Our Lady of Fatima

On May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, in the little village of Fatima, Portugal. Our Lady requested that the children come on the thirteenth of each month at the same hour and that in the month of October she would tell them who she is and what she wanted them to do. Our Lady appeared a total of six times. Her message from God was for every man, woman, and child of our century. Our Lady of Fatima promised that the whole world would be in peace, and that many souls would go to Heaven if her requests were listened to and obeyed. As a great sign that these apparitions truly were of God, a marvelous miracle was worked in the sky over Fatima before 70,000 witnesses on Oct. 13, 1917 at the time, date, and place that Lucy and the other children had prophesied in the name of Our Lady of Fatima. On July 13 (two months before the miracle of the sun), our Lady stated, "... I shall 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 heard, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not ... the good will suffer martyrdom; the Holy Father will suffer much." On Dec. 10, 1925, Our Lady came with the child Jesus to Lucia (who had became a Sister), in her convent cell in Pontevedra, Spain, to request the First Saturday Devotion. On June 13, 1929 at Tuy in Spain, our Lady returned to Sr. Lucia and requested the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.The History of Our Lady of Fatima The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, appeared 6 times to 3 shepherd children Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta; between May 13 and October 13, 1917. She came to the little village of Fatima which had remained faithful to the Catholic Faith during the recent persecutions by the government. Our Lady came with a message from God to every man, woman, and child of our century. Our Lady of Fatima promised that the whole world would be in peace, and that many souls would go to Heaven if Her requests were listened to and obeyed. She told us that war is a punishment for sin; that God would punish the world for its sins in our time by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and persecution of the Holy Father, the Pope, unless we listened to and obeyed the command of God. Our Lady's Triumph On one of his visits to Fatima, Pope John Paul II said,"the message of Fatima is more relevant and more urgent" than when Our Lady first appeared. The message is an anguished appeal of Our Heavenly Mother, Who sees us in great danger and Who comes to offer Her help and advice. Her message is also a prophecy, a clear indication of what was about to transpire in the 20th century, and what is still going to happen infallibly in the near future, depending on our response to Her requests.A Message of Warning And Hope If we do not heed Her soon, then Our Lady's horrible prophecy may well be realized in the near future even in our own backyards. The Blessed Virgin of Fatima told us that God had chosen to use Russia as the instrument of chastisement to punish the whole world if we did not, by our obedience, prayers and sacrifices, obtain the conversion of Russia to the Catholic faith. Our Lady promised us, "If My requests are not granted, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world raising up wars and persecutions against the Church, the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated." She has told us that the whole world (the part surviving) will be enslaved by the atheistic tyrants of Russia. In order to prevent these chastisements from befalling us She told us that special reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary was necessary, particularly the Communions of Reparation on the First Saturday of five consecutive months and the public and solemn Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by all the Catholic Bishops of the world, together with the Pope on the same day at the same hour. Finally Her message is a promise of the eventual triumph of Her Immaculate Heart over evil. She promised that no matter how black it might get in the future (and it seems that is the path chosen by most of humanity today) that in the end She will triumph and there will be world peace. The Holy Child Jesus to Sr. Lucia: "Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Her at every moment, without there being anyone to make an act of reparation in order to take them away." The Horrible But Very Real Vision of Hell Let us listen to the account that Sister Lucy traces for us in her Memoirs:There it is. It is frightening! Before everything, the Blessed Virgin Mary wants us to consider the most serious characteristic of our short life which must result in our going to either Heaven or Hell for all eternity. It is in the brief years of our mortal life that our definitive fate is irrevocably played out. Little Jacinta was very much impressed by certain things revealed in the Secret. Jacinta could not forget the terrible sight of Hell. To her all the penances and mortifications seemed insufficient to achieve saving some souls from Hell... Lucy notes again, (Some people, even pious ones, do not like to speak about Hell to their children so as not to frighten them. But God did not hesitate to show it to three children, one of whom was barely seven years old, and He was well aware, I dare say, that she would be horrified by it, to the point of being consumed with fright.)What Can We Do To Console Our Sweet Mother? On Dec. 10, 1925, The Child Jesus and the Most Blessed Virgin Mary came to Lucy of Fatima, who was now a religious sister in her convent cell in Pontevedra, Spain, to make of us this special request: "Look, My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me, and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for the salvation, all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me." On a subsequent occasion, Sister Lucy placed before Jesus the difficulty that some people had about confessing on Saturday, and asked if it might be valid to go to Confession within eight days. Jesus answered, "Yes, and it could be longer still, provided that, when they receive Me, they are in the state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."