Mary’s call at Fatima
The Feast of Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto falls on February 20th, which is just two days after the start of Lent this year. Along with their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, brother and sister Francisco and Jacinta witnessed several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.
Francisco was eight and Jacinta was seven when Mary first appeared to them on May 13, 1917. On that day, they were tending their family’s sheep with Lucia. They later reported an apparition of “a Lady more brilliant than the sun,” who asked them to pray the rosary and offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Not revealing yet that she was our Blessed Mother, the lady asked the children to return to that same spot on the 13th of every month for the next five months.
On October 13, 1917, the day of the sixth and final apparition, something happened called the Miracle of the Sun. Thousands of people were gathered in the field where the apparitions were known to be happening. There was a period of rain but then clouds parted to reveal the sun spinning in radiant colors before it briefly fell and then zigzagged back into place.
People who were drenched moments before were suddenly dry, and the children reported that Mary spoke these words to them: “I am the Lady of the Rosary, I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask for pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day. I would like a chapel built here in my honor. The war will end soon.”
World War I ended one year later, and a chapel was built at Fatima, which has grown into one of the most important places in the world for spiritual pilgrimage. But Francisco and Jacinta did not live beyond childhood. They both fell ill in the 1918 influenza pandemic and died in 1919 and 1920, respectively. Before her death, Jacinta told Lucia, “Tell everybody that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; that people are to ask her for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side. Tell them also to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God entrusted it to her.”
The message of Fatima makes clear that God wants Mary to act as a spiritual mother to all of humanity. She loves us with the immensity of a mother’s heart and desires to see all people turn to Christ for healing and renewal.
As we embark upon our Lenten journey, let us keep Francisco and Jacinta and the amazing occurrences at Fatima in focus so that we might heed Mary’s call for repentance in order for the world to return to Christ.
For those who feel called to take on hard challenges during Lent, let’s also remember Mary’s request at Fatima for sacrifices to be made in order for others to convert. There’s much that our sacrifices during Lent can accomplish in our own lives and in the lives of others, so let’s offer every last bit of our struggle up to God during this Lent, uniting our sufferings to Christ on the cross and answering the call of Fatima to bring about renewal for the whole world.
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