Normally on the 13th of each month, from May thru October, a very special Holy Mass and procession in honor of the apparitions of Our Blessed Mother to three Shepherd Children in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal, takes place. This year, October 13 falls on a Sunday, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Therefore, the Fatima Mass and Procession to the outdoor grotto (weather permitting) will take place on Monday, October 14, at 12:00PM.
This month, there will be a social with coffee, juice and treats in the Fr. Mikus (North) Hall after the Procession. The Rosary is prayed before Mass. Confessions are heard beginning one half hour before Holy Mass.
The procession takes place with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the Church to the outdoor Grotto, chanting Marian Hymns and Prayers to Our Lady of Fatima. Please join in this special day to honor Our Blessed Mother!
During World War I, Pope Benedict XV made repeated but forlorn pleas for peace, and finally in May 1917, made a direct appeal to the Blessed Mother to intercede for peace in the world. Soon, Our Lady began to appear at Fatima, Portugal to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos, age 10, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages 9 and 7.
Fatima was a small village about 70 miles north of Lisbon.
FINAL APPARITION OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA – October 13, 1917
The prediction of a public miracle caused intense speculation throughout Portugal and the journalist, Avelino de Almeida, published a satirical article on the whole business in the anti-religious newspaper “O Seculo.” People from other parts of the country descended by the tens of thousands on the cova despite the terrible storm that lashed the mountain country around Fatima on the eve of the 13th. Many pilgrims walked barefooted, reciting the Rosary as they went, all crowding into the area around the cova. By mid-morning the weather again turned bad and heavy rain began to fall.
The children reached the holm oak around noon and then saw the flash of light as Mary appeared before them. For the last time, Lucia asked what she wanted: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
Again Lucia made requests for cures, conversions and other things. Our Lady’s response was: “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.”
Sister Lucia tells us that at this point Mary grew very sad and said: “Do not offend the Lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended.” Then, opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun and, as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself. After she disappeared, as the people witnessed the great miracle which had been predicted, the children saw the visions foretold during the September apparition.
The Great Miracle of the Sun
The greatest miracle to occur since the Resurrection is also the only miracle ever precisely predicted as to date, time of day and location. Although it is popularly known as “The Miracle of the Sun” and October 13, 1917 has come to be known as “The Day the Sun Danced,” a great deal more took place. The solar phenomena included the dancing of the sun, its fluctuations in color, its swirling and its descending toward the earth. There was also the stillness in the leaves of the trees in spite of howling winds, the complete drying of the rain-soaked ground and the restoration of clothes all wet and covered with mud so that, as eye-witness Dominic Reis, put it, “They looked as tho they had just come back from the cleaners.” Physical cures of the blind and the lame were reported. The countless unreserved public confessions of sin and commitments to conversion of life attest to the authenticity of what they saw.
The miracle is reported to have been seen from as far as 15-25 miles away, thus ruling out the possibility of any type of collective hallucination or mass hypnotism. Doubters and skeptics had become believers. Even O Seculo’s on-site reporter, Avelino de Almeida, now reported affirmatively and stood by his story later on in spite of harsh criticism.
Our Lady of Fatima Prayers: http://www.fatimacentennial.com/fatima-prayers