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The First Apparition 13 May 1917
The three seers were playing at Cova da Iria when they saw two flashes like lightning, after which they saw the Mother of God above the holm oak. She was, according to the description of Lucia, "a Lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun, shedding a light that was clearer and more intense than that of a crystal goblet filled with crystalline water and struck by the rays of the most brilliant sun". Her face, indescribably beautiful, was ''neither sad nor happy, but serious, "with an air of mild reproach. Her hands, joined together as if she were praying, were resting at her breast and pointing upward. A rosary hung from her right hand. Her clothes seemed to be made of light. The tunic was white. The veil, white and edged with gold, covered the head of the Virgin and descended to her feet. Neither her hair nor her ears could be seen. Lucia could never describe her features, for it was impossible for her to fix her gaze on the dazzling heavenly face. The seers were so close to Our Lady – about a yard and a half away – that they stood within the light that radiated from and enveloped her. The conversation developed in the following manner: 12
Our Lady: Do not be afraid; I will not harm you. Lucia: Where is Your Grace 13 from? Our Lady: I am from heaven. (Our Lady raised her hand and pointed to the sky.) Lucia: And what does Your Grace wish of me? Our Lady: I have come to ask you to come here for six months in succession on the thirteenth day of each month at this same hour. 14 Later I will tell you who I am and what I want. Afterward, I will return here a seventh time. Lucia: And will I go to heaven, too? Our Lady: Yes, you will. Lucia: And Jacinta? Our Lady: Also. Lucia: And Francisco? Our Lady: Also, but he must say many Rosaries. Lucia: Is Maria das Neves already in heaven? Our Lady: Yes, she is. Lucia: And Amélia? Our Lady: She will be in purgatory until the end of the world. Do you wish to offer yourselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send you, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners? Lucia: Yes, we do. Our Lady: Well then, you will have much to suffer. But the grace of God will be your comfort. "It was upon saying these last words, 'the grace of God...' that for the first time she opened her hands, which emitted a most intense light that penetrated our breasts, reaching the innermost part of our souls and making us see ourselves in God, Who was that light, more clearly than we can see ourselves in the best of mirrors. Then, driven by a deep inspiration, we knelt down and repeated inwardly: 'O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament’. "A moment later, Our Lady added, 'Pray the Rosary15 every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war'. "She immediately began to rise serenely toward the east until she disappeared far into the distance. The light that surrounded her was, so to speak, opening her way through the starry firmament." 16
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12 During his interview with Sister Lucia, Walsh asked her if she had repeated the exact words in her narrations or just the general meaning of what she was told by the angel and Our Lady. Sister Lucia answered: "The angel's words had an intense and overpowering quality, a supernatural reality that could not be forgotten. They seemed to engrave themselves exactly and indelibly upon the memory. It was different with the words of Our Lady. I could not be sure that every word was exact. It was rather the sense that came to me, and I put into words what I understood. It is not easy to explain this" (Walsh, English edn., p. 224). Faced with the difficulty of putting what she had heard from Our Lady into words (as is common in certain mystical phenomena), Sister Lucia always did her utmost to reproduce verbatim what the Blessed Virgin had told her. This becomes clear in Father Iongen's interrogation, part of which we reproduce below. Father Iongen: When you revealed the secret, did you wish to limit yourself to giving the meaning of what the Blessed Virgin had told you, or did you reproduce her words verbatim? Sister Lucia: When I speak of the apparitions, I limit myself to the meaning of the words; when I write about them, on the contrary, I endeavour to reproduce the words verbatim. So I wanted to write the secret word for word. Father Iongen: Are you sure you have kept everything in your memory? Sister Lucia: I think so. Father Iongen: So the words of the secret were revealed in the order they were told to you. Is that it? Sister Lucia: Yes. (DeMarchi, pp. 308-309) 13 Many authors use Your Excellency, Madam, and you instead. However, Your Grace seems to be a more accurate translation, as Lucia's Vossemece is the contraction of the old polite form of address Vossa Mercê, whose literal meaning is Your Grace.— trans. 14 The seers always understood that the last apparition would be in October. In fact, they were told this explicitly in the apparition of August. Therefore, the "six months in succession" begin with this apparition. The seventh, which is mentioned further on, is not part of the series. 15 Our Lady said "o terço”, the literal translation of which is "the third," in other words, five of the fifteen decades of the Rosary. However, the Portuguese at times also term the fifteen decades of the Rosary o terço. Throughout this work, o terço has been translated as the Rosary. It is interesting to note that when Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia to ask for the five first Saturdays devotion she did not say "the third", but rather "a third" (um terço), that is, five decades.—trans. 16 Memoir II, p. 126, and IV, pp. 330, 336; De Marchi, pp. 58-60; Walsh, pp. 52-53; Ayres da Fonseca, pp. 23-26; Galamba de Oliveira, pp. 63-64. |
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