Feast of Our Lady of Fatima

Today we celebrate a strange feast day because it frightened these shepherd children. Mary appeared to them and allowed them to have visions of hell and the crises to come in this world if we didn't mend our ways and turn to her Son. Always, always, she points the way to Christ.  She taught them a little prayer to say after each decade of the rosary, which we also say: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.

I came across a most beautiful reflection from Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God (+1849), who was a Passionist priest and theologian on how to face the things that are coming:

Let us have confident recourse to the protection of Mary.... We are human; we are sinful. As human beings, hell is our enemy; as sinners, heaven is our enemy. The devil unjustly wants us damned; God justly wants us punished. Thus we have heaven and hell against us and we are in the middle, exposed to both the wrath of God and the cunning of the devil.

Do not worry, my brothers and sisters. In Mary, we have a defender against the anger of heaven and the fury of hell. She can disarm the justice of God and defeat the designs of the devil ...  She has more influence with God than the whole company of saints in heaven ...

And so, let us not forget we have a Mother in heaven who continually prays for us. Our Lord's first public miracle occurred at her request! "They have no wine!" she said. Somehow I'm not surprised that it was at a wedding, given that our blessed Lord refers to Himself as the Bridegroom. Mary is a most enigmatic creature: Daughter of the Father, Mother of God, Spouse of the Holy Spirit. It's clear I just have a teensy brain :) 

Here's a place with photos, miracles, prophecies and promises and all things related to Fatima. Enjoy this well-known Ave Maria