Fatima: Eucharistic Reparation

This is an excerpt from Sr Lucia’s memoirs concerning the Angel who appeared to them the year before Our Lady did.  This is a clear invitation to Eucharistic reparation, an important part of the message of Fatima.

We went on that occasion to my parents’ property, which is at the bottom of the Cabeco, facing east. About the middle of the morning it began to drizzle and we climbed up the hill, followed by our sheep, in search of a rock that would shelter us. And so it was that we entered for the first time into that blessed place.

We spent the day there, in spite of the fact that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining in a clear sky. We ate our lunch and began to say the Rosary. After that we began to play a game with pebbles. We had only been at it a few moments when a strong wind began to shake the trees and we looked up to see what was happening, since it was such a calm day. And then we began to see, in the distance, above the trees that stretched to the east, a light whiter than snow in the form of a young man, quite transparent, and as brilliant as crystal in the rays of the sun. As he came near we were able to see his features. We were astonished and absorbed and we said nothing to one another. And then he said: “Do not be afraid. I am the angel of peace. Pray with me.”

He knelt, bending his forehead to the ground. With a supernatural impulse we did the same, repeating the words we heard him say:

“My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, adore, hope, or love You.” After repeating this prayer three times the angel rose and said to us: “Pray in this way. The hearts of Jesus and Mary are ready to listen to you.” And he disappeared. He left us in an atmosphere of the supernatural that was so intense we were for a long time unaware of our own existence. The presence of God was so powerful and intimate that even among ourselves we could not speak. On the next day, too, this same atmosphere held us bound, and it lessened and disappeared only gradually. None of us thought of talking about this apparition or any pledge of secrecy. We were locked in silence without having willed it.

[One day, in the time of siesta, the angel came to them again, and this is Lucia’s account]:

Suddenly we saw the same angel near us.

“What are you doing?” he said. “You must pray! Pray! The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs upon you. Offer prayers and sacrifices continually to the Most High.”

“But how are we to sacrifice?” I asked.

“Make everything you do a sacrifice, and offer it as an act of reparation for the sins by which God is offended, and as a petition for the conversion of sinners. In this way you will bring peace to our country, for I am its guardian angel, the angel of Portugal. Above all, bear and accept with patience the sufferings God will send you.”

While we were there, the angel appeared to us for the third time, holding in his hand a chalice, and above the chalice, a Host, from which a few drops of blood were falling. Leaving the chalice and Host suspended in air, he prostrated himself on the ground and repeated three times this prayer:

“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and 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 by which He is offended. And by the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”

Afterwards, he rose and took again the chalice and the Host and gave the Host to me and the contents of the chalice to Jacinta and Francisco, saying to them:

“Take and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men. Repair their crimes and console your God.”

Once more he prostrated himself and repeated with us three times the prayer, “Most Holy Trinity… etc.”  He then disappeared.