Why were the visionaries of Fatima so motivated to offer prayers and sacrifices for souls? So much so they willingly endured the harshest of threats from the authorities, bore the scorn of their families, and regularly offered painful penances like going all day without food and water. Little Jacinta Marto’s thirst for making sacrifices was so insatiable that she never let an opportunity pass by to “offer it up.” She was often heard repeating the phrase, “I want to offer it up for the conversion of sinners” as she made each sacrifice.

This unquenchable desire for the conversion of sinners intensified with each apparition but the real turning point came after July 13th when the children were shown a vision of hell by the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here is the account by Servant of God Lucia de Santos, one of the visionaries, in her Fourth Memoir of 8 December 1941:

“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.”

This vision flies in the face of many modern-day scholars who discount the reality of hell or conjecture that it may or may not be empty. Only God knows for certain, but what we do know is that Our Lady of Fatima made a few simple requests of the faithful to save souls from final condemnation in hell and to bring peace to the world:

1. Prayer: “You must recite the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, for only she can obtain this.”

2. Penance: "…Pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them."

3. Devotion to her Immaculate Heart: “All those who during five months, on the first Saturday, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say a rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the rosary for the intention of making reparation to me, I promise to assist them at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls” (Fourth Memoir of 8 December 1941, Servant of God Lucia de Santos)

Let us do all we can to heed Our Lady's requests, especially during these perilous times.

We hope you will join us this week for our Women of Grace Warrior's Rosary Crusade.

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