Sligo group in Fatima

Madam Editor, This year, 2017, is the centenary of the Apparitions of our Lady to the three children in Fatima. The Knights of Saint Columbanus organised a national pilgrimage to celebrate the happenings. I, with seven other people from Sligo, was privileged to travel. Here is a brief account of my time there. We had Mass every day , celebrated by Monsignor Gerard Dolan and an Augustinian , Fr. Declan, from Drogheda. The locations changed but the highlight for me was our final Mass in the Capelinha ( Chapel of Apparitions) where I had the honour of doing the first reading. The overall atmosphere was one of quiet prayer with Masses celebrated in different churches around the square all day in different languages. Each night, there was rosary and candle light procession and people were constantly lighting candles at the shrine , where sometimes it was impossible to get near because of the intense heat. Other hightlights were the Hungarian stations of the Cross which follow the path used by the three little shepherds . We visited the homes of the three children and met with a niece of Sr. Lucia ( who died in 2005). ( pictured with John below). The niece is 98 years old and when I said I was from Ireland she kissed my hands twice. There was a tour of a wax museum where many scenes relevant to the lives of the children are depicted. We visited an exhibition in the rectory of the Sanctuary ‘ Fatima Light and Peace’ which houses the Irish Monstrance ( weighing 8 Kg) , the bullet which was fired at St. John Paul 11, and other items given to our Lady of Fatima’s shrine. We went to the Parish Church where the three children were baptised and the nearby cemetery where Francisco and Jacinta were first buried and then the Basilica where all three are buried. There was a tour of Coimbra ( original capital of Portugal) where we visited the Carmelite Convent where Sr. Lucia lived from 1948 until she died in2005. While we were in Fatima, it was announced that Pope Francis was going to Fatima to canonize Francisco and Jacinta on the hundredth anniversary of the first apparition. The Message of Fatima is very simple. PRAY THE ROSARY. Yours Sincerely John O’Dowd Beltra