Flora Cantábrica

Tweet

1. AFTER THE APPARITIONS

 

1. Prayers and Sacrifices at the Cabeço

 

My aunt was worn out with having continually to send someone

to fetch her children, just to please the people who came asking

to speak to them. She therefore handed over the care of the

flock to her other son John 15. This decision was very painful to

Jacinta for two reasons: firstly, because she had to speak to everyone

who came looking for her and, secondly, because she could

no longer spend the whole day with me. She had to resign herself,

however. To escape from the unwelcome visitors, she and Francisco

used to go and hide in a cave hollowed out in the rock 16 on

the hillside facing our hamlet. On top of the hill was a windmill.

Situated as it is on the eastern slope, this hiding place is so well

formed that it afforded them an ideal protection from both the rain

and the burning sun, especially since it is sheltered by many oak

and olive trees. How many were the prayers and sacrifices that

Jacinta offered there to our dear Lord!

All over the slope grew innumerable varieties of flowers. Among

them were many irises, and Jacinta loved these especially. Every

evening she was waiting for me on my way home, holding an iris

she had picked for me, or some other flower if there were no irises

to be found. It was a real joy for her to pluck off the petals one by

one, and strew them over me.

15

 

55

My mother was satisfied for the time being with deciding each

day where I was to pasture the sheep, so that she knew where to

find me when I was needed. When the place was nearby, I told my

little companions, and they lost no time in coming out to join me.

Jacinta never stopped running till she caught sight of me. Then,

exhausted, she sat down and kept calling to me, until I answered

and ran to meet her.

 

2. Troublesome Interrogations

 

Finally my mother, tired of seeing my sister waste her time

coming to call me and taking my place with the sheep, decided to

sell the lot. She talked things over with my aunt, and they agreed to

send us off to school. At playtime, Jacinta loved to make a visit to

the Blessed Sacrament.

“They seem to guess,” she would say. “We are no sooner inside

the church than a crowd of people come asking us questions!

I wanted so much to be alone for a long time with the Hidden Jesus

and talk to Him, but they never let us.”

It was true, the simple country folk never left us alone. With the

utmost simplicity, they told us all about their needs and their troubles.

Jacinta showed the greatest compassion, especially when it

concerned some sinner, saying: “We must pray and offer sacrifices

to Our Lord, so that he will be converted and not go to hell, poor

man!”

In this connection, it might be good to relate here an incident

which shows to what extent Jacinta sought to escape from the people

who came looking for her. We were on our way to Fatima one

day 17, and approaching the main road, when we noticed a group

of ladies and gentlemen getting out of a car. We knew without the

slightest doubt that they were looking for us. Escape was impossible,

for they would see us. We continued on our way, hoping to

pass by without being recognized. On reaching us, the ladies asked

if we knew the little shepherds to whom Our Lady had appeared.

We said we did.

“Do you know where they live?”

We gave them precise directions, and ran off to hide in the

fields among the brambles. Jacinta was so delighted with the result

of her little stratagem, that she exclaimed: “We must do this always

when they don’t know us by sight.

”

3. The Saintly Father Cruz

 

One day, Father Cruz 18 from Lisbon came, in his tum, to question

1. When he had finished, he asked us to show him the spot

where Our Lady had appeared to us. On the way we walked on

either side of His Reverence, who was riding a donkey so small

that his feet almost touched the ground. As we went along, he taught

us a litany of ejaculations, two of which Jacinta made her own and

never stopped repeating ever afterwards: “ O my Jesus, I love You!

Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation!”

One day during her illness, she told me: “I so like to tell Jesus

that I love Him! Many times, when I say it to Him, I seem to have a

fire in my heart, but it doesn’t burn me.”

Another time she said: “I love Our Lord and Our Lady so much,

that I never get tired of telling them that I love them.”

 

4. Graces through Jacinta

 

There was a woman in our neighbourhood who insulted us

every time we met her. We came upon her one day, as she was

leaving a tavern, somewhat the worse for drink. Not satisfied with

mere insults, she went still further. When she had finished, Jacinta

said to me: “We have to plead with Our Lady and offer sacrifices for

the conversion of this woman. She says so many sinful things that

if she doesn’t go to confession, she’ll go to hell.”

A few days later, we were running past this woman’s door when

suddenly Jacinta stopped dead, and turning round, she asked:

“Listen! Is it tomorrow that we’re going to see the Lady?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then let’s not play anymore. We can make this sacrifice for

the conversion of sinners.”

.

57

Without realizing that some one might be watching her, she

raised her hands and eyes to heaven, and made her offering. The

woman, meanwhile, was peeping through a shutter in the house.

She told my mother, afterwards, that what Jacinta did, made such

an impression on her, that she needed no other proof to make her

believe in the reality of the apparitions; henceforth, she would not

only not insult us any more, but would constantly ask us to pray to

Our Lady, that her sins might be forgiven.

Again, a poor woman afflicted with a terrible disease met us

one day. Weeping, she knelt before Jacinta and begged her to ask

Our Lady to cure her. Jacinta was distressed to see a woman kneeling

before her, and caught hold of her with trembling hands to lift

her up. But seeing this was beyond her strength, she, too, knelt

down and said three Hail Marys with the woman. She then asked

her to get up, and assured her that Our Lady would cure her. After

that, she continued to pray daily for that woman, until she returned

some time later to thank Our Lady for her cure.

On another occasion, there was a soldier who wept like a child.

He had been ordered to leave for the front, although his wife was

sick in bed and he had three small children. He pleaded that either

his wife would be cured or that the order would be revoked. Jacinta

invited him to say the Rosary with her, and then said to him:

“Don’t cry. Our Lady is so good! She will certainly grant you

the grace you are asking.”

From then on, she never forgot her soldier. At the end of the

Rosary, she always said one Hail Mary for him. Some months later,

he appeared with his wife and his three small children, to thank

Our Lady for the two graces he had received. Having gone down

with fever on the eve of his departure, he had been released from

military service, and as for his wife, he said she had been miraculously

cured by Our Lady.

 

5. More and More Sacrifices

 

One day, we were told that a priest was coming to see us who

was very holy and who could tell what was going on in people’s

inmost hearts. This meant that he would find out whether we were

telling the truth or not. Full of joy, Jacinta exclaimed:

58

“When is this Father coming? If he can really tell, then he’ll

know we’re telling the truth.”

We were playing one day at the well I have already mentioned.

Close to it, there was a grape vine belonging to Jacinta’s mother.

She cut a few clusters and brought them to us to eat. But Jacinta

never forgot her sinners.

“We won’t eat them,” she said, “we’ll offer this sacrifice for sinners.”

Then she ran out with the grapes and gave them to the other

children playing on the road. She returned radiant with joy, for she

had found our poor children, and given them the grapes.

Another time, my aunt called us to come and eat some figs

which she had brought home, and indeed they would have given

anybody an appetite. Jacinta sat down happily next to the basket,

with the rest of us, and picked up the first fig. She was just about to

eat it, when she suddenly remembered, and said:

“It’s true! Today we haven’t yet made a single sacrifice for sinners!

We’ll have to make this one.”

She put the fig back in the basket, and made the offering; and

we, too, left our figs in the basket for the conversion of sinners.

Jacinta made such sacrifices over and over again, but I won’t stop

to tell any more, or I shall never end.