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
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