Fatima: Personal Sacrifice as a way of being a Missionary

– Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?
– Yes, we are willing!
– Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.

Central theme of the Fatima message
In the first apparition, soon after the presentation and the petition to the little shepherds to be there on the 13th of the following five months, Our Lady asks the children if they want to offer themselves for the salvation of sinners.

Fatima echoes the way the Christian community interprets the death of Jesus who offered himself as the Lamb without blemish to atone for the sins of mankind. Jesus not only gave his life for us by the act of his death, but also his entire earthly life was a life lived for others; he came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). During his life, Jesus fought sin and every kind of evil, and in the end, it was this very sin that killed him. He died not only for our sins, but also for the cause of our sins.

Jesus fought sin analogically the way our body fights sickness. When a virus or harmful bacterium invades and infects our body, a type of white blood cell called neutrophil attaches itself to the germ because proteins called antibodies have marked the germ for destruction. When the neutrophil catches the germ, it engulfs it in a process called phagocytosis, and dies in the process for the sake of saving the entire body. Jesus took on himself the sin of humanity, dying in the process but saving us from eternal damnation.

What Mary asks of the little shepherds is the solidarity and participation in the passion of Christ, in his unique and most perfect act of reparation for the sins of humanity. The participation in the mystery of redemption of Christ with our voluntary sacrifice overcomes passivity and makes us proactive not only in our own salvation but also in the salvation of others.

This central theme of the Fatima message is also the most difficult to comprehend in our days, but just as Mary did in Lourdes when she came to reaffirm the dogma of her Immaculate Conception, in Fatima she comes to reaffirm the theology of expiation and reparation, which for many seems obsolete and retrograde.

Jesus' death is the expiation for the sins of humanity
The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) – It is the order of things that there are no innocuous or neutral acts; whatever does not promote life, leads to death. It is an undeniable truth that what is good promotes life and what is evil leads to death. We see proofs of this in every evil act we commit. As the saying goes, “evil stays with the one who commits it” and chastisement adheres to wicked actions like an attachment of an email.

There are no evil work that we practice that is not followed by a punishment, which does not come from God, but from the very order of things as the logical consequence of the wicked act committed. God forgives always, man sometimes, but nature neither forgives nor forgets. The evil that we do against human nature or Mother Nature will be paid in one way or another, sooner or later, and sometimes quite heavily.

If Jesus of Nazareth was only a prophet and nothing more then his death would have been seen as the death of a just individual. However, if Jesus besides being true man is also true God, then his death can no longer be interpreted or seen as merely a personal event, but rather an event that has repercussion on humanity represented and created by him.  Since Jesus has resurrected, his death served to kill death – that death to which mankind was afflicted.

Jesus died for our sins, in the sense that it was our sins that killed him, but since Jesus did not stay dead but was resurrected, our sins killed themselves instead; his death is, therefore, the end of death resulting from sins.

God cannot deny the order of things that He created; as we have seen above, belonging to this order of things is the fact that with sin comes a penalty and this penalty is death. Without the divine intervention, we would be like a train running without brakes that is headed towards an irreversible mortal destiny.

John 15:5 – Apart from me you can do nothing – If by our own strength we were able to save ourselves, then there was no need for Christ to come into the world. Sin, however, put us in the bottom of a pit with no possibility of getting out; like being stuck in a quicksand, the more desperate we try to get out the deeper we sink, or in the frigid water of a frozen lake, the more we use the ice for support to get out the more it breaks. On our own, we can never get out from sin and evil.

John 1:29 – Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – John the Baptist who despite being the son of a priest worked outside the temple sacrificial system. He offered forgiveness of sins through a baptismal purification, and pointed to Jesus as the true Lamb of God who came to substitute himself for the sacrificial lambs of the Jerusalem Temple. Only He who has no sin can pay for the sins of others.

The sacrifice of Christ is the perfect sacrifice because he is the priest, the victim, the altar and the Temple where the sacrifice is offered. Even if something else can be found to be perfect, it can never measure up to Christ's sacrifice because only his sacrifice is sufficient to pay for the sins of all humanity, past, present and future.

In the sacrifice of Christ, the justice of God, the natural order of things is satisfied. Someone without the debt of sin pays the price for sin which is death; furthermore, the goodness, grace and love of God is also satisfied because it is not us who pay but His Son.

To join oneself with the sacrifice of Christ
The mystery of solidarity – We tend to work in solidarity or be united in doing evil as well as good. The idea that we all belong to the Mystical Body of Christ is not only pious but also scientific. Human beings come from a common descent; there are ties that unite the entire humanity from its first appearance on Earth. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, said Neil Armstrong upon stepping for the first time on the moon. It was not the work of a single man, a free entrepreneur, neither in its execution nor in its meaning; in reality, through Armstrong, for him and with him, did mankind arrive on the moon.

Collective spiritual unconsciousness – Freud discovered an instance within our personality called unconsciousness that is made up of what was lived, experienced, repressed, hidden, and forgotten during the first few years of our life when we were not yet aware of ourselves. This material influences our thoughts, feelings and actions in an automatic way that is out of our control; sometimes it comes to consciousness in the form of body language, lapsus linguae or slip of the tongue, and especially in dreams.

Beyond this individual unconsciousness, at a deeper level, Jung, a disciple of Freud, argues that there is a collective unconsciousness. The material that it is made of, no longer has anything to do with one’s individual experiences, but rather with what humanity as a whole experiences.

Each one of our deeds becomes part of a collective “database” in such a way that any individual of the human species is, from birth, capable of doing the most heroic as well as the most heinous and horrific act ever done without being taught. In this way, the individual influences the collective and the collective influences the individual.

The butterfly effect – Small and even miniscule causes can have great effects or consequences. The effects of a major hurricane that is felt here could have been caused by the fluttering of a butterfly thousands of kilometers away, which by disturbing the balance caused the first piece of domino to fall. This also explains the big snow avalanches that bury houses and villages. In human life, there are no innocuous, neutral and inconsequential acts that sooner or later will not have repercussions, positive or negative, on the rest of humanity.

Matthew 16:24 – If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me – Every sacrifice is an immolation of our Ego and everything we do for others is a total altruism which is a sacrifice of the ego. It is only by denying my ego that I can affirm the other, the alter ego. After the sacrifice of Christ, the sacrifices that are pleasing to God are not the gift of something that belongs to me, like the sacrifices of the Old Law, the immolation of lambs and goats, but rather the immolation of my own self.

Tertullian (197 AD) – The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Christians – Through martyrdom, a Christian configures his life to Christ's in an almost absolute way and as a direct path to the Kingdom of God. Furthermore, it is not him alone who gains individually, the Church also gains by his testimony in repeating, renewing and realizing in his life the passion of Christ in the here and now of history. It is above all edifying and encouraging for new Christians, for those who are still in the process of conversion to Christ.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church. (Colossians 1:24)

This is the text that has been quoted to give biblical foundation to the practice requested by Our Lady soon at the first apparition, to offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. It must be made clear that our sacrifices do not have the redemptive value of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, nor do they increase its effectiveness. Therefore, and in this sense, nothing is lacking in the sacrifice of Christ which is perfect and perfection is not perfectible or cannot be perfected further.

Our individual affliction, our cross, the suffering that life hands us can be lived either with meaning or without meaning. The Christian who in all aspects of life sees in Christ as the way, the truth and the life builds his life in Him, joins his sufferings to His. The apostles became joyous when they began to suffer for Christ. (Acts 5:41)

By joining our sufferings to that of Christ, we give them meaning, so that they become easier to bear, and are put to good use because we give them a redemptive value. The main point is that our sufferings are not wasted if we can join them to the sacrifice of Christ; they are in fact transformed to great value.

Hell is avoided with purgatory
The Angel pointing to the earth with his right hand, cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ (Third part of the Secret)


These are the words of the Angel with the flaming sword. Our Lady shows the vision of hell to the little shepherds as a possibility in the afterlife and the hell the world had plunged into in the 20th century . The alternative, in order to avoid one or the other, is penance. Hell is avoided with purgatory both in this life as in the next; in fact, in the Catholic tradition, purgatory is between heaven and hell.

