Transcription
[bell] Well, um, first of all, I would like also to say thank you to this opportunity to share a little bit the message of Fatima with all of the people that are listening to us. Uh, my name is Sister Angela De Fatima. I am from Portugal. I am the general superior of my congregation, the sisters of aliens, the Santa Maria, Alliance of Holy Mary, which charisma is to live and spread the message of Fatima. I've been a sister for 30 years. Um in the in part of my mission was given by the bishop of Fatima. uh I was the vice postulator and eventually the postulator for the canonization cause of saints Francisco and justinta that job is already done and right now I am the vice postulator of the cause of sister Lucia.
The message of Fatima uh I think it's more important today than 100 years ago. First idea which I would like to share is of course that aspect of peace. 100 years ago the world was facing the First World War. Right now we are facing so many uh wars in different places that again are bringing this fear of war to our world. So again, the message of Fatima is even more important because our lady said on July 13, 1917, "I am Our Lady of the Rosary. Pray every day the rosary in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary in order to obtain the end of the war and the coming of the peace because only she can help you." So I think this aspect of peace, it's also important today as it was 100 years ago.
But there are other aspects. Our society, our contemporary society, people are living mostly self-centered. We think mostly about ourselves, our needs, what I think, what I want. And that in all levels, education, religion, family, work, everybody mostly think about themselves. It's like we became the idols of our own life. It's a new kind of idolatry. Fatima with the call to adoration, this putting God in the center of our lives, slowly is like a remedy. It's like a medicine for this tendency of self-centeredness.
Also, even if we are the center of our own lives, it seems that never like before people are living alone. This isolation, this fear of existence. We don't know how the future is going to be. We don't know education, finances, how to raise our children, how to keep the faith. Fatima provides, I think, let me say this way, all the solutions for these problems. Putting in the center also not only God but also the immaculate heart of Mary as our refuge and our way to God.
In June 13, 1917, Sister Lucia, little Lucia, knowing that Francisco and Justinta were going to die, she asked Our Lady, "Am I going to stay here by myself?" So this loneliness is part of the message of Fatima and the answer of the Blessed Mother, it's also for ourselves. She said to Lucia, "I will never leave you. My heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." That means that the presence of the Blessed Mother, um, it's like a medicine for the loneliness of our time.
But also this isolation. I live for myself. There is nobody else who thinks about me. Fatima presents the Church because in the third part of the secret they saw the Church doing that big pilgrimage. So we have a family. We do belong to a family and our prayers, our sacrifices can change the history of the world and my personal history. So that means that everything I do has a meaning because one of the problems of our society is also this losing the meaning of the purpose of life. Why am I living? What am I supposed to do? So Fatima showing us the mystical body of Christ, it is potential of doing, do help in the history of salvation through our sacrifices and prayers. It is a great answer to the meaning of our lives.
When we look to Lucia's life, uh, she is a living memory of the message of Fatima. Everything she lived in her 97 years, especially in the last 80 years of her life, of course, after seeing the Blessed Mother, is like to make concrete, alive all the requests of the message of Fatima. And we can call, we can start by, um, giving ourselves totally to God. On May 13, Our Lady asked them, "Are you willing to offer yourselves to God?" And Lucia said yes. And she kept faithful to that yes until 97. So the first aspect we really can imitate is to ask our Lord, "What do you want from me?" And they will answer Our Lady, Our Lord, the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And the first aspect is to live a life totally offered to God. "My Lord, you can do of me whatever you want," and to be faithful to our vocation. So I think this is one of the first aspects. Lucia is really an example for us.
And then how can we be faithful to our vocation? That's the point. Our sister Lucia presents adoration, Eucharistic adoration. She started to do a lot of adoration since the apparitions of the angel in 1916, but she kept it all her life when she was a Dorothian sister and also as a Carmelite sister. So this Eucharistic adoration was so constant in her life that sometimes she used to say it's like she felt herself like a living tabernacle. She even wrote that in a poetry, in a beautiful poetry, "Make me, oh Lord, a living tabernacle for you."
The second aspect I can say, or the third, this, um, this certainty of the Blessed Mother close to her. So the presence of Our Lady as a refuge but also as a teacher of her spiritual life. Then of course, one aspect that I truly admire of Sister Lucia since she was a little girl, everybody after knowing the apparitions would come to her to ask for intercession, "Please, Lucia, ask the Blessed Mother for this or for that." And she started to do it since the apparitions. We can have some dialogues when she's asking graces to the Blessed Mother. So she kept that all her entire life. In the Carmel, just for us to have an idea, after 1970. Well, before 1970, we don't know. She did not keep the letters she would receive. But after 1970, her superior told her to keep the letters she was receiving. So now we can know that she received more than 70,000 letters. What people were going to tell her, I can think and I read some of those letters, not all. People were asking for graces, for intercession. So one aspect of Sister Lucia is that to be aware that our prayer really helps our brothers and sisters. So she was a powerful intercessor during her life and I think even today.
