Got a minute? Help save the world by praying the Fatima prayer with me.

If you have a minute, you can help save the world. How? By praying the Fatima Angel’s Prayer. It’s one of several that were taught to the three shepherd children of Fatima, Francisco Sarto, Jacinta Marto, and Lucia dos Santos, who witnessed the appearance of an angel three times in 1916 and then the six apparitions of our Lady in 1917.

Both the angel and the Blessed Virgin Mary brought messages of sacrifice, prayer, and fasting for peace and the conversion of sinners as well as stressing chief truths of the Catholic faith.’

The angel taught the children many prayers, my favorite being what is known as The Angel Prayer. I’m hoping that you’ll pray it with me – at least once – on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima (anniversary of Mary’s first appearance to the children), and with our world in such need of peace and conversion.

O most Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I adore thee profoundly. I offer thee the most Precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ—present in all the tabernacles of the world—in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

On her third apparition, the Blessed Mother showed the children a vision of hell. Then she told them,

“You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save future souls God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved. If my requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyed, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be destroyed…But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, Russia will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.“

Part of our Lady’s prophecy came true when Pope St. John Paul II consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on May 13, 1982. An amazing sequence of events took place in the years following the consecration. In 1989, Lucia, who had become a Discalced Carmelite nun, affirmed that the consecration had been fulfilled. You can follow that sequence of events here.

I could go on forever writing about our Lady, but for now I want to make just one point.

The message of Fatima, the prayers taught to the children, and the lessons and warnings given by the Blessed Virgin Mary there were not meant only for Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia. They weren’t even meant only for the people of that time.

They were meant for those of us living today and for those who will live in the future as well.

The idea of praying for peace and sacrificing for the conversion of sinners isn’t a novelty. It’s serious business, and we’re called to it now and until the end of the world.

So, will you pray with me today?

Image: Wikimedia