Tag: Our Lady of Fatima

Hidden Jesus and the Dancing Sun

 

Fatima

by Paula Zwenger

One hundred years ago today a miracle occurred
amid the hills of Portugal – I wonder, have you heard
of three young children tending sheep on hillsides near their town
who witnessed our dear Lady when from heaven she came down?
An angel came before her to prepare the children’s hearts.
She then appeared five times to them – a message to impart.

She came to see the children, sweetest Mother of Our Lord.
She came to see the children for she knew that they adored
and loved their Savior very much; but sinners as we are,
we needed her to help us see we’d wandered very far
away from Him, who loves us so with love to last all days.
She came with love and remedy to help us mend our ways.

She brought Jacinta, Francesco and Lucia a sign.
A daily rosary she asked, and sacrifices fine
to mend the sorrows of her heart, Immaculate and thorned;
without a heed to what she said, dire consequence was warned.
Our Savior’s hand of justice would be tempered if we gave
attention to her message – sent for all the world to save.

The youngest two, when all began, were too young to receive
Our Eucharistic Lord, yet still they followed and believed.
They loved the Hidden Jesus while His Mother they’d attend,
enduring even glimpse of hell where sadly, some souls end.
They sacrificed their whole day long to make amends for sins;
so none would turn from loving God and all invite Him in.

The final time she came to them upon the hilltop fair
a crowd of thousands also came to witness  Mary there.
The mud was thick upon the ground for rain had fallen too.
Then sun came out and dried their clothes, and danced in thousands’ view.
A miracle she said they’d see so all could know in truth
the message of Our Lady she had given to the youth.

These children loved Our Lady, they were persecuted long
but never lost their courage though their trials were dark and strong.
The youngest two would perish young. Lucia took the veil,
away to cloistered life she chose, submissive without fail.
She told the stories, as was asked by popes, about her friends,
but fame was never once her goal or means to reach an end.

“Oh my Jesus” so she taught and, “forgive us our sins”
“Save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls” again
“to heaven, especially those,” sweet Jesus, “most in need
of thy mercy” was the prayer she gave to intercede.
Now we say these special words at every decade done,
praying for salvation by the mercy of God’s Son.

Our rosary beads we deftly finger each and every day
to honor our dear Mother as she leads us on our way.
The sun will dance with certainty in our hearts, who believe;
for light of God is meant for truth and never to deceive.
Sweet Fatima, your message clear, we celebrate this day;
may faithfulness and sacrifice abide with us to stay.

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Paula Zwenger is a wife, mother, and grandmother who, upon finding herself an empty nester, tried on the hat of rhyme loving writer. It fit very well. Her joy manifests completely while taking the ups and downs of life and wrangling them into poetry. She also has a passion for creating rhymed treasure hunts with a Catholic flare to celebrate the faith and learn a thing or two along the way. You can find her musings at RhymeLovingWriter.com.

Fatima: A Call to Participate in Salvation

As we approach the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in Fatima, then, we recommit ourselves to personal prayer and to doing penance so that all souls, especially those most in need of God’s mercy, will be saved.

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children at Fatima, Portugal and identified herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.”  She continued to appear to the Fatima_Grotto_(Sorrowful_Mother_Shrine)_-_statue_of_the_childrenchildren each month through October 13th and revealed to them a plan for peace in the world through personal prayers and penances.  At her final appearance to them on October 13th, about 70,000 people had gathered to witness the children as they spoke to the Virgin.  Everyone present that day testified to having seen the “miracle of the sun” as it “danced” in the sky, thus confirming the apparition for the onlookers.

On May 13, 1981, Pope St. John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square at point-blank range.  Of this assassination attempt, the Pope later wrote: “Could I forget that the event… took place on the day and at the hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ to the poor little peasants has been remembered for over sixty years at Fatima, Portugal? …I felt that extraordinary motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet.”  One year after he was shot, St. John Paul placed a crown on the statue of Mary in Fatima in which was suspended the very bullet that came so close to claiming his life.  Why?  The Pope absolutely believed that it was a miracle of Our Lady of Fatima that had preserved his life that day.

On May 13, 2017, we will mark one hundred years since Our Lady first appeared to the three young children in Fatima.  Her message to them then—and to us now—is a message of urgency.  Mary has exhorted us to prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners and for lasting peace in our world.  In the last century, the human race has suffered the effects of so much evil: human life has been destroyed in countless numbers, the divide between the East and West has grown, marriage and the family are under attack, faithless secularism is on the rise, and sin and its consequent effects continue to abound in every corner of the globe.  Nevertheless, we know that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom 5:20).  The Virgin Mary is a shining example of this testament.  She, as Mediatrix of All Graces, demonstrates to us the magnanimous will of the Father that His children through adoption, raised up by the grace of the Cross and Resurrection of His Son and flooded by the Gift of the Holy Spirit ought to participate in the salvation of the whole world by our union with Him and His salvific will.  Like St. John Paul II in 1981, and the 70,000 in 1917, we too ought to be ready to witnesses the miracles God desires to work in our lives through the intercession of His Son’s Mother.  As we approach the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in Fatima, then, we recommit ourselves to personal prayer and to doing penance so that all souls, especially those most in need of God’s mercy, will be saved.

 

The Reverend Jeffery S. Loseke is a Priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is currently the pastor of  St. Charlccn_father-les Borromeo Parish in Gretna, Nebraska.  Ordained in 2000, Fr. Loseke holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome and is working to complete his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in interdisciplinary leadership through Creighton University in Omaha.  In addition to parish ministry, Fr. Loseke has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, taught high school theology and college-level philosophy, and has been a presenter for various missions, retreats, and diocesan formation days across the country.

Art: Fatima Grotto (Sorrowful Mother Shrine) – Statue of the Children, 2016 (Wikimedia Commons)

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