September 2-3: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Fatima: The August Apparition, delayed – August 19: On August 13 1917 Ourem city council Administrator Arturo de Oliveira Santos kidnapped and imprisoned the children, threatening them with death if they did not denounce their story as a hoax. To terrorise the children as much as he could, Santos locked the children up in the jail with a group of prisoners who were thieves. In spite of their intense feelings of fear and abandonment, the children showed tremendous courage. The presence of the innocent children must have softened the hearts of some of the men, for they joined in praying the Rosary:
Lucia later writes:
“Jacinta took off a medal that she was wearing around her neck, and asked a prisoner to hang it up for her on a nail in the wall. Kneeling before this medal, we began to pray. The prisoners prayed with us, that is, if they knew how to pray, but at least they were down on their knees... While we were saying the Rosary in prison, Francisco noticed that one of the prisoners was on his knees with his cap still on his head. Franciso went up to him and said, “If you wish to pray, you should take your cap off.” Right away the poor man handed it to him and he went over and put it on the bench on top of his own.”
In an attempt to weaken their resolve, Santos questioned each child separately, beginning with the youngest, Jacinta. He demanded she reveal the secret and when she refused, he called over one of the guards and asked if the cauldron of oil was boiling. The guard answered it was ready and led little Jacinta out of the room, apparently to her death as a martyr. Then Santos tried to intimidate Francisco, and when he chose martyrdom rather than reveal Our Lady’s secret, he was led out of the room. Finally, Lucia, all alone, was questioned whether she would reveal the secret. When she steadfastly refused and desired rather to die and go to heaven, she too was led away. To their surprise, the three children met together, alive and well.
Santos released the children on August 15.
Our Lady appeared on August 19 while the children were tending their flocks at Valinhos. She again asked them to return on the 13th of the month, to pray the Rosary daily, and that she would perform a miracle ‘so that all may believe.’ Lucia asked Our Lady to heal some people. “Some I will cure during the year… Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.”
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” St. Augustine said: “Bad times! Troublesome times! This is what people are saying. Let our lives be good, and the times will be good. We make our times.
Such as we are, such are the times.”
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