Sorry this one is longer.
The story of Fatima is probably one of the most well known of the Church, and Marian Apparitions and maybe of the whole world. In the ‘Miracle of the Sun”, the Blessed Mother made sure that even men who against the Church of her Son were present to observe.
To this day, the spiritual movements that arose from these appearances, a tremendous wave of prayer, devotion, writings, and spiritual works of all kinds spread across the globe.
One of the secrets they kept, however, regards not the Virgin’s words, but the appearances of the “Angel of Peace,” who came to the children three times in the years before the Virgin’s first appearance and who made a profound impression upon their minds and hearts. These apparitions offered a catechesis of grace and sacrifice that disposed Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco to receive the coming of the Holy Virgin and her message with a depth of commitment and maturity that far exceeded their years or education.
The first appearances took place in 1915, when Lucia and two other girls saw a white transparent figure appear in the sky at the Cabeço — a secluded hillside — not far from their homes. The figure was of natural height, but seemed like a brilliant snow-white statue made of cloud. Though they saw this figure on three occasions, they did not reveal the experience to anyone.
In the spring of 1916, Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco, were tending their sheep at the Loca do Cabeço and had just finished their shortened version of the Rosary. A figure approached them through the sky coming from the east — a transparent, luminous figure of a youth of perhaps fourteen or fifteen years. The children were amazed and overwhelmed by what Lucia would describe as the “supernatural atmosphere” that penetrated and surrounded them. As she recounts in her memoir, the angel spoke to them words of reassurance and authority:
“Do not be afraid! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.”
Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead reached the ground. Led by a supernatural impulse, we did the same, and repeated the words which we heard him say:
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I ask pardon of Thee for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee!”
Having repeated these words three times, he rose and said:
“Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.”
Then he disappeared.
In the midst of the First World War, the angel reveals himself as the “Angel of Peace” in the midst of the First World War, but the peace that he comes to bring is based in union with God and intercession for others. His words call us back to the greatest commandments of the Old Law: total and complete love of God and neighbor. The prayer he entrusts to them is brief, but it expresses both adoration and intercession in a posture of total reverence: kneeling and with forehead touching the ground. It is a gesture that the children understood and that they imitated constantly.
The second apparition took place in the summer, after the children had pastured their sheep in the morning. Then, in the heat of the afternoon while they were playing quietly in the shade by the well near Lucia’s house, the angel appeared suddenly and said:
“What are you doing? Pray, pray very much! The Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High.”
Lucy asked: “How are we to make sacrifices?”
“Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is so offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Angel Guardian, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you.”
The angel’s first words are abrupt and echo the Lord’s voice to Elijah on Mount Horeb: “What are you doing, Elijah?” (see 1 Kings 19:9–13). Yet they are immediately followed by reassurance and strength. Once again, the angel speaks of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, but this time he does not call them “attentive” to the children, but rather he says that Christ and His Mother have “plans of mercy” for them — a suggestion of an upcoming mission.
The third and final apparition of the angel is the most extraordinary of all, since it is focused on the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.
“The third apparition must have taken place in October, or towards the end of September, as we were no longer returning for siesta.”
After our lunch, we decided to go and pray in the hollow among the rocks on the opposite side of the hill. To get there, we went around the slope, and had to climb over some rocks above the Pregueira (south of the Loca do Cabeço). The sheep could only scramble over these rocks with great difficulty. As soon as we arrived there, we knelt down with our foreheads touching the ground, and began to repeat the prayer of the Angel:
“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee . . .”
“I don’t know how many times we repeated this prayer, when an extraordinary light shone upon us. We sprang up to see what was happening, and beheld the Angel. He was holding a chalice in his left hand, with the Host suspended above it, from which some drops of Blood fell into the chalice. Leaving the chalice suspended in the air, the Angel knelt down beside us and made us repeat three times”
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the sacrileges, outrages and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.”
Then, rising, he took the chalice and the Host in his hands. He gave the Sacred Host to me, and shared the Blood from the chalice between Jacinta and Francisco, saying as he did so:
“Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.”
Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with us, three times more, the same prayer: “Most Holy Trinity . . .” and then disappeared.
Moved by a supernatural force which enveloped us, we had imitated the Angel in everything; that is, we prostrated as he did and repeated the prayers that he said. . . . We remained a long time in this position, repeating the same words over and over again. It was Francisco who realized that it was getting dark, and drew our attention to the fact, and thought we should take our flocks back home. I felt that God was in me.
The Eucharistic prayer that the angel teaches the children is a magnificent summary of the Catholic Faith: It speaks to us first of the Trinity; then it summarizes, almost like a catechism, the definition of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; then it moves us to offer Christ to the Father, accepting His Passion for our sake and uniting our will to His will as an act of expiation and reparation; and finally it turns us to the very core of His redeeming love, his Sacred Heart, always united to His Mother’s pierced Heart for the salvation of sinners.
The angel offers this prayer in preparation for the children’s Communion and as the most fitting thanksgiving thereafter. We too can benefit greatly from this prayer, receiving it as a gift from Heaven and incorporating it into our own Eucharistic Communions.
