First, the Angel of Portugal appears to the Children of Fatima
Sister Lucia, the last living seer of Fatima who died in 2005, recorded in her memoirs several visions of angels prior to the appearances of the Blessed Virgin in 1917. On each of these occasions, an angel “appeared in the form of a young man, transparent and much brighter than crystal pierced by the rays of the sun.” During the first visitation in spring 1916, the angel told the children:
“Fear not. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” Kneeling and then bowing his head to the ground, the angel taught the children a prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee.”
During the second visit, the angel again directed the children to adore God and to love their neighbour: “Pray a great deal. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer up prayers and sacrifices to the Most High.”
Lucia asked: “How are we to make sacrifices?” The angel answered:
“Make everything you do a sacrifice and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. Bring peace to your country in this way. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings sent you by Our Lord.”
In the last apparition of the angel, some six months before the Blessed Virgin appeared to the children, the Angel of Peace taught the children to offer themselves with Jesus to the Father in the Holy Eucharist. He also taught them to adore Jesus’ Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. The angel, bearing the Holy Eucharist, adored Christ with the children and gave them Holy Communion. The Angel taught them another prayer that they made their own:
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then the angel gave the Host to Lucia, and the contents of the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco. For Jacinta and Francisco, seven and nine years old, this was their first Holy Communion. As he gave them the Eucharist, he said:
“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.”
Francisco was not aware that he had received Holy Communion from the hands of the angel. However, by the work of the Holy Spirit, he recognised and adored the Real Presence of Christ in his body and soul. A few days after the event he asked Lucia: “The angel gave you Holy Communion, but what was it he gave Jacinta and me?”
She replied, “It was Holy Communion too. Didn’t you see that it was the blood that fell from the Host?” Francisco answered: “I felt that God was within me, but I did not know how.” Lucia wrote of the impact the apparitions of the angel had had on her and her younger cousins: “The angel’s words made a deep impression on our minds, like a light making us understand who God is, how He loves us and desires to be loved, as well as the value of sacrifice; how pleasing it is to Him and how, on account of it, He grants the grace of conversion to sinners.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary Appears to the Children of Fatima for the first time
On 13 May, 1917, the children saw the Mother of God for the first time. Lucia’s first impressions are noteworthy:
“We beheld a lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than the sun, and radiated a light more clear and intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water when the rays of the burning sun shine through it.”
The vision of the Blessed Mother was the first and, in a sense, the most important of Heaven’s lessons to the young children who spoke frequently of Mary’s beauty, her kindness, and especially of the wonderful light that shone all about her. They knew that she was from heaven. They perceived that the light she radiated was the effulgence of God Himself. They knew, without being able to articulate it, that Mary existed in a glorified body, sharing physically in her Son’s triumph over sin and death. The children were not “annihilated” by her presence as they had been by the presence of the angel, but rather felt the joy and security of a mother’s love. In her presence, they sensed the presence and love of God.
The first thing Mary did for the children was to steal their natural fear of death from them. They discovered that life exists beyond the confines of this world, beyond the barrier of the grave.
Mary told them: “I am from Heaven.” Lucia, speaking for the three, said: “Will I go to heaven too? And Jacinta and Francisco?”
Mary told them that they would. From that moment, the children no longer feared death and, in fact, began to long to be with God and Mary in Heaven. In the apparitions, the children experienced the presence of the Holy Trinity. Referring to the May apparition, Lucia said:
“Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, who is that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors.”
Then, moved by an interior impulse that was also communicated to us, we fell to our knees repeating in our hearts:
“O most Blessed Trinity, I adore you. My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.” The phenomenon of experiencing God in the presence of Mary was repeated more strongly in the June apparition. Lucia observed:
“As Our Lady spoke the words, ‘I will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God,’ she opened her hands and for the second time she communicated to us the rays of that same intense light. We saw ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. In the front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns that pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.”
