STORY OF THE FIRST APPARITION OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA

On that faithful day May 13, 1917, being Sunday the three little shepherds attended the first Mass [as they never fail to attend Mass on Sundays] “The Mass of the Souls,” as they used to say then, for it was a Mass celebrated for the souls in Purgatory, which was a treasured devotion in the piety of the Portuguese.  After returning home early in the morning, they left at once to feed their flocks.  As a place of pasture, Lucia write, ‘we had chosen that day by chance, or rather according to a plan of Divine Providence, the property belonging to my parents, called Cova da Iria.  For that, we had to pass through an uncultivated terrain, which doubled the length of our long road.

Hearing the Angelus bell from the steeple of Fatima the three little shepherds knelt down and recited the Rosary together.  After the Rosary they decided to build a “Little house” which might shelter them on stormy days.  Little thinking of the symbolism of their childish actions, they chose for their fragile edifice the very spot where the majestic Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima now stands.

The little architects were thus engaged at their building when they were suddenly interrupted by a blinding flash of lightning.  They looked anxiously at the sky.  Not a single cloud veiled the brilliance of the midday sun.  Fearing however, that a storm might be brewing on the other side of the hill, they drove their sheep before them and hastily descended the slope.  Halfway down they saw a second flash brighter even than the first.  They went still further.  Then on reaching the foot of the slope opposite the site of the present chapel of the apparition, they stopped, surprised and dazzled by a wonderful apparition.

Two paces away, on the foliage of an evergreen oak, they saw a “Beautiful Lady”, all luminous and more resplendent than the sun.  With a gesture of motherly kindness, the Apparition reassured them.  “Fear not. I shall do you no harm” And so they remained there in ecstasy contemplating it.  After some minutes of ecstatic silence, Lucia ventures to ask.  “Where do you come from?”  “I come from Heaven!” replied the Lady.  “From Heaven! And why have you come here?”  “I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth of each month, at this same hour.  In the month of October, I shall tell you who I am and what I want”  “Could you tell me if the war will end soon?”  “I cannot tell you that” replied the Lady,  “Until I have told you what I want.” Gaining confidence Lucia continues:  “You come from Heaven! What about me shall I go to heaven?”  “Yes, you will go to heaven”.  “And Jacinta?” “Jacinta also.”  “And Francisco?”  The Apparition turns towards the little fellow and looks at him with an expression of kindness and motherly reproach.  “He will go also but he must say many Rosaries.”

Though Francisco, like Lucia and Jacinta, was immersed in the glorious light of the splendor that shone from the Lady, he was not seeing the Lady.  Neither could he hear the Lady’s voice though he could hear Lucia talking, when he heard Lucia mention his name, he became more interested in the mysterious conversation.  “I don’t see anything Lucia”, said Francisco,  “throw a stone at it see if it is real!” he suggested.  “Throw a stone at the Lady? Never!”  Instead Lucia in surprise asked the Lady.  “How is it that Francisco does not see you.”  “Tell him to recite the Rosary and he will see me”.

Lucia did so, and Francisco took his Rosary quickly from his pocket to do as the Lady said.  Before he finished the first decade the Lady became visible to him with almost blinding splendor.  Francisco still preoccupied that their sheep may have run down the hill and would damage other neighbor’s garden, suggested to go and attend to them.  Lucia reassured him saying, “Look here! It is not necessary!  The Lady says that they will not eat the peas as you fear!”  “What do you mean the sheep won’t eat chickpeas”  “Never mind, Francisco!.  The Lady knows”.  At these words, Francisco relaxed and trusted the Lady.

Then Lucia remembered to ask about two young girls who had died not long before.  They had been friends of hers and used to go to her house to learn how to weave with her older sisters.

“Is Maria de las Nieves in heaven?”  “Yes, she is”.  She had been around 16 years old.  “And Amelia?”  “Where”? “She will be in purgatory until the end of the world.”  Amelia had died at around 18 or 20 years old and was by no means a scandalous Christian.

Then the Lady asked them a favour,  “Would you like to offer yourselves to God to make sacrifices and to accept willingly all the sufferings it may please him to send you, in order to make reparation for so many sins, which offend the Divine Majesty, to obtain the conversion of sinners and to make amends for all the blasphemies and offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary?”  “Yes, we would like that very much.”  Answers Lucia in the name of all three.  With a gesture the Lady shows how much their generosity pleases her.  Then she adds:  “You will soon have much to suffer, but the grace of God will help you, and give you the strength you need”

“It was in pronouncing those last words [the grace of God, etc as contained in the document of 1941] that our Lady opened Her hands for the first time and communicated to us as by a reflection which emanated from them, a light so intense that penetrating our heart and even to the depths of our soul, it made us see ourselves in God, who was this light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best mirrors” says Lucia.

“Then moved by an interior impulse, which was communicated to us, we fell on our knees and we fervently repeated: “Oh Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee.  My God, My God, I love Thee in the Most Holy Sacrament”.

Again the Lady spoke to them, “say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war."  “Can you tell me whether the war will last a long time, or if it will soon end?” asked Lucia.

“I cannot tell you yet, as I have not yet told you what I want”.

“Then the Lady began to rise serenely, going up toward the east she disappeared in the immensity of the sky.  The light, which surrounded Her, seemed to open a path for Her among the stars and for this reason we said sometimes that we had seen Heaven opening”.