Our Lady Of Fatima

Of all the apparitions of the Blessed Mother during the last hundred years, the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima stand out as the most wide-ranging in scope and in dramatic impact on mankind.

Way back 1917, Our Lady voiced out her motherly concerns about the world to three shepherd children in the simple village of Fatima in Portugal. She prophesied the errors Russia would spread through Communism and spelled out clearly what God wanted for mankind to be rid of this menacing threat. She said that God had entrusted the peace of the world to her and consequently, she laid down what each of us must do to work out this peace. What is singularly striking and amazing about the messages of Our Lady of Fatima is that if you study everything closely read through our simplified chronology of events, you will discover that events from 1917 to the present give a glimpse of how God collaborates with man for man to obtain peace in this world.

Here's a specific example. For the conversion of Russia, God wanted a consecration of the world, especially Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be done by the Pope in union with the Bishops of the world (a "collegial" consecration). Several Popes consecrated the world to Our Lady but it was only in 1984, with the prayers and sacrifices of millions of Fatima devotees over the years, that the proper collegial consecration which God wanted was finally done, in accordance with the request of Our Lady of Fatima.

When Lucia asked Our Lord why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making the desired consecration, He replied, "Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary... The result of all the prayers and sacrifices of Fatima devotees and the collegial consecration was the dramatic, peaceful collapse of the Soviet Communist empire from within its own borders without a single shot fired.

The Chronology of events below attempt to capsulize and simplify the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. Compressing the main points in a few pages has been a little difficult considering their gravity and the very long time frame the events encompass. The Third Secret of Our Lady of Fatima may baffle and mystify.

But with all the images these pages evoke, we hope that what will predominate with you is that striking scene in the Third Secret of Our Lady of Fatima: the Angel with a flaming sword, flashing his sword towards us and crying out for penance, his sword giving out flames that look as though they would set the world on fire but on the other hand, Our Lady vanquishing the flames with the splendor that radiated from her.

We thank Our Lady of Fatima for the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, considered as one of the greatest dramas of our age, and the vision of hope found in the Third Secret. But as our glance turns to other parts of the world, we sigh, alas!, that the turmoil is not yet over.

In these times of global uncertainty and turbulence, like little children let us hasten to Our Lady of Fatima, our Mother in Heaven.