Many don't know that the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima capped the series of thousands of reported and recorded apparitions worldwide since she started appearing in 40 AD to St. James the Greater, one of the Apostles while the former was in Spain preaching the gospel and trying build the church there. Through the years from the 1st century to the 20th century, the Blessed Virgin Mary has appeared privately to simple people who mostly became saints and blessed. Her appearances have caused conversions worldwide converting even the most stubborn atheists or pagans to Christianity and the Catholic Church. With thousands of apparitions to thousands of simple people like children who have no means of communicating with one another much less be influenced by each others own experiences because while there are similarities on how the apparitions happened each had unique situation and that made each apparition a miracle in itself.“The Most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her message, neither the good nor the bad.”
...Sister Lucia of Fatima
Although there are indeed fake apparitions especially in modern times many apparitions that had prophetic messages supported by real miracles can not just be ignored or dispelled as a lie even by Church authorities. A test of true prophesy is when the prophesies have come true. Only true Prophetic messages that came true can only come from God and miracles coupled with conversions to God must be coming from the same God because miracles that convert the non-believers like atheists and pagans to the faith in Jesus Christ is grace that can only come from God. Jesus said it very clearly, kingdom divided against itself can't stand thus Satan can't fight against itself by helping convert people to the Christian faith. Conversion to faith in Jesus Christ can only come from God's grace acting through his messengers from Heaven or through evangelizing works of the Catholic faithful. So for people to think that because an apparition is a supernatural experience, it must come from the devil. The devil of course can mislead and deceived people but the result of his deception is to take people away from the faith not convert them. Using the fruit of Apparition as a yardstick, we can discern if the apparition is true or not.
For the 100th year remembrance of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima to the three innocent children who came from Catholic family we will once look at the messages and see if they are still relevant to the situation the world has today. We consider Our Lady's apparition in Fatima as the most important one because its the biggest and its accompanied by mass miracles that we will discussed later in the series. It answers many questions regarding the Prophecies made in the past on what will happen to the Catholic Church in the modern times.
The Fatima held 3 secrets that were given to the 3 Children, the first two were allowed by Our Lady to be revealed much earlier while the 3rd was withheld until the time set for it to be revealed to the world. It has something to do with what will happen to the Catholic Church in the 20th century and forward. It also holds the answers to the problems, the solutions that come from God as delivered by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the 3 seers who are now dead. Unfortunately the 3rd secret was not revealed by Pope John XXIII after reading it. For reason he alone deemed necessary, he resealed it back in 1960 only saying its not for his time. Such act of the Pope was in defiance of the wishes of our Lady of Fatima who made it clear to Sister Lucia, the only surviving seer of Fatima at that time that she wanted the 3rd secret be revealed by 1960 because by that time it will be clear to the world what it is all about.. In fact we will try to find out in this series the events leading to the suppression of the truth and why.
Today non-Catholics calling themselves as Bible Only Believing Christians are the most active groups in attacking the Blessed Virgin Mary treating her as any ordinary sinful individual. Blaspheming the Blessed Virgin Mary and rejecting her role in the salvation works of God and using her as the reason why the Catholic Church is false church. They falsely claim that the Catholics have worship the Blessed Virgin Mary as God and has even put her above the Lord Jesus Christ as if she is the savior and not her son Jesus Christ. Using false interpretations of the bible and black propaganda against Our Lady even without clear reference in the bible against their allegations. No one knows 100% who the Blessed Virgin Mary really is because by all accounts in the scriptures she was protected by God. Her true identity is not known to the public much less the modern day Christians except what little we know about her in the bible. It appears though the she was always present in Jesus ministry but she is not written about except for a few in Luke and Matthew. Isn't it any wonder why? It appears that she has been preserved, protected, and safeguarded by the Lord that in his dying breath while hanging on the cross, he still has her in his mind and heart, she was entrusted under the care of St. John
Who is the Blessed Virgin Mary? We know that she is the mother of the Lord and we know in the scripture so little about her so from the start of this Fatima series we will try to know Our Lady based on the scriptures, the prophecies on her, and the traditional stories surrounding her life and how relationship to the Apostles and disciples. To understand Fatima we must know Our Lady First in the works of Salvation of Jesus Christ.
By Bro. Manny OTFS Apologist
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