Christ atoned for our sins, so we no longer need to atone for them. But if God forgives and forgets, why then do we need purgatory? It is us who do not forgive nor forget, not what others or what we ourselves have done; purgatory is a requirement of our human nature. We see this in the Gospel in the episode of the conversion of Zacchaeus:

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ (Luke 19:8) Jesus who had already forgiven Zacchaeus did not demand anything from him as a payment for this pardon; what Zacchaeus offered as an atonement came out of his own free will, and as a consequence of his conversion and of having obtained the pardon, and not as a requirement of it.

Mark 1:15 -- “Pænitemini et credite evangelio” Repent and believe in the Gospel – Penance and sacrifice are part of the conversion process, like the desert that mediates between the Egypt of Sin and the Promised Land of Grace. The more pure we walk through this life, the less purgatory we need in the next. Purgatory can be spent here and now. Whether it is done here or in the next life, the blessedness remains valid: Only the pure of heart will see God.

Regarding the nature of the purifying fire, Sister Lucia said years later that it is not any physical fire sustained by any fuel, but rather from the fire of divine love communicated by God to the souls. Hence that perfect act of love, like the example of a martyrdom, takes the person directly to heaven because he is immediately purified of all sins committed up to that point.

Jacinta the good shepherdess
One day on her way back, she walked along in the middle of the flock.
-    “Jacinta, what are you doing there,” I asked her, “in the middle of the sheep?”
-    “I want to do the same as Our Lord in that holy picture they gave me. He’s just like this, right in the middle of them all, and He’s holding one of them in His arms.”

Jacinta embodies the sacrificial aspect of the message of Fatima. She in her own fashion imitates Jesus the Good Shepherd who cares and seeks for the lost sheep and afterward carries it on his shoulders back to the sheepfold. Jacinta offered many sacrifices for sinners during the three years following the apparitions. And when, already bedridden and living her passion, Our Lady asked her if she still wanted to suffer more for the conversion of more sinners, she readily answered ‘yes’. Like Christ the Good Shepherd, she, the little shepherdess, also gave her life for the sheep of the Lord.

The vision of hell affected Jacinta so much that even when she was at play she would not stop questioning Lucia, And if people pray very much for sinners, won’t Our Lord get them out of there? And if they make sacrifices as well? Poor sinners! We have to pray and make many sacrifices for them!”

The expression, poor sinners, was coined in Fatima; whenever one speaks of sinners in the message of Fatima, the sinners are referred to as poor which has the same affectionate meaning as “poor things” that Jacinta often used to say.

Jacinta, the most sentimental of the three, is the one who best mirrors God’s mercy and loving solicitude for sinners that run throughout the two Testaments of the Bible: Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23).

In Jesus of Nazareth, the mercy of God becomes flesh in concrete actions. Unlike the Pharisees who criticized and fled from sinners fearing their contamination, Jesus sought their company, touched them, healed them, ate with them, and finally gave his life for them as an immolated victim being eaten in the Eucharist and on the cross with his body handed over and blood spilled.

The little shepherds, especially Jacinta in her short life and Lucia in her long life, understood and joined their sacrifices to the passion of Christ by echoing it, by giving them a meaning and a usefulness, to update or underline in the here and now the passion of Christ, the redemption of humanity.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: The Prayers of Our Lady

The three little shepherds of Fatima learned three prayers from the Blessed Virgin Mary that are simple, easy to remember and in a way, contain in themselves the entire message of Fatima. By praying them in our hearts or liturgically in community, they act as a sacrament of the Fatima message. In other words, by reciting them, we are reminded and exhorted to live by the message of Fatima that is internally contained in these prayers.

The first prayer given by Our Lady, after the apparitions of the angel, refers once again to the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. In fact, the apparitions at Fatima start with the Trinity and end with the Trinity. Mary reveals to the little shepherds God's identity, one divine nature in three distinct persons. Unlike the two other prayers, this one is not taught directly by Our Lady but is inspired by the Holy Spirit and recited automatically by the children before her.

The second prayer is a sacrificial prayer, that is, a practical application of the second part of the message of Fatima about penance, and in the context of this message, it means the offering of ourselves for others, for the conversion of sinners.

The third prayer is the most universally known because it is recited by Catholics when they pray the Rosary as it is said after each mystery. It asks for the universal salvation, especially for those who are in most need of it.

1st Prayer: Communicated to the seers by an interior impulse
…Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors. Then, moved by an interior impulse that was communicated to us, we fell on our knees, repeating in our hearts:

“O Most Holy Trinity, I adore You! My God, my God, I love You in the most Blessed Sacrament!”

And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Galatians 4:6) – The children saw themselves in God, and in Him they saw at the same time His identity as being One and Three and their own identity as little shepherds, God’s beloved children. Flooded by the light of God, they were guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit who, as Paul says to the Galatians, the hearts of the three children cried, “Abba, Father – O Most Holy Trinity…” And again like Apostle Paul says, “It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:16)

At that moment, at the beginning of the first apparition, the little shepherds had a beatific vision of God as One and Three and they themselves were inside this light as adoptive children of God the Father. At the top of the mountain in the Serra de Aire, at that moment of transfiguration, we cannot forget that the three were mere children and that on analyzing the character and personality of each, we realize that they each belong to a different center; Lucia is cerebral, Jacinta is emotional and Francisco is visceral or instinctive. By this, we can deduce that in this encounter the human trinity encounters the Divine Trinity; that is, the human nature in the three basic personalities in which it exists connects with the One divine nature existing in the Three Persons.

This prayer is at the same time trinitarian and eucharistic, and it is as impressive as the beatific vision that the little shepherds felt immersed in the light that is God. It moves them immediately into adoration, to the love of the most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, from the celestial revelation they arrive at the historic incarnation of God two thousand years ago in Jesus of Nazareth, and in his sacramental presence in the consecrated host in the here and now of our lives.

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? (John 14:8-9)

This first prayer implies that in the adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament we also adore the most Holy Trinity. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father, and whoever loves the Son loves the Father. The Christian prayer is therefore always a trinitarian prayer. The most Blessed Sacrament is not only the representation of the sacrifice of the Son, but also of the Father who sent the Son and offered him up, as is popularly depicted in the image of God the Father and the Holy Spirit represented by the dove, behind the cross on which Christ is crucified.

2nd Prayer: O Jesus, it is for love of You
--Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times to Jesus, especially whenever you make some sacrifice:
“O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”  As she spoke these words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire.

Penance and prayer are the summary of the Fatima message. We have already touched on the theme of prayer concentrated in the trinitarian and eucharistic prayer above, we now speak of penance, the second part of the Fatima message, which with prayer is mentioned in all the apparitions. Like Jesus gave his life for his friends, and like Jesus offered himself for the salvation of the world, Our Lady asks the little shepherds if they want to join themselves to the sacrifice of her Son, and make themselves in this year of 1917 echo the sacrifice that took place almost two thousand years ago. The children readily answer yes.

This second prayer is an unusual prayer because it is subtly insightful. It is not a contemplative prayer like the one we have already mentioned, but is a prayer that comes from practical application, it implies by way of practice a prayer to be recited exclusively after this praxis. In this sense, it is not a prayer prescribed for everyone and in every situation, but only for some and only after a concrete practice.

The Lady said that this prayer is to be recited before, during and after each sacrifice offered. This being so, the prayer  is in itself a sort of magic wand that transforms an everyday misfortune of life into a sacrifice offered to God. This prayer gives an added value, an increased worth, a benefit in the vicissitudes of everyday life by giving them a meaning, a motivation. It transforms every single one of our sufferings into an act of embracing the cross of Christ for the good of humanity.

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

For this reason, this prayer is not a worship or a liturgy; it is not to be recited in Church or in the context of an intimate union with the Lord. It is, however, a prayer recited during life and for life. It is an exhortation to embrace each setback in life, transforming it with and through this prayer into a “sacrifice pleasing to God”; it is also a practical application of the Scripture verse quoted above.

To suffer for a reason and a cause cost a lot less than to suffer for no purpose. Therefore by offering ourselves to God the sacrifices that life hands to us, we end up suffering less. We find comfort in the same sacrifice when we know that it will bring good to someone else.

After committing themselves to Mary, to offer themselves to God in bearing all the sufferings and misfortunes inherent in life, and especially those resulting from bearing witness to the echo of the Gospel at Fatima, the little shepherds lost no opportunity to sacrifice themselves for the conversion of sinners.

In fact, if one would forget to do so, the other would remember, as it happened in the prison of Ourém when soon after reciting the Rosary, Jacinta went over to the window, and started crying again.
“Jacinta,” I (Lucia) asked, “don’t you want to offer this sacrifice to Our Lord?”
“Yes, I do, but I keep thinking about my mother, and I can’t help crying.”

