THE APPARITION OF THE ANGEL

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The three shepherd children were prepared for their encounter with Our Lady by a beautiful Angel, who introduced himself as the Angel of Peace, the Angel of Portugal. He appeared to them three times and spoke to them.

First apparition of the Angel

One day, in 1915, the three children were playing at dusk and suddenly heard a strong gust of wind; then they saw a light, whiter than snow, in the form of a beautiful young boy who approached them and reassured them saying: «Do not be afraid, I am the Angel of peace; pray with me». And, kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the earth. The children did the same, and repeated the prayer which they heard him say: «My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You». Having repeated these words three times, he rose and said: «Pray like this. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications». Then he disappeared.

The Angel’s words remained so impressed on the shepherd children’s minds that from that moment on they would often sit in that uncomfortable position for a long time, repeating the prayer until they fell because of exhaustion.

Second apparition of the Angel

A few months later, after the initial enthusiasm wore out, the children went back to their old games. In the height of summer, between July and August 1916, while they were playing around the well in Lucia’s garden, they suddenly saw the same Angel right beside them and he reminded them to pray and do penance: «What are you doing? Pray! Pray very much! The Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to the Most High».
«How are we to make sacrifices?» Lucia asked. «Make of everything you can a sacrifice, and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners. You will thus draw down peace upon your country. I am its Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, accept and bear with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you».

Before disappearing, the Angel explained his invitation to penance and sacrifices: «Children’s sacrifices are very precious to the Lord: they are powerful for the conversion of sinners».

«These words – Lucia wrote later on – were impressed upon our minds like a light which made us understand who God is, how He loves us and desires to be loved, the value of sacrifice, how pleasing it is to Him and how, on account of it, He converts sinners. It was for this reason that we began, from then on, to offer to the Lord everything that mortified us, without, however, seeking out other forms of mortification and penance, except that we remained for hours on end with our foreheads touching the ground, repeating the prayer the Angel had taught us».

Third apparition of the Angel

Several months went by. It was autumn of 1916; one day the children had just said their Rosary and, kneeling down with their forehead touching the ground, they repeated the prayer of the Angel: «My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You». Suddenly they were surrounded by a dazzling light and saw the Angel holding a Chalice in his hands, with a Host above it from which some drops of blood were falling into the Chalice. Leaving the Chalice and the Host suspended in the air, the Angel prostrated on the ground and repeated this prayer three times: «Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners».

Then, rising, he once more took the chalice and the host in his hands. He gave the host to me, and to Jacinta and Francisco he gave the contents of the chalice to drink, saying as he did so: «Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God». Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with us three times more the same prayer, along with the children, and then disappeared.

The three shepherd children remained prostrated and repeated the prayer which the Angel had just taught them, until Francisco realized that it was already dark and it was time to go home.

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Perhaps, at this point, children, you will wonder: - But who are the Angels? Do they have a body like ours? What do the Angels’ prayers mean?

Angels are spiritual beings, without a body, who are always before God, in Heaven, that is, in a spiritual dimension, and who love Him, serve Him and honour Him. They are a spark of the great fire of Light and Love which is God Himself. They are very beautiful in their splendour and make up the joy of God, who conveys His goodness, beauty and strength to them.
They love the good Lord very much and they also love us humans, who are considered their brothers. We know that every person, from the moment he begins to live, is entrusted to an Angel who stays beside him until he dies. It is the Guardian Angel, who has the task of protecting us from evil, enlightening us with his advice, teaching us to love God and leading us towards Heaven, our common homeland. There we will meet our Angel and we will understand how much good he did for us on earth, we will thank him and together we will praise God, our common Father.
God often sends His Angels on earth for special missions and they reveal their presence with light or in other ways; but most of the time they take on human form.
In Holy Scriptures the Angel appears to the prophet Daniel in the form of man; he appears to young Tobias as his contemporary who accompanies him on a long journey, helping him and defending him from many dangers. At Fatima, since he has to reveal himself to children, the Angel takes on the appearance of a child.
In some cases the Angels appear with wings: not because they really have wings, but because they want us to understand that they are so ready to obey the good Lord that they fly from Heaven to earth to do what He commands. And also to remind us that their homeland isn’t the earth, but Heaven, where they come from and where they lead us.

What do the prayers the Angel taught to the children mean?
In the first prayer: «My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You», the Angel wants to remind us that Our Father in Heaven is saddened because most of His children on earth do not believe in Him, and do not return His immense Fatherly Love which created and redeemed them.
Faithful to His Love, the Father sends His Angel to tell children to love Him also for those who don’t love Him and offend Him; in fact, he invites them to ask pardon for these older brothers of theirs who hate Him and blaspheme Him. For this same intention, Our Lady will ask the children to “offer themselves up to God… in an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended”.

In contrast to Her ungrateful children who make up the army of God’s enemies and who offend Him and sadden Him, Our Mother in Heaven wants to set up an army of children who believe in Him, love Him and console Him: it’s the great “Armata Bianca” in which Our Lady gathers all the children of the world, under the protection of the Angels, to convert sinners, that is, to bring back into the Heart of the Father all Her children who have strayed because of sin.

In the second prayer: «Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners», the Angel wants to remind us that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, and he wants to invite us to love Him and make up for the numerous offences which He receives in this Sacrament.

The children of Fatima knew well what the Angel had asked of them. When Francisco’s parents decided to send him to school, and knowing that he would soon go to Heaven, he preferred to stop off at church and told Lucia: «Listen, you go to school. I’m going to stay here, in church, next to the hidden Jesus». And while Jacinta lived with the nuns in Lisbon, where she was brought to be operated, she made them bring her into a little room from which she could see the tabernacle, and she spent endless hours there, keeping the «lonely Jesus» company.

Dear children, let us conclude this conversation on the Angels by pointing out that the shepherd children were prepared for their encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist and with Our Lady by the very Angel. Therefore, it is a good idea to consecrate ourselves to our Angel so that he can lead us to Jesus and Mary. We can do this with a simple prayer: «Brother of mine, take my hand and bring me to God».

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