The Six Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and the Huge Difference This Makes in Our Lives

The Six Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and the Huge Difference This Makes in Our Lives

On May 13, Catholics around the world celebrate Our Lady of Fatima. On this day in 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal. It was the first of six total apparitions Blessed Mary would make to the children from May to October 1917. Throughout her apparitions, Mary makes predictions and warns that unless everyone prays, repents, and abandons sin, the world will suffer war, turmoil, and persecution of the Church.

Let’s take a closer look at the six apparitions becasue these messages are for us today:

• First Apparition (May 13, 1917)
  On May 13, 1917, Blessed Mary appears for the first time to the children as they were tending the sheep in Fatima, Portugal. The children -- Lucia dos Santos, age ten, Francisco Marto, age nine, and Jacinta Marto, age seven were cousins. Blessed Mary urged the children to"Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war (World War I)." She instructed the children to come to the same place at the same time every 13th day of the month for the next five months. For us: We should follow her request and pray the rosary every day in order to obtain peace for the world.
• Second Apparition (June 13, 1917) As promised, on June 13, 1917, Blessed Mary appeared again instructing the children to continue to say the Rosary every day and for Lucia to learn to read and write. Lucia was told she would live longer than the other two children and that she should spread the message of Mary throughout mankind. She told Lucia that God wants to “establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world.” Whoever embraces it is promised salvation. Blessed Mary said "God wants to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world." For us: We should practice devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Learn about that here.
• Third Apparition (July 13, 1917) On July 13, 1917 in addition to urging the children to continue to say the Rosary for peace in the world, Blessed Mary told the children to pray for the conversion of sinners and all the sins committed against her Immaculate Heart. In this apparition, Mary revealed three secrets or prophetic visions.The first secret was a glimpse of what hell looks like and told them that to save future souls God wants the world to become devoted to her Immaculate Heart. “If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”The second secret was the prediction that World War I would end, but Mary warned if people didn’t stop offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius Xl. To prevent this, she asked for the dedication of Russia to her Immaculate Heart to prevent the damage that Russia would do to humanity by embracing communism.The third secret was not revealed until 2000. The children saw a vision of a bishop dressed in white (who they thought to be the pope) walking towards a mountain with other priests and religious figures. During their journey they go through a town that is in ruins and the pope prays for the souls of the corpses he passes along the way. As they reach the top of a mountain, the pope kneels before a cross and he and the others are killed by soldiers.There’s been much debate on what the third secret means. Pope John Paul II believed that one interpretation was that this vision referred to his own assassination attempt. For us: Continue saying the rosary for world peace and for the conversion of sinners. 
• Fourth Apparition (August 19, 2021) On In August, the children were prevented by the disapproving civil authorities to go to their usual meeting place and missed Mary’s apparition on the 13th day. However, on August 19, Blessed Mary appeared to the children and urged them to continue to say the Rosary and to "“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them” (Our Lady of Fatima to the three children, August 1917).”  For us: We should pray the rosary and offer sacrifces for the conversion of sinners.
• Fifth Apparition (September 13, 1917) By the fifth apparition on September 13, the children were joined by thousands of onlookers. People went to see Mary but only the children saw the apparitions of Mary and described them to the people. The Blessed Lady appeared to the children with the message: "Continue to pray the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war. In October Our Lord will come, as well as our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Carmel, Saint Joseph will appear with the Child Jesus to bless the world. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe."
• Sixth Apparition (October 1917) On October 13, 1917 the children surrounded by a crowd of 70,000 people stood under a torrential rain as Blessed Mary appeared and revealed her identity: “I am the Lady of the Rosary, I desire here a chapel in my honor to be built, that people continue to recite the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes. Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended.” Then the miracle she promised happened: the Miracle of the Sun. Many described the miracle similarly: Mary opened her hands and launched a ray of light in the direction of the sun; the rain stopped suddenly and there appeared an exceptionally bright sun. The sun began to turn, projecting colorful bands of light. Then the sun appeared as if it was spinning out from the sky and towards the crowd, as people fell to their knees and begged for mercy. Meanwhile, as promised, the three children saw the Blessed Lady dressed in white with a blue cape, along with St. Joseph with the Child Jesus blessing the world. Then after this vision they saw The Lord bless the world, standing next to Our Lady of Sorrows. After this vision vanished, they saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For us: Practice devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by conversion on heart, praying the rosary, offering sacrifices in reparation for sinners, making the Five First Saturdays.

