By PROF. MICHAEL OGUNU
On Sunday, May 13, 1917, towards noon, three shepherd children – Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco were playing at the top of the slope of the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal, building a little wall around a thicket when they suddenly saw something like a flash of lightning. As they began to go down the slope, steering their sheep towards the road to go home, they saw another flash of lightning and a Lady on a scarlet oak tree, dressed in white, shining brighter than the sun, projecting rays of clear and intense light.
The“Lady” asked them to pray for the conversion of sinners and an end to the war (First World War), and to come back on the 13th of every month for the next six consecutive months. Further apparitions took place June 13 and July 13. On August 13, the children were prevented by local authorities from going to the Cova da Iria, but they saw the apparition on the 19th. On September 13, the Lady requested recitation of the Rosary for an end to the war. Finally, on October 13, the “Lady” identified herself as “Our Lady of the Rosary” and again called for prayer and penance: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue always to say the Rosary everyday. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon of their sins; they must not offend Our Lord anymore, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it everyday…”
Our Lady pleaded and insisted that men must say the Rosary daily, ask pardon for their sins and make reparation for them. Reparation holds back the hand of God from striking the world in just punishment for its many crimes. The Rosary is like a sword or weapon the Mother of God can use to overcome the forces of evil. It is the most powerful weapon and many times has saved the world from situations as bad, if not worse than the ones facing us as a nation now.
On the fifty-sixth anniversary of the October apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima, the Mother of God repeated her warning at Akita in Japan on October 13, 1973: “If men do not repent and amend their lives, the Father (God) is going to inflict a terrible chastisement on all of mankind. It will be a chastisement more serious than the Deluge, such as no one has ever yet seen. A fire will fall from the heavens and will annihilate a great part of humanity … the only arms which will remain to you then will be the Rosary and the sign which the Son has left. Say the Rosary everyday”.
Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical “On Devotion of the Rosary” issued September 1, 1883 “earnestly exhort all Christians to give themselves to the recital of the Rosary publicly or privately in their own house, and family, and that unceasingly”. Benedict XV describes the Rosary as perfect prayer “because of the grace it obtains and because of the triumphs it achieves”. Pius XI noted with admiration the innumerable multitude of holy men of every age and every condition who have always held the Rosary dear.
They have recited it with great devotion, and in every moment they have used it as a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight, to preserve the integrity of life, to acquire virtue more easily, and in a word, to attain real peace among men”
The Author is the International President of the World Apostolate of Fatima
