Tag: Fatima Series

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Mary

Finding Jesus in the Immaculate Heart

Michael R. Heinlein

April 30, 2023 6:01 am April 30, 2023

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An antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours for the solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception refers to her as the “fairest honor of our race.” Or in the Second Vatican…

An antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours for the solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception refers to her as the “fairest honor of our race.” Or in the Second Vatican Council’s terms, Mary “far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth” (Lumen Gentium, No. 53). It’s fitting and appropriate, then, to echo St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s claim that when speaking about Christ’s mother: “De Maria numquam satis” (“About Mary, never enough”). This maxim has proven true for theologians over the 2,000-year history of Christianity. As the first believer, she is the model of Gospel living par excellence. As Pope St. John Paul II put it: “Among creatures no one knows Christ better than Mary; no one can introduce us to a profound knowledge of his mystery better than his Mother” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, No. 14).

The Immaculate Heart

How do we know Mary best? As with anyone, her key is in her heart. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:21). We know from the Magnificat that Mary’s treasure is her Son.

Mary referred to her heart several times at Fatima, including once when she told the oldest shepherd child to whom she appeared, Lucia, something integral to her messages: “I will never leave you; my Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” It’s clear we need to pay attention to what defines her heart.

Scripture references Mary’s heart twice, both in the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel (verses 19 and 51). We learn that Mary “reflects” and “keeps” in her heart the mysterious events surrounding the Incarnation. Intertwined with her core identity is the identity of her Son and that of his mission as redeemer and savior. Mary’s fiat (“yes”) was the portal through which God chose to allow himself to begin his saving work. Mary’s fiat remedied Adam and Eve’s “no,” showing us the way to her Son, who is the remedy for all sin. The Virgin Mother is the channel through which God brings healing balm to humanity’s sinfulness, through whom we experience the fullness of grace. She who is “full of grace” presents to us and leads us to her Son.

The contents of her heart

It is the condition of Mary’s heart, then, that serves as a model for Christians in our quest to follow her Son. It is within her heart that God chose to come and find his initial dwelling among us. This is integral to the message of Fatima, the message that ultimately brings the peace for which humanity yearns. When we live like Mary, when we commit our whole selves to Christ and invite his word to dwell within our hearts, we prepare ourselves to be agents of peace. With Mary as our guide, each of the baptized is to present and lead the world to her Son. As Pope Paul VI said in his 1974 Marian encyclical Marialis Cultus: “In the Virgin Mary everything is relative to Christ and dependent upon him” (No. 25).

This is what defines Mary’s holy, immaculate heart. The identity of her heart is what forms the themes of Fatima’s message: humble holiness, charity and undying obedience to and faith in God’s will. These qualities are what each of us must appropriate within our own hearts. This enables us to reflect upon and keep Christ in our hearts like Mary. These qualities are, indeed, the legend on the map directing us to God, as Mary identified her Immaculate Heart at Fatima. Each of us is called to make the defining characteristics of Mary’s heart the defining characteristics of our own hearts. The transformation to which each of us is called is made possible and accomplished in Mary.

‘Ad Jesum Per Mariam’

For this reason, devotion to Mary’s heart — her Immaculate Heart — has been proposed for emulation by saints and theologians for centuries. From the earliest Christian times, believers turned to Mary and sought “to imitate her in making their lives an act of worship of God and making their worship a commitment of their lives” (Marialis Cultus, No. 21). From the fourth century, as Paul VI calls to our attention in his Marian encyclical, St. Ambrose hoped that his flock would adopt Mary’s heart. “May the heart of Mary be in each Christian to proclaim the greatness of the Lord; may her spirit be in everyone to exult in God,” St. Ambrose preached.

Roots of the devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart are particularly ingrained among the French. St. John Eudes was well-known for propagating the devotion through his 17th-century preaching and teaching. Several parishes in France took up a feast day to honor the Immaculate Heart at his behest, and he is credited with sparking universal interest in the devotion.

At Fatima the Blessed Mother reiterated the work of many preachers and saints. Mary’s words to Lucia indicate that she is indeed the clearest model for Christians who desire to follow her Son. As the prayer composed by French Sulpician Father Jean Jacques Olier said, we are to find “Jesus living in Mary.” There also is great wisdom in the motto of the French mariologist St. Louis de Montfort, who teaches: “Ad Jesum Per Mariam” (“To Jesus through Mary”). We should make the famous Monfortian prayer, from which John Paul II took his episcopal motto, our own: “Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria” (“I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart”).

Apparitions and consecrations

Mary gives to us her heart. But moreover, she exposed at Fatima a path for us to adopt her heart and place ourselves in her motherly embrace. Through the First Saturday devotion, the Blessed Mother shows us how to make holy, loving, obedient hearts from which peace emanates. In the July apparition at Fatima, Mary explained that, on five consecutive First Saturdays, participants of this devotion “shall confess, receive holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

This devotion springs from a glimpse of hell that Mary showed the three Fatima visionaries, after which she said, “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.”

Devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart received universal support from Venerable Pope Pius XII 25 years after the apparitions at Fatima. It seemed providential since he was ordained a bishop on May 13, 1917 — the day Mary first appeared at Fatima.

Not only did Pope Pius XII establish the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942, but he also composed a prayer of consecration to her Immaculate Heart. In compliance with the wishes made known by the Blessed Mother at Fatima, and in subsequent apparitions to Lucia, Pope Pius consecrated the world (in the midst of World War II, 1942) and Russia (toward the start of the Cold War, 1952) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Russia’s consecration was explicitly desired by the Blessed Mother because of communism’s growth and anti-Christian agenda.

The consecratory prayer composed by Pope Pius XII beautifully reiterates the call to form our hearts after Mary’s. An excerpt of the prayer shows this devotion ties together so many of the themes of Fatima’s messages: “Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God! Obtain especially those graces, which can convert human hearts quickly. Those graces, which can prepare, establish and insure peace. Queen of Peace, pray for us; Give the world at war the peace for which all are longing, Peace in truth, Justice and the Charity of Christ. Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind, that in tranquility and order the kingdom of God may expand.”

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article appeared originally in Our Sunday Visitor.

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Mary

An enduring message of peace

Michael R. Heinlein

March 19, 2023 7:17 am March 19, 2023

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The world in which the three children of Fatima lived was not unlike our own. They began receiving supernatural visions in 1916, in the midst of World War I. Dubbed…

The world in which the three children of Fatima lived was not unlike our own. They began receiving supernatural visions in 1916, in the midst of World War I. Dubbed the “war to end all wars,” in many ways it embodied the rampant secularism beginning post-Enlightenment. Today there is no doubt that secularism has a firm grip on our world — not to mention an ongoing fear and threat of war in a deeply divided and wounded world. We are still a world longing for peace.

The message of Fatima is best understood in this context. The children were chosen to relay to us a heavenly message that was meant to direct us back toward humanity’s ultimate and truest destiny — to live as God’s true children. Fatima reminds humanity of our call to mirror our heavenly Father, to foster peace.

In many ways the message of Fatima was meant to heal a plagued society, by prescribing various essential aspects of Christian life that had gone by the wayside in a secularized world. The message of Fatima gave us the balm we needed to heal society’s wounds. That message, which was so relevant then, remains so relevant today.

Preparing the children

The apparitions at Fatima, the centenary of which the Church celebrated in 2017 — specifically from May to October — were prefaced by three other apparitions of the self-described “Angel of Peace.” Some points of the angel’s message are worth considering and provide us with some of the kernels of the messages later delivered by Our Lady. Much more can and will be said about the messages from Our Lady’s apparitions in the coming months.

A look at the delivery of all great heavenly messages in Scripture will show us how God prepares the recipients of the message. Consider here the prophets of the Old Covenant, or even St. John the Baptist, who heralded the Messiah — the one who came to bring peace by reconciling the world though his sacrifice.

Thanks to such preparatory work, people knew not only to look for the Messiah — the longed-for savior of God’s people — but also to recognize him when he came. Those preparatory messengers were emissaries who prepared the way for the King.

At Fatima, the angel, a title that means “messenger,” prepared the three shepherd-children of Fatima to receive the message that Jesus intended for his mother to deliver.

The angel who visited the Fatima children came to them three times in 1916. And those preparatory visits were extremely important to prepare the children for Our Lady’s visits. But they also serve to highlight some of the essential themes to the overall message of Fatima that presents anew the remedy to sin that Christ alone can give.

Faithful in prayer

The foundation of the angel’s message to the Fatima children was to increase their prayer life. It was explained that a strong prayer life was needed to strengthen and sustain them in the future plans that Jesus and Mary had for them. It is known that the lives of the seers would change dramatically once the apparitions became known — that they would be mistreated and suffer. And the two Marto siblings, Francisco and Jacinta, would suffer painful, early deaths.

Beyond teaching the children prayers, the angel asked them to make sacrifices. But Lucia, the cousin of the Marto children and the eldest of the visionaries, asked the angel how they should go about this.

Years later, Sister Lucia recorded the angel’s response in her diary.

“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace. … Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

This angelic message contains several themes central to the later messages delivered to the children by Our Lady: sacrifice, love for sinners and peace. None of these themes are groundbreaking in the sense that they all flow from and direct us to Christ. But they were a necessary reminder to a troubled world that lost sight of these essentials.

Lives of sacrifice

By inviting the children to practice lives of sacrifice, the angel invited them to imitate Christ’s own life. Everything the Lord did, he offered to his heavenly Father.

On the night before he died, he sacrificed his own will in favor of God’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. On Good Friday he offered up his spirit to the Father for our sake, in the greatest act of sacrificial love the world has ever known. He gave us a model to follow at the Last Supper, showing us how to imitate his act of love on Calvary — to put ourselves aside and sacrifice ourselves in humble service to others. As St. Thomas Aquinas declared: “To love is to will the good of another.”