…We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17)

Like Saint Paul says, if we are sons then we are brothers of the Lord and co-heirs of the eternal inheritance. If we share in the glory of the Lord, we also must share the path that led Christ to his glory, the suffering. Like in all friendships, it is necessary to be there through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, in sadness and in joy. “He who obliges himself to love, obliges himself to suffer”, says the proverb.

3rd Prayer: O my Jesus, forgive us…
When we pray the Rosary, we say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

Lastly, the prayer that Virgin Mary told us to include after each mystery while praying the Rosary. This third prayer was preceded by the vision of hell that the little shepherds saw at the July 13th apparition which must remain in our consciousness as a possibility of condemnation.

… forgive us our sins – The Bible tells us that a just man sins seven times a day, which is another way of saying that no one is just before God. We are all sinners, and the one who claims to have no sin is a liar, as the good book says. So whenever we come before God without a sin that needs to be forgiven, it does not mean we have not sinned, it simply means that our moral consciousness is not doing its duty of accusing us and pinpointing our shortcomings.

… save us from the fires of hell – Only God has the power to save us from eternal damnation and He has done it freely through the death of His son. In the picture of hell as a sea of fire, the Blessed Virgin Mary considers the view and image the children have of it, following the Thomist principle: Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur - Whatever is received, is received according to the capacity of the receiver.

The way we understand hell, however, is not as an eternal torture like the sea of fire seems to suggest but as an eternal death and a return to nothingness for those whose lives amounted to nothing, and who believe that there is nothing after death.

… lead all souls to Heaven – As always in the message of Fatima, we cannot be concerned only with our own salvation, but also of others. The spirituality of Fatima is not about personal perfection but about caring for those who live a life that is wrong and is leading to nowhere. This being so, the spirituality of Fatima is a missionary spirituality and that's why we pray that all are saved.

The same Thomist principle also applies here as we believe in the resurrection of the body, not just of the soul. Despite the biblical anthropology not being dualistic, most, if not all, prayers of the Church’s liturgies portray human nature as body and soul thus following the Greek anthropology.

… especially those most in need of Thy mercy - especially those who are the furthest away from salvation; what has been always a major concern of Jesus, 'I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.' (Luke 5:32)

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: The Prayers Taught by the Angel

During the course of the apparitions, in addition to the insistent exhortation of Our Lady to pray the Rosary and to observe the devotion of the Five First Saturdays,  the children also learned prayers that summarize and illustrate all the aspects of the message of Fatima. Through these prayers the message of Fatima passes from doctrine to spiritual practice when prayed in private, and to liturgy when prayed in community.

Taught by the Angel and the Lady to the three children, these prayers are now part of a prayer tradition, at least in the Portuguese churches, that stresses the worship of God, in particular His Eucharistic Presence, and the commitment of the believers to be available to the redemptive mission of Christ.

Despite being taught by both the Angel and Our Lady, the content of the prayers is not Marian in nature, but rather refers to the mystery of God and the redemption of humanity. Our Lady in Fatima reveals in this way what is her true role and place in the history of salvation: pointing to men the ways of God while referring to God the needs of men. There are five prayers of Fatima, two taught by the Angel and three by Our Lady, and as we have said before, none of them are directed to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Fatima is doctrinally the most complete of all Marian apparitions because it touches upon the main points of Catholic theology: the mystery of the Holy Trinity which already appeared in the apparitions of the Angel, the Eucharist, prayers, penance, reparation, the eschatology, the pontifical ministry, the communion of saints etc...

"O my God, I believe"
O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You.

It is a simple and humble and yet complete prayer.  It is an invitation to all Christians to live the three dimensions of human time – Past, Present and Future – by drawing inspiration from the three theological virtues – Faith, Hope and Charity. Human life runs exclusively in the present; a present that needs to be full of Charity that has to be inspired by the Faith of our fathers in the past, in order to become the Hope that propels us to a future without fear or anxiety.

The virtue of Faith: “I Believe” – Faith is a philosophical rock that makes us see life and reality through different lenses. Faith is a step that we take beyond what is rational and reasonable; it is a risk, a decision, a fundamental option. It is the key that opens the door to salvation. The salvation that means being in Heaven in the eternal future, but in the present time, in the here and now, means peace, happiness and well-being -- physical, spiritual, psychological and moral.

The virtue of Hope: “I Hope” – The theological virtue of Hope is the faith projected into the future that gives a sense of security in the present moment. Christians do not need sedatives because they do not have anxiety; perfectly anchored in the faith of our fathers that in the here and now becomes charity towards God and neighbour. “No debt, no fear” says the proverb; Christians are not fearful because they are not indebted to anyone, not to God nor to men...

Faith also assures Christians that regardless of how good or bad things are at the present moment, everything is transient and that their story is one with a happy ending. This happy ending is already secured by the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If we have the faith that allows us to believe that the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, as the Gospel says, then we live with the certainty that even if in the present moment there may be suffering and anguish, the best is yet to come, and our story will in the end have a happy ending. As such, fear and anxiety disappear, and the ups and downs of our lives are lived in hope and faith in the divine providence and not in fear.

“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph” – The little shepherds lived in this faith and in this hope, especially true of Lucia who knew that very soon after the apparitions she would lose the company of her cousins. When she realized that she was going to be alone in the world Lucia must have felt a great sadness, which prompted the Lady to ask: “Do you suffer a lot because of that?”  Then by way of consolation and comfort she added, “My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God” or to Heaven, which is where the Lady had told her right at the first apparition that she and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, would go.

The virtue of Charity: I Adore… and I Love You – We live only in the present, however, inspired by the past and confident in the future. The present time of our lives must be full of charity. Charity or love can only be lived in the present moment. “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” since good intentions never saved anyone, not even ourselves. Charity cannot be a future project but must be a present moment act. Charity cannot be put off.

I adore – The present moment should be full of love for God. This is achieved by finding the time and seeking a place to be with Him, like Jesus often did and like Francisco of Fatima used to do by isolating himself from his companions, behind some rock or bush, or spending school time in church consoling the Hidden Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

I love You – When we love God with our whole heart like the Father loves us, we look at others with different eyes; they are no longer our enemies or rivals whom we fear or envy, but rather our brothers and sisters for whom we wish all the good in the world. In this sense, the love of God does not exist without the love of neighbour and vice versa, that is why for Jesus the two are part of a single commandment of love.

Missionary Fatima – “I ask pardon of You” – In addition to exhorting Christians to live by the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, this prayer also makes it very clear that a Christian does not live for himself, not even to attain personal perfection. A Christian lives for others who are always an integral part of his personal life. Hence, he is concerned about them like Jesus was, who came for the sick not the healthy, and did not rebuke the unrighteous and the sinners, but welcomed them with mercy; as Jacinta was often heard to say, “Poor poor sinners…”

I ask pardon of You – because I did not evangelize, because I did not go outside of my comfort zone, because I live with doors closed from the inside making my faith a secret to take to my grave. Like Karl Rahner used to say, God in His infinite mercy will save those who without fault of their own, have not heard of Him, did not know Him and, for this reason, did not have the chance to personally encounter Christ; but will He save those who had the duty to go and speak to others about Him and to make Him known but did not?

In this sense Fatima is truly missionary, not only for being a call to evangelization, but also to compel Christians to consider themselves as sinners for not being missionaries, and therefore to ask forgiveness for their inaction, for leading others not to believe, to hope and to love. This guilty feeling should lead Christians to echo in their consciences the words of Saint Paul, the greatest evangelizer of all times: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16)

I ask pardon of You – not only because I did not evangelize, but I have even scandalized; not only was I not a step to help others to be edified and to rise up to You, but I was a scandal, a stumbling block, a hindrance that prevented others from knowing You.

In the story of my vocation like all other stories of vocations, it was the personal encounter with a person who incarnated this specific vocation that led me to want to be like him. This was true then as it is true now and will be true always concerning evangelization. In the first instance, the encounter with Christ is never an encounter with his doctrine, or even his word, but rather an encounter with one of his followers, or with those who embody his word and his doctrine.

The encounters with those who claim to be Christians are never neutral; if their attitudes, words and deeds correspond to who they say they are, then even without knowing it one is already evangelized. If, on the other hand, there is no correlation between who they say they are and how they live, not only do they not evangelize, but they also scandalize and traumatize others from becoming Christians.

