. ‘AND YOU



Nihil Obstat:

Very Rev, Bernard Sheridan

Censor deputatus

Imprimatur

:

Paul C. Schulte, D.D.

Archbishop of Indianapolis

August 5, 19A8

Feast of Our Lady of the Snows

Twenty-first Printing^ May 195S

Order from The Grail Office,

St, Meinrad, Indiana, USA,



FATIMA ... AND YOU

Prelude . . . The Angel of Peace

In the spring of 1916 three little shepherd children

had one day taken their sheep to the pasture land near

the Portuguese village of Fatima. It was just another

“routine day^’ in the lives of Lucy, aged 9, her cousin,

Francis, aged 8, and his little sister, Jacinta, whose age

was only 6. “We had played only a short while,” wrote

Lucy, many years later, “when a strong wind shook the

trees and above them a light appeared, whiter than

the driven snow. As it approached, it took the form

of a young man, transparent with resplendent light. He

began to speak: 'Fear not! I am the Angel of Peace.

Pray with meJ ”

He knelt on the ground, bowed low, and three times

recited a prayer: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope

and I love You. 1 beg pardon of You for those who do

not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love

YouJ* Then he arose and said: "Pray this way. The

hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of

your supplications.**

Three times in all the Angel visited the children, the

third time holding aloft a chalice with a host suspended

above it, from which drops of blood fell into the chalice.

Leaving both suspended in mid-air, he prostrated him-

self on the ground and three times recited this sublime

prayer of reparation:

"Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I

adore You most profoundly, and I offer You the most

precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ,

present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation

for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which

He Himself is offended. And by the infinite merits of

3



His Most Sacred Hea/rt and the Immaculate Heoflrt of

Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners

The Angel then arose, gave the host to Lucy and the

contents of the chalice to Francis and Jacinta, saying:

''Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ,

horribly outraged .by ungrateful men. Make reparation

for their crimes and console your GodJ*

Once more prostrating himself on the ground, he re-

cited three times with the children the prayer, "Most

Holy Trinity .

.

Then he disappeared from view.

THE BEAUTIFUL LADY

A year went by. On May 13th, 1917, in almost the
same spot where the Angel had appeared, the children

were once more tending their sheep. They had said

their Eosary, finished their meagre luncheon and begun

to play when suddenly, out of an azure blue sky, a

brilliant flash of light appeared in the East. Fearing a

storm, they were running excitedly to gather the sheep

together and return home, when another flash, this

time more brilliant than the first, literally rooted them

to the spot. It had settled above the branches of a

little holm oak tree and there, to their utter amaze-

ment, they beheld ^^the most beautiful Lady they had

ever seen.” ‘Tt was,” writes Lucy, "a lady dressed all

in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding rays of

light clearer and stronger than a crystal glass filled

with the most sparkling water pierced by the burning

rays of the sunJ*

Six times in all, monthly from May till October, the

beautiful Lady appeared to the Children. Over and over

she stressed the necessity of penance; told them that

men must cease offending her Divine Son, already too

grievously offended and urged them to “pray the

Rosary . .
.
pray the Eosary” to bring to an end the

war then raging and to ensure peace for the world.

4



Vision of Hell

During the July apparition the Mother of God

showed those innocent children a terrifying vision of

Hell. “She opened her hands and the light issuing

from them seemed to penetrate into the very depths of

the earth. Even the earth itself seemed to vanish and

we saw huge numbers of devils and damned souls in a

vast and fiery ocean. The devils resembled hideous

black animals, each filling the air with despairing

shrieks. The damned souls were in their human bodies

and seemed brown in color, tumbling about constantly

in the flames and screaming with terror. All were on

fire, within and without their bodies and neither devils

nor damned souls seemed able to control their move-

ments. They were tossing about like fiery coals in a

furnace, with never an instant’s peace or freedom from

pain.” So terrible was the vision that Lucy said they

would have died of fright were it not for the fact that

the Mother of God was near and had told them that

they themselves would go to Heaven. To the children

she now explained:

Yon have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners

go. To save them, God wishes to establish throughout

the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people

do what I tell you, many souls will he saved and there

will he peace.*^

More Terrible War (World War II)

^^But if they do not stop offending God, another and

more terrible war will break out in the reign of Pius

XI. When a night illumined by an unknown light is

seen, know that this is the signal that God gives that

the chastisement of the world for its many transgres-

sions is at handJ^ (The unknown light in question was

seen all over Europe the night of January 25th, 1938.

It was an ominous red glow, as if great cities were on

fire. Three months later Hitler invaded Austria. The

5



'^chastisement of the world” was about to become a

terrible reality, the most terrible reality mankind has

ever known.)

Russia Converted . . . and Peace

"To prevent this,** the Blessed Virgin continued, (N.

