By Chris Sparks
Fatima. It's one of the best known apparitions in the history of the Catholic Church, and yet we seem to have forgotten what Our Lady requested of us when she appeared to those three shepherd children in Portugal. Among the most important:
Pray the Rosary every day for peace in the world. We all long for peace, right? We get tired of watching the news and reading the newspaper with the endless stories of the latest atrocities, genocides, acts of war and devastation-on and on it goes. The whole history of Christianity reiterates to us the power of prayer. Many saints testify to the extraordinary power of the Rosary. Let us trust Mary and the saints. Let us pray five decades of the Rosary every day and include peace in the world as one of our intentions. To learn how to pray the Rosary, see here.
Make the devotion of the Five First Saturdays of Reparation. Our Lady told Sr. Lucia, the longest-lived of the visionaries at Fatima, "I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace." To learn more about this devotion, see here.
Be invested in the brown scapular. During the dramatic Miracle of the Sun on Oct. 13, 1917, the three seers had a series of visions of Our Lady that included a vision of her as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, bearing the brown scapular in her hand. This powerful sacramental is a source of many graces, and has been described as Our Lady's mantle covering the faithful.
On this, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and the anniversary of the first of her apparitions, let us turn to her with trust in her promises. Let's pray the Rosary for peace every day, make the Five First Saturdays, and be invested in the Brown Scapular. And let's make our consecration to Jesus through Mary and commit to living life under the mantle of Our Lady.
To learn more about Our Lady of Fatima and the statue in the picture above, see here. If you consecrated to Jesus through Mary or completed the Consoling the Heart of Jesus retreat, we'd love to hear your story. Please take a moment and share your journey below. If you have pictures, we'd love to see them, too. Just email them to HAPP@Marian.org!
