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)

October 13 1917 Sixth Apparition of Our Lady (1)

2017: Fatima Centenary Year

September 23-24:  25th    Sunday in Ordinary Time.

At Aljustrel where the children lived, the majority of their neighbours were skeptical about the apparitions and hostile toward the children and their families. Other people, including priests and family members, were trying to persuade the children to admit that they had made up the whole story about the apparitions of our Lady. Still others were threatening the children, saying: “If the children have lied and nothing happens at the Cova, then….”  A devout woman named Dona Maria lo Carmo Menezes had taken the three children to her home to give them a rest. When she saw the number of people who came looking for them, she was overwhelmed and remarked: “My children, if the    miracle that you predict does not take place, these people are capable of burning you alive.”  With great confidence in our Lady’s love and promise, the children responded: “We are not afraid, because our Lady does not deceive us. She told us that there would be a great  miracle so that everyone would have to believe.”

 

Harder by far to deal with was the continuing disbelief and criticism coming from Lucia’s own family  members,     especially her mother. Her negative attitude toward the   apparitions had turned the whole family against young    Lucia. The mother was already angry over the damage done at the Cova by the crowds who were continuously trampling over this plot of land used to grow crops for the family and to graze their flock of sheep. Furthermore, the family was concerned about the disgrace they would suffer if every-one’s expectations were left unfulfilled. Though disbelieving, Lucia’s mother was prepared to suffer  her daughter’s fate if the people turned against her. On October 12, Maria Rosa,   Lucia’s mother, jumped out of bed and went to wake her daughter, saying,

 

‘Lucia, we had better go to confession. Everyone says that we shall probably be killed tomorrow at the Cova da Iria. If the lady doesn’t do the miracle the    people will attack us, so we had better go to confession and be properly prepared for death.”

Lucia was willing to go with her mother to confession, but not because she was afraid of dying. “I’m absolutely certain that the Lady will do all that she promised,” she said. The next day, Lucia’s mother went with her daughter to the place of the apparitions, saying, “If my child is going to  die, I want to die with her!” 

 

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5th Fatima Apparition , September 13 1917:

September 16-17:  24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

The children’s imprisonment in August  cre ated such a stir that interest in the   events at the Cova da Iria increased  tremendously. As a result, an estimated   twenty five thousand people arrived there on September 13 for Our Lady’s apparition. The crowd was so thick it was difficult for the children to make their way to the Cova. 

The children finally reached the Cova at the spot where Our Lady had been appearing. They began to pray the Rosary with the people when suddenly they saw the flash of light that always preceded our Lady’s coming. Then she appeared above the holmoak tree. The brief conversation between our Lady and the visionaries  began with Lucia’s usual question. “What do you want of me?” Our Lady then gave her usual response: “Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war!”
During her September apparition, Our Lady foretold a sequence of appearances that the children would see in October along with the promised miracle that would convince the people that Our Lady had been appearing at the Cova.

“In October Our Lord will come, as well as Our Lady of Dolours [Sorrows] and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world.”

Like the good and kind mother she is, Our Lady gave the children words of praise and encouragement about their penances. But she also added a word of caution so that the children would not hurt themselves:  “God is pleased with your sacrifices. He does not want you to sleep with the rope on [tied around your waist], but only to wear it during the daytime.”
The conversation with our Lady ended like it had    during other apparitions, with Lucia offering petitions to our Lady.

As our Lady departed, Lucia cried out in great simplicity: ‘If you want to see our Lady, look there!’ She pointed toward the east. Many people later testified that they had seen something like a luminous cloud moving toward the east. Most were convinced that they  had not seen our Lady herself, but perhaps a kind of  ‘vehicle’ which brought our Lady from heaven and returned her there again after the apparition.

With the ending of the September 13 apparition, the stage was set for October and the promised miracle that would convince the multitudes that our Lady was truly appearing at the Cova and giving a message of great importance for the world. 

(From Fr Andrew Apostoli CFR, Fatima for Today: the urgent Marian message of hope (Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2010)

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2017: Fatima Centenary Year

 
 
 2017: Fatima Centenary Year
September 9-10:  23rd   Sunday in Ordinary Time.

“ Give thanks to the Lord for the Lord is good.”

“ L – O – V – E.”

“It is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead.

 

If we pray for them, they will pray for us in our turn.”

- Father Jerry.

 

 

Fatima

2017: Fatima Centenary Year
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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