On December 10, 1925, while at the Dorothean Convent in Pontevedra, Spain, Lucia had another apparition of the Blessed Mother, this time with the Child Jesus. That is how one becomes a friend of God, by believing in Him and serving Him, by hoping in Him and loving Him. Mary told Lucia to announce that she promised to provide, at the hour of death, the graces necessary for salvation to those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, confessed, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the rosary, and kept her company while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary for fifteen minutes, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart. We may note in the first place the intensification of religious life in Portugal, and the characteristic note of penance which marks the Fatima Pilgrimages. The first of her memoirs is mainly a biography of her beloved cousin, Jacinta, granting to a serious student only the barest reference to the apparitions. All through May, as well as in the month of the holy souls, we said the family Rosary at home by the fireside, and when we went out with the flocks our mother would always remind us to take our beads with us. The four years at Vilar moved along without any mention of Fatima. For nine days, after supper—because in the daytime we had to work, and also we didn't want to be seen—we went on our knees from where the main gate is now to the little chapel. "To peoples separated by error and discord, namely, those who profess your singular devotion, where there was no house that did not display your holy icon, today hidden perhaps until better days, give them peace, and lead them again to the only flock of Christ under the true and only Shepherd. "The Lady was much, much more beautiful," she said. He said he would speak to his own parish priest in Torres Novas, and if there were no objections, he would have a statue made. Her little heart was enlarged, and her digestive organs by now were ruined. Pope John Paul II went there three times. He can then tell the truth to the people in the church, and all of this will be over. The children liked to sit and play on the great rock covering the well, shaded by the laden limbs of fig, almond and olive trees. My mother replied, "I don't know, but the Reverend Father does not want dancing; that is clear; so my daughters will not go to dances. "It's your last chance to tell the secret. Yes, I think I believed from the first. This was a pasture on a rise of land that overlooked their village, near home, and lumpy with odd-shaped stones. Later came all the bishops of the mother country and her islands and colonies, among them the bishop of Portalegre, who was the first to allow our Lady to be invoked under her new title in his diocese. Father Ferreira answered as if he didn't care one way or the other, and finally said that he didn't want to have anything to do with it. "I suppose you're a saint to be seeing our Lady!" But she managed to survive these difficult hours, and at night to find her bed, aware that tomorrow would be the momentous, decisive day. But there is no reason to believe that this was so. Even Maria da Capelinha, the gallant champion of the children and their Lady from the day of the first apparition, was excluded from her confidence. Later, I will tell you what I want.”. If you promise not to, I'll give you some money." The war is going to end, and the soldiers will soon return to their homes.”, Again Lucia made requests for cures, conversions and other things. Blessed also, she whom He appointed Mother of Mercy, our Queen and our beloved Advocate, Mediatrix of all graces, and dispenser of all His treasures. Senhora Olimpia had every justification for her attitude. I told everything to my Manuel and he went and spoke to Lucia's father, because he was the owner of the land. ", "She said that on the 13th of October she would perform a miracle so that the people can believe that she appeared. The hospital treatment at Vila Nova de Ourem had been utterly useless, and there appeared to be very little wisdom in repeating a first mistake on an even grander scale. After this they led the sheep to a fresh pasture, higher on the slopes of the Cova da Iria. Francisco, according to Lucia, at about this same time secured through his selfless prayers, the freedom of a man arrested for a grievous crime which, presumably, he did not commit. The physician died shortly thereafter. ", "I know," he said, "I did do that. I hope, dear mother, that you will be able to tell me that you are practicing it, and to make it known to as many people as possible. They went together to the bishop's house in Leiria. At my request for permission to question her daughter she hesitated, and only after I had told her that I wanted to tell the soldiers in France about the apparitions of our Lady did she consent. Amelia and Maria Neves were far more real, but they would obey, just the same; they would remember this, and the Lady seemed to know that they would. He declared that after a few moments Jacinta appeared and, taking him by the hand, led him on to the road which leads from Alquidao to Reguengo, making signs to him to continue on that way. "You, too, will be going to heaven, Doctor, and very soon," she said. Of grave concern to her, as well as to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, was the fact that work had not yet been started on the chapel requested by our Lady. Puzzled, she said, "What smell is this? "Is there anything more that you want of me?" Sit close, Lucia. The light's reality cut into our hearts and our souls, and we knew somehow that this light was God, and we could see ourselves embraced in it. I will never commit them again. But on the other hand, they were good children, and our Lord Himself, in His great charity and wisdom, had often bestowed great favour on the least and most humble of men. In the middle of the road a force of infantry and cavalry of the Republican guard was preventing the people from passing, or completing the remaining one and three quarter miles which separate Fatima from the Cova.