The Pope Francisco is coming to Portugal and we are getting two more saints
I am writing to my american public now. I guess portuguese know more than me about this, I am not a specialist.
What happened is, a hundred years ago, in 13th, May 1917, the Virgem Mary appeared in Fatima, to three children. Or so they said. The story is that they went to the country with their goats, and they saw a light over an olive tree. They went to see and they heard a voice in their heads, saying not to be afraid she was their friend, she was coming to speak about peace on earth. They also saw a woman, they said it was the mother of Christ. They were not supposed to talk about it, she would return next month, in the 13 th again.
They were cousins, the older one Lucia, was 12 (I think), the other two were brother and sister Jacinta and Francisco and they were younger, 7 and 8.
My grandmother, who was born in 1899, used to tell me this story, when I was a child. I really didn´t believe any of it, I thought it was just a story, but later I read almost word by word what she told me in books and documentaries. She died when I was eleven.
The story goes that the children didn´t keep quiet about it and told their friends, and next time there were more people around the tree, they saw nothing but the children seemed to see, they were quiet and listening to something. Then they were questioned by the priest , to tell no lies. Later by the authorities, they were separated and questioned alone, and the older one said she saw Our Lady but she was not tell what she said, the younger ones just saw her but didn´t remember the words. The guards told them they would put their hands in hot water if they kept to their lies, but they were not afraid.
The next months they kept going every month to the tree, followed by more and more people, because it was on the press and people were curious.
There was some kind of allucination, because more and more people began to see a light.
By that time, my grandmother wanted to go to, with her friends, but her father forbid her, telling that was poor people beliefs. Photos of that period show many folk people. but also cars and city people standing around. Because this kept going from May o October, when Our Lady told the children three messages and said she would go and never return,, and people would see lights. That was the day everybody saw " the miracle of the sun walking in the sky". They saw a light going from one side to the other.
If this happened in the USA, you would say that they were alliens, an UFO.
If this happened in India it would be some kind of God.
This is a Catholic country where people pray mostly to the Virgen Mary (woman especially) and we have a celtic ascendency, to believe in several traditions linked to mother nature.
Well, then the Church intervened, they had to take a stand on the matter. They accepted that the Mother of Christ choose to appear to the innocent to transmit a message of love. The trouble was, the older of the children, Lucia, told that they had a message from Our Lady, three things, and the later the church kept a secret " the third secret of Fatima". So they took her to a Monastery where she became a nun, and was kept distant from the press, She wrote a lot, and died a few years ago. She was declared a saint* . The other children, who are going to be made saints, this year by the Pope, died soon later by ilness (pneumonia),
What were the messages from Fatima ? First, that there was going to be a great war between countries in some years (the 2nd world war). The second was that Russia would become Christian again and not communist. And the third was kept a secret.
When the Pope John Paul II came to Fatima, some ten years ago, he decided to tell the third message, because he felt that it had already happen. The message was that a great leader of the church, dressed in white, would be killed while walking among people in a great plaza. Which was the attack he suffered and almost killed him.( a gun shot).
Well, we have a great belief in this Lady of Fatima in Portugal. Every year people go there by foot, to pay promises they made to Saint Mary of Fatima. They promise to walk to Fatima if they are cured of some ilness or if their children comes well from a service in the army in Afhganisthan or other place ( we belong to OTAN and participate in missions).
At this moment, hundreds of people are on the roads, walking, and major operations are made to keep them safe, by fireman and other means.
The Pope Mobile has already arrived (he will be safe inside when he decides to drive between the people). He will go by helicopter from Lisbon aiport. he´ll spend the day and them he will return to Lisbon, and then by plane to the Vatican.
We hope nothing bad happens, there will be over a million people there....
* a saint is a person who was murdered by his /her beliefs, or lived a life doing good deads. And also if somebody declares that she was cured of something after praying to that person to help her, and this is proved (?).
What happened is, a hundred years ago, in 13th, May 1917, the Virgem Mary appeared in Fatima, to three children. Or so they said. The story is that they went to the country with their goats, and they saw a light over an olive tree. They went to see and they heard a voice in their heads, saying not to be afraid she was their friend, she was coming to speak about peace on earth. They also saw a woman, they said it was the mother of Christ. They were not supposed to talk about it, she would return next month, in the 13 th again.
They were cousins, the older one Lucia, was 12 (I think), the other two were brother and sister Jacinta and Francisco and they were younger, 7 and 8.
My grandmother, who was born in 1899, used to tell me this story, when I was a child. I really didn´t believe any of it, I thought it was just a story, but later I read almost word by word what she told me in books and documentaries. She died when I was eleven.
The story goes that the children didn´t keep quiet about it and told their friends, and next time there were more people around the tree, they saw nothing but the children seemed to see, they were quiet and listening to something. Then they were questioned by the priest , to tell no lies. Later by the authorities, they were separated and questioned alone, and the older one said she saw Our Lady but she was not tell what she said, the younger ones just saw her but didn´t remember the words. The guards told them they would put their hands in hot water if they kept to their lies, but they were not afraid.
The next months they kept going every month to the tree, followed by more and more people, because it was on the press and people were curious.
There was some kind of allucination, because more and more people began to see a light.
By that time, my grandmother wanted to go to, with her friends, but her father forbid her, telling that was poor people beliefs. Photos of that period show many folk people. but also cars and city people standing around. Because this kept going from May o October, when Our Lady told the children three messages and said she would go and never return,, and people would see lights. That was the day everybody saw " the miracle of the sun walking in the sky". They saw a light going from one side to the other.
If this happened in the USA, you would say that they were alliens, an UFO.
If this happened in India it would be some kind of God.
This is a Catholic country where people pray mostly to the Virgen Mary (woman especially) and we have a celtic ascendency, to believe in several traditions linked to mother nature.
Well, then the Church intervened, they had to take a stand on the matter. They accepted that the Mother of Christ choose to appear to the innocent to transmit a message of love. The trouble was, the older of the children, Lucia, told that they had a message from Our Lady, three things, and the later the church kept a secret " the third secret of Fatima". So they took her to a Monastery where she became a nun, and was kept distant from the press, She wrote a lot, and died a few years ago. She was declared a saint* . The other children, who are going to be made saints, this year by the Pope, died soon later by ilness (pneumonia),
What were the messages from Fatima ? First, that there was going to be a great war between countries in some years (the 2nd world war). The second was that Russia would become Christian again and not communist. And the third was kept a secret.
When the Pope John Paul II came to Fatima, some ten years ago, he decided to tell the third message, because he felt that it had already happen. The message was that a great leader of the church, dressed in white, would be killed while walking among people in a great plaza. Which was the attack he suffered and almost killed him.( a gun shot).
Well, we have a great belief in this Lady of Fatima in Portugal. Every year people go there by foot, to pay promises they made to Saint Mary of Fatima. They promise to walk to Fatima if they are cured of some ilness or if their children comes well from a service in the army in Afhganisthan or other place ( we belong to OTAN and participate in missions).
At this moment, hundreds of people are on the roads, walking, and major operations are made to keep them safe, by fireman and other means.
The Pope Mobile has already arrived (he will be safe inside when he decides to drive between the people). He will go by helicopter from Lisbon aiport. he´ll spend the day and them he will return to Lisbon, and then by plane to the Vatican.
We hope nothing bad happens, there will be over a million people there....
* a saint is a person who was murdered by his /her beliefs, or lived a life doing good deads. And also if somebody declares that she was cured of something after praying to that person to help her, and this is proved (?).
Comentários