Learn Our Lady's Message
The Message of Hope for the World
Our Lady's message to the three Shepherd children at Fatima is as relevant today as it was over a century ago. It is a message of love, hope, and conversion that speaks directly to the hearts of sinners everywhere, inviting us all to grow closer to Christ.
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In spite of the Angel’s earlier apparitions, the three children never assumed that anything
of great significance would happen again. They had the sheep up on the family property called
the Cova da Iria and were playing as usual when all of a sudden, it happened.
This is how Sister Lucia described that first appearance of Our Lady on May 13, 1917:
While playing with Jacinta and Francisco on the hilltop in the Cova da Iria, making a
little stone wall around a furze-like clump called moita, suddenly we saw a flash of
lightening. “There is a flash of lightning,” I said to my cousins, “a thunder-storm may
come on. It would be better for us to go home.” “Oh yes, of course,” they said. And we
began to descend the hill driving the sheep along towards the road. When we reached a
large holm-oak about halfway down the slope the light flashed again. Then a few paces
further on, we beheld a beautiful lady dressed in white, poised over a holm-oak sapling
very near us. She was more brilliant than the sun, radiating a sparkling light. Struck with
amazement, we halted before this vision. We were so near that we were bathed in the
light that radiated from her person to a distance of about three feet.
Then the Lady said: “Do not be afraid; I will do you no harm.”
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“I am from heaven.”
“What do you want of me?”
“I came to ask you to come here for six successive months, on the 13th day at the
same hour. Later I will tell what I want. And I will return here yet a seventh time.”
“And I, shall I go to heaven?”
“Yes, you will.”
“And Jacinta?”
“She will go also.”
“And Francisco?”
“He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries first.”
Then I remembered to ask about two girls who had died recently. They were
friends of mine and used to come to my home to learn weaving with my eldest sister. “Is
Maria das Neves in heaven?”
“Yes, she is.”
“And Amelia?” She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world.” (It seems to
me that she was between 18 and 20 years of age.)
“End of the world” is properly interpreted as a very long time. This was because people were not
praying for her. In this moment, Our Lady confirmed the existence of Purgatory. Her words to
the children are a reminder to us that we should not forget to pray for the poor souls there. Sister
Lucia continued with Mary’s words:
“Do you wish to offer up to God all the sufferings He desires to send you in reparation
for the sins by which he is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners?”
“Yes, we do.”
“Go then, for you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will comfort
you.”
While pronouncing the words “the grace of God,” Our Lady opened her hands for
the first time, shedding on us a light so intense that it seemed as a reflex glancing from
her hands and penetrating to the innermost recesses of our hearts, making us see
ourselves in God, who was that Light, more clearly than we could see ourselves in a
mirror. Then by an interior impulse, also communicated to us, we fell upon our knees,
repeating in our hearts: “Oh, most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love
Thee in the most Blessed Sacrament!”
This first apparition of Mary occurred on the Church’s Feast of Our Lady of the Eucharist, and
already the Mother of God was drawing the children to adore our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. As
our heavenly Mother, Mary desires to lead all her children closer to the Eucharistic heart of
Jesus, our food for eternal life.
After a few moments, Our Lady spoke to the children again: “Say the Rosary every day
in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” Sister Lucia then describes the end
of the apparition:
Then she began to ascend serenely, going up towards the east, the light that surrounded
her seeming to open up a path before her, until she finally disappeared in the immensity
of space, the reason why we sometimes said we saw heaven opening.
On their way home after the apparition, the children decided not to tell anyone about the
Lady they had seen. Jacinta was so impressed by the Lady’s beauty, however, that she was
unable to keep quiet, and told her mother about their encounter with the Mother of God. News
spread quickly through the small village. While some were predisposed to believe the children’s
story, others immediately dismissed it as childish imagination, a bid for attention, or lies. Over
the months that followed, many more people heard about what was happening in Fatima and the
crowds grew.
The message of this first apparition was not only for three shepherd children in 1917; it is
for all of us even today. Mary’s message to the children at Fatima invites us to offer up our
sufferings for the conversion of sinners. Each one of us has something to offer on a daily basis.
Our Lady also asks us to pray the Rosary for peace. The response we give is up to each one of us.
May 13, 1917
June 13, 1917
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Our Lady appeared to the three little shepherds for the second time on June 13, 1917.
June is the month traditionally devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the June apparition, Mary
urged that her Immaculate Heart be honored along with devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Lucia, the only one of the three children to speak directly with Mary, greeted the
heavenly Lady each time, May through October, with the same words: “What do you want of
me?”
Each time Our Lady emphasized: “I want you to pray the Rosary every day.”
During this second apparition, Lucia told Our Lady: “I want you to take us to heaven.”
The response was: “Yes, I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you must remain here
some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to
establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
Lucia, saddened that her two cousins would die soon, asked, “Must I stay here alone?”
Our Blessed Mother replied: “Do not be disheartened. I will never leave you. My
Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.” As Mary said
these words, she opened her hands, and an immense light enveloped her. In this light, the three
children saw themselves overwhelmed with the presence of God. Jacinta and Francisco were in
the light focused on heaven. Lucia was in the light which beamed out over the earth. In front of
the palm of Mary’s right hand was a heart encircled with thorns which pierced it. The children
understood this to be the Immaculate Heart of Mary, grieved by the sins of humanity.
