This Mother's Day Is Extra Special!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 
                                          Girls, this year's Mother's Day happens to fall on what is the 95th anniversary of  Fatima.  On this day, in the Portuguese village, three children--Lucita, Jacinta, and Francisco--were visited by a vision of the Mother Of Them All (for real!!!!!), the Queen of Peace, the Queen of ALL--Mary!!!!  Yes, darlings, THAT Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          It remains the twentieth century's only accepted apparition.  There were more visits, prophecies, secrets, (including the controversial, still ambiguous, Third Secret), and the Miracle Of The Sun--when the sky darkened, and the sun seemed to fall out of the sky!!!!!

                                          Today, Fatima is one of the top pilgrimage sites, but I don't know what  is seen. A basilica, to be sure, and a statue in the spot marking the vision, but there is no spring here, like Lourdes.

                                            And, yes, Hollywood did make a movie out of this.  Warner Brothers, in 1952, released "The Miracle Of Our Lady Of Fatima," starring Gilbert Roland, Angela Clarke (who played Lucita's mother, and was the voice of the BVM!!!!) and, as Jacinta, a young Sherry Jackson, before she went on to her role as eldest daughter Terry on the earliest versions of Danny Thomas' "Make Room For Daddy."

                                            The film, which I viewed recently a few years ago, is tasteful and reverential, but looks as though it were done on the cheap.  The sets look like sets, and it is just not as well made as "The Song Of Bernadette."

                                             And here we get into it.  Not only do I prefer that film to 'Fatima', I prefer Lourdes to the Portuguese shrine.  I mean, the miraculous spring at Lourdes  is still flowing and offering Hope.  Except for the significance of what took place on the spot, Fatima looks to me like any other shrine.

                                              Nevertheless, this is the day it happened, and the fact that this year is on Mother's Day makes it doubly blest!!!!!!  Mary, I am sure, sends her blessings to all!!!!!!!!!!!