The story simply told

    I am going to give you a very brief account of the apparitions and the aftermath.

    The Church has lasted now for 20 centuries after the time of Our Lord.  In every century, the Hand of Heaven can be seen, intervening in many small, hidden ways, and more rarely, in open and dramatic ways.  By far one of the most dramatic interventions occurred in our very own time – within the memory of the oldest who are now still alive [in 1999] – in 1916 at the tiny Portuguese district of Fatima.

    The terrible and useless First  World War was in full swing.  Entire towns lost all their menfolk in single battles.  The killing went on and on.  It was said, "the lamps are going out all over Europe.  We shall not see them rekindled in our time".  At the same time, many countries were in the hands of governments who bitterly hated God and especially the Catholic Church.  In Portugal, the Government confidently declared that the Faith would be completely gone from that country in a single generation.

    Bad as it was, men still did not know that the worst government of them all - Atheistic Communism - was about to be established by a revolution in the last country anyone expected - in Russia.  There is no doubt at all that the leaders of this Communist Revolution were being led by Satan.

*QUESTION : How do you know that the leaders of the Communist Revolution were being led by Satan?  

ANSWER:  Here is just one instance.  Archbishop Pacelli, who was later the Saintly Pope Pius XII, made a special study of the leaders and went to the towns where they lived.  The main leader, Carl Marx, began life as a Catholic, and had a devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Later he joined a group that worshipped the devil.  The devil put into his mind how he could take over all the countries of the world in a Godless tyranny, under cover of good-sounding lies.  Marx wrote,

"Until I go mad

And my heart is utterly changed

See this sword: The Prince of Darkness  gave it to me".

Meanwhile, far away from the noise of war, Heaven was preparing the counter-attack.  This concerns us in this room, because that same battle is still going on, and we are enlisted to be a part of it.  The weapons of Heaven are very different from those of Hell.  Here on the peaceful hillsides of Portugal, three small children were spending the day looking after the family's small flock of sheep.  These children had never been to school, and expected to grow up as shepherds and country people like their own parents.

Suddenly, they saw an angel, bowing down and worshipping the Blessed Sacrament.  The angel said, three times,

O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You.   I ask pardon of God for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.  

Then the angel said to them,

"Pray like that.  the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to your supplications." 

The  visit of the angel had an overwhelming effect on the children.  All the rest of the day they lay on their faces, repeating the angel's prayer again and again.  It was a very long time before they could ever speak of it.

A few days later the angel appeared again.  He repeated this prayer:

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost,  I adore Thee profoundly, and I offer Thee the most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles the World, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended;  and by the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart, and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

These visits of the angel were to purify the children and to prepare them for the following year, when they would be visited by the Mother of God herself.

On 13th May 1917, the children were again tending their flocks when they saw what seemed to be a flash of lightning out of a clear sky.

A beautiful  Lady appeared to them over a small bush.  The children said it was as if she were made entirely of light, more brilliant then anything on the Earth, yet not dazzling, no more than 16 or 17 years old.  She was holding a rosary whose beads seemed like the stars on a Summer's night.  At first the children did not know who she was.  She said

"Don't be afraid of me.  I won''t hurt you". 

Lucia, the eldest of the children, said, "Where do you come from?" 

"I come from Heaven".

"What do you want of me?" 

"I want you to come here on the 13th day of each month for the next 6 months.   Later I shall tell you who I am and what it is I most desire." 

"And shall I go to Heaven?" Lucia asked.

"Yes, you will."

"And Jacinta?"

"Jacinta too". 

"And Francisco?" 

"Francisco, too.  But first he must say many rosaries."

"And what about the girl in the village who died last year?" 

"She will be in Purgatory until the End of the World".

Then Our Lady leaned further forward and said,

"Will you offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He sends you, in atonement for all the sins that offend Him, and for the conversion of sinners?"

"Oh, we will!  We will!" cried Lucia eagerly. 

"Then,” said Our Lady, "you will have a great deal to suffer!  But the Grace of God will be with you and will strengthen you." 

Then she opened her hands and the children were flooded with the light that streamed from them.  The children felt that God was in the light, although they did not know how.  Then the lady said,

"Pray the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end of the war".

The children promised each other they would tell nobody, but poor Jacinta, who was only 6, could not keep it to herself.