When we live in imitation of Christ’s sacrificial life, we find the cure to the selfishness that plagues the world. Today’s world is in great need of sacrificial living, of loving — to will the other’s good above our own.

The angel of Fatima says all things should be offered as sacrifice. So like Christ, we should sacrifice to God all that we would normally long for: our wants, comforts, longings or inclinations. We offer our very lives to God, who gave them to us in the first place.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, calls us to live sacrificially, exhorting us even “to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).

The message that the angel delivers about sacrifice connects it to two other realities. Our sacrifices should be offered on behalf of sinners. This is an act of charity, of love for those who are separated from God through whatever sins they committed. By living sacrificially and working to reconcile our brothers and sisters with God, the angel then teaches that peace will be the result.

Peace is the fruit of reconciliation. By working to heal ruptured relationships and eradicate selfishness, peace will naturally flow. In his own sacrifice, St. Paul says Christ was “making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20).

Our Lady gave further and clearer instructions to the children of Fatima relating to prayer and sacrifice, all of which aimed to direct the world on the path to peace — a world engaged in so much strife and destruction resulting from a lack of prayer and sacrifice.

Worthy apparitions

After the thorough investigations conducted by the Church, which happens after any sort of supernatural apparition, the Church has endorsed the message of Fatima at the highest levels. The local bishop of Fatima deemed the apparitions to be worthy of belief by the faithful in 1930. The messages of Fatima became especially significant during the World War II era, and the apparitions were particularly championed by the wartime pontiff Pope Pius XII, who was ordained a bishop on May 13, 1917, the date of Our Lady’s first apparition to the shepherd children.

The first half of the 20th century was dominated by two world wars in which Russia was a major player. The rise of communism in Russia — an embodiment of secularism’s ideals, with its persecution of religion and its exaltation of domination and selfishness — was seen as a major obstacle to world peace. Sister Lucia received later visions from Our Lady in which she asked for the entire world, particularly Russia, to be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart — the heart through which we contemplate Christ’s own. Pope Pius XII did so on multiple occasions, notably in a solemn ceremony at the Vatican in 1942. Pope John Paul II also did so in 1984.

Subsequent popes have all been proponents of the message of Fatima. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI pointed out the connection of sacrifice and peace in Fatima’s message during a pilgrimage to the Fatima shrine, noting that the Christian is defined by an “unshakable hope which bears fruit in a love which sacrifices for others.” He added: “Only with this fraternal and generous love will we succeed in building the civilization of love and peace.”

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor.

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Mary

St. Joseph’s powerful, silent witness at Fatima

Michael R. Heinlein

March 14, 2021 2:12 pm March 14, 2021

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Of all the various apparitions and messages to come out of Fatima a century ago, there is an often neglected component. Sister Lucia, the eldest and longest-living Fatima seer, recorded…

Of all the various apparitions and messages to come out of Fatima a century ago, there is an often neglected component. Sister Lucia, the eldest and longest-living Fatima seer, recorded in her diary that on Oct. 13, 1917 — “the day the sun danced” — St. Joseph appeared at Fatima. As he held the Christ Child, it looked as if they were both offering the world a blessing. Despite the few details recorded about St. Joseph’s brief time on Fatima’s stage, interestingly, it is similar to his appearance in the Gospel — in neither did St. Joseph utter a word.

The appearance of St. Joseph at Fatima is stark in its simplicity, leaving little wonder why this minor episode in the catalogue of Fatima events is slighted.

Yet despite that fact, the appearance of St. Joseph at the final apparition at Fatima is chock full of significance that relates to the Fatima’s promise of peace.

Peace and the family

The messages of Fatima clearly intend to propose anew the road map humanity should follow to obtain God’s peace. Peace, hearers of Fatima are reminded, is the experience when prayer and sacrificial charity — fundamentally, imitation of Christ — define our lives. Peace requires humility and submission to God’s plan for humanity as revealed in Scripture and Tradition.

Ultimately, Fatima’s promise of peace comes as the result of living as God wills. For that very reason, Fatima places before us the example of Mary and her Immaculate Heart — the epitome of imitation of her Son’s obedience to God’s will through love and sacrifice.

When living as God intends, we must acknowledge another essential building block in the path toward peace: the family. God established the family as the basic unit of human society, and he exalted it by entering into his creation through membership in a family. Many today, to varying degrees, are trying to redefine the family. God’s plan, however, is clear and is manifested above all in the Holy Family of Nazareth.

The institution of the family is undermined and collapsing in a variety of spheres today. Many in the modern world believe Christian concepts of marriage and human sexuality are outdated. It is en vogue (erroneously) to criticize the limitations to freedom levied by the Christian vision of marriage and sexuality. But along with that, there is no doubt that the world simultaneously and desperately needs and craves peace.

