I was a Fatima Kid

Today we take for granted that we have a relatively peaceful world. But not too long ago, during the Cold War, people lived with the fear a nuclear war would end creation. Not much could be done, or so we thought.

When I was a child, I heard a speaker talk about Our Lady of Fatima. The thought that simply praying the rosary would end the power of Communism was radical. Plus, what kid doesn’t love a good secret? Fatima was full of them. Say “it’s a secret” and a message becomes “I know something important.”

When the speaker gave us the pamphlet to take home after his talk ended, we were already hooked on Our Lady of Fatima. The card contained a picture of hell painted by Salivador Dali. It made me shudder and very glad some other kid saw hell and not me. That day began my pledge to pray a daily rosary.

Little did I know then that saying the rosary for the conversion of the Soviet Union would let me be a part of a historic movement. I wasn’t thinking as God thinks; I was just interested in averting a nuclear war here in the United States by the one method a kid without any influence could: by prayer. Add the fact that those seeing the Blessed Mother were just kids like me, and I was all in.

A few years later, Saint John Paul had all of us say the Act of Consecration of Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, and the Berlin Wall would tumble down soon afterwards. When history is being sealed, the magnitude may be sensed; but not until later do we fully understand what we took part in, and the message from Fatima is no exception.

As important to the message as praying the rosary was, the most interesting part must be that an angel came first and gave the children (Lucia Dos Santos, and Jacinta and Francisco Marto) the Eucharist before Mary appeared. This is a signal for us even today. In the Eucharist, we become changed. We become open to the will of God.

It’s not easy to do someone else’s will. It goes against our natural tendency; we want to run things. Yet, when we rule the world, it takes on a human imprint of ugliness. It’s only through a constant turning to what God would have us do that allows peace to spring forth. We have no rights to peace because of sin. To find it, we must remove sin or at least atone for the sin which is present. Christ’s death gave the world a remedy, but if we don’t accept the cure, the disease will become worse. This is why Fatima’s message is still relevant today. The mystery of Fatima revealed even a lowly child makes a difference in the eternal history of human beings. The Gospel message is not only that Jesus saves us, but we can influence salvation history by our own acts of love. The power of prayer cannot be ignored. Fatima is about that power.

In all the dramatic revelations of how offensive sin is, and that God punishes evil, the real message of Fatima is one of hope. We’re not too far gone, and all it takes for us to follow God’s will is prayer. Prayer is the instrument of peace. It works every time it’s tried. We can turn back every sort of evil by a simple plan which relies heavily on the power of God, and a small (but necessary) human sacrifice of will. When we trust we don’t know everything, and consent to make a small sacrifice, and ask for God’s mercy, we ourselves become a player in God’s plans.

Peace through prayer begins as an individual journey and ends with the conversion of many who don’t believe. There is no better example of true power than this.