Both mothers converged on Lucia, who was the cousin of Jacinta and Francisco.  The sufferings of the children were to begin without delay.  The children were thoroughly scolded for inventing such stories.

The following month, the Lady said to Lucia

"You must learn to read." 

"And Francisco and Jacinta?"

"That will not be necessary.  They will be going to Heaven soon.  You, Lucia, will have to wait a while longer.  Jesus wants to spread the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart through you".  [She died in 2005, aged 98!]

Poor Lucia asked "Will I be all alone?"  The Lady replied,

"My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge".

Then the children saw the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with the sins of Mankind, like terrible thorns.

Back in the village the children were followed everywhere and questioned about what they thought they had seen.  They answered what they could.

Lucia's mother was very upset.  She called Lucia a liar.  The Parish Priest, who was Irish, thought that the children had certainly seen something real, but was afraid it might be some trick of the devil.

ON 13th July a great crowd came to the place, called the Cova da Iria.

They all saw a bright light, the dimming of the sunlight, and felt a cool breeze.  But only the three children saw the Lady.

Lucia humbly asked:

"What do you want of me?"

“I want you to come back here on the thirteenth of next month. Continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it.”

"Yes, yes.  I would like to ask who you are, and if you will do a miracle so that everyone will know for certain that you have appeared to us."

“You must come here every month, and in October I will tell you who I am and what I want. I will then perform a miracle so that all may believe.”

Thus assured, Lucia began to place before the Lady the petitions for help that so many had entrusted to her. The Lady said gently that she would cure some, but others she would not cure.

Then the crowd saw the children look down and suddenly turn white and cry out with terror before they looked up again.  Lucia gave a sharp cry.  

When the Lady had gone, the crowd anxiously asked what they had seen. 

"It's a secret!"  cried Lucia. 

"Good, or bad?"

"Good for some, bad for others".

For one split second, the children had been shown a vision of Hell.

The Lady had said,

“Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often, especially while making a sacrifice: O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”

As Our lady spoke these words she opened her hands once more, as she had during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and they saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now following back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (Lucia later said, “it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me do”). The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellant likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Lucia said later that, if they had not already been told they were going to Heaven, they would have died of fright. Terrified and as if to plead for help, they looked up at Our Lady, who said to them, so kindly and so sadly:

“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. This war will end, but if men do not refrain from offending God, another and more terrible war will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night that is lit by a strange and unknown light [this occurred on January 28, 1938], you will know it is the sign God gives you that He is about to punish the world with war and with hunger, and by the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father.

"To prevent this, I shall come to the world to ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart, and I shall ask that on the First Saturday of every month Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins-of the world.

If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace;

if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, certain nations will be annihilated. In Portugal the faith will always be preserved...

[Here belongs the so-called Third Secret.  Our Lady’s words have not yet been published verbatim, but several who have read Sr Lucia’s account have given some hints, including Pope John Paul II and Cdl Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.  It evidently includes this, along with perhaps other things:–

   "… but if people continue to offend God, many in the Church will lose the Faith.  The apostasy will begin from the top.  The devil will cause one  third of the bishops and priests to fall from the Faith, and they will sweep many other souls down with them.  There will be a great persecution, in which the Holy Father will be martyred, and with him many priests, religious and layfolk."]

{For a detailed discussion of this, see http://www.fatimaperspectives.com/gn/perspective604.asp  }

Then the children saw a vision, which was first released to the world in 2000:

Lucia wrote,  "We saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards them from her right hand.   The Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!'.

And we saw in an immense light that is God: a Bishop dressed in White - “we had the impression that it was the Holy Father”. [This is a very strange and roundabout phrase.  Does Lucia hint that an imposter will sit upon the throne of Peter?]  Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks.  Before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city, half in ruins and half trembling,  with halting step, disheartened, discouraged, humiliated, mortified, with pain and sorrow, he advanced solemnly, praying for the souls of the corpses he met along the road;  having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there were dying one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.

 Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

Our Lady concluded,

“But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and God will grant a period of peace. Remember, you must not tell this to anyone.  Yes, you may tell Francisco.

When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead  all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.”

"Is there anything more that you want of me?"

No, I do not want anything more of you today."