Other aspects that we can imitate is her love towards the Holy Father and the Church. She saw that like Francisco and Jacinta in the secret, but, uh, she prayed a lot for the unity of the Church. Maybe she understood that maybe come sometimes where this unity was not so much easy. And it's beautiful to see that our Pope, Leo XIV, it's a characteristic of his pontificate, even in his motto, the unity of the Church. Sister Lucia kept that a lot and I think this is also an example. And finally, this love towards the poor sinners. Uh, this merciful love that was an image of the merciful love of God towards her and ourself.
The three of them, they have the more or less the same characteristics. But let me point Francisco. Um, everybody speaks about Eucharistic adoration in the life of Francisco. Yes, definitely. He was, um, he used to spend sometimes three hours a day in front of the Blessed Sacrament. But let me point other aspects that I love about Francisco. If you look to his, if we look to his life, apparently he was less favored than the other two. I, I explain in the beginning, he could not, he, he never heard the Blessed Mother. In the beginning, he could not even see. Only after the prayer of the rosary, start to see. Sometimes Lucia used to say that it seems that he could not understand totally everything. Also in the dialogue of May, when Our Lady, answering Lucia's question, "Am I going to heaven?" Our Lady said, "Yes, you are." And Jacinta, "Yes, she is." And Francisco, "Yes, but he needs to pray many rosaries." So if you look on the first sight, it seems he's a little bit less. But you know, something that I love about him, he never complained. He accepted totally his mission, even if it was different from the cousin and the sister. He accepted his role in the same vocation. He never compared himself to the others. He never said, "Well, why can I not listen? Why?" This is a great, great example for children and I think for adults too, because this temptation of comparing to others, not accepting whom we are, not be happy with the graces and the mission God gave us. I think this is a great temptation over our world. This competition. We, of it's like we have only or always to be the first, the best, whatever. And this, this does not bring joy. This also shows really we do not accept who we are, and this is not from God. So I think a great, great example of Francisco Marto is this, accept who we are. We are loved by God the way we are. Our mission, even if it's small or hidden, it's as important as everybody else. So I think this is a great challenge of Francisco.
Another one, when Lucia asked him, "What did you like to see the most?" He said, "I like to see the angel, but I like even more to see Our Lady, but what I truly love was to see Our Lord in that light that Our Lady put in our chest, in our heart." So even being so small, he had like the hierarchy of the truths very well organized in his mind. And sometimes we also need that example because sometimes we do not put the priorities in the right way. Sometimes we put work and money and power above God or our family, and that brings a lot of despair, sadness to our lives. So I think this is also a great challenge for Francisco. Of course, all of this was because of his prayer for life. God was the center of his world.
Little Jacinta. One thing I like about her is that page when Sister Lucia describes the obvious thing that she was not born as a saint. Even if it was like the favorite of the three among those time, she was not born a saint. She's very much self-centered. You know, she was thinking about herself all the time. But in the prison, in jail, where they were for three days, there was an episode that in May, Pian shows us who is Jacinta. When she was in jail, of course, she was crying all the time. It is obvious, she was only seven years old. She was missing mom. She was thinking she was going to die. And Lucia asked her, "Come on, Jacinta, let us offer this sacrifice for one intention. Which intention do you choose? To console Jesus, to console Our Lady, for the conversion of sinners, for peace in the world, for the Holy Father, which intention do you choose?" And she said, "I choose them all because I love them all." So even if in the beginning of this adventure, little Jacinta was a little bit self-centered, after the contact with Our Lady, with the angel, with the prayer life, she became a child totally dedicated herself to others through prayers, through sacrifices. The little sacrifices she choosed, but mainly the acceptance of the suffering that life was bringing, the illness, people making all the questions, she was offering everything to console Jesus, console Our Lady, peace in the world, conversion of sinners, the Holy Father. So I think we can learn from little Jacinta to accept our life the way it is, you know, problems with our families, with the studies, with the work, to accept with love and offer everything to God because we know He will give our love to all of those who need.
The children did not see the miracle of the sun. The pilgrims did see it, like approximately 50 to 70,000 saw the miracle of the sun. They were seeing other things. So in one moment they saw the Holy Family, St. Joseph, the Child Jesus and Our Lady. The Child Jesus and St. Joseph were blessing the people. Then they saw Jesus as an adult and Our Lady of Sorrows. And then they saw Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Several interpretations were given in these 100 years. Uh, some people speak about the Holy Family, joyful mysteries. Our Lady of Sorrows, sorrowful mysteries. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Queen, the glorious mysteries. And now I even think that Jesus as an adult, luminous mysteries. So we don't know. Other people think about the presence of St. Joseph in the history of salvation, which I also agree. Other people think about that blessing of Jesus is giving. It's like one of the last signs of Fatima is Jesus blessing the people. Fatima is a great blessing to our world, like it was the last gesture of Jesus during the Ascension. He was going to the Father, blessing the people. So the power of the blessing from Our Lord. But also I do think about the brown scapular that Our Lady brought in the last apparition. It's like a reminder of heaven to us that this powerful sacramental, the brown scapular, is not only for the 14th or 15th century when it was given through, you know, Simon Stock, but it's an important sacrament for our life. It's a sign of consecration to Our Lady. And it's, it's like it's like really, uh, it's like I like to think about it like the mantle of our mother embracing us, protecting us. Uh, it's like a sign of our presence in our life. Not only in the moment of death, but during all our life. So I think all these interpretations are possible. Maybe during time, many others will come. Um, but I think it's always this, uh, image that the Holy Family. So the mysteries of our salvation are present as they are in the rosary, in the mysteries of the rosary. They were present in the vision of the seers in those days.
