FATIMA, God's Grace Will be Your Strength!

	The children were playing at building a wall, when suddenly they saw, above an oak tree, a Lady clothed entirely in white, dazzling and brighter than the sun. The beautiful Lady told them: “Do not be afraid, I will do you no harm.” Lucia asked: “Where do you come from, and what do you want from us?” The Blessed Virgin answered: “I come from Heaven. I have come to ask you to return here on the 13th of each month at the same time, for six months. Then, I will tell you who I am and what I want. I will return a seventh and last time.” Then Lucia asked: “Will I go to heaven also?” “Yes.” “And Jacinta?” “Yes.” “And Francisco?” “He will too, but he will have to recite many rosaries.” Then Lucia asked if two girls, aged 16 and 20, who had died not long ago, were in heaven. The Blessed Virgin answered: “The first one, yes; the other, no.” “Would you like to offer your sufferings to God to atone for sins,” the Blessed Virgin asked, “and obtain the conversion of sinners?” The children replied with great simplicity: “Yes, we would.” The Virgin then said: “You will suffer a lot, but God's grace will be your strength!” While she was saying these words, she opened her hands. Out came bright rays of light that penetrated into the children’s souls (…). Driven by an immense interior force, the children fell to their knees, saying: “Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee 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 indifferences whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.” (…) Then, slowly, the Virgin rose into the sky and left in the direction of the East.
	Sources: Lucie, Mémoires, Fatima, 1963; Lucie, Lucie raconte Fatima, éd. by Dom C. Jean-Nesmy, Paris et Montsûrs, 1975; Lucia, Memorias II, Fatima, 1996, (Lucia’s Memoires).