In every sense and in all circumstances, the first impression is extremely important. The way we live and our behaviour will either attract and uplift or repel and scandalize.

Most Holy Trinity
 Oh Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly. I offer you the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners.

The Gospel according to St. John has a prologue which summarizes, focuses and interprets beforehand all the teachings of Jesus of whom he speaks subsequently. Similarly, this prayer is in some way an “overture”, an introduction to the message that the Virgin will speak to the children. Everything that she will communicate piece by piece, is already condensed here in this prayer that the Angel taught the children and implored them to pray with him.

Oh Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – With the construction of the Basilica of Most Holy Trinity, Fatima became complete architecturally. It now has an architecture that is a topographic expression of the message of Fatima concentrated in this prayer of invocation of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Basilica of Most Holy Trinity is a circular structure symbolizing the eternity of God. The main entrance of the Enclosure corresponds to the site of the first proclamation of the Angel which occurred a year before Our Lady appeared. To the right we have the sacrifice of Christ, who opened the door of salvation to humanity, commonly called the High Cross.

At the center of the Enclosure, like the center of human history, is the golden Jesus, our life and our hope, alive and resurrected to bless the world just like how the children saw him at the last apparition. To the left is the place of the apparition of Our Lady, always by the side of Jesus her son as she was at his feet in the manger and at the cross.

The little Chapel and the golden Christ are at the lowest level of the Enclosure, we then climb a steep incline towards the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. The basilica has a tower pointing to the sky in the form of Our Lady of Fatima as she is crowned with a golden crown of glory, the very same Mary who always waits for each and every one of her children if we take her advice given at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do whatever He tells you”.

In conclusion, a year before the Lady appeared, the Angel who introduced himself as the Angel of Peace and the Angel of Portugal, taught the little shepherds a prayer evocative of the identity of the One who will reveal Himself later through His mother, the Queen of Heaven and Earth and of Portugal.

I adore you profoundly – To adore means to submit to Him all my being and to have nothing in me that opposes His will and design. It is a deep form of worship, because it sprouts from the roots of my being where I recognize that my origin is in God, and as the Psalm 87 says, "...all my fountains are in you". In other words, “From the very depths of my being, all my springs come from you”, says the psalmist. To adore is to surrender oneself; by adoring God there is nothing in us that is opposed to His will and His designs that He has for us.

I offer you the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world – This is not intended to remind God of the salvific act of Christ, that is, of laying down his life for his friends. But rather, it is meant to stir up our memory, because like the Jewish people in the desert, our tendency is to quickly forget all the miracles and the wonders that the Lord has done for us. The tabernacle is the sacrament, the remembrance of graces received as well as the reservoir of graces to receive if we abide in Him. This prayer is, therefore, a call to communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord like the Eucharistic Adoration.

… in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. – This Eucharistic Adoration echoes in us and in the entire world that supreme act of love of God for humanity two thousand years ago.  That our love and firm adherence to the salvific mystery of Christ counterbalance the outrages and the sacrileges that are the manifestations of hatred and enemies of Christ.

But worse than all this is the indifference, the lack of love, the apathy. It is said that indifference is much worse than hatred. This indifference is translated in post-modern times as the new form of atheism called agnosticism: the I-don’t-want-to-know, I-don’t-care attitudes, or living as if God did not exist. It is to be, to act, to live apathetically to His love for us, to turn our backs on Him. Whoever hates now, has probably loved before and may be able to love again, but whoever is indifferent never loved and most probably will never come to love.

And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of you the conversion of poor sinners – By bringing to mind the merits of Christ and of Mary his mother, we recall our lack of merits by which as in the first prayer taught by the Angel, we ask for the conversion of sinners and forgiveness for our lack of commitment to this conversion.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: The Third Part of the Secret in light of the prophecy of Jonas

If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.  (Apparition on July 13, 1917)

The content of the third part of the secret, which kept the world in “suspense” for decades, was somehow already known to the public as it was implied in the words of the Lady at the July 13th apparition regarding Russia. It was like one of those well-hidden treasures because it was in a place where no one would think to look or where people least expect to find.

The third secret as it was called is the third part of the one single secret, and is nothing but a symbolic illustration of the words of Our Lady in the event that Russia is not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. All that the secret says has already happened, up to the day when Russia was indeed consecrated.

The prophecy of Jonas
Since the secret of Fatima is fundamentally a prophecy, any prophet in the Old Testament can provide us with a key to its hermeneutical interpretation. Among all the prophets, we choose Jonas because it is him, more than all the others, who gives a clear example of what in essence is a prophecy, and what function it fulfills within the revealed word.

As we know, after some reluctance and even a show of defiance, Jonas sent by God went to Nineveh with the prophecy that the city will be destroyed if the people did not repent and convert. Since the destruction of the city was precisely what Jonas was hoping for, we can imagine the total lack of conviction with which he must have preached during the three days that took him to travel through the city. And yet against all odds the people converted and the city was not destroyed.

The prophecy of Fatima
After the two parts which I have already explained, we saw at the left of Our Lady and a little above, an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Or Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ First scene of the third part of the secret.

Let us now examine each of the images that makes up the third part of the prophecy:

The Angel with a flaming sword ready to strike – This represents the final judgment, the possibility of being condemned in the case if one does not convert. Like the suspended sword of Damocles, it is a fatality that can happen. Do recall Joshua’s discourse in the book of Deuteronomy (30:15), “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity”. The possibility of reducing the world into a mound of ashes is no longer a fiction but a sober reality. Since the modern man is the lord of his own destiny, it is him therefore who has forged the most destructive sword, the atomic bomb.

Penance, Penance, Penance! – The purpose of the vision is not to show what will inevitably happen in the future but rather what can happen, and the ways to prevent it from happening. It is therefore a staunch warning. If the intention of this prophecy was to reveal the irreversible fate of the world, it makes no sense that the Angel would cry ‘penance’ three times, as if this would somehow prevent this disaster. Nor would it make sense for this or any other prophecy if there were no ways to avoid the fate. No one is really interested in knowing the day or the hour or the way he will die; and God would be a sadist if he were to reveal it.

At the left side of Our Lady – The vision shows us the power opposed to destruction, represented by the resplendent image of Virgin Mary to the right of the Angel. Therefore, on one side representing Death is the Angel with the sword ready to strike, and on the other is Our Lady representing Life. The vision calls to our freedom to choose. That is, what we will see in the next scene is not a future that is irreversible, that cannot be changed and will happen as described, but rather the contrary, the image of a future that can be prevented and, therefore, will not happen if we do what the Angel advises.

The intent of the vision is not to show on film a future irrevocably fixed, but rather to orient, enlighten and guide our freedom, and our energies and resources in the opposite direction so to avoid this disaster. Just like the preaching on the destruction of the city of Nineveh led its people to do penance, so is the purpose of this vision.

And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way;

Having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. Second scene of the third part of the secret. 

The city represents human history, and the mountain is the path going up to the cross, the redemption for all humanity. The Holy Father, bishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay people going up the mountain represents the Church in the history of mankind, on its ascent towards Heaven. It is the history of salvation inserted in the history of humanity.

Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God – This is a clear reference to the book of Revelation (7:14), ‘these are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’. All who are washed by the blood of the martyrs are saved, inasmuch that this blood, as has always been said, is the seed of Christians.

… he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way – The walk-through history towards Christ, represented by the cross, is slow, and on the way some fall victims to evil. In particular, the vision represents the sacred path of a century of persecution and death that Nazism, Fascism, and especially militant atheism brought to the believers. In this vision, the Pope is shot and killed like many martyrs.

After the assassination attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II while still convalescing in his hospital bed at the Gemelli Polyclinic, asked for the sealed letter containing the secret to be brought to him. It was inevitable that in it he would see his own destiny, and a future that did not happen by a whisker. And it did not happen because Mary did not want it to happen; in the words of the Pope, she deflected the bullet that passed only a few millimeters from his vital organs. It is again clear that the future is not unchangeable, and that faith, penance and prayer can influence history, and that ultimately prayer is more powerful than bullets, and faith that can move mountains is more powerful than the destructive power of armies.