The meaning of Our Lady’s second apparition is timeless. Mary’s request of Lucia, to
make devotion to her Immaculate Heart known to the world, is for us, too. Francisco and Jacinta
died within a little more than two years’ time after the apparitions. Sister Lucia lived until
February 13, 2005, and was nearly ninety-eight years of age. Her mind remained clear on the
events surrounding the apparitions and the apparitions themselves, despite her age. For more
than eighty-seven years after the apparitions, Jesus used her witness to establish devotion in the
world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. We in the Church today are called to make devotion to Mary
part of how we live our faith and to share it in any way we can. Mary is the model of Christian
discipleship, and of everything the Church is and hopes to become. Her Immaculate Heart
reflects perfect faith, hope, and love, the virtues that make us most like Christ.
Sister Lucia spoke of the call to all Christians in the message at Fatima: “We must help
those who have nothing, to offer God our prayer and sacrifices for those who most need faith,
hope, love which will then bring them to follow a path of peace, serenity, truth and justice.”
(“Calls” From the Message of Fatima)
The children kept the vision of Mary’s heart secret. As Lucia later explained, “This is
what we referred to, when we said that Our Lady had told us a secret in June. Our Lady did not
order us to keep it a secret on this occasion, but we felt moved to do so by God.”
July 13,1917
Today, so many have lost faith in the very existence of God. Many also have little or no
belief in the reality of hell. Yet in the July apparition, the three little shepherd children were
shown a vision of hell so terrible that Sister Lucia wrote that if they had not been promised they
would all go to heaven, she thought they would have died on the spot.
A few moments after arriving at the Cova near the holm-oak tree, where a large number
of people were already praying the Rosary, the little shepherds saw the flash of light, and Our
Lady appeared over the tree a moment later. Lucia immediately asked, as she did each time Our
Lady appeared, “What do you want of me?”
Mary replied, “I want you to come here on the 13th of next month. Continue to say the
Rosary every day, in honor of Our Lady in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the
war because only she can obtain it.”
Ten-year-old Lucia then made some requests of our Blessed Mother, which people had
asked her to make. Our Lady responded that it was necessary for those persons to pray the
Rosary in order to obtain the graces they were asking for during the year. Mary continued:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say often, especially when you make some sacrifice: ‘Oh
Jesus, this is for love of you, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins
committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’”
Saying these last words, Our Lady opened her hands, as she had done the two previous
months. It was at that moment that the children had a vision of hell. Sister Lucia described the
vision in these words:
The light from them [Our Lady’s hands] seemed to penetrate the earth, and we
saw a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls that looked like
transparent embers, some black or bronze, in human form, driven about by the
flames that issued from within themselves together with clouds of smoke. They
were falling on all sides, just as sparks cascade from great fires, without weight or
equilibrium, amid cries of pain and despair which horrified us so that we trembled
with fear. It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as the people
say they heard me exclaim aloud. The demons could be distinguished by their
likeness to terrible, loathsome and unknown animals, transparent as live coals.
Terrified and as if to plead for succour, we raised our eyes to Our Lady, who said
to us kindly but sadly: “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. In
order to save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my
Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, there will
be peace. The war will end, but if men do not cease offending God, another and
more terrible war will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a
night lit up by an unknown light, know that it is the sign God gives you that he is
about to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecution
of the Church and the Holy Father. In order 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 wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be
converted and there will be peace. If not, Russia will spread her errors throughout
the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be
martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be
annihilated. But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father
will consecrate Russia to me and it will be converted, and a time of peace will be
conceded to the world. In Portugal, the Dogma of Faith will always be preserved.
Do not tell this to anybody. You may tell it to Francisco. When you recite the
Rosary, after each mystery say: ‘Oh my Jesus, forgive us [our sins], save us from
the fire of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need [of
your mercy].’”
The July apparition, with its further call for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
reminds us to live a life of Christian virtue, as Mary did. To make a personal consecration to
Mary’s Immaculate Heart, we must follow the Ten Commandments, receive the sacraments
worthily and in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart Mary, and
observe daily prayer, especially the Rosary. Our Lady warned that if we do not answer heaven’s
call, much chastisement will befall the world: “war, hunger, and persecution of the Church and
the Holy Father.”
While God’s mercy is infinite; so is His justice. Through our cooperation, or lack thereof,
we make the choice. God respects our free will to accept or refuse Him. For God’s infinite mercy
through the precious blood of Jesus, faith, repentance, and openness to his merciful love are
required. Otherwise His justice must prevail. At Fatima, Mary introduced the First Saturday
devotion along with consecration to her Immaculate Heart as a means to prevent the punishment
due the world.
At Fatima, Mary warned us there would be a loss of faith throughout the world. ‘We are
now witnesses to what Mary prophesied. But all hope is not lost. The words of Our Lady during
the July apparition show us how to return to Jesus. Mary invites us, as she urged the three
shepherd children in July 1917, to seek God in union with her Immaculate Heart and to pray the
Rosary daily.
Finally, after a short silence which followed, Lucia asked Our Lady: “Is there anything
more that you want of me?”
“No, I do not want anything more of you today.” And as in the previous apparitions, the
beautiful Lady from heaven began to ascend toward the east, until she finally disappeared in the
infinity of space.
Many people besides the three children felt a supernatural presence during the
apparitions. To take one example, Mr. Antonio Marques shared his experience from July 13: “As
an unbeliever I wanted to deny everything that I see, but looking on the atmosphere, I see
everything is dark. It seems as if two opposing currents of air are at a meeting place, raising a
cloud of dust. The weather becomes dark and I seem to hear an underground thunder. I feel the
ambience is supernatural and I am afraid of being there.”