Fatima Centenary 1917-2017 - Celebrations

Saturday 13th May 2017 was a memorable day for our parish of St Peter Apostle here in Leamington Spa as we celebrated the start of our Fatima Centenary celebrations.
We began quietly and prayerfully at 9am with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Morning prayer and a well attended Mass followed. Fr. John Cross, our parish priest, lifted our spirits further as he celebrated Mass especially when we sang the rousing hymn of Immaculate Mary to the well-known Lourdes tune.

At the end of Mass, during which we held the ceremony of enthronement and said the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Fr. John blessed and crowned the parish’s new statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Three children from St Anthony’s school Leamington carefully inserted the three doves into the statue.  Our choir leader Anne-Claire sang Ave Maria wonderfully and a good crowd processed into the parish centre. After Peter’s introduction, Jane McSharry head teacher of St Anthony’s helped the three children (dressed very much as the original Fatima children looked) and an angel, to act out the part of the angel’s visitations at Fatima in 1916. We all said the angel prayers. What was especially significant was that, in the original film “The 13th Day”, the three children acting the part of the Fatima children were actually three Portuguese children from the same school.

The story of Fatima, with subsequent events, were then presented by Peter, Rosalind-Marie and Christine using a time line and picture displays of the visions the Fatima children had on 13th October 1917.
After a packed lunch, it was over to Leo Hughes, Executive Producer and Romek Kracewicz, Marketing of the film “The 13th Day”. With the assistance of their own two short DVDs of Fatima to supplement the main film, they helped us see the whole meaning of Fatima and the response that we need to make. Romek had constructed a dramatic display of the chalice and host which the angel had in the vision in 1916. (Peter, Leo and Romek in photo). Much material was available during the day, with all the DVDs provided by Leo and Romek being taken as well as many other resources.

After singing the rest of Immaculate Mary, we processed back to the church to say the rosary and there was a large group who were invested in the Brown Scapular by Fr. Noel Breslin, assistant priest.
St Peter’s was a pilgrimage church for the archdiocese for the Fatima Centenary Year and  for the special jubilee indulgence.
 
Our Lady of Fatima day 13th October 2017 
This day was celebrated by Mass in church followed by procession to the parish centre with the Fatima statue. Prayers and explanation followed of the last and the most dramatic of the 1917 apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima that took place on October 13th. It was witnessed by over 70,000 people. It had rained all night before and by the morning of the 13th many people were standing in mud up to their ankles.
When Our Lady appeared she asked for a chapel to be built in her honour, and said: “I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend our Lord and God any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must pray the Rosary. Let them continue praying it everyday”. The rain stopped and a white cloud formed around the three children, went up and disappeared. This happened three times. 
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The 3 children saw further visions along the face of the sun:-
First Apparition. The Holy family with Our Lady of the rosary and then St. Joseph with the child Jesus blessing the world
Second Apparition. Lucia next saw Jesus blessing the world with Our Lady of Dolours or Sorrows
Third Apparition. Lucia finally saw Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with a scapular in her hand.
Pictures representing the visions were on display. 
As she was leaving, Our Lady stretched out her hands towards the rays of the sun, and as she was lifted upwards, Lucia shouted, “Look at the sun!” 

The miracle lasted about 12 minutes and was seen distinctly within a radius of about 25 miles. The sun started to spin round in circles, and coloured light radiated from it.  The sun then falling from side to side plunged zigzagging upon the crowd sending out a heat increasingly intense. There was an immense shout from the crowd with many falling on their knees in the mud praying earnestly. The sun eventually returned to its normal place gradually regaining its usual brilliance. 
Though they had been drenched to the skin, after the miracle the people found that their clothes were absolutely dry. The muddy ground was now dry. There can be no natural explanation for these events and they remain the main physical miracles of Fatima to prove its authenticity. 
 
The end of the Fatima Centenary Year
In our church and parish centre on Sunday 26th November we celebrated the end of the Fatima Centenary Year with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary (thank you to Sean Gough, 4th year seminarian Oscott College, for leading the rosary so prayerfully). After the procession with Our Lady of Fatima statue to the Parish Centre, we held Centenary closing prayers ending with light refreshments. The singing of the Lourdes hymn in both places was most memorable. Our statue (the last one of that type available in Fatima at the time) started its journey in Fatima, went via London and Birmingham and into our church in Leamington last May. It was finally housed in our upper parish meeting room (pictures below) so that it has now good evangelisation opportunities for parish users.
We thank many from the archdiocese who made their pilgrimages to St Peter’s between 13th May and 26th November. We pray that the graces received will enable us to use the opportunities that come our way to spread the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. Leaflets will continue to be available at our church.
We were a designated pilgrimage church in the Birmingham archdiocese for the Fatima Centenary Year.
 
World Apostolate of Fatima:-  www.worldfatima.com  
England and Wales:-  www.worldfatima-englandwales.org.uk

Fatima leaflets continue to be available in the display stand opposite the piety shop on your way into church. There are now free 13th Day DVD’s in the piety shop and postcards about the film.