Living as God wants is a reality that presupposes humanity’s adoption of God’s plan for us, discernible in creation and revealed more fully in his Son Jesus.

The presence of St. Joseph at the Fatima apparitions evokes this reality and reminds us that the flourishing of family life is an essential part of God’s plan for peace. St. Joseph models that way of life by authentically living out his call as a model father, husband and servant of God.

St. Joseph, father

St. Joseph’s presence at Fatima exalts his example of fatherhood and its essential role in the flourishing of humanity. The Gospels explain that St. Joseph provided for the Holy Family in all circumstances.

St. Joseph is the one “into whose custody God entrusted his most precious treasures,” as was said in Blessed Pope Paul VI’s decree naming St. Joseph patron of the universal Church. Dutifully and lovingly, St. Joseph handed on to Jesus the traditions, rituals, customs and prayers of the Jewish faith.

Paul VI also exhorted fathers in an August 1976 general audience: “And you, fathers, do you pray with your children, with the whole domestic community, at least sometimes? Your example of honesty in thought and action, joined to some common prayer, is a lesson for life, an act of worship of singular value. In this way you bring peace to your homes: Pax huic domui. Remember, it is thus that you build up the Church.”

This is all present at Fatima, as a witness to the world, encapsulated by St. Joseph tenderly and lovingly holding his Son, God’s Son who was entrusted to his care — together offering a prayer by invoking God’s blessing upon the world.

Today’s world experiences untold turmoil on account of absentee fathers. Numerous studies keep coming up with the same data. Children without a father figure are lacking something.

The majority of children who come from homes without fathers experience poverty, have abused drugs and alcohol more readily, dropped out of school or have become the victims of a variety of emotional and physical ailments. Fatherless boys have a higher propensity toward violence and crime, and fatherless girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens.

St. Joseph, husband

Sister Lucia said that not only was St. Joseph holding his divine Son at Fatima, but he also was next to the Blessed Virgin Mary. How notable that St. Joseph does not appear without his holy wife.

This minor detail underscores St. Joseph’s love and fidelity toward the Blessed Mother. St. Joseph was chosen to play an important role in salvation history, there is no doubt. But in God’s design, he was also chosen to be Mary’s husband — carrying with that all that it means to be a husband. It’s a temptation to be avoided, losing sight of this spousal chosenness. Statistics in the developed world are staggering where marriages are concerned — nearly half end in divorce. Marriage’s permanency, commitment and fidelity are all considered constraints to freedom.

But for St. Joseph, life and love was no longer about himself when he committed to Mary. The Gospels show how he knew that for peace in a marriage, both spouses must be willing to die to self each day. Spouses truly live for the other. “And two become one flesh” — at Fatima we see spousal love — where Mary is, Joseph is.

The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph are united most fully through the Incarnation: “He shared in it with her; he was involved in the same salvific event; he was the guardian of the same love, through the power of which the eternal Father ‘destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ’ (Eph 1:5),” said Pope St. John Paul II in his 1989 apostolic exhortation on St. Joseph, Custos Redemptoris (No. 1).

St. Joseph and Mary model how marital unity is derived from unity in Christ. When spouses truly seek to live as Christ for the other, they are laying a fertile ground in which peace can blossom. The seeds are prayer and self-sacrificial love, among others. In modeling this way of life for their children, Christian spouses do a great service to the human race.

John Paul II highlighted the centrality of the family in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio: “The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (No. 86).

St. Joseph, servant

John Paul II prayed that the faithful will turn to St. Joseph as a powerful example of Christian living, and “always keep before their eyes his humble, mature way of serving and of ‘taking part’ in the plan of salvation” (Custos Redemptoris, No. 1).

This humble and mature way of serving God is evidenced in one of St. Joseph’s primary characteristics in the Gospel and his apparition at Fatima: his silence.

Silence does not mean complacency, though. St. Joseph’s silence highlights his prayerful discernment to know the will of God. But more than that, it illustrates his wholehearted desire unhesitatingly to do God’s will — no questions asked!

The things we know about St. Joseph from the Gospel all entail such a faithful obedience. But that does not exist in a vacuum; it is produced by a way of life grounded in prayer and sacrificial charity. St. Joseph is a doer who lays down his life to achieve God’s purposes in his life. He does not get caught up in himself or his wants, fears or opinions. He hears God’s word and responds.

How could St. Joseph do any of the things that we know of him — living as a faithful and loving spouse, a devoted and caring father and an obedient servant of God — if silence was not a part of his life? Silence fueled St. Joseph to answer God’s call for him, prayerfully and lovingly.

St. Joseph models how peace comes from this way of life — after all, the fruit of his life was giving a home to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. However insignificant it might appear, St. Joseph’s presence at Fatima adds depth and perspective to its message.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor as part of a series on Marian apparitions at Fatima.

