IV
Edition November
1999
Heart to heart
"The
Shepherds of Fatima"
EDITORIAL Mother Adela Galindo,
Foundress, SCTJM
© Only for
personal use
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Last October 13th, during the Anniversary Mass
of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, the Bishop
of Sousa-Ferreira announced that on the
following April 9th, 2000, two of the three
visionaries would be beatified in St. Peter’s
Square in Rome – Francisco and Jacinta, who died
in 1919 and 1920 respectively. What a great joy
for the Church! What a great joy for those who
love the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
Francisco and Jacinta will become the first
beatified children who are not martyrs. With
this beatification, the Church recognizes that
they lived a life of heroic virtue and holiness
and that they are now enjoying the glory of
Heaven. Thus, after the 9th of April we will be
able to call them Blessed Francisco and Jacinta.
In 1916 these shepherds, together with their
cousin Lucia who currently still lives as a
Carmelite religious, were witnesses to the
apparition of the Angel of Peace, who, in one of
the three messages given to them, said, “Pray,
pray much! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have
designs of mercy upon you.” These designs of
mercy were manifested one year later, when on
the 13th of May, 1917, they received the first
apparition of Our Lady. The apparitions lasted
until the 13th of October, on which they were
culminated by the great Miracle of the Sun.
These apparitions of our Lady of the Rosary in
Fatima are considered to be one of the greatest
spiritual events of our century, whose message
has transcendental implications not only for the
Church, but also for humanity.
Francisco, then nine years old, and Jacinta,
then seven years old, responded with great
generosity to the invitation Our Lady gave them
during the first apparition: “Do you wish to
offer yourselves to God, to endure all the
suffering that He may be pleased to send you, as
an act of reparation for the sins by which He is
offended, and to ask for the conversion of
sinners?” The yes that they gave in that moment
became the vocation of their lives. The Virgin
continued, “You will have much to suffer, but
the grace of God will comfort you.” They were
called by the Lord, through the words of our
Lady, to be victim souls, offering their lives
and embracing all their sufferings for the
conversion of sinners and in reparation to the
Two Hearts.
Francisco became a contemplative child and
distinguished himself by his love of Jesus in
the Eucharist, to whom he desired to offer
reparation. He understood the message of Our
Lady as a call to console the Lord “who is much
offended,” by becoming His companion for many
hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
Francisco once told Lucia, “Jesus is the hidden
and humble God; He is the King of Heaven who is
hidden in this Sacrament and who is much
forgotten by men. It is only just that I no
longer live but to love Him and to make up for
these offenses until the day I die.” It is in
this manner that Francisco lived after the
apparitions until his death: loving, adoring,
consoling and making reparation to the
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. His only agony
during his painful sickness was not having
sufficient strength to be able to pray more and
to tell Jesus more often how much he loved him.
Jacinta, after the apparition on the 13th of
July in which she witnessed hell and the many
souls that go there because so few pray and make
sacrifices to save them, became an apostle of
souls in danger of going to hell. She was
consumed by an insatiable desire to save souls,
and for this reason, she did not lose even one
opportunity to offer sacrifices for poor
sinners. She lived in a spirit of penance and
died in the midst of great physical sufferings.
Even greater was the pain of her heart, for she
died alone in the hospital of Lisboa, separated
from her family and from Lucia, her cousin and
greatest confident.
To meditate on the lives of Francisco and
Jacinta is to enter more deeply into the great
impact that the visit of our Mother Mary and her
urgent message had upon them. With total
obedience and generosity, they embraced the
words of the Virgin of Fatima. They became for
us models of love, reparation and self-offering
to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. I pray to Our
Lady that through her Immaculate Heart, we may
receive the graces we need to also participate,
with the same dispositions, with our lives,
prayers, sufferings and sacrifices, in the
mission to bring about the triumph of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and the reign of the
Two Hearts.
In the Love of the Pierced Hearts,
Mother Adela, SCTJM
Foundress
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