCTOBER 13, 1917
The sun spun rapidly like a gigantic circle of fire. Its rim became scarlet; whirling, it scattered red flames across the sky. Its light was reflected on the ground, on the trees, on the bushes, and on the faces and clothing of the people, which took on brilliant hues and changing colors.
After performing this bizarre pattern three times, the globe of fire seemed to tremble, shake, and then plunge in a zigzag toward the terrified crowd. All this lasted about ten minutes. Finally, the sun zigzagged back to its original place and once again became still and brilliant, shining with its normal brightness.
REFLECTION
One of God’s harshest chastisements is when he permits his people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests in name only. God cries out through his prophet Jerimiah, “Return, rebellious children and I will appoint for you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently!” Jeremiah 3:14-15
Today, where are our shepherds???….a staggering number of Catholic Church leaders who occupy places of responsibility in the Church have fallen victim to the error of Modernism, the belief that some aspects of Catholic doctrine can change over time. It can’t!
Customs and Church discipline may change over time but not doctrine. It is hard enough to live in this secular world without an undermining of the Faith given to us by Jesus Christ by those He left behind to shepherd us.
Pray that our priests and bishops will be Good Shepherds in imitation of Christ that they may lead us faithfully to the Way, the Truth, and Life, of Jesus Christ. Stop watering down Church teaching… Jesus was unique; He didn’t go along to get along. And neither should we!
Satan, the Father of Lies, will say anything and do anything to entice us to separate from God just as he did with our first parents, Adam and Eve, …God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know* good and evil. Genesis 3:5
How did that work out for Adam and Eve???? Things we seek to fill us up apart from God will not do the trick. St. Augustine says it best, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”
REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL!