BIG C CATHOLICS

Fatima: The Apparition that Changed the World , (published 2017, by Tan Books, Charlotte, NC, 133 pages) the third book from writer, speaker, psychologist and blogger, Jean Heimann, M. A., recounts the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, between May 13 and October 13, 1917, at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, Portugal, to three poor shepherd children. Lucia de Jesus Santos and Francisco and Jacinta Marto. Mary told the children that she was sent from heaven by God with an urgent message for humanity. At that time, World War I was raging, and Europe was being torn apart by violence and bloodshed. Our Lady promised that God would grant peace the world over should her call for prayer, reparation and universal consecration to her Immaculate Heart be honored. The Blessed Virgin emphasized to the seers and to the world at large, "If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace." However, if it was ignored, a far greater conflict would occur. War, O

May 10, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. T

Fr. Roger J. Landry As authentic Marian apparitions go, many of the aspects of our Lady’s appearances to the three shepherd children in Fatima a century ago seem commonplace: Mary asks the seers to pray and do penance for the conversion of sinners, calls them to daily devotion to the Rosary, advocates for peace in the world, requests the children to return on specific dates, and entrusts them with secrets. What has never ceased to surprise me, on the other hand, is what she revealed to the children after she had showed them a very vivid vision of hell. The sight of “demons and souls in human form” with “shrieks and groans of pain and despair” was so terrifying that, Lucy wrote later, had Our Lady not earlier promised them that she would one day take them to heaven, they “would have died of fear and terror” on the spot. After the vision, Mary said to them, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go,” a clear indication that Hell is a real possibility of human fr

May 9, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

May 8, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

May 7, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

Fr. Roger J. Landry One of my favorite stories from the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima a century ago this year is how Our Lady was compelled gently to correct the three shepherd children for “cheating” on how they were praying the Rosary. The eldest, at the time ten-year-old Lucy, described in her eventual Memoires what they were doing and why. “We had been told [by our parents] to say the Rosary after lunch, but as the whole day seemed too short for playing, we worked out a great way to get through it quickly. We simply passed the beads through our fingers, saying nothing but ‘Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary….’ At the end of each mystery, we paused a second, then simply said, ‘Our Father,’ and so, in the twinkling of an eye, as they say, we had our Rosary finished! … So great was our eagerness to get to play! Our prayer finished, we started to play ‘pebbles’”! When our Lady appeared, she taught them how to slow down and to pray the whole Our Father, the whole Hail Mary

May 6, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

May 5, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

EWTN has a site, accessible through its faith listings, which examines everything one could want to know about Our Lady's miraculous appearance to three young children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. 100 Years of Fatima , presents the events surrounding the apparitions, the seers, Mary's urgent message to the world and developments since showing how the apparitions changed both the course of the children's lives and the history of the 20th century. A selection from the site : In the year 1917, in a mountainous region at the center of Portugal, the Mother of God appeared six times to three young children. Elsewhere on the continent the “Great War” raged, that would cost Europe an entire generation, over 37 million lives. Besides sending her own sons to die (in France and North Africa) Portugal was in political chaos at home. There was a dizzy succession of governments following a revolution in 1910. The monarchy had been replaced by a republic, with a new liberal constitut

May 4, 2017 In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto . She then instructed the children to pray the Rosary daily to end the war and bring peace to the world. She also asked that the following prayer be recited at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Our Lady entrusted the children with three secrets. The first was a vision of Hell . The second was a prophecy about the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the need for Russia to convert to Christianity. The third secret concerned the Holy Father suffering greatly and the persecution of the Church. On her seventh and final appearance, Our Lady's promised miracle occurred. The sun appeared to dance in the sky; an event witnessed by thousands of people. Th

Our Lady of Fatima is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. They were Lucia Santos, Blessed Jacinta Marto and Blessed Francisco Marto. Our Lady appeared to the children seven times and performed a miracle making the sun dance in the sky, which thousands of people witnessed. She told the children to say the Rosary every day to bring peace to the world and the end of war. This is why Our Lady of Fatima is also called Our Lady of the Rosary. She also requested us to pray the following prayer at the end of each mystery or decade of the Rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy. Amen.” Novena Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima O Most Holy Virgin Mary, you came to Fatima to reveal the graces that come from praying the Holy Rosary to three little shepherd children. Inspire us with a sincere love of this devotion so t

His Holiness, Pope Francis, has approved the second miracle needed to canonize Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the shepherd children who witnessed the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.The canonization Mass will be celebrated on May 13th, when the pope visits Portugal in honor of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto are the youngest non-martyrs to be beatified in the Church's history. Below is an earlier post about their witness. ___________________________________________________ Between May 13, and October 13, 1917, three children, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was enduring political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after. At the first appearance, Mary asked the children

February 20th, dioceses in Portugal celebrate the feast of Blesseds Francisco, 11, and Jacinta, 10, the youngest non-martyrs to be beatified in the Church's history. The brother and sister, who tended their families’ sheep herds together with their cousin Lucia Santo in Fatima, Portugal, witnessed apparitions of Mary, known as Our Lady of Fatima. Our Lady urged man to pray the rosary and to return to God. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three children, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after. At the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. She also asked them to learn to read and write and to pray

Today marks the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 to fourteen-year-old Saint Bernadette Soubirous. Our Lady’s message to humanity stressed devotion to God through Christ, ceaseless prayer, penitence and forgiveness. Three revelations in particular are worth pondering. One concern’s doctrine. The others speak to our earthly pilgrimage and our destiny, if we persevere in love. On February 18th, our Lady began her message telling Bernadette, "I do not promise to make you happy in this life but in the next." On February 24th, Mary asked for penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners. The next day, the feast of the Annunciation, Mary stated, "I am the Immaculate Conception." The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was initially celebrated on February 11th. It was approved by Pope Leo XIII, and first granted to the Diocese of Tarbes in the year 1890. Less than twenty years later, on November 13, 1907, his successor, Pope Saint Pius X pro

February 11th, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Three years before our Lady's appearance, in the apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Over the course of eighteen apparitions between February 11th – July 16, 1858, our Lady revealed to the shepherdess Bernadette Soubirous, that she was the "the Immaculate Conception." Here is Father Pius Parsch's account of the events: The many miracles which have been performed through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes prompted the Church to institute a special commemorative feast, the "Apparition of the Immaculate Virgin Mary." The Office gives the historical background. Four years after the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Blessed Virgin appeared a number of times to a very poor and holy girl named Bernadette. The actual spot was in a grotto on the bank of the Gave River near Lour

In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared some 18 times to a young uneducated peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Through a set of private revelations, Our Lady revealed herself as, "the Immaculate Conception." Saint Bernadette, the Apostle of Lourdes, spread Mary’s message of atonement, prayer and forgiveness to the world, revitalizing the faith of millions. The devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes is most well-known for the miraculous cures and healing of illness and disease. One of the intentions we will pray for during this novena is for healing. In one way or another, we are all in need of it, before we reach Heaven, whether it is the healing of our sins, or our physical infirmities. We will also pray for the conversion of sinners. This was an important intention in Bernadette's life, for which she offered up much of her physical suffering. Lastly, we'll pray for the faith of those who have fallen away from the Church, for those who are

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12th. She first appeared on December 9th, 1531. According to the account, the Virgin Mary told Juan Diego, an Indian convert, to tell Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to build a chapel. Bishop Zumárraga asked Diego for a sign as proof that it was truly the Mother of God. Our Lady instructed Diego to gather some roses in his tilma [tradition attests that Mary arranged the roses in the tilma herself] and present them to the bishop. As Diego did this, the roses fell to the floor, revealing the miraculous image of Mary as she appeared in real life. All present praised her intercession and believed. See Ten Amazing Facts About the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe . In 1910 Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared Patroness of Latin America, and in 1945 Pope Pius XII declared her to be the Empress of all the Americas. O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son's most holy Mother, grant that

October 5th, is the optional memorial of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, (1905-1938) the 20th century Polish nun who Jesus chose to deliver to the world His message of Divine Mercy. She was born, Helena Kowalska, in Głogówiec, Poland, the third of ten children to poor, Catholic peasants Stanisław and Marianna Kowalska. Her father was a carpenter and her mother an occasional housekeeper. At 15, Helena left school to help support her family. As a young child, she felt called by God to a religious vocation. In 1925, she entered the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, taking the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. This simple nun with only three years of formal education lived a short but very consequential life . Through her, God reveled His compassion, His desire to forgive sins and reconcile mankind to Himself. She endured great hardships in carrying out this divine mission, in which, she was disbelieved and her diary suppressed. Faustina receiv

August 8th, is the Memorial of Saint Dominic (1170-1221). He was born in Caleruega, Spain to a prestigious, noble family. His father was the royal warden of Caleruega. His mother, Bessed Joan of Aza, from whom Dominic received his devotion to God, was deeply religious. Dominic was educated in Palencia, where he excelled in the study of theology. Throughout his life, his concern for the poor compelled him to sacrifice, even to the point of selling his personal belongings, to buy them necessities. When criticized for selling his academic manuscripts to feed the indigent, he told his astonished classmates, "Would you have me study off these dead skins, when men are dying of hunger?" Near the end of the 12th century, the Church in France was threatened by the Albigensian heresy. It held that there were two gods: the god of light/spirit (represented by Jesus in the New Testament) and the god of darkness/matter, (typically associated with Satan) the "God of the Old Testame