The Story of Fátima

THE ANGEL OF PEACE

The story of Fátima really begins in the year 1916 when three children - Lucia, a girl of ten, and her cousins, Francisco, a boy of nine, and Jacinta a little girl of seven years old - went out into the valley of the Cova da Iria near the village of Fátima in Portugal.  The children had taken their parents' sheep out to graze.

On this spring day, the rain began to fall and the children hurried up the side of the hill to the south of the valley to a little natural cave.  There they finished playing their games, ate their lunches, and, as was the custom all over Portugal, knelt down to say the Rosary together.

Before they had finished praying the Rosary, they felt a strong wind and, looking about, noticed a strange light far out over the valley.  As they watched, that light came closer to the place where they were kneeling, until finally it came to the very entrance of the little cave.  The light took the form of a young man, about fifteen years of age, who said, "Fear not!  I am the Angel of Peace.  Pray with me."  Then, prostrating himself with forehead touching the ground, he gave the children this prayer:
    "My God, I believe; I adore; I trust, and I love thee.
      I beg pardon for all those who do not believe,
      do not adore, do not trust and do not love thee."

The angel repeated the prayer three times.  Before the angel left them, he said, "Pray thus.  The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplication."

The angel visited them twice more in 1916.  The second time the angel came, the children were playing near the old well behind Lucia's home.  The angel appeared without warning and asked, "What are you doing?  Pray, pray constantly.  Offer prayers and sacrifices to the Almighty."  Lucia, puzzled by these words, asked, "But how, how shall we sacrifice ourselves?"  The angel answered, "In everything you do, offer a sacrifice to God to make up for the sins by which God is offended...  Above all, accept and endure with submission the suffering which God will send you."

Towards the end of the summer, the angel came to them again, while they were praying in the cabeco (the little cave) where the angel first came to them.  In his hand he held a chalice, and over it, a bleeding Host.  Kneeling, he prayed:
"O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, I adore thee profoundly, and I offer thee the most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and the indifferences by which he is offended.  By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners."

Then, giving the Host to Lucia, and the contents of the chalice to Francisco and Jacinta, he said:
"Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men.  Make reparation for their crimes and console your God."

It was the last time that the children saw the angel.