Francisco recognised and sought to explain the phenomenon of God manifested through Mary’s Heart: “These people are so happy just because you [Lucia] told them that Our Lady wants the Rosary said, and that you are to learn to read. How would they feel if they only knew what she showed us in God, in her Immaculate Heart, in that great light?”
On another occasion, Francisco said to Lucia:
“I loved seeing the angel, but I loved still more seeing Our Lady. What I loved most of all was to see Our Lord in that light from Our Lady which penetrated our hearts.”
In permitting the children to experience the mysteries of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her Spiritual Motherhood, and her Assumption into Heaven, God gave them a deep and penetrating knowledge of themselves. They described the “light” as piercing their hearts, causing them to know themselves in God. From this knowledge, they acquired a great hatred for sin as well as a desire to live only for God. God also communicated to the children a deep knowledge of Himself and a yearning for eternal life. Mary led them not only to know about God, but to know him truly in a deeply interior, personal way. This knowledge gave birth to a love that weaned them instantaneously from fear of suffering and death.
Connection with Pope John Paul II and his being shot on 13 May 1981 on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima
Throughout the course of his pontificate, His Holiness Pope John Paul II frequently invited the members of the Church to contemplate the significance of Mary’s apparitions at Fatima. John Paul first journeyed to Fatima, Portugal in May of 1982, to thank the Blessed Virgin for what he believes to be her direct intervention in the brutal attempt on his life that took place in Saint Peter’s Square on 13 May, 1981.
1981: Thousands see the Pope shot in Rome on 13th May
The Pope was shot four times as he blessed the crowds in St Peter’s Square in Rome. Surgeons performed a five-hour operation and said they hoped he would make a full recovery. At about 17:15 local time, as he was being driven in his Popemobile through a crowd of about 20,000 worshippers, he was hit by four bullets fired from a 9mm pistol some 15 feet away.
Two struck him in the stomach, one in his right arm and the fourth hit his little finger. Police arrested a 23-year-old man who said he was a Turkish citizen and gave his name as Mehmet Ali Agca. He kept repeating: “I couldn’t care less about life.”
The Turkish press reported Agca was jailed for the killing of Turkish newspaper editor Abdi Ipekci in February 1979. But he escaped from prison and left behind a letter vowing to kill the pontiff just before the Pope visited Turkey in 1979.
Horrified witnesses
Many of those who witnessed the shooting in the crowded square burst into tears, or screamed and fell to their knees in disbelief. The Pope collapsed and was driven at speed into the Vatican complex and from there by ambulance to hospital. Vatican Radio has appealed to the world to pray for his survival.
The Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed their shock and deep sympathy for the Pope and his followers. Pope John Paul II, formerly Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland, became Pope in 1978. He was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.
Pope John Paul II believed the Blessed Virgin Mary saved his life
In gratitude for saving his life, the Pope gave Our Lady of Fatima the gift of one of the bullets from the shooting, by having it placed inside the crown of the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima itself.
Summary of the Messages of Fatima
From the Angel of Peace:
“Fear not. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” Kneeling and then bowing his head to the ground, the angel taught the children a prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not trust and do not love Thee.”
“Pray a great deal. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer up prayers and sacrifices to the Most High.”
“Make everything you do a sacrifice and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. Bring peace to your country in this way. Above all, accept and bear with submission the sufferings sent you by Our Lord.” “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.”
From Our Lady of Fatima:
“I am from Heaven.”
“Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, who is that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors,” says Sister Lucia.
“O most Blessed Trinity, I adore you. My God, my God, I love you in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
“As Our Lady spoke the words, ”I will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God,” she opened her hands and for the second time she communicated to us the rays of that same intense light. We saw ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. In the front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns that pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.”
“These people are so happy just because you [Lucia] told them that Our Lady wants the Rosary said, and that you are to learn to read. How would they feel if they only knew what she showed us in God, in her Immaculate Heart, in that great light?” says Francisco.
“I loved seeing the angel, but I loved still more seeing Our Lady. What I loved most of all was to see Our Lord in that light from Our Lady which penetrated our hearts,” says Francisco.
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