Today Is The 108th Anniversary Of Fatima!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          On this day, in 1917, in the small Portuguese village of Fatima, three shepherd children--Lucia dos Santos, and her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Martos--beheld a vision of the Virgin Mary.  Like Bernadette, at Lourdes, she asked them to return to her several times, culminating in The Miracle Of The Sun, in which the sun seemed to fall and dance about the sky, causing chaos among the people privileged to witness this.  They must have thought the world was coming to an end.

                                             And it is eight years today that the Fatima children were canonized as Saints, something I feel fortunate to have witnessed myself on television.  It was a big deal.

                                              So, today is a day of reflection on the Virgin's message of peace and consecration to the Sacred Heart, and The Holy Heart Of Mary.  I know Sister Camille is probably our best Earthly example of what Fatima teaches.

                                                If one can gain access to it, today would be a good day to view the 2009 film, "The Thirteenth Day," which tells the Fatima story in an impressive and stylistic way that has not, in my opinion, been matched since "The Song Of Bernadette" in 1943.

                                                Recall the holiness and courage of these children, and what they have done for us.

                                                 I can only hope to follow their example the best I can.