Praised be Jesus Christ and blessed be the Virgin Mary, Our Mother. Amen.
On May 13th, 1917, three little shepherds from Ajustrel,
a small town dependent on Fatima, herded their small cattle.
They were two girls, one ten years old and the other seven years old. And a nine-year-old boy.
The boy's name was Francisco and he was the brother of the youngest girl named Jacinta.
They were both Lucia's cousins. None of them could read. Only Lucia had made her first communion.
That day they had gathered their flocks into one and taken them to graze on a property owned
by Lucia's relatives, called "Cova da Iria" three kilometers or 1.86 miles from Fatima.
While Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco herded the flock,
they used to pray the Rosary. They had prayed it on May 13th at noon, kneeling in the grass.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning stuns them and with fear they go down the hill towards the valley,
pushing their sheep. When they reached the bottom of the valley, precisely in the place where later
the prodigious source was to sprout, a bolt of lightning, more dazzling than the first,
stopped them immobile on the ground. A mysterious tremor runs through their bodies;
the three little shepherds look at each other with a spontaneous and questioning look;
and suddenly at the same time they look to the right and contemplate at their side,
very close, on a small ilex plant a most beautiful Lady, all light, more splendid than the sun.
The three little shepherds were extremely frightened, ready to flee,
and the apparition of our holy Mother the Virgin Mary with a kind gesture,
reassured them saying: "Do not be afraid, I do not want to do you any harm"
Lucia dared to ask Her: "What town are you from?" And our mother the Virgin Mary replied:
"My town is heaven." - And what have you come for? Lucia asked.
- I have come to beg you to meet here at this same time on the 13th of each month
for six consecutive months. In October I will tell you who I am, and what I want from you.
Lucia replied "Do you come from Heaven? And will I go to Heaven?"
"Yes" answered our mother the Virgin Mary. - "And Jacinta?" asked Lucia
"Yes" - our mother the Virgin Mary answered. - "And Francisco? Asked Lucia.
The eyes of the Apparition were directed more towards the boy,
with a fixed look and with an expression of kindness and maternal reprimand.
- "He also, but before he has to pray many rosaries" - The Virgin Mary answered.
On September 13th, at noon, the three little shepherds
were waiting for the Virgin Mary. Lucia asked all the people to pray.
The Cova da Iria became an immense temple. Most of them knelt; many others wept with emotion;
all prayed the Rosary with intense piety. At twelve o'clock the sun began to lose
its brightness. The atmosphere turned yellow. Suddenly, Lucia exclaimed: "Here she comes!"
Our mother the Virgin Mary told the three little shepherds, "to continue praying the Rosary,
to obtain the end of the war", referring to the First World War.
"I will return on October 13th with Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus.
Come without fail" said the Virgin Mary.
Lucia asked the Virgin Mary to heal the sick. The Virgin Mary replied that she
would heal some and not others; because our Lord Jesus Christ did not trust some.
In addition to the diminished sunlight, there was a white cloud visible at some distance
that enveloped the three little shepherds. Something like white flowers or snowflakes
rained from the sky, disappearing a few feet from the ground. It is truly
surprising and humanly inexplicable what was happening at this moment.
On October 13th there were approximately fifty to seventy thousand people
in the Cova da Iria. In Ajustrel some people started to say if the apparition of our mother
the Virgin Mary did not appear that day and the announced miracle did not take place,
bombs would be used to exterminate the fraud and kill the lying children.
Jacinta cried and Lucia consoled her saying: "What happiness, if we could go up with the Virgin to
the top, to Paradise!" At that time it was raining torrentially. The three little shepherds appeared
at the place of the apparitions, dressed for a feast day with a white veil on their heads.
Lucia was accompanied by her parents. They had made this determination saying:
"if Lucia is going to die from the effect of the bombs, we will also die with her."
Lucia ordered the people to close their umbrellas. They all obeyed;
and all were praying the Holy Rosary, and at twelve o'clock, the apparition of the Virgin Mary
was manifested to the three little shepherds. The people who were there saw three times how a cloud
enveloped the three little shepherds and as it went up, this cloud disappeared. Lucia being
in ecstasy asked the Virgin Mary: "Who are you and what do you want from me?"
And our mother the Virgin Mary replied: "I am Our Lady of the Rosary. And I have come
to exhort the faithful to change their lives and not afflict Our Lord Jesus Christ with sin,
He is already too offended. Pray the Holy Rosary and do penance for your sins!"
