October 13 1917 Sixth Apparition of Our Lady (2), The Day Long-Awaited Finally Came

2017: Fatima Centenary Year
Sept 30-Oct 1:  26th  Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Crowds of people had been coming for days to the Cova da Iria to witness a spectacular miracle. They would not be disappointed. Estimates of the crowd ranged from forty thousand to eighty thousand in the Cova itself. Another twenty thousand were watching from about twenty-five miles around. The rain had been coming down for more than a day, and everyone was drenched. There was mud all over. The rain would continue right up to the moment the apparition began. Here is how Lucia described the beginning of the events of that day:
‘We left home quite early, expecting that we would be delayed along the way. Masses of people thronged the roads. The rain fell in torrents… On the way, the scenes of the previous month, still more numerous and  moving, were repeated. Not even the muddy roads could prevent these people from kneeling in the most humble and suppliant of attitudes. We reached the holmoak in the Cova da Iria. Once there, moved by an  interior impulse, I asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary.’
Lucia’s Conversation with Our Lady.
At last the children say the flash of light, and our Lady appeared on the holmoak. Lucia then began her conversation in this last apparition with our Lady with her usual question: “What do you want of me?” Our Lady’s response gave a couple of specific answers to questions that Lucia had been asking all along:
“I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my     honour. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
Once again Lucia placed before our Lady petitions for the sick, and once again our Lady said that those who seek blessings from God must ask for forgiveness for their sins and reform their lives. … During the miracle of the sun many people did experience miraculous healings of various kinds. There were the blind who received their sight, the crippled who were able to walk and  many others who received  blessings, both   physical and spiritual.
While touching on the need for repentance for those who seek God’s blessings, our Lady expressed what might be her most heartfelt plea:
‘Looking very sad, Our Lady said: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.”  
From Fr Andrew Apostoli CFR, Fatima for Today: the urgent Marian message of hope (Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010)