by Fr. D. Couture (Oct 08, 2017)
This week, this Friday, we will commemorate the long expected one hundredth anniversary of the apparition of October 13, 1917 and of the Miracle of the Sun. We will have Rosary and benediction at 7pm on Friday night for this historical event.
The events of October 13 were prophesied on August 19 and September 13 with the same words:
“In the last month, in October, I shall perform a miracle so that all may believe in My apparitions. If they had not taken you to the village, the miracle would have been greater. Saint Joseph will come with the Baby Jesus to give peace to the world. Our Lord also will come to bless the people. Besides, Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Sorrows will come.”
Let us make a few comments on the first of these words.
“In October”: the whole story of Fatima is centered on the Holy Rosary. How fitting to have the last apparition and the grandiose miracle during the month of the Rosary!
“I shall perform”: Our Lady is the Queen of Heaven and earth, her Divine Son is the Creator. She has shown in the history of the Church that she, like Her Son, has power over the elements. Let us remember for example the wind changing as a result of the rosary crusade in the battle of Lepanto, and innumerable physical cures at her shrines.
“A miracle that all may believe in my apparitions” St Thomas teaches that true miracles are performed “first and principally, in confirmation of the doctrine that a man teaches, and secondly, in order to make known God's presence in a man by the grace of the Holy Ghost” (3a, Q. 43, a.1).
Our Lord did miracles during His lifetime to prove His Divinity and to confirm His Divine words. At Fatima, Our Lady wants everyone to believe in her message which is the reminder that God has entrusted the salvation of the world to His Immaculate Mother, to her Immaculate Heart,The miracle of the sun was seen by a crowd estimated at 70,000. It is therefore one of the most spectacular miracles in the whole history of the Church.
If you have not done it in the last few months, please read or re-read a book on Fatima, either the story itself or some aspects of it, like the life of the three children, or a book on the Immaculate Heart. We must not be deaf to her call, but put in practice what she asks for, especially the daily recitation of the rosary and the five First Saturdays.