Fatima – The Miracle of the Sun

In his book, “The Whole Truth about Fatima. Science and the Facts” (pgs. 293-303), Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité writes that while the crowd was watching the miraculous spectacle of the sun moving around in the sky, Lucy, Jacinta and Francisco were witnessing something else as well. 

The three seers were given a sequence of three pictures, and Lucy describes each one:

1. The Vision of the Holy Family: “After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun.  St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands.”
2. The Vision of Our Lady of Sorrows:  “When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Sorrows.  Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done.”
3. The Vision of Our Lady of Mount Carmel:  “This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Mount Carmel.”  

Now, it was on this day, October 13, 1917, that the Blessed Virgin first introduced herself as Our Lady of the Rosary.  Frère Michel makes a connection between the three apparitions noted above and the rosary; he writes that the three visions are “three living images of the mysteries of the rosary.”

He sees the vision of the Holy Family and the blessing being given as illustrative of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary; the second vision, of Our Lady of Sorrows (and as Lucy later informed a priest, the Lord in this vision was dressed in red, “no doubt to remind us of the purple mantle in which he was dressed in the pretorium, during the scene of the outrages and the crowning with thorns”) he relates to the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary; the third vision, of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, he connects with the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, because Mary was holding the scapular in her hand, offering it to the world. 

Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus and Mary leave nothing undone; they leave no loose ends.  As I was reading this interpretation by Frère Michel, of course the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary introduced by Pope John Paul II came to mind – and what would they correspond to on this special day of October 13, 1917?  Why, the main spectacle, of course – the Miracle of the Sun!