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Mary

Fatima’s final visions

Michael R. Heinlein

May 10, 2019 8:26 am May 10, 2019

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In 2017, the Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearances at Fatima, Portugal. While belief in apparitions such as these are not required of the Christian faithful, one…

In 2017, the Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s appearances at Fatima, Portugal. While belief in apparitions such as these are not required of the Christian faithful, one realizes, after examining the message of Fatima closely, that it really is just the basic message of Christianity. When understood properly, and in the right context, Fatima relays to humanity a plan for life that is contained already in Scripture.

Fatima’s promise is peace — something for which every human heart longs. The problem is, many of us debate how to achieve it. For the Christian, it is clear that peace comes through modeling one’s life after Christ himself. The message of Fatima aims to remind us simply of that basic fact. It redirects us to appropriate the life of obedience, sacrifice and prayer that defines the life of Christ — attainable through the heart of his Blessed Mother. Peace is not imposed from on high; it must well up in the hearts of men and women. We will know peace only when we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14).

The messages of Fatima were delivered only to the three shepherd children — Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta — but those messages were not just for them. Rather, the children were emissaries to all of humanity. And to add credibility to their word, the apparition at Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917 — the last apparition to the children — contained supernatural phenomena visible to more than 70,000. Even then, though, many still attempt to discredit what happened that day. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, often appropriated by many, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

The events of Oct. 13 have caused it to be remembered as “the day the sun danced.” The occurrences at Fatima that day brought many to conversion and belief. In many ways, the miracle that day supplied credibility to the shepherd children and the messages they received from the Blessed Mother at Fatima.

The day the sun danced

What happened at Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917? Eyewitnesses testified that the sun began emitting an astounding variety of rays in a spectrum of colors. As it began zigging and zagging across the sky, the sun eventually appeared to hurl itself down toward earth.

The crowds gathered in anticipation that morning were soaking wet from the massive rain that fell. When the sun did its dance, not only did their clothes instantly dry, but the soaked and muddied ground dried up, too — parched and cracked after the solar spectacle.

The event came to pass in accord with what had been foretold by the oldest seer, Lucia. For that reason, many came to the Cova di Iria at Fatima that day. The onlookers included believers and nonbelievers alike. Many in the secular press came to Fatima that day hoping to see the shepherd children proven wrong. They planned to seize upon an uneventful day in hopes to discredit not only the visionary children but also the Church itself. By God’s providence, many of them left converted.

In the subsequent decades since the final apparition at Fatima, theologians and scientists have attempted to explain the solar phenomena that happened that October day. None of the skeptics have been able to disprove it was on account of heavenly intervention. That does not mean they have not tried, however. Some skeptics have claimed that it was mass hysteria on the part of the crowds — something quite unlikely considering tens of thousands saw the sun dance that day. Likewise, there were no reports of eye damage by the witnesses, something that surely would have occurred for anyone directly staring into the sun under normal circumstances. Other skeptics have claimed it could have been a UFO, although even up until now no other life outside this planet has been discovered. And there are other attempts that have not held any weight according to reason or logic. Yet the question remains: How could the young, illiterate shepherd girl Lucia have predicted the day and time for the unique solar phenomenon without a heavenly disclosure?

Other visions that day

In addition to the usual vision of the Blessed Mother that the children saw during the previous apparitions at Fatima, the children also saw other visions on Oct. 13, 1917. It is worth exploring what these other visions mean and what their connection to the message of Fatima might be.

Lucia recorded that St. Joseph and the Child Jesus were there that day, blessing the earth. This connection illustrates the importance of family life, especially in connection to the promise of peace made at Fatima. Peace is only possible when we subscribe to God’s plan for creation, and there is no doubt that the family is a foundational building block in creation’s order. Additionally, St. Joseph reminds us that fatherhood, and, thus, complementarity, is intrinsic to God’s plan.

Aside from the way Mary appeared to the children during the six apparitions at Fatima, the children also saw her presence manifested in two other, familiar ways that October day: as the Sorrowful Mother and Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Throughout the ages, Mary has appeared and manifested herself in a variety of ways. These apparitions each draw our attention to different emphases of the spiritual life, for which she is the exemplary human model. Out of love and concern for us, Mary had repeatedly tried to steer humanity back on the path toward a full, life-giving relationship with God.

What can we draw from Fatima’s connection to the Sorrowful Mother? Devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart is encouraged at Fatima — a heart that is also sorrowful, as we learn in Scripture (see Lk 2:34-35). The message of Fatima renews the call to repent from our sins, and, when we think about it, Mary’s heart is sorrowful because of the harsh reality that her Son was born to die for the redemption of sins. Reflection on Mary’s sorrow draws our attention to the fact that the Sorrowful Mother is sorrowful solely because of us and our sins. For this same reason, peace is lacking in the world.

Devotion to the Sorrowful Mother helps us to remember that God’s favor is not immune from suffering. While Mary was favored and chosen to be the Mother of God, her life clearly is filled with suffering. The shepherd children knew suffering well — two of them would suffer painful deaths in a short period of time. By meditating on Mary’s experiences of grief and sorrow, we more fully can understand that God is alive and active even in our lives’ suffering. Her suffering offers a prism through which to view the totality of human suffering.

