Oct. 13, 2021: Final Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima
Oct. 13, 2021: Final Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima
----The First Apparition (May 13, 1917)----
High up on the slope in the Cova da Iria, I was playing with Jacinta and Francisco at building a little stone wall around a clump of furze. Suddenly we saw what seemed to be a flash of lightning. “We’d better go home,” I said to my cousins, “that’s lightning; we may have a thunderstorm.” “Yes, indeed!” they answered. We began to go down the slope, hurrying the sheep along towards the road. We were more or less halfway down the slope, and almost level with a large holmoak tree that stood there, when we saw another flash of lightning.
We had only gone a few steps further when, there before us on a small holmoak, we beheld a Lady all dressed in white. She was more brilliant than the sun, and radiated a light more clear and intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water, when the rays of the burning sun shine through it. We stopped, astounded, before the Apparition. We were so close, just a few feet from her, that we were bathed in the light which surrounded her, or rather, which radiated from her. Then Our Lady spoke to us:
Our Lady: “Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm.”
Lucia: “Where are you from?”
Our Lady: “I am from heaven.”
Lucia: “What do you want from me?”
Our Lady: “I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession, on the 13th day, at this same hour. Later on, I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterwards, I will return here yet a seventh time.”
Lucia: “Shall I go to heaven too?”
Our Lady: “Yes, you will.”
Lucia: “And Jacinta?”
Our Lady: “She will go also.”
Lucia: “And Francisco?”
Our Lady: “He will go there too, but he must say many Rosaries.”
Then I remembered to ask about two girls who had died recently. They were friends of mine and used to come to my home to learn weaving with my eldest sister.
Lucia: “Is Maria das Neves in heaven?”
Our Lady: “Yes, she is.” (I think she was about 16 years old).
Lucia: “And Amelia?”
Our Lady: “She will be in Purgatory until the end of the world.” (It seems to me that she was between 18 and 20 years of age).
Our Lady: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?”
Lucia: “Yes, we are willing.”
Our Lady: “Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”
As she pronounced these last words “…the grace of God will be your comfort”, Our Lady opened her hands for the first time, communicating to us a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors. Then, moved by an interior impulse that was also communicated to us, we fell on our knees, repeating in our hearts: “O most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the most Blessed Sacrament!”
After a few moments, Our Lady spoke again:
“Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace for the world, and the end of the war.”
Then she began to rise serenely, going upwards towards the east, until she disappeared in the immensity of space. The light that surrounded her seemed to open up a path her in the firmament, and for this reason we sometimes said that we saw Heaven opening.
------The Final Apparition, Oct. 13, 1917-------
We left home quite early, expecting that we would be delayed along the way. Masses of people thronged the roads. The rain fell in torrents. My mother, her heart torn with uncertainty as to what was going to happen, and fearing it would be the last day of my life, wanted to accompany me. On the way, the scenes of the previous month, still more numerous and moving, were repeated. Not even the muddy roads could prevent these people from kneeling in the most humble and suppliant of attitudes. We reached the holmoak in the Cova da Iria. Once there, moved by an interior impulse, I asked the people to shut their umbrellas and say the Rosary. A little later, we saw the flash of light, and the Our Lady appeared on the holmoak.
Lucia: “What do you want of me?”
Our Lady: “I want to tell you that a chapel is to be built here in my honor. I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to pray the Rosary every day. The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”
Lucia: “I have many things to ask you: the cure of some sick persons, the conversion of sinners, and other things…”
Our Lady: “Some yes, but not others. They must amend their lives and ask forgiveness for their sins.” Looking very sad, Our Lady said: “Do not offend the Lord our God any longer, because He is already deeply offended.”
Then opening her hands, she made them reflect on the sun, and as she ascended, the reflection of her own light began to be projected on the sun itself.
Here, Your Excellency, is the reason why I cried out to the people to look at the sun. My aim was not to call their attention to the sun, because I was not even aware of their presence. I was moved to do so under the guidance of an interior impulse. After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, the apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Dolours. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel.
(Sister Lucia . Fatima in Lucia's Own Words: The Memoirs of Sister Lucia, the Last Fatima Visionary)