We can now understand the affliction of poor Jacinta who saw all this in her visions without knowing what would be the final outcome. It is true that she did what the Angel in the same vision advised everyone to do, that is, penance and prayer. Somehow she also knew that this dark future, even the death of the pope which was certain in the vision, could be prevented with her own personal penance and prayer. This was the reason why she never ceased to pray for the Holy Father. If Jacinta was certain that the future seen in the vision could not be avoided, she would not have prayed so fervently for the pope like she did the rest of her life.

During a meeting that Sister Lucia had with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, on April 27, 2000, she stated that she fully agrees with this official interpretation of the Church, according to which the third part of the secret is a prophetic vision similar to those found in the Bible, which consists of the persecution of the Church and the believers by the militant atheism inspired and promulgated by Russia throughout the 20th century.

This is also in line with the personal interpretation of Pope John Paul II: It was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path and the Holy Father in his throes to halt at the threshold of death. Lucia continues: We did not know the name of the Pope. Our Lady did not say the name of the Pope. We didn’t know if it was Benedict XV, Pius XII, Paul VI or John Paul II, but it was the Pope who was suffering and that made us suffer too… especially Jacinta who has said many times: Poor Holy Father! We must pray very much for him.

Already, but not yet…
The events to which the third part of the “secret” of Fatima refers now seem part of the past.  Cardinal Sodano

The Kingdom of Heaven is already in the midst of us, but not yet in all its fullness and glory, says theology with respect to the Kingdom of God and its presence in the history of mankind. Inspired by Cardinal Sodano, as well as the then prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the faith, Cardinal Ratzinger, we can say, on one hand, that this third part of the secret, like the first two parts, is already history, contrary to the prophets that were the doomsday lovers of apocalypse and conspiracy theories, .

On the other hand, however, unlike the first two parts of the secret which targeted concrete things that cannot happen again, the third part of the secret is less precise and is fully achievable in time and space, and seems to appeal to an archetype that has been repeated, continuously repeats itself and can be repeated. The Angel with the flaming sword is still there; the human freedom exhorted to choose between the way of life and goodness, and of death and evil will always be there; an active and progressive Church in a hostile world and the martyrdom of some of her members is a reality that repeats itself in all times and places.

In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph…
I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! (John 16:33)

A heart that is open to God, purified by penance and prayer, is stronger than any kind of weapons and armies. It was the heart of Mary, purified from original sin at the moment of her conception, and committed at the annunciation of the Angel to God’s plan of salvation of man, that brought the redeemer to mankind. The seed of this Kingdom is already present in the midst of us since the coming of Christ over two thousand years ago. When our hearts are purified like that of Mary's, we also give birth to Christ by the way we are, and our way of living and acting, and in so doing, we make him present in our time and place, with all his power of health, peace, and love among men.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: Secret or Prophecy?

When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, “It is going to rain”; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, “There will be scorching heat”; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:54-56)

Illiterate that they were, the little shepherds of Fatima did not know the concept of a prophecy and for this reason they referred to the two visions regarding the future that the Lady showed them at the July 13th apparition as a 'secret’.  Therefore what is widely known as the "Secret of Fatima” should be understood as the Prophecy of Fatima. It is in this sense that the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger called Fatima the most prophetic of all modern apparitions.

Prophecy and the signs of times
Following the Gospel of Luke quoted above, prophets are people who are wide awake and attentive to the signs of times, that is, to a present that is infused with a future that is already somehow foreseen here and now. It is one thing to see and another to be able to interpret and perceive the signs of a future already encrusted in the present moment.

For instance, throughout the centuries many people had seen how the steam from a pot of boiling water can shoot its lid off, and yet they could see nothing past a pot of boiling water. Mr. James Watt, however, saw beyond the obvious, and in trying to harness the power of steam, he built steam engines that greatly contributed to the industrial revolution.

Prophecy links the present to the future – in the sense that the future already gives news of itself and can somehow already be found in the present moment in the form of signs of times that only those who are wide awake are able to perceive; those who look at the world with eyes that look under and beyond the obvious, and at the same time, are always in contact with God who is the Lord of Time -- past, present and future.

Prophecy links the future to the present – in the sense that the future is not irreversibly fixed, but rather somehow interactive and susceptible to changes. In fact, the purpose of prophecies in the Bible is precisely to warn us of a future that is in our hands to avoid, as we have the freedom and the power to modify it and write history differently. In this sense, the future is not a train that has lost its brakes with no way of us stopping it, but rather a perfectly trained galloping horse whose reins are in our hands.

History of the secret
“The secret of the Lady”, as the children called it, consists of three clearly distinct parts; the first deals with the vision of Hell, the second with the militant atheism in Russia, and the third with a symbolic representation of the militant atheism throughout the 20th century.

The secret or the prophecy is composed of two visions that are the first and the third parts of the secret, with an intermediate discourse, the second part, from the Virgin which deals with the militant atheism in Russia. Communicated verbally in its entirety by the Lady to the three little shepherds on July 13, 1917, the secret was put into writing at two different occasions: the first and second parts were written on August 31, 1941, and the third on January 3, 1944.

In other words, it was only written down in full 27 years after the children first stated in 1917 that they were the keepers of a secret that they could not reveal. During the interrogations to which the children were subjected, out of curiosity that is innate in human nature, the questions regarding the secret were the most asked. First they were offered gold, silver and money to trick them into revealing the secret, and when this failed, the authorities threatened the children with death and psychological torture in the prison of Ourém. The children never gave in to any of their attempts, however.

Part 1: Vision of Hell
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls, as if they were transparent burning embers and blackened, or burnished with human form, floating in the fire, carried by the flames of their own, together with clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side, like sparks in a great fire, without weight or balance, between cries and moans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.

The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.  This vision lasted but an instant, thanks to our kind Mother of Heaven, who had already prepared us by promising to take us to Heaven (at the first apparition) for if this was not so, I think we would have died of fear and dread.

The existence of hell is an inescapable fact of our faith. If we were to remove from the Bible all the pages in which hell is mentioned, we would undoubtedly end up with a noticeably smaller Bible, but then it would no longer be the Holy Bible that narrates the Word of God. There are more and more theologians who deny its existence, claiming that it exists like the zero in mathematics, to help only in the accounts, in virtue of a logical coherence, but that there is really no one in hell. Whether there is or there is not, we do not know or care to know; hell is the possibility of not being saved; it is the theological place of evil, just like Heaven is the theological place of good.

In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” (Luke 16:23-24)

In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we have a vision of hell that, in the context of the parable, has the same pedagogical function as the vision that the little shepherds of Fatima had. By showing them this vision of Hell, Our Lady wishes to reaffirm its existence and that it is real the possibility of not being saved. The detailed description however, with souls falling into it and their torment in the midst of the fire plus the presence of demons that so terrified the little shepherds, is meant for pedagogical purpose and functions like an alarm bell for those who in this life do not follow Christ as the way, the truth and the life.

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

In the Bible there are two forms of representation of hell: the hell as the eternal torture and the hell as the eternal death. The more common vision, the one that appears most often, is the hell as the eternal death, that is, a return into nothingness the one who was nothing, did nothing in life, served no one or nothing, and, instead of believing in God and eternal life, believed in nothing beyond death.

It is inconceivable that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would condemn to an eternity of suffering and torture all those who in temporality, no matter how long, had lived in sin; not even the human court is this severe. There would be no just proportion between the crime and the punishment.

The few times therefore in which hell appears in the Bible as eternal suffering has merely a pedagogical purpose, based on the reality that human beings fear suffering more than death. From this, hell as the eternal torture is a motivational force to change lives here on earth that is far more superior than a hell conceived as an eternal death, although the latter is more in line with what it really will be.

As for the prophetic vision of hell, it is more compelling to view it as eternal torture. The little shepherds, therefore, did not see hell as it is, but rather how they imagined it to be, inspired by what they were told in the countless preaching in those days, in which hell as suffering was an almost obligatory theme.

Part 2: World War II and the militant atheism in Russia
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go, to save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI.

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, 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; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

Our Lady proposed the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the antidote to combat evil on all fronts, individual and social. If Salvation is the true vision of God, which surpasses the beatific vision that some have access to on this earth, the proposal of this devotion is nothing other than the echo of the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:8): Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  A heart that has been purged and purified of all evil and corruption sees God.

A heart that is clean is not divided, and is ready to commit unilaterally and unconditionally, wholly and totally, to God’s will. It is in this way a replica of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as she says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The heart is the central engine of human activity, where thoughts gain the motivation and drive to transform themselves into works or behaviour. When our hearts belong to Christ, sooner or later, we may say as the apostle Paul had said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: Lucia, the Messenger

Human profile
Lucia was born on March 22, 1907, the youngest of seven children of Maria Rosa and António dos Santos, brother of Olimpia Marto, the mother of Francisco and Jacinta. She was healthy and robust, had strong features unlike her cousin Jacinta's delicate ones, and was in fact quite plain. She had a flat nose, wide mouth with thick lower lip, and a rounded chin; her only redeeming features were her eyes which were dark, expressive, and luminous.

What she lacked in external beauty, God has compensated her with an internal one. She was very responsible, and since young has been entrusted with many tasks. Many parents in the village where she lived would bring their children to her house, and she would be the one to entertain and amuse them throughout the day. She was wonderful with children, they all looked forward to her company, and she would entertain them with all sorts of games, and storytelling of folk tales, stories from the Bible and biographies of the saints.  They would also sing religious hymns and folk songs, and dance which Lucia loved to do. Many of the reading materials she would get from her mother, who unlike most women in the village knew how to read.

In those days, the First Communion was made only at the age of ten; Lucia, however, did hers at six because blessed with a great memory, she already knew the catechism by heart. In addition to a good memory, she was also very intelligent, and creative in the activities and amusements she used to entertain the children who came to her house, so that all children, not just Jacinta and Francisco, had a special attraction to her.

Unlike Jacinta and Francisco, she was lively, extroverted and high-spirited, very much a leader. This did not stop her from being as sweet and affectionate as Jacinta, a feeling that she showed daily especially towards her mother when she came back from tending the sheep, as she would run to her mother for hugs, kisses and cuddles.

“Lucia was very amusing. She had a way of getting the best out of us so that we liked to be with her. She was also very intelligent, and could sing and dance and taught us to do the same. We always obeyed her. We spent hours and hours dancing and singing, and sometimes forgot to eat.” (Teresa Matias, a childhood friend of Lucia)

As she herself had written in her memoirs, Lucia had many friends with whom she used to go dancing and partying. The 13th of June was always a much anticipated day for Lucia on account of Saint Anthony of Lisbon feast day because it was celebrated in a special way in the village. Mrs. Maria Santos, knowing her daughter well, was sure that she would not miss this celebration for anything. But it was clear that she was mistaken since the apparitions had changed the way of being of Francisco and Jacinta as well as Lucia’s.

Jacinta and Francisco suffered through their illnesses and the small sacrifices that they occasionally offered up such as giving their lunches to the poor, and not drinking water when they were parched with thirst from the heat. Lucia did not need to seek out sacrifices because sufferings came to her every day. She was the one who suffered the most from the incredulity of those who did not believe in the apparitions, to the point that she had to endure abusive insults, threats, and even being beaten with the broom handle by her mother.

On the day of May 13, 1919, when the government wanted to prevent the pilgrims from going to the Cova da Iria, two guards on horseback spotted Lucia on her way to the place of the apparitions. They forced her to walk on between their horses to a wasteland and when they were alone with her, one said to the other in a loud voice: Here are some open trenches. Let’s cut off her head with one of our swords, and leave her here dead and buried. Then we’ll be finished with this business once and for all. When I heard these words, I thought that my last moment had really come, but I was as much at peace as if it did not concern me at all, said Lucia. After a minute or two during which they seemed to be thinking it over, the other replied: “No, we have no authority to do such a thing.”

In particular, she suffered very much from the disbelief of her parish priest, her sisters and mother. This last one even after being healed by a special favour from Our Lady came to say: How strange! Our Lady cured me, and somehow I still don’t believe! I don’t know how this can be!

Lucia and the Enneagram
The mind, the heart and the gut instinct are the three filters by which we normally grasp and relate with reality and with others.  Security is one thing that we all seek; the sentimental or emotional seek to relate, to be accepted and loved by others; in this way, they find their inner balance. The visceral or the instinctive trust in their instincts, their intuition or sixth sense; the cerebral use their mind to try to understand, because to them, knowledge means power.

Francisco was visceral instinctive, he felt good in himself, seeking nature, and detaching himself from everything and everyone, all he cared about was being with the “Hidden Jesus”, consoling him. Jacinta was sentimental, dependent on the relations with others, especially with her closest friend, Lucia, a day without her was a lost day; she discovered that suffering was a form of love and in it she saw her contribution to the salvation of many.

Lucia was clearly cerebral, and used her mind to understand everyone and everything that happened around her; as such, she was not like the sixes since these tend to be quite insecure and full of self-doubt. Lucia seemed to be firmly grounded and sure of herself despite that particular episode of doubt that came up when she wondered whether the apparitions were things of the devil. On this regard we must remember that the doubt did not come spontaneously into her mind, but rather it was put there by her parish priest whom she blindly trusted. She could not be a five either because unlike Francisco who liked to absent himself from others, Lucia preferred to be amid people as she was outgoing, inquisitive, resourceful and creative, always looking for new games or activities to entertain the children.

The number that comes closest to her way of being, ironically it seems to be a seven. Precisely the number of all the numbers in the Enneagram that tends to flee from suffering. And yet she was the one who suffered the most regarding the credibility of the apparitions. The three children were bullied by the general public, but while Jacinta and Francisco at least at home were safe and sound, and when outside were protected by the good reputation of their father Mr. Marto, Lucia at home was mistreated by her mother and sisters, and called a cheat and a liar, and in the streets it seemed that her mother did not care even if they beat her, if that would help her retract her claim that she had seen the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Furthermore, while she offered the sacrifices voluntarily, she was not as zealous as her two cousins. Lucia in some way was not as good at suffering as Jacinta nor was she as good at adoration as Francisco. Lucia lived and thrived in the social relations and diversion, which was why she was so good with children. No one entertains as well as a seven who is always ready for games, dances, fun…

In this sense, Lucia despite being the leader of the three, and the most important seer of the group, it is not immediately clear what part of the message of Fatima she embodied, like Jacinta with penance and Francisco with prayer especially the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

The reason for this has to do with the fact that Francisco and Jacinta knew that they would die soon and therefore lived their short earthly lives eschatologically, with their minds and hearts already in the world to come and looking forward to be in the presence of Our Lady, who had said that very soon she would take them to Heaven, but that Francisco will first have many Rosaries to say before entering. As for Lucia, she lived for a very long time the message of Fatima in its totality as a whole, and in its obscurity over many years secluded as a cloistered nun.

A life long in years, short in events
The lives of Francisco and Jacinta were short indeed, and by contrast Lucia’s was very long. Alone and abandoned by everyone, especially by her two friends, she consoled herself by repeating what Our Lady had told her: Don’t be afraid! I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.

After the death of Jacinta, Lucia left Fatima on June 17, 1921, for an orphanage ran by the Dorothean Sisters in Porto, unbeknownst to the people. It was a proposal made by the bishop of Leiria, and which was readily accepted by Lucia and her mother, in order to analyze the events without Lucia’s constant presence and also to see if the people would stop going to the Cova da Iria now that the only remaining seer was no longer there.

Touched by the apparitions, Lucia’s life was long in years, but short in events. From the College of Porto, she left for the postulancy of the Dorothean Sisters at Pontevedra, and from there she entered the Dorothean novitiate at Tuy, Spain, and made her profession of vows on October 3, 1928. Her asylum in Spain lasted until 1946, after which she returned to Portugal, and visited Fatima and her family.

From there she received the authorization from Pope Pius XII to leave the Order of the Dorothean Sisters and realize her childhood dream of becoming a Carmelite. She then entered the Carmel of Saint Teresa in Coimbra on March 25, 1948, where she led a life of prayer and penance until her death on February 13, 2005, just weeks short of her 98th birthday.

Lucia the messenger
If Francisco was the contemplative, being prayerful because he spent many hours at prayer; Jacinta who like the Enneagram fours, lived the drama of the lost humanity by offering herself and uniting her sufferings with those of Christ for the redemption of sinners, what or who then was Lucia to the message of Fatima?

Lucia was the communicator because she alone had a full interactive relationship with Our Lady, she alone asked and answered, she alone conversed with the Lady. Lucia was the voice bearer of heaven; the messenger and in some way, the evangelist who many years later put into writing all that the Lady had said during the apparitions as well as the ways her cousins embodied the message of Fatima, of which she was the witness, the depository and the custodian.

