Our family has just returned from a trip to Portugal, and I still feel as if I am not quite awake from a dream. While there, we toured the regions of Fatima, Sintra, and Santarem, received the hospitality of remarkably kind and welcoming people, and enjoyed wonderful local fare such as the Porto-famed Francesinha and fresh seafood.

We visited the site of the Eucharistic miracle of Santarem, an experience that is difficult to describe. After participating in the Stations of the Cross with members of the local congregation, a gentleman beckoned us to follow him to the sacristy and view the miracle closely. There, we climbed a ladder and came within inches of the host which still displays the congealed blood of Our Lord. I could see tiny blood veins.

The awe was palpable, and when we returned to our home parish and received Communion the following Sunday, I reminded my nine-year-old daughter to pray quietly upon returning to the pew after receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus. After all, she had seen something that should beyond a shadow of a doubt affirm our belief in the Real Presence!

I reminded her of the Eucharistic miracle we viewed up close in Santarem and posed the question, “What if every host was bleeding when we received Communion at Mass?”

Without pausing for a second, she replied, “Well, people would just get used to it.”

Never had that thought occurred to me before, but I knew she was right. Then my mind went back to Fatima, and I began to wonder if we are too “used to” its all-important message, which is really so simple, yet so very necessary.

The Message of Fatima

We would be hard-pressed to find a Catholic today who is unfamiliar with the story of Fatima. In the year 1917 during the first World War, a trio of shepherd children from the village of Fatima, Portugal, were granted a series of visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, culminating with the famed Miracle of the Sun.

During these apparitions, the Blessed Virgin imparted a series of messages to the children, which would be the cause of much suffering for them but would also grow into a powerful and lasting devotion to the Immaculate heart of Mary and her peace plan for the world.

The message was simple, but powerful.

Pray the rosary every day. Offer suffering and penance for the conversion of sinners. Console the Lord in His sufferings and offer reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the sins of men.

While in Fatima, our family took a tour through the village of Aljustrel, where the children lived and we saw their homes. I took a snapshot of my three children in front of the Marto home, similar to the iconic photo of Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta.

The realization that my children were about the same age as the seers was powerful, and it occurred to me that events such as these could just as easily happen to my children in these days and times.

The parents of Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta had already planted the seeds of faith into their young hearts. For example, they had a custom of praying the rosary together when they were in the fields grazing their sheep. As they were to be messengers, the Lord sent an angel first to prepare their hearts to receive the message of his Blessed Mother.

“At Fatima, an angel who called himself the Angel of Peace visited the visionaries to prepare them for what was to come. The children needed to be as prepared as possible for the mission they would receive from Jesus and Mary. The Mother of God would entrust to them a message of peace for the whole world. That peace would require prayer, sacrifice, and suffering, all of which the children would need to experience in their own lives first before asking it of others.” (Source: Fatima for Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope: Apostoli C. F. R., Fr. Andrew: 9781586174910: Amazon.com: Books)

The events that followed propelled the most unlikely of missionaries: three uneducated shepherd children from modest families, onto an irreversible path of fame and mission. Their lives were forever altered, yet their free will was intact. Mary asked them each time if they were willing to suffer for sinners, and the answer was always, yes! The children were granted a vision of hell, and they wanted no one to go there.

The role of Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta in salvation history reminds us that God calls us each to assist Him in our own salvation and that of others. I think we also tend to forget that much of the message of Fatima was conditional. Repeatedly, the Blessed Virgin said to the children that if her requests were heeded, there would be peace in the world and further conflicts avoided.

After the attempt on his life in 1981 (which, incidentally, occurred on May 13), Pope St. John Paul II “saw his part in the Fatima story.”

John Paul II’s former secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, said: “In Sr. Lucia’s vision, he recognized his own destiny. He became convinced that his life had been saved –no, given back to him anew—thanks to our Lady’s intervention and protection … It’s true, of course, that the ‘bishop dressed in white’ is killed in Sr. Lucia’s vision, whereas John Paul II escaped an almost certain death. So? Couldn’t that have been the real point of the vision? Couldn’t it have been trying to tell us that the paths of history, of human existence, are not necessarily fixed in advance? And that there is a Providence, a ‘motherly hand,’ which can intervene and cause a shooter, who is certain of hitting his target, to miss?” (Source: Fatima for Today).

If the message of Fatima, then, is conditional, it follows that it is conditional upon our actions and how well we carry out our Mother’s requests. Each of us has a role to play in this dramatic story in Christian history, since we are all called to pray the rosary, pray for peace, and to offer sufferings for the conversion of sinners.

My Own Personal Fatima

I have seen my own part in the Fatima story.

As an adopted person, I decided to search for my biological mother at the age of 22. Over the course of learning about my birth and adoption, my birthmother revealed that at the time she was pregnant with me, my birthfather punched her in the stomach to attempt to cause a miscarriage. It didn’t work, quite obviously, or I would not be here. Hearing this was very difficult, but it made me understand yet again how miraculous it is that I am alive.

After my birth, I lived at Our Lady’s Home for Innocents for six weeks until I was adopted. The nuns there had me baptized on May 13. Years later when I was looking through old family documents, I learned that I was also confirmed on May 13! Of course, these events were years apart, but I received both sacraments on this important Marian feast day.

I do not believe that any of this is coincidence, and I have often pictured the Blessed Mother wrapping her hands around me in utero, shielding me. Perhaps just so I could be at Fatima that spring day in 2025, carrying an envelope of prayers from my home parish to be placed at the base of her statue.

I returned home from this pilgrimage with the conviction that the Lord is calling me as he calls all baptized Christians to live and spread the message of Fatima, so all can be spared the pains of hell. We all have a part to play in this story—our own personal Fatima.

Pray the rosary. Sacrifice for sinners. Console our Lord in His sufferings and offer reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

What began in a tiny village in Portugal with three small children playing in a field is just as significant for us today as it was for them all those years ago. Our Mother wants desperately for us to heed her words, so we can all live happily with her in heaven one day—but first, we must do as she says.

We must live the Fatima message every day, and we must never get “used to it,” for God never tires of sending His Mother to warn us repeatedly that He wants all to be saved—but He will always require our “yes” and active participation.