And our mother the Virgin Mary also said: "I wish in this place to have a chapel built in my honor."
And I also assure you that if the men correct themselves,
the war would soon end; and she promised the children that the Virgin would hear their prayers.
The Virgin Mary said goodbye to the three little shepherds and as she walked away
from them, The Virgin Mary showed them with a gesture of Her hand the figure of the Sun.
Then the three little shepherds of Fatima, and all the people who were gathered there, even people
who were five kilometers or approximately 3 miles away, were able to contemplate the first wonderful
spectacle, unique, and never seen in humankind. They saw the rain disappear, and the sun
appeared like a silver moon, spinning in place intensely, like a round spinning firework,
throwing bursts of yellow, green, red, blue, and violet light in all directions;
that colored the clouds in the sky, the trees, the rocks, the earth, all the people who were present.
The sun stopped in its place for a few moments and then began again its dance of light,
like a pinwheel of fireworks, which for the second time stopped in its place,
and began again with a more varied movement, more colorful, more brilliant, than all fireworks.
The people who were there were surprised, they were not breathing,
they were in a state of emotional shock.
Suddenly everyone had the sensation that the sun was coming out of the sky, coming close as it was
rushing towards them. They all gave an immense cry, in which each one revealed the feelings of
their hearts. Some cried out: "Miracle!", Others said "Mercy!", Others said "I believe in God!"
More than seventy thousand people witnessed the prodigy in Cova da Iria and its surroundings.
In this apparition, according to the statement of the three little shepherds, the Virgin was seen
with the Rosary in her hand, accompanied by the Child Jesus and Saint Joseph, very close to the
sun. Our Lord Jesus Christ was seen in an attitude of blessing the people. Our Lady of Sorrows
was seen, and she was compared by the three little shepherds to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
This was shown thus, to exhort us to pray the Holy rosary and to exercise the virtues,
which we are taught in the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. The Holy Rosary in its Joyful mysteries
exhorts us to a Christian life following the model of our Lord Jesus Christ in the hidden life.
And here our mother the Virgin Mary is with the entire Holy Family.
She then moves us to repentance for sins and penance in the Sorrowful Mysteries! This is
the main exhortation that Our Lady of Sorrows makes to us. Finally, in the Glorious mysteries,
the hope of glory, in which Jesus and Mary preceded us, encourages us to love God and virtue,
to avoid hell and shorten Purgatory. No other title of our mother the Virgin Mary guarantees us
more effectively of our salvation than Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with the Saturday privilege. In
this way that triple manifestation was a clear and perceptible explanation of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Holy rosary is a prayer that brings the family together. Praying the rosary for the children and,
better still, with the children, educating them from an early age for this daily moment of
family prayer, is a spiritual help that should not be left behind. Confidently take the rosary
in your hands, discovering it again in the light of the Sacred Scriptures. Oh blessed rosary,
sweet chain that unites us with God, bond of love that unites us to angels, tower
of salvation against the assaults of hell, safe harbor in the shipwreck, we will never leave you!
You will be our comfort in the hour of agony. For you the last kiss of life, that escapes our lips,
and the last whisper from our lips will be your soft name: oh Lady of the Rosary,
oh our beloved Holy Mother, oh Refuge of sinners, oh Sovereign comforter of the sad.
May you be blessed in all places of the whole world today, and always, on earth and in heaven.
Do not be ashamed to pray the Holy Rosary alone,
while going to school, university or work, on the street and on public transportation;
get used to praying it among yourselves, in your groups, movements and associations. Do
not hesitate to propose the prayer at home, with your parents and with your siblings,
because the Holy Rosary renews and strengthens the ties between family members. This prayer
will help you to be strong in faith, constant in charity, joyful and persevering in hope.
Let us invoke our mother the Virgin Mary to ask her for help, her son, our sweet Jesus,
rejoices in her and everything that she asks for in our favor, Jesus grants it to us, if it is what
is best for us. Jesus is happy to make His mother happy, granting her everything she asks of Him.
Therefore, let us go to Jesus through Mary and we will never be disappointed. To Jesus through Mary.
For this reason, the Christian people sing with strength and joy the song:
Hail, hail, sing to Mary, who is purer than you, only God, only God.
Praised be Jesus Christ and blessed be the Virgin Mary, Our Mother. Amen.