And the vision of Our Lady of Mount Carmel? Tradition holds that the Blessed Mother was especially honored by the founding members of the Carmelite order. The Marian devotion is so rich within that religious community that St. Teresa of Ávila — one of the greatest Carmelite saints — referred to the order as “the Order of the Virgin.”

Likewise, tradition holds that it was to the Carmelite St. Simon Stock that Mary appeared in the mid-13th century. It was in this vision that the Blessed Mother is said to have imparted the brown scapular to the saint — attached to it the promise that whomever dies wearing it will be saved.

Also related to the scapular is the apocryphal story that Pope John XXII received an apparition from Mary. In the message she delivered to the pope, Mary promised to retrieve from purgatory each Saturday those who died wearing the scapular in the previous week. While there is no verification or circumstantial evidence to support this claim, nor is it promoted today as part of the scapular devotion, it is interesting to note the connection of Saturday to Fatima. In 1925, the Fatima seer Lucia — at the time a professed religious nun — received a vision from the Blessed Mother requesting the First Saturdays devotion in reparation for sins, that which causes the sorrows of her heart. Long a day dedicated to the Blessed Mother, Saturday now contains special significance because of this subsequent apparition connected to Fatima — and those from Our Lady of Mount Carmel nearly a millennia before.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor.

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7 min read

Mary

Pilgrims encounter the message of Fatima

Michael R. Heinlein

May 1, 2019 3:27 pm May 1, 2019

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Pilgrims to Fatima, Portugal, today will find a beautiful campus of churches, monuments, plazas and other buildings that have been built up around the site where the Blessed Virgin Mary…

Pilgrims to Fatima, Portugal, today will find a beautiful campus of churches, monuments, plazas and other buildings that have been built up around the site where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1917. Collectively referred to as the Sanctuary of Fatima, the shrine and its grounds offer an abundance of opportunities for pilgrims to encounter the Lord and his Blessed Mother.

The latest available statistics reflect that the small Portuguese village’s population is just under 12,000. But the fascinating events of a century ago have turned Fatima into one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.

These shrines both inspire and assist pilgrims who desire growth in the Faith — a main theme that caused their construction in the first place. As the American novelist Willa Cather wrote in “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” “Doctrine is well enough for the wise,” but “the miracle is something we can hold in our hands and love.”

Many fortunate Catholics have had the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Fatima during this centennial anniversary year. However, for those unable to make the trip, the following gives a glimpse of what makes the sanctuary so special.

Fatima shrine’s origin

It is said that in the first three years following the final Fatima apparition more than 2 million pilgrims visited the Cova da Iria, the field where Mary is believed to have appeared to three shepherd children on multiple occasions in 1917. Local villagers built the first small chapel, known today as the Chapel of the Apparitions, on the site of the apparitions in 1919. This original chapel only lasted three years before it was destroyed in 1922.

As civic and Church leaders awaited the results of the Church’s formal investigation regarding the apparitions, they were ambivalent about construction of the original chapel at Fatima. The local bishop first participated in any liturgy on the site in 1927, an event that was associated with the installation of Stations of the Cross on the nearby hillside. A center for infirm pilgrims also opened in Fatima that year.

Sanctuary of Fatima

Between 1928 and 1954, the church of Our Lady of the Rosary — named so because of the Blessed Mother’s repeated requests to pray the Rosary daily for peace — was under construction. During that time, the Catholic Church officially approved the Fatima apparitions as worthy of belief. Dedicated upon completion of its construction, the church was named a basilica by Venerable Pope Pius XII. A striking square, surrounded with a colonnade and a variety of statuary representing Portuguese saints, graces the area in front of the basilica.

Above the entrance to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary stands a marble statue of Our Lady as she appeared at Fatima. The artwork was sculpted by an American priest and presented as a gift to the sanctuary from Catholics in the United States. A mosaic in the sanctuary depicts the Holy Trinity’s coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary — a scene evoking the fifth glorious mystery of the Rosary. The theme of the Rosary also is echoed in four main statues in the church’s interior that depict various apostles of the Rosary: Sts. Anthony Mary Claret, Dominic, John Eudes and Stephen of Hungary.

During construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, pilgrimages to that location increased. So, too, did interest in the two visionaries who were deceased at the time — now Sts. Francisco and Jacinta Marto. In 1935, their bodies were reburied in the basilica church, where they remain today. The body of the third seer, Lúcia Santos, joined those of the other two in 2006, a year after her death. The Marto seers were canonized this May by Pope Francis. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI waived the mandatory five-year waiting period to open a cause of canonization for Lúcia.

Papal plaudits

In 1946, Venerable Pope Pius XII granted permission for a canonical coronation of the Our Lady of Fatima statue at the shrine. The abundance of pilgrim crowds that day forced the site to be shuttered temporarily, and a monument on the sanctuary’s grounds is dedicated to Pope Pius XII for his support of the Fatima message.

