Fourth Memoir
At the second Apparition on June 13th, 1917, Francisco was deeply impressed by the light which, as I related in the second account, Our Lady communicated to us at the moment when she said: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way which will lead you to God." At the time, he did not seem to grasp the significance of what was happening, perhaps because it was not given to him to hear the accompanying words. For this reason, he asked later:
"Why did Our Lady have a Heart in her hand, spreading out over the world that great light which is God? You were with Our Lady in the light which went down towards the earth, and Jacinta was with me in the light which rose towards heaven!"
"That is because you and Jacinta will soon go to heaven," I replied, "While I, with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, will remain for some time longer on earth."
"How many years longer will you stay here?" he asked.
"I don't know. Quite a lot."
"Was it Our Lady who said so?"
"Yes, and I saw it in the light that she shone into our hearts."
Jacinta confirmed the very same thing, saying:
"It is just like that! That's exactly how I saw it too!"
He remarked sometimes:
"These people are so happy just because you told them that Our Lady wants the Rosary said, and that you are to learn to read! How would they feel if they only knew what she showed to us in God, in her Immaculate Heart, in that great light! But this is a secret; it must not be spoken about. It's better that no one should know it."After this Apparition, whenever, they asked us if Our Lady had said anything else, we began to give this reply: "Yes, she did, but it's a secret." If they asked us why it was a secret, we shrugged our shoulders, lowered our heads and kept silent. But, after the 13th of July, we said: "Our Lady told us we were not to tell it to anybody," thus referring to the secret imposed on us by Our Lady.
The M+G+R Foundation Comments - Note that the visionaries received
personal and spiritual secrets on June 13th, 1917. Then, on July 13th,
Our Lady gave them the visions and secrets pertaining to the whole
world, and to the events of the last hundred years. Our Lady also told
them not to reveal part of these secrets until a later time. (See pp.
126, 160-161 of "Fatima in Lucia's Own Words," as referenced below.)
Related Documents
