"I Am of Heaven" The First Visit, May 13, 1917 The flash of light that commenced the first apparition looked like lightning to Lucy. She told her younger companions, Francisco and Jacinta, that they should hurry home and take with them the flock of sheep they were tending, before a thunderstorm began. A second flash of light soon followed, and this time, the children suddenly saw a Woman standing on a small holm-oak, only a few feet away. She seemed to Lucy to be about 18 to 20 years old, wearing a white gown embroidered with gold. She radiated brilliant clusters of light, and Her face was supernaturally beautiful. Sister Lucy's fourth memoir gives this account of the opening dialogue with Our Lady: "Do not be afraid. I will do you no harm." "Where is Your Grace from?" "I am of Heaven." Sister Lucy asked what was wanted from her. "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." On the subject of Heaven, Sister Lucy then asked: "Shall I go to Heaven too?" "Yes, you will." "And Jacinta?" "She will go also." "And Francisco?" "He will go there too, but he will have to say many Rosaries." The Virgin then gave a glimpse of Her purposes when She asked the children: "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 conversion of sinners?" When they indicated their willingness, the Virgin told the children: "Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort." The memoir then describes the extraordinary effect as Our Lady opened Her hands, radiating "a light so intense ... its rays penetrated our hearts and the innermost depths of our souls, making us see ourselves in God ... more clearly than we see ourselves in the best of mirrors." Then, moved by an interior impulse which was communicated to them, they fell on their knees and said together: "O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee. My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament." The first moments passed, and Our Lady added: "Recite the Rosary every day in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war." Lucy asked whether the war would still last a long time, or if it would soon end. "I cannot tell you yet, as I have not yet told you all that I want." At the end of their conversation Our Lady began to rise serenely, going up towards the east until 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 the children said sometimes that they had seen Heaven opening. "My Immaculate Heart will be your Refuge" The Second Visit, June 13, 1917 When they returned to the same place a month later, the children were accompanied by a small group of followers who had heard reports of the first apparition. The group said the Rosary together, and the same lightning-like flash appeared, followed by the Blessed Virgin's appearance standing on a cloud resting on the holm-oak. All could see the tree bending a little, as if someone were standing on it. Our Lady was visible only to the three children. Lucy asked Our Lady "Your Grace what do You want of me?" "I wish you to come here on the 13th of next month, to pray the Rosary every day, and to learn how to read. "Later I will tell you what I want." This time, Lucy asked the Virgin to take her and her companions to Heaven, and she received this reply: "I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you, Lucy, are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you in order to make Me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise salvation; those souls will be cherished by God, as flowers placed by Me to adorn His Throne." "Am I to stay here alone?" Lucy asked painfully. "No, My daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Do not lose heart, I will never forsake you! My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." Lucy, in her Memoir writes: "It was at the moment when She pronounced those last words that She opened Her hands and communicated to us, for the second time, the reflection of that immense light. In it we saw ourselves as submerged in God. "Jacinta and Francisco appeared to be in the part of that light which elevated itself to Heaven, and I in the part which spread itself on earth. "In the palm of the right hand of Our Lady there was a Heart surrounded by thorns which seemed to pierce it. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, which pleaded for reparation." The Announcement of the Great Miracle, the Secret, the Promise of PeaceThe Third Visit, July 13, 1917 By mid-summer, word of the apparitions had spread widely, and the three children, as they said their Rosary in preparation for Our Lady's visit, were surrounded by about 5,000 onlookers. The children saw the usual flash of light and then saw Our Lady on the holm-oak Again Lucy asked, "What does Your Grace want of me?" "I want you to come here on the 13th of next month and to continue praying the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only She can help you." Here Our Lady referred to Herself in the third person. Lucy asked Her to tell them who She was, and to work a miracle so that everyone would believe that She was appearing to them. "Continue to come here every month. "In October I will tell you who I am and what I want and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe." Lucy made some requests to which Our Lady replied that it was necessary to pray the Rosary in order to obtain these graces throughout the year. And She continued: "Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: O my Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." As Our Lady spoke these words, She opened Her hands once more, as She had done during the two previous months. This time the light did not fall on the children but on the ground between them and Our Lady. In this light the children could see below the face of the earth. They saw the fires of hell. Lucy describes this vision of hell: "The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened yet like burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals." Here, in her Third Memoir, Lucy added: "That vision lasted only a moment, thanks to our Good Mother of Heaven, Who, at the first apparition, promised to bring us to Heaven. Without that, I think we would have died of terror and fear. "Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady, Who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:" "You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. "The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the reign of Pius XI. "When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. "To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. "If My requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. "In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc... Do not tell this to anybody. Francisco, yes, you may tell him. "When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need." The horrifying vision of hell followed by the promise of peace through Her Immaculate Heart constitute the first two parts of a three-part secret which Our Lady communicated to the children that day. A Secret Withheld The words of the Virgin quoted above were set down by Sister Lucy in several of her memoirs. Sister Lucy, with the approval of her bishop, revealed the first two parts of the Secret in 1941. By a letter written in mid-October 1943, His Excellency Don José the Bishop of Fatima, gave the formal written order to Sister Lucy to write down the third part of the Secret. Sister Lucy, from October to the end of December, experienced unspeakable anguish and was not able to bring herself to write this part of the Secret down. Each time she took up her pen to do so she found herself incapable of writing. This mysterious impediment, Lucy explained, "was not due to natural causes." On January 2, 1944, Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucy in the infirmary at Tuy to tell her to write down the Secret ... in conformity with what had been asked of her. On January 9, 1944, Sister Lucy wrote to Bishop da Silva: "I have written what you asked me; God willed to try me a little, but finally, this was indeed His will: (the text) is sealed in an envelope and it is in the notebooks ..." Sister Lucy feared so much for the safety of this envelope that she would not entrust it to the post office nor any ordinary messenger. It was not until June 17, 1944, when Archbishop Manuel Ferreira da Silva came on behalf of Bishop José Correia da Silva, she discreetly handed him the notebook and the envelope, which contained her writings concerning the Third Secret. On December 8, 1945, Bishop José placed the envelope sealed by Sister Lucy in a larger envelope, also sealed with wax, on which he wrote in his own hand: "This envelope with its contents is to be given to His Eminence Don Manuel, Patriarch of Lisbon, after my death."  Our Lady asked that this third part of the Secret be made known to the faithful at the latest by 1960. Like the first two parts of the Secret, it is clear, and easy to understand. Like the second part of the Secret, it is prophetic. We know that from Cardinal Ottaviani who tells us he read it and it is a prophecy of the future. Many Fatima experts believe that we are now living through the Third Secret. On June 26, 2000, Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Bertone published photographically four handwritten pages, 62 lines long, written by Sister Lucy, and taken from her notebooks. These four pages described a vision Sister Lucy had. However, this June 26 document did not include the letter Sister Lucy wrote to the bishop, which contained the actual words of Our Lady in the Third Secret. Neither does the interpretation of that vision given by Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Bertone refer to the line "In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc.", which Sister Lucy has clearly indicated is part of the Third Secret. Furthermore, Father Alonso, the first official Fatima archivist, and the second Bishop of Fatima assures us that the Third Secret itself is only a single sheet of paper. The actual text is about 25 lines long.

 

Robert was raised Catholic but turned his heart to JESUS