By September, 1917, God’s “Fatima project” was in the perseverance stage, and details about the September apparition can be found here.
As God had worked through Our Lady at Fatima from May through August, 1917, She gently helped the children to show thousands of people that something truly beautiful and supernatural was happening there and it was all to be shared with the world. Also by September, God had been granting private miracles locally, after various people in the Fatima area asked Lucia, Jacinta, and Francesco to pray for the end of their specific problems.
Nonetheless, those months from May through August, 1917 had
been a long road of preparation to September’s gifts from Our
Blessed Lord. With the peace of September at Fatima in 1917,
we have a chance to see
Like any good “CEO”, God finds the
Lucia dos Santos (age 10) and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto (ages 9 and 7 in 1917) each “had what it takes” and remained faithful during trials that God permitted (but did not cause).
- What are the project goals?
- What steps are needed to attain them?
- What are the tasks for each team member?
- Where and when might potential problems develop?
- Who can help to solve them and how?
God even gave the children three “prep meetings” with the
Angel of Portugal in 1916. He emphasized the need to offer
their waking hours to Our Lord and to increase their prayer
life. When they slacked off,
The three shepherd children were receptive, and that attitude is the first step for any successful undertaking. They changed their activities and developed new prayer habits, as needed, to obey the Angel and grow closer to God in the process.
If we answer God’s call to us through Our Lady at Fatima, we will then be part of His most important project for contemporary mankind. To do so, we use our will to choose to respond through our faith in God while also using our intellect to understand what He presents to us through Our Lady.
- Pray:
- for God’s guidance and strength through Our Lady
- the rosary daily, meditating upon the Gospels inherent in each Rosary Mystery.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Our Lady at Fatima in 1917.
-
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. -
Learn enough about
why we should love Our Blessed Lord through Our Lady - 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 w/others.
- Don’t be afraid to tell Our Blessed Lord and Our Lady about our smallest problems and worries, just as Lucia was unafraid to confide her fears to Our Lady in June, 1917.
-
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 .
- 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.
- 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.
- Encourage all clergy – including local priests, bishops, and Cardinals - to ask the Holy Father for this consecration of Russia.
The children answered God’s call by believing Our Lady,
and through her, they convinced others to believe. The children
worked hard in preparation; together with those who believed
with them, they persevered, and God richly rewarded them on
May we do as God commands in all things and experience success if God permits that success in our life on earth. If success is not to be ours here, then pray for God’s warm approval with of our efforts in eternal life.
