Our Lady of Fatima is one of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother Mary to Lucia dos Santos and her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto in Fatima, Portugal. At the time, the cousins were ten years old, nine and seven and were tending to the family’s sheep when they saw “a Lady all in white, more brilliant than the sun … indescribably beautiful”. From May 1917 to October, the Lady appeared and spoke to the children on the thirteenth day of each month.
The message Mary brought to the people of Fatima through the three children was that God would grant peace to the entire world if her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed. One of her monthly requests of the children was the following: “I want you to come here on the thirteenth day of the following month and recite five decades of the Rosary every day.”
Blessed Mother Mary’s final apparition was on October 13th, 1917 and she performed a great premonition which became known as The Miracle of The Sun to the 70,000 pilgrims and doubters alike. She revealed herself truly to the Jacinta, Lucia, and Francisco as she had promised. When she visited the cousins in July 1917, she had three key points she made in her revelation. The first part of what became known as “The Secret” was a frightening vision of Hell. Our Lady urgently pleaded with the children for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls, with particular emphasis on praying of the rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The second part of The Secret prophesied the outbreak of World War II and the fall of Russia to communism. Our Lady emphasized the damage to humanity that would be brought about by Russia’s abandonment of the Christian faith.
The third part of The Secret was not revealed until 2000, on the day of the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Sister Lucia confirmed that the vision of the man clothed in white is the Pope. He struggles to make his way to the Cross amid corpses of martyrs, he falls to the ground among a hail of gunfire. It is believed that this revelation of Mary was a prediction of the 1981 attack on Pope St. John Paul II’s life. Others believe this revelation illustrates the Church’s growing battle against secularism and a continued need for prayer, penance, and acts of reparation through the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
There is a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima called the First Saturdays Devotion. When Sister Lucia was a bit older fulfilling her postulancy, on December 10, 1925, Our Lady appeared again to Sister Lucia and revealed the First Saturdays Devotion to her. Our Lady said:
“Behold, my daughter, my Heart encircled with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Give me consolation, you, at least; and make known on my behalf that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all who on the First Saturday of five consecutive months confess their sins, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the purpose of making reparation to my Immaculate Heart.”
There are four requirements of the First Saturdays Devotion – attending the Sacrament of Reconciliation and confessing our sins, attending daily Mass and receiving Holy Communion, devout recitation of the Rosary with fifteen minutes of meditation on each decade, all with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The promises attached to the First Saturdays Devotion are – salvation of our own soul, salvation of sinners, and peace in the world. By growing in devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and praying to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we can truly grow in our faith like young Sister Lucia and her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta.
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