| | In the spring of 1916, three shepherd children: Lucia dos Santos, age nine and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages eight and six, were tending their sheep on a patch of land called the Cabeco. While they were playing a game of pebbles, a strong wind moved through, revealing a transparent figure of a young man hovering over the olive trees. The young man said to them: "Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me."<ref>Our Lady Comes to Fatima. page 3. Leaflet Missal Company. 1987.</ref> The angel knelt on the ground and asked the children to repeat after him: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You." After repeating the prayer three times, he arose and before he departed, he told the children: "Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications."<ref>ibid. page 4.</ref> | | In the spring of 1916, three shepherd children: Lucia dos Santos, age nine and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, ages eight and six, were tending their sheep on a patch of land called the Cabeco. While they were playing a game of pebbles, a strong wind moved through, revealing a transparent figure of a young man hovering over the olive trees. The young man said to them: "Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me."<ref>Our Lady Comes to Fatima. page 3. Leaflet Missal Company. 1987.</ref> The angel knelt on the ground and asked the children to repeat after him: "My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love You." After repeating the prayer three times, he arose and before he departed, he told the children: "Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications."<ref>ibid. page 4.</ref> |
| − | The children were silent about the apparition but for awhile, prayed the Angel's prayer regularly. By the summer of 1916, they had begun to pray less. One day while playing by a well, the Angel appeared again and asked what they were doing? He told them that the most holy hearts of Jesus and Mary had designs of mercy for them. They were to offer prayers and sacrifices to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He was most offended and, to accept and bear with submission the suffering the Lord would send them.<ref>ibid. pages 4-5.</ref> | + | The children were silent about the apparition but for awhile, prayed the Angel's prayer regularly. By the summer of 1916, they had begun to pray less. One day while playing by a well, the Angel appeared again and asked what they were doing? He told them that the most holy hearts of [[Jesus]] and [[Mary]] had designs of mercy for them. They were to offer prayers and sacrifices to [[God]] as an act of reparation for the sins by which He was most offended and, to accept and bear with submission the suffering the [[Lord]] would send them.<ref>ibid. pages 4-5.</ref> |
| | The third and final appearance of the Angel came in the fall of 1916. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were in the Cabeco, praying the Angel's prayer when he appeared to them, holding a chalice in his hands with a Host above it, from which drops of Blood fell into the chalice. This time, he instructed the children to say: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 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."<ref>ibid. page 5.</ref> The angel then gave the Host to Lucia and the Blood to Jacinta and Francisco. | | The third and final appearance of the Angel came in the fall of 1916. Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta were in the Cabeco, praying the Angel's prayer when he appeared to them, holding a chalice in his hands with a Host above it, from which drops of Blood fell into the chalice. This time, he instructed the children to say: "Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 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."<ref>ibid. page 5.</ref> The angel then gave the Host to Lucia and the Blood to Jacinta and Francisco. |