Under the obedience to the bishop of Leiria, Lucia wrote down the Secret of Fatima, which she sealed in an envelope and mailed to the Pope along with her memoirs of the apparitions in which she also wrote in a biographic manner the lives and work done by her cousins and herself.

As a seer, she was until her death the go-between and the exegete of the message of Fatima. This role was clearly seen in the attempts made by the past popes, from Pius XII to John Paul II, regarding the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All the popes did make the consecration, but all avoided naming Russia and sometimes were not done in union with all the bishops of the world.

Lucia did not hesitate to say that it was not done according to the way Our Lady wanted, if that is how she saw it. Finally the consecration made by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984, in Rome before the official image of Our Lady of Fatima and the icon of Our Lady of Kazan obtained the confirmation from Lucia, who affirmed that the consecration was made and was accepted by Our Lady.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: Jacinta, the Reparatrix

Human profile
Jacinta de Jesus Marto was born on March 11, 1910. She resembled her brother Francisco in appearance and had a beautiful oval face with a generous lower lip, tidy hair, and a small and well proportioned body. “She wasn’t as plump as Francisco,” her mother reported.

She was somewhat vain, liked to dress prettily, always had her hair well combed and in place, and liked to put flowers in them. She had a good singing voice and like her cousin Lucia, she loved to dance to the sound of her brother Francisco’s flute. She had fun at games but unlike her brother, she was a bad loser. Very self-centered, she had to choose both the game and partner and in this she was very uncompromising.

Furthermore, she did not have the free and independent spirit of her cousin Lucia. She was more dependent and in this matter, she was very close and very attached to her cousin; she would not do anything by herself and so to her one day spent without Lucia was one sad and meaningless day.

Morally she was irreproachable like her brother. She was taught never to lie; she came even to rebuke her own mother when the latter told her some small fib or white lie: “So, you lied to me, Mother? You told me you were going to one place but you went to another… lying is ugly, you know!” If she did not want to tell the truth she would remain silent and no one was able to draw a word out of her mouth. One day when Lucia got tired of so many interrogations and hid herself, the visitors asked Jacinta for her cousin’s whereabouts and to avoid lying she remained very silent: What did you tell them when they asked you about me? Asked Lucia. Oh, I kept very, very quiet! Because I knew where you were and lying is a sin.

The most important and pronounced aspect of her personality is her delicate sensitivity; it was so delicate that it seemed to be made of porcelain; she was very easily moved, wearing her whole heart on her sleeve. Already at 5 years old she would ask her cousin to recount the story of Our Lord's Passion; upon hearing again and again the narrative of the sufferings of Our Divine Redeemer – Lucia tells us – she would be moved to tears, and would weep and in her grief she would say – Our poor dear Lord – she repeated – I’ll never sin again! I don’t want Our Lord to suffer any more.

Quite often she would say: I like to tell Jesus that I love him so much! Many times, when I say it to Him, I seem to have a fire in my heart, but it doesn’t burn me. (…) I love Our Lord and Our Lady so much, that I never get tired of telling them that I love them. Jacinta had an exquisite soul, full of very delicate feelings, said her father.

She loved the sheep that she watched over and called each one by name. There was “Dove” and “Star” and “Beauty” and “Snow” – the most beautiful names in her vocabulary. The little white lambs were her favorites: “She used to sit with them on her lap, -- says Lucia – holding and kissing them, and at night she would attempt to carry a little one home on her shoulders to save it from getting tired, like the pictures of the Good Shepherd that she had seen in a holy picture that was given to her.”

Jacinta in the Enneagram
With a message for the whole human race, Mary appeared at Fatima to three children who represent this humanity; an incomplete humanity who peers at and relates to reality and others through a reductive and reducing prism. Lucia was clearly cerebral; with memory and intelligence as her strength. Francisco was visceral instinctive who did not give too much time to thoughts, and lived by vision, perception and contemplation; very few things mattered to him. Jacinta was emotional, all of her was emotional sensitivity.

What number could she be in the Enneagram? She cannot be a two since she had a basic personality that was quite egocentric, which the twos do not possess; not a three either because she did not seek success nor was she pragmatic; in my opinion, Jacinta is a four in the Enneagram.

Lucia knew Jacinta better than anybody else in the world and she described her in fact as being quite self-centered and absorbed in herself. Furthermore, as we shall see, the conversion of Jacinta came with the decentralization of her life when she realized that the center of her life was not her but Him, Jesus, who suffers for the sins of mankind which need reparation. It was then that she understood when Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”. (Luke 9:23)

Like the fours, Jacinta was an overly tragic, romantic and sentimental figure, an individualistic dreamer with a fondness for beauty, as it is shown above by her reaction to the little lambs in imitating Jesus the Good Shepherd. Like all the fours, she fled from the ordinary. Jacinta did not accompany anyone except her dear Lucia, because she found other children to be vulgar who said stupid, ordinary things; in addition, she hated the lack of integrity. At home, she preferred and would seek the company of her peaceful brother Francisco, and avoided at all cost the company of her older brother John.

Another characteristic of the fours that we find in Jacinta is the fear of being alone and the feeling of abandonment as she expressed when she was put into the prison of Ourém and at her stay at Dona Estefânia Hospital in Lisbon where she repeatedly stressed, with tragic and dramatic overtones proper of the fours, the fact that in that hospital she would die alone.

Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît pas -- The heart has its reasons of which reason knows not. After meeting with the parish priest of Fatima, Lucia who like her mother saw him as a holy man and held him in high regard, started to doubt herself and at her own perception. For being cerebral and rational, Lucia began to wonder that perhaps the parish priest was right and these manifestations could be from the devil trying to deceive her. Jacinta, however, as she saw and knew things with her heart, disagreed with Lucia and strongly defended the veracity of the apparitions.

Since the parish priest had put the thought of the devil in Lucia’s head, she started to dream of him and had a nightmare of the devil dragging her down to hell all the while laughing at her expense. Finally when July 13th came she refused to go to Cova da Iria, and the cousins cried and begged her as they did not want to go alone; Jacinta especially said that she felt sorry for Our Lady who would be displeased with them.

Despite her earlier decision, when noontime, the hour of the apparitions, came Lucia's fears dissipated as if by a miracle, and she went with her cousins in the direction of the Cova, passing by thousands of people who were already heading that way.

Jacinta the reparatrix
“I understood that Love comprises of all Vocations and that Love is everything! (...) then, in a transport of delirious joy, I exclaimed: I have finally found my vocation, my vocation is Love! In the Heart of the Church My Mother, I will be Love, thus I will be everything, and thus my dream will be fulfilled.” Saint Therese of Child Jesus

I like so much to suffer for the love of Our Lord and Our Lady! They like very much those who suffer for the conversion of sinners. Jacinta

If the young Jacinta had known Saint Therese of the Child Jesus she would have certainly seen herself in Therese and identified well with her. We have said that each little shepherd embodied in their lives, and in their story of conversion an aspect of the message of Fatima. If Francisco embodied the love of prayer for the consolation of the Lord by spending limitless time with Him, then Jacinta was the heart of the message of Fatima.

Of the three, she was the one who empathized the most with the broken hearts of Jesus and Mary for the outrages and sins with which they are offended. From the moment Jacinta became aware of the brokenness of the hearts of Jesus and Mary, she offered herself to mend them with the glue of her love. Love is in fact the only glue that can unite humans among themselves and with God, and repair the broken and offended hearts as well.

“Whoever is committed to love, is in for suffering” – Or as Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.” (John 15:13) Jacinta was very aware of this and gladly accepted all the sufferings that came her way in reparation for all the sins that the Lord is offended.

Therefore, when she was crying in the prison of Ourém because she missed her parents very much, the suggestion from Francisco and Lucia to offer this as a sacrifice was enough to immediately make her wipe away her tears, and gladly and even with some pleasure to offer this sacrifice for the conversion of sinners. When the pain from her illness became almost unbearable, she would confide to her friend Lucia that Jesus must be very happy with her because this has cost her quite a bit.

Already when she and Francisco were sick in bed, she called with urgency for Lucia to tell her: Look, Lucia – Jacinta said to her all excited – Our Lady came to both of us and said that she is going to take Francisco very soon to Heaven. And she asked me if I would like to convert more sinners (by means of suffering). I told her yes, I wanted. Then after the hospital cold-blooded surgery, she said in an outburst prayer to Jesus, "Now, you can convert many sinners, for I suffer a lot."

