Quite possibly the greatest visible miracle since Pentecost Sunday, this Miracle is a challenge to us all. God has deemed such a public miracle necessary, it is necessary for us to investigate and consider its message. As the title of the lecture proclaims, the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima is an indisputable historical fact. It is therefore, incumbent upon us to listen and take it seriously. The world must turn from selfishness, sin and turn back to God. Our Lady lovingly implores us to stop offending God. As Scripture has prophesied, because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many has grown cold. Yet, God, through His Holy Mother, and in His mercy, has thrown fallen man a lifeline - and we ignore it at our own eternal peril. He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. But we must repent ... and persevere. (Matt. 24:12,13)
In commemoration of this great Miracle of the Sun and pleading for the Divine Mercy, we present the following video to consider. This Miracle had an estimated 70,000 witnesses, and is very well documented - including the witness of unbelievers. The secular newspaper of the day, run by Freemasons, who were (and are) the avowed enemy of the Catholic Church reported the miracle. Any objective consideration of the facts can lead to only ONE conclusion: The Holy Mother of God has spoken to the World. We must listen. The talk, a written account by a prominent scientist witness and an article on the significance of the Fatima message follow:
The Miracle of the Sun
An Eyewitness Account by Dr. José
Maria de Almeida Garrett, professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Coimbra,
Portugal from the website of the Fatima Center which is an excellent source of information on the message of Fatima and current news concerning Fatima.
"It must have been
1:30 p.m when there arose, at the exact spot where the children were, a column
of smoke, thin, fine and bluish, which extended up to perhaps two meters above
their heads, and evaporated at that height. This phenomenon, perfectly visible
to the naked eye, lasted for a few seconds. Not having noted how long it had
lasted, I cannot say whether it was more or less than a minute. The smoke
dissipated abruptly, and after some time, it came back to occur a second time,
then a third time
"The sky, which had
been overcast all day, suddenly cleared; the rain stopped and it looked as if
the sun were about to fill with light the countryside that the wintery morning
had made so gloomy. I was looking at the spot of the apparitions in a serene, if
cold, expectation of something happening and with diminishing curiosity because
a long time had passed without anything to excite my attention. The sun, a few
moments before, had broken through the thick layer of clouds which hid it and
now shone clearly and intensely.
"Suddenly I heard
the uproar of thousands of voices, and I saw the whole multitude spread out in
that vast space at my feet...turn their backs to that spot where, until then,
all their expectations had been focused, and look at the sun on the other side.
I turned around, too, toward the point commanding their gaze and I could see
the sun, like a very clear disc, with its sharp edge, which gleamed without
hurting the sight. It could not be confused with the sun seen through a fog
(there was no fog at that moment), for it was neither veiled nor dim. At
Fatima, it kept its light and heat, and stood out clearly in the sky, with a
sharp edge, like a large gaming table. The most astonishing thing was to be
able to stare at the solar disc for a long time, brilliant with light and heat,
without hurting the eyes or damaging the retina. [During this time], the sun's
disc did not remain immobile, it had a giddy motion, [but] not like the
twinkling of a star in all its brilliance for it spun round upon itself in a
mad whirl.
"During the solar
phenomenon, which I have just described, there were also changes of color in
the atmosphere. Looking at the sun, I noticed that everything was becoming
darkened. I looked first at the nearest objects and then extended my glance
further afield as far as the horizon. I saw everything had assumed an amethyst
color. Objects around me, the sky and the atmosphere, were of the same color.
Everything both near and far had changed, taking on the color of old yellow
damask. People looked as if they were suffering from jaundice and I recall a
sensation of amusement at seeing them look so ugly and unattractive. My own
hand was the same color.
"Then, suddenly, one
heard a clamor, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun,
whirling wildly, seemed all at once to loosen itself from the firmament and,
blood red, advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge
and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was truly terrible.
"All the phenomena
which I have described were observed by me in a calm and serene state of mind
without any emotional disturbance. It is for others to interpret and explain
them. Finally, I must declare that never, before or after October 13 [1917],
have I observed similar atmospheric or solar phenomena."
Professor Almeida
Garrett's full account may be found in Novos Documentos de Fatima (Loyala
editions, San Paulo, 1984)
The Message in General
From the Fatima Center
From the Fatima Center
The general Message of
Fatima is not complicated. Its requests are for prayer, reparation, repentance,
and sacrifice, and the abandonment of sin. Before Our Lady appeared to the
three shepherd children, Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta, the Angel of Peace
visited them. The Angel prepared the children to receive the Blessed Virgin
Mary, and his instructions are an important aspect of the Message that is often
overlooked.
The Angel demonstrated to
the children the fervent, attentive, and composed manner in which we should all
pray, and the reverence we should show toward God in prayer. He also explained
to them the great importance of praying and making sacrifices in reparation for
the offenses committed against God. He told them: "Make of everything you
can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by
which He is offended, and in supplication, for the conversion of sinners."
In his third and final apparition to the children, the Angel gave them Holy
Communion, and demonstrated the proper way to receive Our Lord in the
Eucharist: all three children knelt to receive Communion; and Lucy was given
the Sacred Host on the tongue and the Angel shared the Blood of the Chalice
between Francisco and Jacinta.
Our Lady stressed the
importance of praying the Rosary in each of Her apparitions, asking the
children to pray the Rosary every day for peace. Another principal part of the
Message of Fatima is devotion to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, which is terribly
outraged and offended by the sins of humanity, and we are lovingly urged to
console Her by making reparation. She showed Her Heart, surrounded by piercing
thorns (which represented the sins against Her Immaculate Heart), to the
children, who understood that their sacrifices could help to console Her.
The children also saw
that God is terribly offended by the sins of humanity, and that He desires each
of us and all mankind to abandon sin and make reparation for their crimes
through prayer and sacrifice. Our Lady sadly pleaded: "Do not offend the
Lord our God any more, for He is already too much offended!"
The children were also
told to pray and sacrifice themselves for sinners, in order to save them from
hell. The children were briefly shown a vision of hell, after which Our Lady
told them: "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."
She said that if people
did not stop offending God, He would punish the world severely by means of war,
famine, persecution of the Church, and persecution of the Holy Father. To
prevent these chastisements, Our Lady offered a remedy: She would return to ask
for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart and the Communion of
Reparation on the Five First Saturdays. If Her requests were heeded, there
would be peace. If not, Russia’s errors would spread throughout the world,
causing wars and persecutions against the Church, the Holy Father to suffer
much, martyrdom of the good and the annihilation of various nations.
Our Lady indicated to us
the specific root of all the troubles in the world, the one that causes world
wars and such terrible suffering: sin. She then gave a solution, first to
individual people, then to the Church’s leaders. God asks each one of us to
stop offending Him. We must pray, especially the Rosary. By this frequent
prayer of the Rosary, we will get the graces we need to overcome sin. God wants
us to have devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to work to spread this
devotion throughout the world. Our Lady said, "My Immaculate Heart will be
your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." If we wish to go to
God, we have a sure way to Him through true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of
His Mother.
When Sister Lucy
questioned Our Lord as to why He would not convert Russia without the solemn
public consecration of that nation specifically, Jesus answered:
Because I want My whole
Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, so that it may extend its homage later on, and put the devotion to This
Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.
Thus, we see that the
conversion of Russia cannot take place unless and until the Pope and bishops
consecrate specifically Russia, because God has reserved this grace – this
special grace – to this special act of honor and reparation to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. Jesus does this because He wants to establish throughout the
world, in the hearts and minds of the faithful, the importance of devotion to
His Mother’s Immaculate Heart.
Devotion to the
Immaculate Heart is central to the Fatima Message. God determined that the
Consecration of Russia and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays
be the means of implementing this devotion throughout the world, and gave this
task to His Pope and bishops and to individual souls to practice and promote
this devotion.
In order to move ever
closer to Her, and therefore to Her Son, Our Lady stressed
Besides these general
points, given in the Fatima Message over 6 months, Our Lady confided a Secret
to the three shepherd children on July 13, 1917. This Secret was meant for all
Catholics, but was to be given to them later (at the latest, in 1960) since no
one was prepared to understand it all in 1917.
In her Third and Fourth
Memoirs, which were both written in 1941, Sister Lucy revealed to a wider
audience the first two parts of the Secret. The third part of the Secret – or,
as it is called, the Third Secret – was written down for the first time between
January 2 and January 9, 1944.
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