The power of prayer.
I have recently visited Fatima in
Portugal. Among others I have been there at the 13th of
October which was the day when the Sun Miracle was given 95
years ago which even the atheistic journalists wrote about
because they were there and saw it..
Of course nobody is obliged to
believe in private revelations, even if they are recognized by
the Church as valid. According to the Church's teaching there will be
no further revelation after Christ (CCC 66). We know, however, that
there have been private revelations through the ages. «It is not
their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but
to help live more fully by it in en certain period of history».
The apparition in Fatima is recognized as valid by the Church.
In this blogpost I will not go into
details about the apparitions. Instead I will leave references
for you to study if you find the topic interesting enough. Here
I will look at similarities between then and now. Is the message of
Our Lady of Fatima, also called Our Lady of the Rosary, still
a message for our time? If you never have heard about
the apparitions in Fatima, I'm sure you will be curious enough
to find out the exact happenings of 1917! So here we go:
The apparitions in Fatima occurred
95 years ago. Have they anything to teach us today? Are they
appropriate for our time in history? Many people think so! Why?
First we have to look at the time when
the apparitions happened. What characterized the time
around 1917? There was war. WWI had not ended. In Portugal where
the apparitions happened there was political instability. In
Russia we had the Russian Revolution. In February 1917 the Russian
revolutionary started to to be violent and in the same year at
November 17th (October 25th according to the
Julian calendar) the first communist party started to rule in Russia.
As we know religion became forbidden in Russia. Some years later we had the
economical crack in America (1929).
In our time (2012) we also have
dangerous forces of different kinds. Terror is a real threat. We
have war several places in the world. People are murdered with cold
blood. We have economical problems in the West (America and Europe).
We have a growing population in the western world saying that they
don't believe in God. Our time have to some degree some similarities
with the time when Our lady appeared in 1917.
There are written lots of books about
the apparitions and some movies are made too. I highly recommend
those written by Sr. Lucia herself
(the oldest seer). For the Norwegian speaking I recommend: Bjerke. P.
B, Mirakelet i Fatima 1917 (...århundrets Mariaåpenbaring i
lys av Bibelen...), 1998,
Mazmillian Kolbe Utvivelser. I found the Norwegian book
informative. I also felt that the book «Fatima for Today: The Urgent
Marian Message of Hope» by Andrew Apostoli and the films «The Call
to Fatima», Film
Director & Producer: Thomas McCormack, gave me a lot. For a quick
updating on the happenings i 1917 here and now; go here:
So what was it that Our Lady of Fatima
wanted in the turbulent times of 1917? She wanted people to pray more
every day, especially the Rosary. She wanted the people to pray for
sinners to repent and avoid hell. She wanted prayers for peace. If
not there would come another war much worse than the one already
ongoing. (The second world war came). She recommended penance. She
also wanted people to partake in 6 successive first Saturdays. (First
Saturdays are the first Saturday in every month:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Saturday_Devotions
). The first Saturdays were mentioned in a later revelation when the
oldest of the seers had become a nun. Our Lady especially asked for
the consecration of Russia (in her 1917 apparitions) to avoid Russia
spreading her evil to the rest of the world (atheism I suppose). The final consecration was done very late, but it has been done (1984). After the consecration the Soviet Union fell apart.
No history book will tell us that a new
war broke out because people didn't pray enough (WWII ...). May be
that is a very important part of the message, that prayers might
change the course of the history? We may feel that we are too few
to pray for peace, since more and more people leave faith. Well,
perhaps that's so in the Western world, but even so, I think that Our
Lord will appreciate our prayers and our trust in Him. Because that
is what it is about. It is about our understanding of the faith. It's
about our way of practicing our faith. It's about if we are lukewarm
or not. As it was said to the the church of Laodicea: «I know thy
works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold,
or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I
will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am
rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not,
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked» (Rev 3:15-17).
When we trust ourselves more than God,
our attention to God will be weakened. To pray is to trust. To pray
and to do penance for others are to show that we care about them. To
pray the Rosary is to tell the LORD that we have understood that He
gave his mother to us when He hang on the cross. It is to take Mary's
«YES», when the angel came to her, very seriously. When we say yes
to God we must do it wholehearted. That includes thinking about
others, praying for them to have peace and to reach Heaven and avoid
Hell (that there is a Hell is a catholic dogma. There is no use in
trying to hide that part of the faith. Those who don't believe in God
and don't live after His will have judged themselves into Hell. (It's a
choice ...). They need our prayers before it comes so far and we
ourselves need them. There might be may snares on the road to heaven,
even for those that think they are strong in faith.
I agree with those who see the Message
of Fatima just as actual today as it was 95 years ago. To visit
Fatima is to be filled with peace and being grateful to God. When we
visit it on the 13th in the months between May and October
we will be at the same place where the miracle happened. We will stay
in a crowd of people and remember. We will see the place where Our
Lady of the Rosary occurred, and we will also remember the Miracle of
the Sun that occurred at the 13h of October in 1917. Just as tight as
we stand, so they stood 95 years ago (2012 now). They understood the
message! Do we?
To walk at the roads in the village
where the children lived gives an extra dimension to our lives. Their
lives were so different from ours. They didn't have mobiles, electronic toys or electrical light. The grown ups had to work hard
and so did some children too. Their help where necessary for the
families to survive. Sometimes we need to remember that much of the luxury that is to find in the Western world of today are only
distractions that might lead us away from God.
God bless you all for reading and
reflecting!
The angel who appeared for the second
time before the apparitions of Our Lady, and whom the children are
kneeling in front of (the statues are at the actual place) at the
well at the land of Lucia's (the oldest seer) parents, taught the
children this prayer:
«+My God, I believe, I adore,
I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not
believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You! AMEN+»