Only God knows what she went through at the hospital in Ourém where she was operated on without anaesthesia; only God knows what she suffered with an ever-open wound in her chest already oozing with pus. And yet, her body was found to be incorruptible when it was exhumed in 1935 for the cause of beatification.

With his death on the cross Jesus restored the human race, and repaired our union with the Father. Jacinta who loved to imitate Jesus the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders in the midst of the flock, ended up also imitating him in the three-year length of time of his public life, the sufferings of his passion, and in the agony and loneliness of his death. She passed away three years after the apparitions and died alone in a hospital with an open chest wound just like her Lord.

Therefore in her short lifetime, Jacinta not only imitated Christ the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, but also imitated Christ the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sins of the world because the conversion of sinners was the only motivation for her sufferings and short life.

Paraphrasing a sonnet by the Portuguese poet Camões, much more would she had loved if not for such a great love so short a life. She died three years after the apparitions on the 20th of February, 1920, at just 10 years of age.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

Fatima: Francisco, the Contemplative

Human profile
Francisco de Jesus Marto was born on June 11, 1908, in Aljustrel, a little hamlet belonging to the parish of Fatima, municipality of Ourém in Portugal. He was the youngest son of Manuel Pedro Marto and his wife, Olimpia de Jesus dos Santos.

He was the brother of Jacinta, who like her, did not exhibit the rustic characteristics of their cousin Lucia. He was a handsome and sturdy boy with an oval face, high cheekbones and a full lower lip like his sister’s. Unlike her, however, he was gentle and a pacifist, but not one with “peace of the soul”. On the contrary, he was energetic, strong, purposeful and robust.

Typical of most children at that age, Francisco liked to play; however, unlike his sister he was not a poor loser, to the point that it almost seemed that he did not want to win at games at all. In fact, when someone broke the rules at a game or stubbornly denied him his personal rights, he yielded without resisting by simply saying, “Do you think it was you who won? That’s alright! I don’t care!”

And whenever someone took advantage of his calm nature to rob him of something, he would say, “Let him keep it, I do not mind.” His calm temperament used to exasperate his cousin Lucia; she could order him to do anything and he would do it without questioning.

He was not at all a coward, however. He could go out at night all alone without any fear or otherwise. He used to play with lizards and snakes that he found, and would get them to roll themselves around a stick and make them drink the sheep’s milk that he poured into the holes in the rocks, . He was passionate about music which he played on a reed pipe during the quiet hours, and like Jacinta, he was also a lover of flowers and nature.

Morally he was irreproachable – One morning – Mrs. Olimpia tells us – as he was going out to pasture the flock, I said to him: -- “Go today to the little hill at your godmother Teresa’s place, she is not there today, she went to the village.” And right away he answered: -- “Ah, that’s what I will not do!” I gave him a slap on the face but he did not flinch. He turned to me and said in a very serious voice, “So, it is my mother who is teaching me to steal?”

Francisco and the Enneagram
It is commonly understood that there are three centers of intelligence – the brain, the heart and the body; we are therefore cerebral, emotional, or visceral i.e. instinctive. While we all register reality, and relate to it and to others from all three intelligence centers, we always have one that is, somehow, default or preferential to the other two.

In the Enneagram´s psychological theory, there are nine types of personality, three for each of the personality center mentioned above; each personality type is identified by a specific compulsion, drive or tendency of which the person is unaware but influences and even determines his or her behaviour.

Whether it is by coincidence or providence, these three centers are very well represented by the three little shepherds. Lucia is cerebral, Jacinta is emotional and Francisco is visceral or instinctive. Each one of them incarnates the message of Fatima in their own way according to their basic personality and intelligence center. Within his instinctive center, Francisco is definitely not an 8 whose compulsion is to be strong or a 1 whose compulsion is to be perfect but is very clearly a 9 whose compulsion is to seek out peace and harmony, avoiding conflicts at all cost.

The nines in the Enneagram tend to forget themselves by accommodating the agendas of others. Lucia in her memoirs noted this of Francisco that he obeyed without questioning almost as if like a robot. The nines are excellent “peacemakers” because they have learned to minimize conflicts which we also note in Francisco. In order to avoid conflict, he was even capable of depriving himself of something dear to him, as is recounted in the following:

On one occasion, Francisco was gifted with a lovely handkerchief on which was stamped the image of Our Lady of Nazareth, which he prized dearly and displayed it with pride among his friends. The handkerchief was passed from hand to hand, and in a few minutes it disappeared. – “He liked the handkerchief very much” – says his mother – “and spoke about it very often”. When, however, they told him that the handkerchief was in the possession of another boy who claimed it to be his, Francisco made no effort to get it back: -- “Let him have it! What does a handkerchief matter to me?”

The nines avoid conflicts at all cost and seek tranquility, peace and harmony (internal and external). Francisco lived detached from everything and everyone, a little in the stratosphere; there were very few things that truly mattered to him who was quiet and impartial to people and things, a self-absorbed contemplative.

Eucharistic and contemplative
“I loved seeing the Angel and I loved still more seeing Our Lady. But what I loved the most of all was to see Our Lord in that light from Our Lady which penetrated our hearts. I love God so much… But He is very sad because of so many sins… We must never commit even the smallest sin!...” (…) “In a little while Jesus will come for me to take me to Heaven with Him and then I will always be looking at Him and consoling Him. How wonderful!  -- (Francisco)

-- We were burning, in that light that is God, and we were not scorched. – Francisco spent hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament which he called “the Hidden Jesus”. Penance and prayer summarize the message of Fatima; both Francisco and Jacinta did penance and prayer, but Francisco was more inclined to prayer while Jacinta to penance. While Jacinta in her penance was busy saving sinners, all Francisco wanted to do in his prayer was to console Jesus.

So just like Jesus did with the apostles, Francisco would from time to time without anyone realizing it leave the company of his sister and cousin and hide behind a wall or go to a deserted place and there he would pray alone. When Lucia and Jacinta found him, Lucia would ask, “Francisco, why don’t you tell me to pray with you, and Jacinta too?” – “I prefer praying by myself,” he answered, “so that I can think and console Our Lord who is so sad!”

Already after the apparitions, Lucia recalls that on their way to school, sometimes on reaching Fatima, he would say to her: -- Listen, you go to school, and I’ll stay here in the Church, close to the Hidden Jesus. It’s not worth my while learning to read, as I’ll be going to Heaven very soon. On your way home, come here and call me.

Despite the love for the Eucharist, for the Hidden Jesus, the parish priest of Fatima refused to give him Communion. But while the priest refused him, the angel in one of the earlier apparitions did not deny him the blessed sacrament, and upon receiving the Communion, Francisco exclaimed, “I felt that God was in me, but I didn’t know how.”

After the apparitions, the lives of the two siblings changed drastically. Jacinta never missed an opportunity to offer all the sacrifices to God for the conversion of sinners. Francisco, on the other hand, never missed an occasion to isolate himself from his sister, cousin and other children to spend long hours alone praying the Rosary and consoling Jesus. He said, “Do not come here; let me stay alone.” – But what are you doing here so long? – I am thinking about God who is so sad, because of so many sins! If only I was able to give Him joy!

I live without living in myself, and is so sublime the life I am hoping to live that I am hastening to die. (St. Teresa of Avila)

So deep was Francisco’s relationship with the “Hidden Jesus”, that he no longer thought or wanted anything else. All the time was yet not enough to be with Him, and to console Him. One day he was asked if he would like to become a carpenter, a soldier, a doctor, or even a priest and he responded that he would like to die instead and go to Heaven.

When Francisco and Jacinta were already very sick and confined to their rooms, oftentimes, Lucia was the one carrying messages between them. Since it was known to them that Francisco would die first, Jacinta sent words to remind him not to forget to pray for her and Lucia when he got to heaven. To which he responded that he was afraid he would forget when he saw Our Lord face to face. He was foreseeing that upon seeing Our Lord he would be so engrossed and absorbed by the vision of Him that everything would be completely erased from his mind.

And to Heaven in fact he did go on the 4th of April, 1919, two years after the apparitions and after some time of illness during which his parents were certain that they could save him. One day his godmother Teresa promised that if Our Lady would cure him she would offer Her his weight in flour; Francisco responded with an angelic smile, “Our Lady will not grant you this grace”.  To any word of hope of improvement, he answered, “It is useless, Our Lady wants me with her in Heaven”; he would not say it with a sense of tragic resignation, but joyfully smiling, and in good spirits.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC