God promised a public miracle through Our Lady on October 13th, 1917, and as with many of Our Lord’s promises, this one had a confusing start, because He tested the love and faith of the people involved.
October
can be either summer-like or sometimes like early winter with cold
weather and bone-chilling rain. Early October in 1917 was warm, but by
October 12th,
(For more details about the October apparition, see
After the pouring rain continued all night on October 12th and
all
morning on October 13th, 1917 the fathers of Lucia, Francesco, and
Jacinta, struggled through the ankle-deep mud and the soaked crowd of
70,000 people to help the three children arrive safely at the
Our Lady told the children that God
wanted a
chapel to be built at Fatima in her honor, and she finally revealed
exactly who she was.
She continued and looked very sad:
Recall that the large crowd heard NONE of Our Lady’s words and now she appeared to be leaving. The crowd COULD have wondered: “THIS is ALL we have for a miracle?”. As Our Lady left, however, Lucia shouted: “She’s going! Look at the sun!”
FINALLY, the faith of this huge crowd would
be rewarded,
Recall now that these witnesses had become soaked and muddy
from where
they stood or sat in the cold, pelting rain and mud from the terrible
weather the night before and the entire morning. They then
As the witnesses knelt
and prayed for help while the sun fell menacingly toward the earth, the
sun suddenly STOPPED falling and returned to its regular place in the
sky. The witnesses now prayed in gratitude but also
- many sick people were also cured during the miracle
- perhaps the greatest thing to happen that day was that many sinners converted, chose to seek sincere Reconciliation, and live according to God’s Commandments.
- virtually EVERYONE who witnessed and
experienced these events saw them as miraculous, including some
witnesses who had come to scoff at the crowd, because these “scoffers”
were atheists or simply did not believe that the apparitions were real
or that a miracle would occur.
Many of these skeptics were converted after they saw what happened .
Many more testimonies from both local residents and visitors can be read in several good books that record what the witnesses saw, including “Meet the Witnesses” and “The True Story of Fatima” (pdf version).
And so, God Himself placed His Divine Seal of
authenticity on the apparitions and messages of Our Lady of Fatima. The
importance of Fatima did not end on that October day in 1917, however,
because many of Our Lady’s words were God’s promises and warnings for
the future and most definitely a
Consider first our “calls to action” from the example of the crowd that experienced the Miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917. They are also witnesses for us, as we ask ourselves:
- Do WE humble ourselves to believe Church-verified miracles, including the Miracle of the Sun that occurred at Fatima in October, 1917?
- When WE face unexpected or confusing trials, do we try to express unfailing faith and love as did those thousands who gathered in the soaking rain during that challenging night and early day of October 13 for the promised miracle?
- When we expect the worst and things are already going badly in our lives, God keeps His promises, even if He “only” helps us to keep going through some very difficult times. Do we LET Him help us and allow Him to “just” help us to keep going? He CAN’T work for us if WE WON’T let Him. He respects the free will that HE gave to each of us, so He WON’T force His help upon us; we must ASK FOR IT, AND THEN COOPERATE WITH IT.
- We are surrounded by demons, who often try to discourage us and our love for God and others – especially when we struggle with difficulties. Do we:
- give in to constant discouragement when our life circumstances look bleak?
- remember the power of Jesus’ Name and tell the demons to be gone?
- trust in Jesus and thus gain spiritual – and perhaps physical and mental - strength through prayer, especially the rosary, as we meditate upon the Gospels and ask Mary to help us as God helped her?
- ask the angels (especially our Guardian Angel) and saints (especially a patron saint) for their prayers and intercessory help?
- Are we willing to ask God what HE wants US to do? This was the constant approach that the three children had while interacting with Our Lady.
- How many times do we ask God what He wants from us, compared with how many times we ask Him to please do what WE want HIM to do?
- Do we try to listen to and be open to God’s desires for us?
- Do we ask Him to simply show us the next step for any request that He might ask of us? Very few jobs for Our Blessed Lord are completely clear all at once. Don’t be afraid to take the first step – and then another one, praying daily for guidance.
- Do we try to find answers for our questions about the Faith if and when time permits? And when time does NOT permit us to search for answers, do we accept Truths of the Faith that we don’t fully understand – or understand at all?
- Do we AVOID
splitting faith and
reason into two unnatural compartments, and thus avoid rejecting faith,
simply because we cannot always understand and explain a concept?
If we split faith and reason, then we then create a form of spiritual schizophrenia, which will ultimately destroy us. - Do we then
permit faith and reason to work together? We must do this,
because as Pope St. John Paul II has clearly and beautifully told us in
Fides et Ratio:
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).” ( )
- Don’t be afraid to tell Our
Blessed Lord and Our Lady about our smallest problems and worries (and
maybe even our “whinings”), just as Lucia was unafraid to confide her
fears to Our Lady in
June, 1917 . - Humble ourselves in faith and love to:
- obey God in all things
- be receptive to His plans for us through Our Lady and her words to us
- at Fatima
- during other approved Marian apparitions.
- Pray:
- daily for God’s gifts, guidance, and strength that He gives to us through Our Lady
- the rosary daily, meditating upon the Gospels inherent in each Rosary Mystery.
-
Enroll in and wear the Brown Scapular daily; this website and many good booklets (e.g.
Our Lady's Garment - The Brown Scapular: A Sign of Salvation and Protection)
can explain the Scapular’s value, and Brown Scapulars can be
found online or at almost any store selling Catholic religious articles.
(NOTE: Very nice and long-lasting Brown Scapulars
are available at cost by calling The Fatima Network @ 1-800-263-8160 and asking for item
number A5018 or A5729. This information is of no financial benefit
to anyone except the consumer.)
ANYONE can wear a Brown Scapular; it is NOT and never has been a talisman. Its use is by God’s design through Our Lady, and its origins are in the
OLD Testament Graces received might be different if someone wears it but is not Catholic, yet the graces are there for someone who will accept them.In her memoirs, St. Lucia tells us that the Rosary and the Brown Scapular are inseparable, and both are powerful weapons at everyone’s disposal, weapons that we will likely need even more as the years unfold.
- Fulfill at least the First Five Saturdays of Reparation to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart.
- Continue whenever possible to attend First Saturday beyond those five. (Offer “sets” of Five First Saturdays for others.)
- Ponder a vision of hell every day –
as described by the three children or by any other saint who has seen hell. When one considers hell’s horrors, even one minute of thinking or reading about it can seem like a long time. - Beseech the Holy Father to consecrate Russia in the way prescribed by God through Our Lady in 1929, and as Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider have recently requested publicly (and as others before them have requested).
- Encourage all clergy – including local priests, bishops, and Cardinals - to ask the Holy Father for this consecration of Russia.
- Remember that each of God’s revelations and blessings come through Our Lady, just as did:
- Christ Himself.
- the revelations that God imparted to the three children through Our Lady at Fatima in 1917 and elsewhere during other Marian apparitions.
- Be willing to listen for guidance, especially when it comes through God’s still, small voice at any point during the day (cf 1 Kg 19:12,13) when what we hear is consistent with the Gospels and Church teaching.
- Learn enough about why we should love Our Blessed Lord through Our Lady. Two good sources include:
- St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary: with Preparation for Total Consecration.
- 33 days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley. Either book is a treasure for unpacking the connection between Our Lord and Our Lady. Even if you don’t plan to do the consecration, the content is very valuable, including the material in the references for Fr. Gaitley’s book.
- Share God’s commands through Our Lady at Fatima – or at least an adequate summary – with everyone we know, so that others have the opportunity to also answer the “call to action” in their daily lives and share it with others.
- By some means (audio, video, text, or all three), learn more about:
- who Our Lady is in God’s plan for our salvation
- why we should love Our Blessed Lord through Our Lady
- all six Fatima apparitions to understand what we need to
do
(excellent places to start are
here and here).