Two other popes also are memorialized on the campus of the Fatima sanctuary: Pope Blessed Paul VI and Pope St. John Paul II. Paul VI was the first pope to make a pilgrimage to Fatima, having done so in 1967 for the 50th anniversary of the apparitions. The Paul VI Pastoral Center on the campus of the shrine has an auditorium that seats more than 2,000 and can accommodate more than 400.

John Paul II made three historic pilgrimages to Fatima during his papacy. In addition, he credited Our Lady of Fatima for saving his life following a 1981 assassination attempt that took place on her feast day. One of the bullets lodged in his body that day rests in the crown atop the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Chapel of the Apparitions.

Another significant portion of the Fatima sanctuary includes a portion of the Berlin Wall, which calls to mind the dark history of communism in Russia. Our Lady’s request at Fatima for Russia’s consecration bore fruit when the wall fell in 1989, along with communism in Russia.

A variety of other chapels and buildings dot the landscape of the sanctuary’s grounds. The greatest of these is the stark, modern church dedicated to the Holy Trinity — erected because of a need to accommodate more pilgrims than the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary could. Construction commenced in 2004, with a cornerstone blessed by John Paul II and containing a fragment of marble from the tomb of St. Peter. The church was dedicated in 2007 by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. It was named a basilica in 2012. There are also two retreat houses on the shrine’s grounds, which also serve as guest hostels — Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

American Fatima shrines

A little closer to home, there are three well-known shrines that honor Our Lady of Fatima in the United States found in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima was founded in 1946 to promote devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and daily recitation of the Rosary as well as observance of the duties associated with one’s state in life. The National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima church was built in Washington Township, New Jersey, in 1978. The shrine’s grounds contain replicas of two important Marian chapels: Fatima’s Chapel of the Apparitions and the Holy House of Loretto — the house in Italy that claims to have been mystically transported from the Holy Land for safe-keeping during the Crusades. There is also a Rosary garden and many outdoor shrines.

In 1963, the Barnabite Fathers from Italy chose to build what would become the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Lewiston, New York — a sacred place through which they could promote the message of Fatima in the United States. There are many outdoor shrines and statues on the 16-acre campus near Niagara Falls, but the centerpiece is the shrine church, which was named a basilica in 1975. A statue of Our Lady of Fatima, sculpted of Vermont granite, sits atop the domed, glass church. The campus also houses the only other replica of Fatima’s Chapel of the Apparitions in the United States.

Additionally, there is also a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima in Holliston, Massachusetts, which was founded in 1949 by the Xaverian Missionaries.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor.

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Mary

Praying with apparitions

Michael R. Heinlein

January 26, 2019 11:17 am January 26, 2019

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8 min read

The theme of prayer is central to the Fatima apparitions, and, indeed, a variety of prayers arose from the supernatural visions received by the three shepherd children. Several of those…

The theme of prayer is central to the Fatima apparitions, and, indeed, a variety of prayers arose from the supernatural visions received by the three shepherd children. Several of those prayers are now a treasured portion of many of the faithful’s prayer life. It’s noteworthy in this Fatima centenary year to take a look at aspects of the Faith that some of these prayers emphasize as well as what some of these prayers teach us.

The Pardon Prayer

In the prefatory visits of the angel at Fatima, several prayers were taught to the shepherd children, the first of which is the Pardon Prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love thee! I beg pardon for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love thee.”

The prayer fosters an expression of the three theological virtues — faith, hope and charity. These virtues “dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1812). This prayer at the onset of the Fatima apparitions indicates our desire to advance in our participation of the divine life. While these apparitions add nothing new to the Faith, Fatima can offer much assistance in our Christian journey. As Pope Benedict XVI noted during a 2010 visit to Fatima, the “Blessed Mother came from heaven, offering to implant in the hearts of all those who trust in her the love of God burning in her own heart.”

The context of the prayer also is helpful for our consideration. Fatima’s apparitions came as many nations were engaged in World War I — the result of a lack of recognition of God’s love in the hearts of many. Mary’s message is in continuity with the message of all of Scripture: When we allow God’s love in our hearts, God blesses us.

The Decade Prayer

The Decade Prayer, called such because Our Lady instructed its recitation at the end of each decade of the Rosary after the Glory Be, is very much part of the lexicon of Catholic prayers today. The Blessed Mother proposed its use after the children received a vision of hell during her third apparition at Fatima on July 13, 1917. That vision and this prayer can be said to focus on two realities: love of God and love of neighbor. After all, these two themes are at the heart of her Son’s teaching, in the greatest commandment (see Mt 22:34-40, Mk 12:28-34, Lk 10:25-28).