In her last public interview, Sr. Lucia told Fr. Augustin Fuentes, vice-postulator of the cause of beatification for Francisco and Jacinta. “Father, the Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to her message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way but without giving any importance to her message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring about the message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this will be in a terrible manner… It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance before then.”

"Daily offer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the sacrifices demanded by the duties required of your state in life, as well as whatever hardships and difficulties God permits in your life, in reparation for sin and for the conversion of sinners." In other words, “offer it up.” Sister Lucia considered the living out of this disposition the most fundamental and important everyday response to Fatima."

This is the way we share in the priesthood of Christ and how we live the Mass in our everyday lives. The early Church knew this and they centered their lives around this understanding. Thus, they were able to make their whole lives into a sacrificial offering in, with and through Christ to the glory of the Father for their own sanctification and the salvation of souls.

Before Our Lady appeared to the children, the Angel of Peace asked them to do this as well. On his second visit the Angel told the children:

“Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”

Lucia, trying to understand how to obey the angel, asks:

“How are we to make sacrifices?”

The Angel responds:

“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country.”

What does it mean to “make of everything a sacrifice”?

Our days our filled with potential sacrifices. To start with, you can offer your daily duties according to your state in life (e.g. married, single, student, job, family, etc.), especially the ones you do not enjoy. Do them with all the love, devotion, professionalism and diligence that you are capable and offer them to God as a prayer of reparation for sinners.

After that you can add self-imposed penances like getting up early to pray, not eating sweets, or going without cream in your coffee.

All these things can be transformed through love and elevated to the supernatural level as a gift to God for the redemption of souls.

To increase the merit of the children’s offering the Angel added:

“Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

These are the penances that can be the most difficult to offer as a gift, but, for that very reason, have the most value and merit. In offering back to God the sufferings that He sends, those things which are so contrary to our desires, things we could or would never choose for ourselves, we give Him something so precious - our hopes, dreams and desires - and, at the same time, avoid the temptations of self-complacency, self-will or pride in doing self-imposed penance only.

Think of how many things that happen each day that are not as we would like them to be. All of these things are a gift from God, an opportunity for us to make reparation for the sins that offend God and as supplication for sinners. We can also offer them as indulgences for our loved ones who have died in reparation for the sins that they did not have time to make amends for. Concretely, we can offer what we:

• Do not like (sickness, disappointment, loneliness, difficult relationships, etc.)

• Did not choose (busted pipes, traffic, heavy workload, rejection, etc.)

• Cannot change (bad weather, fatigue, lack of appreciation, grief, etc.)

As things happen throughout the day, that fall into any of these categories, we can accept them with trust in God (Divine Providence) and offer them with love. We can “offer them up.”

Sr. Lucia writes:

"These words [of the angel] made a deep impression on our minds, like a light making us understand Who God is, how He loves us and desires to be loved, as well as the value of sacrifice, how pleasing it is to Him, and how, on account of it, He grants the grace of conversion to sinners. For this reason, from that moment we began to offer up all that mortified us…”

It’s a Win/Win

This is not only good for others. Like a good mother, Our Lady is helping us to be made ready for heaven. By making our lives an offering for others, we are growing in our capacity to love while simultaneously being purified from the temporal effects of our own sins. To top it all off, our potential for glory in heaven is also increasing. This is the teaching of the saints. They were so joyful in the midst of much suffering because they figured out the answer to the riddle of why God allows his children, especially his holy ones, to suffer so much? They learned that every cross that Christ sends us is a kiss from His cross. It doesn’t look like it when it comes; it looks horrible and ugly, like His did; but the mystery behind the visible reality, behind all the suffering, is that He is teaching us to love like He loves. Through our crosses, he is cutting out all of the garbage that blocks his love from filling us to overflowing and He is perfecting us.

Where do we get the strength to live this way?

The strength to live this way will come from the grace we receive in our personal prayer time (especially the rosary) and from our union with Jesus in the Mass & Holy Communion. This is because the Mass is a sacrifice, the place where we offer ourselves, in, with and through Christ to the Father and It is also a sacred sacrificial meal where we receive the help and strength we need to go on carrying our daily crosses and selflessly giving of ourselves in the forthcoming week (to benefit from this we must be in the State of Grace).

We will also be fortified from living the message of Fatima by implementing the remaining parts of Our Lady's Peace Plan from Heaven:

• Pray a Rosary daily while meditating on the mysteries, especially for world peace.
• Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel as a sign of your consecration. (Read more about Marian Consecration)
• Practice the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturday of the month, popularly known as the First Saturday devotion.
• Contribute to the establishment of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world by spreading the message of Fatima to others.

Learn more here