In 1917, a time of the first World War where violence, poverty, and death prevailed, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared before three young shepherds near the village of Fatima, Portugal to declare the message of God to mankind. The message was the promise of Heaven to grant mankind and the world peace if her requests for prayer and reparations were heard and obeyed. The Lady of Fatima emphasized the necessity of praying the Holy Rosary, wearing the Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel, and believing and praising the Lord to prevent further castigation and punishment for our sins.
Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, the little shepherds, reported the three “secret” messages of the Blessed Mother. First, of which, is their macabre vision of hell when the Lady pleads for their prayer and repentance to save their souls, in Her words “God wishes to establish the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” This was followed by their vision of World War II and the immense damage Russia would bring to humanity as they embrace Communist totalitarianism.
The third secret, however, was not exposed to the public until the Bishop of Leiria and the Blessed Mother ordered it in 1944. It was surmised to have prophesied the end of the world, the loss of faith, and chaos in and with the Church. These hypotheses were put to an end by the letters of Lucia Dos Santos in 1944. Its secret was their vision of the Pope, bishops, priests, and men passing through a big city, in ruins, pain, and great sorrow, where they prayed for corpses but was killed by soldiers with guns and arrows as they reach the top of the mountain.
The last and widely known apparition of the Lady of Fatima is also called the “Miracle of the Sun.” The little shepherds, in their conversation with the Lady, announced to the crowd of believers and non-believers that the war was to end and that their soldiers would come home. Witnesses described the miracle as a life-changing phenomenon. They had seen the sun appearing as a “soft spinning disk of silver.” It swirled and turned in circles of broken clouds, painting the world in different colors. This spectacular event made its onlookers pray and weep as it presents the Lord’s messages; His humility, the Earth has been moved by Mary, the importance of family, the call for repentance. This made the miracles of the Lady of Fatima the most prophetic of modern apparitions.
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