B. to prevent the second World War, which could have

been prevented had people heeded the warnings of

Mary at Fatima) "7 shall come to ask the consecration

of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion

of Reparation on the first Saturdays, If people heed

my requesty Russia will be converted and there will he

peace. If noty she shall spread her errors throughout

the worldy promoting wars and persecution of the

Church, The good will he martyred; the Holy Father

will suffer much; different nations will he destroyedy

hut in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The

Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, which will he

converted and some time of peace will he given to the

world,**

Miracle of the Sun

During the July apparition the Blessed Virgin had

told the children that in October she would work a

miracle so great that all would believe her predictions

and promises. Therefore it was to be expected that all

roads would lead to Fatima on the days preceding this

final apparition. O Diay a secular newspaper of Lisbon,

had this to say of the night of October 12th, 1917:

"All night long and into the early morning a light,

persistent rain fell. It soaked the fields, saddened the

air and chilled to the bone the men, women and chil-

dren and the beasts plodding their way to the hill of

the miracle. The rain kept falling, a soft, unending

drizzle. Drops trickled down the women^s skirts of

coarse wool or striped cotton, making them weighty as

lead. Water dripped from the caps and broad-brimmed

hats of the men, onto the new jackets of their suits for

6



seeing God. The bare feet of the women and the hob-

nailed shoes of the men sloshed in the wide pools of

the muddy roads. They seemed not to notice the rain.”

Threats of Violence

Morning dawned. The ground was a veritable quag-

mire. Yet the light of day saw 70,000 people crowded

together, singing hymns, praying the Rosary, undis-

mayed by the dark, lowering clouds and the relentless,

never-ending rain. Among the vast throng were athe-

ists and scoffers who welcomed the impending show-

down, confident that the events of the day would give

the lie to all those silly and stupid fairy tales about

miracles and a Lady from Heaven. There were even

ugly rumors of violent treatment of the children and

their parents should the affair turn out to be a fiasco.

But never was it more strikingly manifested that

‘^those who came to scoff remained to pray.”

“Our Lady is Coming”

Just at noon the familiar flash appeared towards the

East. Silence
y
Our Lady is coming

H

cried Lucy. Her

words were passed from person to person till the whole

vast assembly grew tense and alert with excited ex-

pectancy. The faces of the children assumed an ecstat-

ic expression and the people nearby realised that once

more they were gazing at the Beautiful Lady from

above. The interview was brief. The Lady kept the

promise made in the first apparition to tell them who

she was. She announced: am the Lady of the

Rosary^ Then her face grew very grave as she im-

parted her last message to the children: **People must

amend their lives, ask pardon for their sins, and not

offend Our Lord any more for He is already too much

offended"* As she took her leave of the children, she

opened her hands and from them rays of light extended

in the direction of the sun. **There she goes, there she

goes!"" shouted Lucy, and her words found echo in a

7



great cry of astonishment from the multitude, by now

observing the first awe-inspiring manifestations of the

stupendous miracle of the sun.

A Wheel of Fire

Gradually the sun grew pale, lost its normal color

and appeared as a sort of silver disc at which all could

gaze directly without even shading their eyes. Then,

to the astonishment of all present, rays of multi-colored

light shot out from the sun in every direction; red,

blue, green, yellow—every color of the spectrum.
Meanwhile, the whole heavens seemed to be revolving

as the sun spun madly on its axis like a gigantic wheel

of fire, painting the rocks, the trees, the faces of the

people with sunshine such as human eyes had never seen

before. Three times it stopped and three times the mad

dance was resumed. Then while the crowd fell to its

knees in sheer terror, the sun suddenly seemed to be

torn loose from its place in the heavens. Down it

hurtled, closer and closer to earth, staggering ‘Mrunk-

enly” as it zig-zagged through the skies, while from all

parts of the now thoroughly terrified multitude arose

cries of repentance and appeals for mercy. the

end of the worlds shrieked one woman hysterically.

''Dear God, donH let me die in my sinsF' cried another.

"Holy Virgin, protect usT implored a third. But just

when it seemed that the end was at hand, the sun sud-

denly resumed its accustomed place in the heavens,

whence it shone forth as peacefully as before.

Heavenly Tableau

Meanwhile, the children alone were privileged to

witness a Heavenly Tableau ‘‘at the side of the sun.”

Our Lady reappeared, first with St. Joseph and the

Divine Infant, then with her Divine Son as a grown

Man, blessing the assembled crowd, and finally in the

garb of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

8



Mary our Hope
^

Thus the stupendous miracle of the sun, the stamp of

Divine approval on the promises made to humankind

by God’s own Blessed Mother. For this is the age of

Mary. If our world is to be saved, it will be saved

through Mary, and since almighty God has placed the

peace of the world in her hands she has done all in

her power to give that peace to a weary and despairing

world. But that peace will not be ours without our

own co-operation. That she has made abundantly clear.

The Mother of God needs, pleads for, your help and

mine. In this pilgrimage she is literally ‘‘hurrying

around the world” in search of that “sufficient number”

who will hear her requests and help her hold back the

avenging hand of her Divine Son from descending in

punishment on a heedless and sinful world. This may,

indeed, be the last call for peace on earth in our

generation; the last loving appeal of a mother’s heart

to a world that has turned its back on God, her Son. If

it be heard, Russia will be converted and there will

be peace. If not, the errors of Communism will spread

throughout the entire worlds and the Mother of God did

not exclude the United States of America.

