Fatima Story – (2)

Originally posted on January 3, 2011

Yesterday I wrote a post called Fatima Story and indicated that I’d continue with the rest of it in the next few posts.  I have become newly attracted to the Fatima story message and simply want to share my enthusiasm with the people (you) whom I care about.  It isn’t as if I hadn’t been familiar with Our Lady of Fatima all along.  But I guess it’s more like I’ve taken a sort of new interest in its significance in our lives today vs. simply appreciating its mysterious appeal as viewed through a Hollywood movie that was filmed over 50 years ago.

For me, the Fatima story has become a sort of wake-up call for the world of today.  It is as if Our Lady is illuminating our lives with an old story being retold with modern day insight and appeal.  I’m not sure I’m making any sense here, but hopefully if you read on my intention will become clear.  More importantly, I hope that by reading this you find your own intention and spread your own Fatima story message, in your own style and in your own time.

Fatima Story and the Conversion of Sinners

In her message to the three children, Our Lady was very adamant about the need for prayer, penance, sacrifices and mortification in order for sinners to be saved.  The concept of penance and mortification as viewed by the world of today is vastly treated as some sort of archaic, medieval form of self-inflicted “punishment” that does not apply to this advanced and sophisticated day and time.  But how very wrong that notion is!  Today’s society is continually being attacked by all sorts of moral injustice and the spiritual decay that is pervasive all around us is at an all-time frightening high.

I once heard Father John Corapi speak about offering up the smallest of mundane activities for the saving of a soul; he used the example of sweeping the floor.  I think to many of us (myself included) it almost seems as if it’s too simple to be able to say a little prayer or offer up a boring activity in order for either a sinner to be saved or a soul in Purgatory to go to Heaven.  But isn’t that the whole point?  Aren’t we supposed to keep it simple and place our trust in the Lord?  Instead, so many of us are over-thinkers and over-analyzers and over-achievers to the point where God is lost to the micromanaging self and the concept of simple prayer and penance seems simplistic and silly; as it if evolved from some sort of children’s rulebook that doesn’t concern our serious, advanced selves.

Fatima Story and a Greater Miracle Denied

Sister Lucia referred later in her life that the miracle of the sun could’ve been even greater than it was had the children not been abducted by Arthur Oliveira Santos.  In the interrogation done by Father Manuel Marques Ferreira on August 21, 1917 (two days after the apparition), Lucia explained this to him but she left it out of her 1941 report.

Because of the deceptive, cruel-minded civil authorities who snatched the children, Our Lady’s wishes were neglected.  But this is a fascinating example of how she allowed the act to go unpunished.  However, though the children were in no way at fault, their abduction caused the multitudes at Fatima to be deprived of a far greater miracle than they otherwise would’ve experienced.

Fatima Story and the Unknown Light

On the night of January 25-26, 1938 during the hours of 8:45 p.m. to 1:15 a.m., an extraordinary light illuminated the European skies.  Sister Lucia considered the light to be “the great sign” that Our Lady had spoken of when she predicted that an unknown light would signal that the war was near.

In the book, The Secrets of Fatima, it is explained:

“This aurora appeared as far south as Galicia, Spain, where Sister Lucy was then cloistered, and she, the only survivor of the three Fatima shepherds, recognized it immediately as the sign.  Visible even to Pius XI in Rome, the unprecedented aurora was accompanied by a ‘crackling’ sound, possibly attributable to discharges of atmospheric energy.  Indeed, in many areas of Europe, panic broke out; as the populace concluded that the world was on fire and that the End had come.”

On January 26, 1938, The New York Times carried the following:

“London, January 25th, 1938.  The Aurora Borealis rarely seen in Southern or Western Europe spread fear in parts of Portugal and lower Austria tonight while thousands of Britons were brought running into the streets in wonderment.  The ruddy glow led many to think half the city was ablaze. The Windsor Fire Department was called out thinking that Windsor Castle was afire.  The lights were clearly seen in Italy, Spain, and even Gibraltar.  The glow bathing snow-clad mountain tops in Austria and Switzerland was a beautiful sight but firemen turned out to chase non-existent fires.  Portuguese villagers rushed in fright from their homes fearing the end of the world.”

to be continued..