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Person Memoirs, Part
2
APPARITIONS
of the
BEAUTIFUL
LADY,
MAY, JUNE, JULY
The 13th of May, 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...'
We began to go down the slope, hurrying the
sheep along towards the road. We were more or less half-way 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 in-tense 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:
'Do not be afraid. I will do you no
harm.
'Where are you from?'
'I am from heaven.'
'What do you want of me?'
'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.
'
'Shall I go to heaven too?'
'Yes, you will.'
'And Jacinta?
'She will go also.
'And Francisco?
'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.
Is Maria das Neves in heaven?
Yes, she is. (I think she was
about 16 years old.)
And Amelia?
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).
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?
Yes, we are willing.
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 inner-most 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:
0 most Holy Trinity, I adore You!
My God, my God, I love You 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 up
towards the east, until she disappeared in the immensity of space.
The light that surrounded her seemed to open up
a path before her in the firmament, and for this reason we sometimes
said that we saw heaven opening.
How The Visions Felt and Appeared ...
... The Apparitions of Our Lady inspired
neither fear nor fright, but rather surprise. When I was asked
[by investigators] if I had experienced fear, and
I said that we had, I was referring to the fear we felt when we saw the
flashes of lightning and thought that a thunderstorm was at hand...
The flashes of lightning were not really
lightning, but the reflected rays of a light which was approaching.
It was because we saw the light, that we sometimes said we saw Our Lady
coming; but, properly speaking, we only perceived Our Lady in that light
when she was already on the holm oak tree.
~
Second Apparition:
13th of June, 1917
AS SOON AS Jacinta, Francisco and I had finished
praying the Rosary, with a number of other people who were present, we
saw once more the flash reflecting the light which was approaching
(which we called lightning). The next moment, Our Lady was there
on the holmoak, exactly the same as in May. I asked,
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 to read. Later,
I will tell you what I want.
I asked for the cure of a sick person...
If he is converted, he will be cured during the
year.
I would like to ask you to take us to heaven.
Yes. I will take Jacinta and Francisco
soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus
wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to
establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.
Am I to stay here alone? I asked, sadly.
No, my daughter. Are you suffering a
great deal? Dont lose heart. I will never forsake you. My
Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to
God.
~
As Our Lady spoke these last words,
she
opened her
hands and for the second time, she communicated to us the rays of that
same immense light. We saw ourselves in this light, as it were,
immersed in God.
Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part
of the light which rose towards heaven, and I in that which was poured
out on the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady's right hand
was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood
that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of
humanity, and seeking reparation.
You know now, Your Excellency, what we referred to
when we said that Our Lady had revealed a secret to us in June.
At the time, Our Lady did not tell us to keep it secret, but we felt
moved to do so by God.
The
3rd Apparition: July 13, 1917
A FEW MOMENTS after arriving at the Cova da Iria,
near the holmoak, where a large number of people were praying the
Rosary, we saw the flash of light once more, and a moment later Our Lady
appeared on the holmoak.
What do you want of me? I asked.
I want you to come here on the 13th of next
month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour 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.
I would like to ask you to tell us who you are,
and to work a miracle so that everybody will believe that you are
appearing to us.
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.
~
I then made some requests, but I cannot recall now
just what they were. What I do remember is that Our Lady said it
was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary in order to obtain
these graces during the year. And she continued:
Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many
times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: '0 Jesus, it
is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for
the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Vision
of Hell
As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her
hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months.
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 or 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.
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...
Prophecy
of Future WWII
The war is
going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will
break out during the pontificate of Pius Xl. When you see a night
illumined 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, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
The Call to Consecrate
Russia...
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...
[Here the Lady told Lucia the
'Third Prophecy, instructing her not to reveal it yet.]
Do not tell this to anybody.
Francisco, yes, you may tell him.
When you pray the Rosary, say after each
mystery: 0 my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.
After this, there was a moment of silence, and then I
asked:
Is there anything more that you want of
me?
No, I do not want anything more of you today.
Then, as before, Our Lady began to ascend towards the
east until she finally disappeared in the immense distance of the
firmament.
Addendum: THE
CHURCH INVESTIGATES...
YEARS
LATER, WHEN these events were being investigated by Church
authorities, Lucia compared her response to these apparitions of the Lady, with
her 1916 apparition of the Angel of Peace, and she wrote:
I do not know why, but the Apparitions of Our Lady
produced in us very different effects. We felt the same intimate joy,
the same peace and happiness [as previously], but instead of physical
prostration, an expansive ease of movement; instead of this annihilation in
the Divine Presence, a joyful exultation; instead of the difficulty in
speaking, we felt a certain communicative enthusiasm. Despite these
feelings, however, we felt inspired to be silent, especially concerning
certain things.
Next:
4th-5th-6th LADY Apparitions
Sun Dance Miracle
Table
of Contents
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