It's only one secret with three pictures. Let me put this way, three scenes. The first one is, uh, what we say in escatology or in theology, we say it's about the future after time, after death. It's an escatological dimension. And it's the vision of hell. The second part, it's more historical, and it's the suffering of the world, especially with the Second World War. The third part is the suffering of the Church. So you have like two moments, after time, after death, with the vision of hell, escatology, and an historical moment. Second part, the world suffering. Third part, the suffering of the Church. The escatology, the vision of hell. Um, Our Lady puts in front of us this real possibility of me rejecting God eternally. It is a possibility which, as we know, it's an immense respect of God towards our free will, and also for us to be aware that we are responsible for our acts. But at the same time, she said some words that it's like the changing from the first picture to the second one. She said, "You saw hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my heart. If what I tell you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace." This sentence is like the key to understand all the secret. "If what I tell you is done," so you can do something. Many souls will be saved. Hell, and there will be peace.
Second and third part of the decision of the vision, that means that this vision, it's not, and those words are from Cardinal Ratzinger, they, it's not like a movie, it's going to happen this way. No, no. It's like to show you, look, this is what can happen. But if we do what Our Lady told us, this can change. So it's not something unchangeable. No, no. It's like a really, pay attention. You can do something. Your life is so precious and so important to God that if you do the requests of Our Lady, you really can change the history, not only eternal escatology, but mainly temporal. So that's why after that, they started to do a lot of prayers and offer more towards because they understood, Francisco and Jacinta and Lucia, that their lives were precious.
In theology, we speak about anthropology. The Catholic anthropology is the, is amazing. It's so positive because really, we are important. We can make the difference. So which are the requests of Our Lady? Rosary, so prayer, reparation, consecration, and conversion. These are the pillars of the message of Fatima. If you live your life around these pillars, you will not only save yourself or cooperate with God with your salvation, but you will really be an apostolate for the salvation of others.
Just about the third part of the secret, I think it's really the ecclesiology of Pope Francis. I think when Pope Francis understood this, he, I think it's really his vision of the Church because what do we see in the third part of the secret? A pilgrimage of people led by the Pope, the Catholic Church. They were climbing, they were going through climbing a steep mountain, very hard. On the top of what there was a cross there. So it's the Catholic Church walking to Christ. But before that, they crossed a city half in ruins, our civilization. How can we not think about the words of Pope Francis that the Church has to be out? It's like, um, a hospital because the Church, uh, in this vision, we are going through the ruins. We are not avoiding, we are not closing ourselves. No, we are assuming the wounds and the wounded, wounded one. We are really assuming those who are suffering, those who are destroyed by the ruins of our values, of, you know. I love this. It's really the Church in the history going to Christ. It's like we are going to Christ, but all of us, we have to bring all of us. So the steep mountain, yes, life is tough. Follow Christ is not easy. But God, Jesus on the cross is the end of history, but it's also the strength for the way because under the arms of Christ, there were two angels recollecting the blood of the martyrs, and the martyrs were the Holy Father and many others. So that blood was then sprinkled to those who are trying to get close to God. So that shows us that the end of history is Jesus. That our pilgrimage is tough. We have to assume it. We have to assume the wounds of our civilization, of our brothers and sisters. We follow the Pope because if we do not follow the Pope, we can be any kind of family, religious that follow Christ, but not the Catholics. So we follow the Pope. Now is Leo XIV. Tomorrow will be another one. It doesn't matter, it's the Pope. We love him. We follow him, and then we go up to the mountain and we go to Christ. So I think it's an immense and tremendous ecclesiology that's really a light for our path today.
I used to say, um, teing [music] uh, it's the 5-4-1. So five months, four things, one intention. Five months. The four things are like the the steps of this spiritual school of sanctity that is Fatima. First of it, rep, rosary, one in reparation to the heart of Mary. Second, meditation for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the rosary. So we have to go to the gospel. Third, go to confession, and fifth, and fourth, go to communion. All of these in reparation. Important aspects of this, you are really doing the things you need for your spiritual life. Rosary, the base of Fatima. Meditation, we are in 1925, like you said, it's the first time in the history of the apparitions that Our Lady asks for lectio divina, go to the gospel. And then the life of sacraments with that, with the intention of reparation, which means console, not thinking about you, but thinking about God and doing this for 5 months. You have the promise, she will be with you in the moment of death to bring you to heaven. But most important of all is to learn that your spiritual life is not only about asking things from God, but also giving, giving your love. And this is what reparation is.