The third apparition of Our Lady - July 13, 1917

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On July 13, more than 2,000 people came to the Cova da Iria. There were so many people that the three children could hardly get to the holm oak; they fell on their knees and Lucia began the Rosary. At noon on the dot, the apparition took place.

«What do you want of me?” Lucia asked.
«I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, and to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary» the Lady answered…
«I would like to ask you to tell us who you are, and to perform a miracle so that everybody may believe that you are appearing to us», Lucia pleaded. The beautiful Lady answered: «Continue to come here every month. In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe».

Lucia then made some requests for a many sick people and for other difficult cases. Our Lady said it was necessary for such people to pray the Rosary every day, especially with the family: that was the general condition for obtaining these graces. In the end, the Lady said: «Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make a sacrifice: ‘Oh Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary’».

«As Our Lady spoke these words – Lucia continues – she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the previous two months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent black coals, floating about in the fire, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves like great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and disgusting likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals».

Jacinta was very upset and let out a piercing shriek which everyone heard: «Ah! Blessed Virgin!...» Lucia wrote commenting on that vision: «Luckily the scene only lasted a few minutes and God’s grace protected us, otherwise we would have died of fright. However, Lucia continues, what remained impressed on my mind and in my heart was how sad the Lady was when she showed us hell!»

«You have seen hell, Our Lady said with goodness and sadness, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world».

Hearing and seeing these terrifying things, the children almost fainted. Then Lucia asked the Lady: «Is there anything else you want?»
«No, I do not want anything more of you today».
Then we heard the sound of a big thunder, and the Virgin Mary began to ascend, as usual, until she disappeared in the immense distance of the firmament.

The vision of hell and the prophecy about Russia and the uncertain future of the world make up the first two parts of the secret of Fatima, the secret that will cause the three shepherd children to suffer very much: Lucia revealed the first two parts of the secret of Fatima many years later, when she was already a nun.

FATIMA, AN APPEAL TO THE ETERNAL TRUTHS OF FAITH

In the third apparition, therefore, Our Lady promised the children a miracle (which then occurred on October 13) so that everyone may believe, and she showed them hell, where those who don’t love God and fight against Him go.

Children, do you know what happens after we die? Eternal life begins, that is, a life which will never end, not even after millions and millions of years… and what will happen to our soul in eternity?
If we were good and holy in this life, accepting with submission the suffering which God sends us, doing good to all and not hating anyone, staying united to Jesus in the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, and to Mary with the daily recitation of the Holy Rosary, we will go to HEAVEN.

What is Heaven? It is Paradise, that is, enjoying God forever, the only joy of our soul. In the first apparition, Our Lady said: «I am from Heaven», and she promised Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta that she would bring them with her to Heaven, and she said that Maria dos Neves, the young girl who died a short time before in Fatima, was already in Heaven. The three shepherd children were so fascinated by the beauty of Heaven, which they had caught of glimpse of through the Lady «more brilliant than the sun», that they only wanted to go there soon. Not even the threats they received of being made to die slowly in boiling oil could stop them in their race to Heaven, so much so that they said: «Fine, if they kill us, we will go to Heaven sooner».

But, you’re probably wondering, if we aren’t perfectly good when we die, where will we go? Always in the first apparition, the Virgin Mary told Lucia, who asked her about another girl who had recently died, «Amelia is still in Purgatory».

PURGATORY, children, is a place of great suffering, in which we are deprived of seeing God and of any other good until our soul is perfectly «purged», or purified, so we can go to Heaven. Can we avoid Purgatory? Of course: by accepting the suffering that the Lord will send us and by praying a great deal. When Lucia asked if Francisco would go to Heaven too, Our Lady answered: «Yes, but first he must pray many Rosaries»; this means that even though the shepherd boy was so good, he still had some defects that he could eliminate with prayer, especially with the Rosary.

And if we aren’t in a state of grace when we die, that is, if we have serious sins which we didn’t repent of? Our soul will go to HELL. And what is hell, you’re probably asking? Hell is eternal sorrow for the lack of God, our happiness: those who go there can’t see God and be with Him, they have no good and they suffer everything that the shepherd children saw, that is, every kind of evil without any good.

Dear children, today many people say that Hell doesn’t exist and that we shouldn’t talk about it because it is a silly fairy tale. However, we just have to think about what the children of Fatima saw, and what Lucia described, to convince ourselves of the opposite.
Why did Our Lady want the three shepherd children to see Hell? Certainly not to frighten them, but so that we too may believe this terrible reality and pledge not to end up there and not to let anybody else go there. How? By doing what Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta did: by praying and making sacrifices for poor sinners according to Our Lady’s request.