Legitimate love for God stirs within our hearts a true sorrow for those times we have damaged our relationship with him through sin. Likewise, our love for God leads us to love our neighbor, which is possible only when we truly want their good and take the initiative to help procure it. The greatest love we can have for our neighbor — the greatest good we can desire for them — is the gift of eternal life. In many ways the Decade Prayer is an expression of the greatest commandment. It leads us to desire holiness more than anything else for ourselves and others. And this desire must be met resolutely with rejection of the devil and his attempts to lure us from God.

The Rosary

Although the Rosary had been in use for more than a millennium, it is the one prayer that Mary spoke about at each of the six apparitions to the shepherd children at Fatima.

On May 13, at the first apparition, Our Lady asked that the children devote their lives to the Blessed Trinity. She then requested them to “pray the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end to the war,” a request she renewed at each apparition. This request presents several noteworthy observations.

First, why the Rosary? Recall that Mary is speaking to little children with little education. Her apparition to them is iconic of the reality that the Gospel is offered to all people, regardless of their academic abilities. This message is exemplified by the simple and memorizable nature of the Rosary; reading is not required.

Why does Mary ask us to pray the Rosary daily? It takes faithfulness and commitment. Many people acknowledge that as much as they might try, there are days they forget or become too busy to pray. Commitment is an essential quality for any follower of the Lord. The kingdom of God should be our utmost concern — consider the parable of the pearl of great price (see Mt 13:45-46).

Why the daily Rosary and not daily Mass? The Rosary can be prayed anywhere at any time. A priest or church is not needed. Many people will even turn to using their fingers if they do not have the blessed beads of a rosary at their disposal. Moreover, Mary would never request anything more than what God and the Church already expect of us (i.e., the Sabbath).

While it’s meant to be a simple prayer, accessible to all regardless of ability or place, the Rosary also has catechetical and evangelizing components. In many ways the Rosary presents the Gospel in miniature. As Pope Blessed Paul VI taught, the Rosary is “a Gospel prayer.” In meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, the life of Christ and the unfolding of salvation is made known to us. This is one reason that it’s helpful to pray the Rosary with our children.

Meditating on the mysteries, we are drawn into contemplation of Christ himself. Our ordinary human experiences find resonance in Christ’s joys and sorrows. This encounter with the Lord leads us to experience the luminous power of his life and the glory we hope to attain.

In contemplating Mary, hope is nurtured by knowing that God, rewarding trust and obedience, works through the poor and lowly and bestows abundant life upon them. Mary is egotism’s opposite in her request to pray the Rosary. The purpose of the prayer is consonant with her life’s goal — to bring us to her Son.

World peace is the conclusion of Mary’s request to pray the Rosary daily. Peace comes through Christ, the Son of God who entered human flesh to model for humanity how we are to live. We cannot achieve peace on our own, for we need God’s grace. When our lives are rooted in faith, hope and charity, and when we seek to emulate Christ in our thoughts, words and deeds, we are daily choosing to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14). Then the peace of Christ that resides in the human heart will extend through ripples of transformation to all the world.

The Rosary is a potent tool for us. The late archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis E. George, called the Rosary “a powerful prayer because it helps us identify our lives with those of the Lord and his Blessed Mother.”

When we identify our lives with Christ and his Mother — when we allow God to reign in our hearts — we are learning to live in God’s realm. And it’s then, and only then — when God reigns over every human heart — that true peace will be known.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael. This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor.

Prayer of Pope Francis at Fatima
Pope Francis prayed in the Little Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima in 2017. The following is an excerpt from his prayer: As a pilgrim of the Light that comes to us from your hands, I give thanks to God the Father, who in every time and place is at work in human history; As a pilgrim of the Peace that, in this place, you proclaim, I give praise to Christ, our peace, and I implore for the world concord among all peoples; As a pilgrim of the Hope that the Spirit awakens, I come as a prophet and messenger to wash the feet of all, at the same table that unites us. … Show us the strength of your protective mantle. In your Immaculate Heart, be the refuge of sinners and the way that leads to God. In union with my brothers and sisters, in faith, in hope and in love, I entrust myself to you. In union with my brothers and sisters, through you, I consecrate myself to God, O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima. And at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from your hands, I will give glory to the Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer of Pope Francis at Fatima

Pope Francis prayed in the Little Chapel of the Apparitions in Fatima in 2017. The following is an excerpt from his prayer:

As a pilgrim of the Light that comes to us from your hands, I give thanks to God the Father, who in every time and place is at work in human history;

As a pilgrim of the Peace that, in this place, you proclaim, I give praise to Christ, our peace, and I implore for the world concord among all peoples;

As a pilgrim of the Hope that the Spirit awakens, I come as a prophet and messenger to wash the feet of all, at the same table that unites us. …

Show us the strength of your protective mantle. In your Immaculate Heart, be the refuge of sinners and the way that leads to God.

In union with my brothers and sisters, in faith, in hope and in love, I entrust myself to you. In union with my brothers and sisters, through you, I consecrate myself to God, O Virgin of the Rosary of Fatima.

And at last, enveloped in the Light that comes from your hands, I will give glory to the Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

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