Meanwhile, news of all this had spread to the Government of Portugal, which was determined to stamp out the Catholic Faith.

Lucia with her father and uncle were called to the mayor's office and bullied.

In August 13th, when the time for the apparition came, the children were nowhere to be seen.

The mayor had kidnapped them!

Meanwhile, at the Cova da Iria, at midday, there was a clap of thunder, and a white misty cloud was seen over the little oak tree.

The children were told they would be boiled in oil. They really believed this was to be done, and that the others had already been killed.  But they refused to say one word of the secret, or say anything wrong at all.  In this way, they gained the graces of martyrdom without undergoing this terrible death.

Then they were put in the jail with common criminals.  They knelt down to say the Rosary, and soon the other prisoners were joining in.

The worst efforts of the government had only given the opportunity for great graces to be given to the children and the others in the jail.

The people of Fatima were outraged when they heard of the mayor's heartless tricks, and only the parish priest was able to calm them down and prevent a riot.

6 days later, Our Lady appeared privately to the children at another place.  She said that Heaven was very displeased at the Mayor's wicked actions, and that because of it, the promised miracle on 13 October would be 'less great'.

On September 13th a greater crowd than ever assembled, from all over Portugal.

They saw a luminous cloud coming from the sky.

A shower of beautiful white petals came down, from the sky, vanishing as they touched the ground.  Our Lady said, "Continue to say the Rosary for peace".

Now it was only a month to go.  News of the promised miracle was spreading like wildfire.

The day of 13th October had come.  all night it had been raining in torrents.  Many had travelled by foot all night in the rain.

Seventy thousand people came!  As well as the pilgrims came atheists from the government and from the newspapers who wanted to make fun of the whole thing.

At mid-day by the clock - nothing!  The people stayed on for a whole hour in the terrible rain.  But then, at mid-day by THE SUN...

Our Lady came.  She told the children that the war would soon be over.  Her last words were, "Do not offend Our Lord any more.  He is already too deeply offended."

Then the children saw her rise, turning towards the sun.  She cast a ray of her own light actually onto the sun.  The children cried out, "Look at the sun!"

Then it happened.  The Miracle of the Sun.  The clouds were suddenly torn apart, and the sun became visible without hurting the eyes.  Then it began to whirl on itself like a firework, casting out rays of coloured light that lit up all the landscape.  Then it danced in the sky.  The people watched spellbound.  This lasted for a full quarter of an hour.  Many there got the distinct impression that the sun was actually alive.

Then, without warning, the sun appeared to detach itself from the sky and to rush down towards them.  All were certain it was the end of the world.  Many screamed in terror, but many others were full of joy.  One recalls he said within himself, O God, how great is Thy power!

Then it was all over.  The sun went back to its normal place in the sky, and again became too dazzling to look at.  Everybody was not only dry but warm.  Those who had come to mock were forced to report the next day what they had seen.  The newspapers printed the truth on their front pages.  Within a very short time, the atheist Portuguese government was gone.

And in Russia, in the very same month, the Communists stormed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg and began the Communist Revolution.  The great battle of the 20th century between Heaven and Earth had begun.  It continues to this day.

What happened to the children?  During the Dance of the Sun the children had not seen what the crowd was experiencing.  They saw Our Lady dressed in the habit of Carmel.  Then they saw the Holy Family blessing the World.

After the war, Jacinta and Francisco died in great pain of the flu epidemic that swept the world.  Lucia became a nun, and remains with the Carmelites to this day.  She was granted several further visions.  The Consecration of Russia has not yet been carried out according to the requests of Our Lady, although several times a pope has fulfilled the request in part.  This has lessened the power of the enemies of God.  Sister Lucia  insists that the Reign of the Immaculate Heart will come one day.  She says of the Consecration of Russia, 

"It will be late.  the Holy Father will do it, but it will be late."

Our task is to pray the Rosary every day, and to make the First Five Saturdays in reparation.  Our Lady said that many sinners go to Hell because there is nobody to pray for them.  Some of us here may be called by God to devote their lives to this task.  The convents are empty.  It is time to fill them again!  Those of us called to the lay vocation must never forget the message of Fatima.  Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.  Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! 

Amen!

From a talk given in 1999 to a Catholic Youth Group in Ireland