May 13: Our Lady of Fatima / Nuestra Señora de Fátima

May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.  She appeared six times to Lucia, 9, and her cousins Francisco, 8, and his sister Jacinta, 6.

The story of Fatima begins in 1916 against the backdrop of the First World War which had introduced Europe to the most horrific and powerful forms of warfare yet seen, and a year before the Communist revolution would plunge Russia and later Eastern Europe into six decades of oppression under militant atheistic governments.

The central meaning of “the message” of Fatima, according to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) was nothing different from what the Church has always taught: “the exhortation to prayer as the path of salvation for souls” and, likewise, “the summons to penance and conversion.” Perhaps the most well-known utterance of the apparition of Our Lady at Fatima was her confident declaration that “My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

For more: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/our-lady-of-fatima/

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Hoy es el día en el que celebramos a la Virgen María bajo la advocación de Nuestra Señora de Fátima. Celebramos, como siempre, la presencia de Dios entre nosotros y pedimos la intercesión de la Virgen, refugio de pecadores, para que interceda por nosotros.

Que Nuestra Señora de Fátima nos ayude en nuestra conversión, revitalizando nuestra experiencia de fe para anunciar a Cristo en nuestros ambientes pastorales, y llevarlo con más fuerza a aquellos que aún no lo conocen, sembrando así el mensaje de esperanza.

Para leer más: https://www.aciprensa.com/noticias/55503/cada-13-de-mayo-la-iglesia-catolica-celebra-a-nuestra-senora-de-fatima