Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
Our Lady of Fátima
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Saint John Paul II) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today we celebrate that, according to the divine plan, «a woman clothed with the sun» (Rv 12:1) came down from heaven to this earth to visit the privileged children of the Father. She speaks to them with a mother's voice and heart: she asks them to offer themselves as victims of reparation, saying that she was ready to lead them safely to God. And behold, they see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly, so that they feel immersed in God.
The message of Fátima is a call to conversion, alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the “dragon” whose «tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth» (Rv 12:4). Man's final goal is heaven, his true home, where the heavenly Father awaits everyone with his merciful love.
—In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fátima to ask men and women «to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended». It is a mother's sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: «Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them».