May 13 Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

About 104 years ago, on this same day, May 13, 1917, in the small village of Fatima in Portugal, Lucia (9) and her cousins, Francisco (8) and his sister Jacinta (6) saw an apparition of “a woman all in white, more brilliant than the sun, indescribably beautiful, and who wore a white mantle edged with gold and held a rosary in her hand.”

On her 6th and last apparition to the children, on the 13th of October, 1917, she told the children “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

During the October 13th apparition, 70,000 people witnessed “the sun make three circles and move around the sky in an incredible zigzag movement in a manner which left no doubt in their minds about the veracity of the apparitions” approved as authentic by the Church by 1930.

Our Lady asked the children “to pray, to devote themselves to the Holy Trinity and to say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and an end of the war.”

The first two of Our Lady’s prophetic ‘secrets’ were later revealed to refer to “the vision of hell and the souls languishing there, the request for an ardent devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the prediction of the Second World War, and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism.”

In 2020, her third ‘secret’ was revealed and “referred to the persecutions that humanity would undergo in the last century: The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated.”

“The suffering of the popes of the 20th century has been interpreted to include the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, which took place on May 13, the 64th anniversary of the apparitions.”

When our Lady appeared to the children, her 1917 messages mentioned her concerns about “the violent trials that would afflict the world by means of war, starvation, and the persecution of the Church and the Holy Father in the twentieth century if the world did not make reparation for sins. She exhorted the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come upon the world, and that the trials may be averted.”

It is of utmost urgency to note that until now, war, starvation, persecution of the Church and violent trials that Our Lady mentioned in 1917 are still present.

The pandemic is this world’s present greatest trial and challenge. Wars are still continuing in many countries and even in certain areas in our country. Hunger, poverty, joblessness are affecting millions and the end of continuing, simultaneous crises still so remote and uncertain.

Should the whole world be reminded now to hurry and heed Our Lady’s 1917 exhortation “for the Church to pray and offer sacrifices to God in order that peace may come upon the world and that the trials may be averted?”

Did Pope Francis remember Our Lady’s messages when he made his recent call for all in the world to pray the Rosary throughout the whole of Mama Mary’s month of May?

Last May 1, 2021, Pope Francis led the world in praying the Holy Rosary “for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, imploring the Virgin Mary to intercede for healing for the sick, comfort for the grieving, and hope for the future.”

With Pope Francis, together, and with penance, shall we and our families pray the Rosary this May and seek refuge under Mama Mary’s protection, in the midst of “the present dramatic situation, full of sufferings and anxieties that grip the whole world.”