Two Forces

From the words of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima it

is clear that the issue is fast being crystallized. There

are two forces at work in the world, the forces of love

and the forces of hate; those who are on the side of

her Divine Son and those who are against Him. Truly

on the side of the evil one are those who by abandoning

themselves to lives of sin further wound the Heart of

Jesus Christ and the Heart of His Immaculate Mother

and invite Divine retribution upon the world. Those

who heed the message of Mary, live Christian lives and

offer their prayers and sacrifices in atonement for sin

and the conversion of sinners are literally the people

9



who today are helping to save the world. Which side

are you on? The time may be shorter than you realise.

WHAT MUST I DO?

/. Penance . . . Reparation.

Be prepared to make any sacrifice demanded by

Cliristian duty. That means doing your ordinary duties

well, with the acceptance of all the sacrifices this en-

tails, offered up in reparation for sin and for the con-

version of poor sinners.

2, The Rosary.

Recite the Rosary every day. If you are not already

doing so, begin at once the family Rosary in your home.

“The family that prays together stays together.” After

each decade add the prayer requested by the Blessed

Virgin:

''Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the

fire of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially

those who have most need of Thy Mercy.*'

2. Consecration.

Consecrate yourself—today—^without reserve, to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. Be prepared to live that

consecration. Wear her brown scapular always as evi-

dence of your belonging to the Mother of God.

4. The Five First Saturdays.

Practice faithfully this devotion especially requested

by the Blessed Virgin. It consists in: (a) Receiving

Holy Communion on the first Saturday of five consecu-

tive months; (confession any time during the week be-

fore). (b) Reciting five decades of the Rosary that day,

meditating briefly on the meaning of each mystery.

Not just a mechanical repetition of words, (c) Medi-

tating for fifteen minutes on the fifteen mysteries of

the Rosary. A sermon on this subject may take the
place of the meditation for all concerned.

10



Act of Consecration

O Mary, Virgin and most powerful Mother of Mercy/

Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners / we consecrate

ourselves today / to thine Immaculate Heart. / We con-

secrate to thee / our very being and our whole life, / all

that we have, /all that we love, /all that we are./ To

thee we give our bodies, / our hearts and souls ; / to thee

we give our homes, /our families and our country.

Mindful of this consecration / we now promise to imi-

tate thee / by the practice of Christian virtues / without

regard for human respect. / We resolve to receive Holy
Communion / on the first Saturday of every month when

possible / and to offer daily / five dedades of the

Rosary / with all our sacrifices / in the spirit of penance

and reparation. / Amen.

Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima

Queen of the Rosary, / sweet Virgin of Fatima, / who

hast deigned to appear / in the land of Portugal / and

hast brought peace / both interior and exterior / to that

once so troubled country, / we beg of thee / to watch

over our dear homeland / and to assure / its moral and

spiritual revival.

Bring back peace / to all nations of the world / so

that all, / and our own nation in particular, / may be

happy to call thee their Queen / and the Queen of Peace.

Our Lady of the Rosary, / pray for our country. Our

Lady of Fatima, / obtain for all humanity / a durable

peace. Amen.

Extra booklets $2M per 100, plus postage

Extra copies of this booklet may be obtained in any quantity
at $2.00 per 100, plus postage. This strictly non-profit price

is a special offer of the Fatima Pilgrimage and represents

actual cost and handling charges only.

Order from:

The Grail, St. Meinrad, Indiana



't* 'tc* 'S* 'S* 'i* 'i*
'$*

't*
'{* '{*

'i* 't* 't* 'ip rt* rl? *i!* 'ip 'ip 'll* 'ip 'I*
'{* '$* '2*

'ip

Books About

OUR BLESSED MOTHER

by Mary Fabyan Windeatt

THE MEDAL—Many wear the Miraculous Medal
without knowing the wonderful story about it

and how Our Blessed Mother herself gave us

this medal. Illustrated. $2.00.

OUR LADY^S SLAVE—St. Louis De Montfort shows
us in his life how we can increase our devo-
tion to the Blessed Mother by practicing ‘‘True

Devotion.” Illustrated. $2.50.

THE CHILDREN OF LA SALETTE—Our Lady ap-
peared to a boy and girl at La Salette in France
in 1846. Illustrated. $2.50.

THE CHILDREN OF FATIMA—You have read this
pamphlet about Our Lady’s appearances at

Fatima. Here is a book about it. Illustrated.

$2.00. (We have this book bound in heavy

paper for $1.00 also.)

THE FAMILY ROSARY FOR CHILDREN by Urban
Paul Martin. $1.00. This has an illustration

on every other page. 70 pages. Paper binding

only.

Order from your Bookstore or

THE GRAIL Office ST. MEINRAD, INDIANA

^ ^ .J. ^