Someone Deflected That Bullet

The Pope is mourn­ing the loss of a friend who saved his life. This friend had been ral­ly­ing prayer sup­port for the Holy Father since she was 10 years old until her death last month at the age of 97. She said she had been told to do so by another friend, Mary. John Paul II cred­its her prayers and the prayers that she helped stir in oth­ers with sur­viv­ing an assassin’s bul­let that by all nor­mal cir­cum­stances should have killed him within sec­onds. The  Pope’s friend was Lucia, a lit­tle shep­herd girl from Por­tu­gal, and she died a few weeks ago, on Feb­ru­ary 13th. In this les­son we will look at her life, her friend­ship with Mary, and her mis­sion in the world.

Cho­sen for a mission  

 In 1917,  Mary appeared in Fatima, Por­tu­gal to the 10-​​year-​​old Lucia dos San­tos along with her two younger cousins, Fran­cisco and Jac­inta Marto.  For the next six months, from May to Octo­ber, the Blessed Mother would appear to the shep­herd chil­dren on the 13th of every month (except for the August appari­tion). She spoke to them like friends, and gave them a serous mes­sage for the world, telling that ter­ri­ble events were com­ing for peo­ple, and ask­ing every­one to pray the rosary daily and do acts of penance, pray­ing in a spe­cial way for the con­ver­sion of sin­ners. She also entrusted them with three secrets. The last secret would not be made pub­lic until more than 80 years later. 

 This spe­cial friend­ship with Mary was a gift that the chil­dren did not expect nor ask for. They were only poor, hum­ble shep­herds who knew noth­ing about fame and world­wide events. When Our Lady asked them to pray in a spe­cial way for Rus­sia, they thought that Rus­sia may have been some lady or sin­ner who needed to be con­verted. These chil­dren became heroes because they were not look­ing to be more impor­tant or famous than every­one else, but just to focus on being who God wanted them to be.

Even from the begin­ning, their mis­sion was not easy, but chil­dren can often sur­prise us by their courage. The gov­ern­ment at that time in Por­tu­gal was anti-​​Catholic, and at one point, the chil­dren were jailed in a town called Ourem, and the Mayor threat­ened to boil them in oil if they did not say that the visions were a lie. One by one he lead them away to what they thought was cer­tain death. It turned out that the threat of the Mayor was a bluff, but the chil­dren had believed it was true. Even with the pos­si­bil­ity of death they would not betray Our Lady. 

In the words Pope John Paul II sent for Lucia’s funeral last month, he reminded us of Lucia’s fidelity to her mis­sion. “The visit of the Vir­gin Mary, which lit­tle Lucia received in Fatima together with her cousins Fran­cisco and Jac­into in 1917, was for her the begin­ning of a sin­gu­lar mis­sion to which she remained faith­ful until the end of her days.”

A mis­sion to save souls

At one point, Mary showed the three chil­dren a vision of hell. They saw a great sea of fire with demons like fright­ful ani­mals and souls shriek­ing and groan­ing in pain and despair. It was not an illu­sion. It was real, ter­ri­bly real. Lucia said that they would have died of fear and ter­ror right there, except that they had already been allowed a spe­cial expe­ri­ence of God´s love and Mary had already promised to take them to heaven. 

 The pur­pose of the vision was to show them the need to save souls. See­ing how bad hell was increased their apos­tolic zeal, and they decided to do any­thing pos­si­ble to stop souls from end­ing up there. Mary promised that many could be saved through devo­tion to her Immac­u­late Heart, and helped the chil­dren to real­ize that their prayers were pow­er­ful for the sal­va­tion of souls. It was a sim­ple mis­sion, to ded­i­cate time every day to pray and offer sac­ri­fices for oth­ers, but the chil­dren were con­vinced that it was the most impor­tant thing in the world. They lived it seri­ously, and inspired count­less oth­ers through­out the world to do the same.

Life of prayer

 When, a fter the appari­tions, so many peo­ple came to pray in Fatima, they often wanted to see lit­tle Lucia too. She was glad peo­ple were com­ing to pray, but did not want to be the cen­ter of atten­tion. With the help of her par­ents and her bishop, Lucia was secretly enrolled in a girls’ board­ing school in another town in 1921. Her class­mates did not even know she was the famous Lucia of Fatima. Her cousins had died in 1919 and 1920, and even though Lucia was very sad, she found strength and joy because Mary had promised she would bring them to heaven. Lucia wanted to ded­i­cate the rest of her life to prayer. When she was 18 years old, she was admit­ted as a pos­tu­lant in the Insti­tute of the Sis­ters of St. Dorothy in Spain. Four­teen years after mak­ing her per­pet­ual vows, she trans­ferred to the Carmel of Saint Teresa in Por­tu­gal where she ded­i­cated her life to prayer in a clois­ter, tak­ing the name of Sis­ter Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immac­u­late Heart. 

 She would remain here for the rest of her life, seri­ously work­ing to ful­fill her mis­sion to save as many souls as pos­si­ble through her prayer and sac­ri­fice. She did not look for spe­cial treat­ment and sim­ply lived the life of the con­vent like all the other nuns. Once, when a new sis­ter came to live there, she did not even real­ize that Sis­ter Maria Lucia was Lucia of Fatima until over a week after her arrival. Lucia was cho­sen by Mary because of her humil­ity, and she wanted to keep prac­tic­ing that humil­ity for the rest of her life. 

Guardian of the Pope

 On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was struck down by the bul­let of a pro­fes­sional assas­sin, Mehmet Ali Agca. The gun­man fired sev­eral shots at very close range, and he was con­fi­dent that there was no way he could miss. The bul­let entered the Holy Father’s abdomen, and exited out the other side, also break­ing his elbow and cut­ting a fin­ger before falling to the floor of the Pope­mo­bile. By a mir­a­cle, the bul­let that pierced the Pope was some­how deflected around vital organs, and the Pope’s life was spared. The doc­tors could not explain how this had hap­pened. The Holy Father imme­di­ately accred­ited this to the inter­ven­tion of Our Lady of Fatima, and the strength of the prayers of her friend, Sis­ter Lucia. 

To this day, the assas­sin is still try­ing to fig­ure out what this mys­te­ri­ous “Fatima” secret is, that could have foiled his mas­ter plan so suc­cess­fully. He would never believe that a lit­tle nun who was pray­ing hard in a coun­try far away, would be able to guard the Pope’s life against his gun. On May 13, 1982, Pope John Paul II trav­eled to Fatima in thanks­giv­ing, putting the bul­let in Our Lady’s crown as a sign of her vic­tory, and meet­ing with his prayer-​​bodyguard, Sis­ter Lucia.

A secret is revealed

 Sis­ter Lucia had received three secrets from Our Lady in 1917, which were revealed lit­tle by lit­tle. She said that the third one could not be known until after 1960, and so she care­fully wrote it out, sealed it in an enve­lope, and gave it to her bishop to be kept in the Vat­i­can secret archives. Recently, it was revealed that Mary’s third secret to Lucia and her cousins had been a type of vision. They saw the Church under attack, many mar­tyrs, and the Pope him­self being killed by enemy gun­fire under a huge wooden cross. She did not know what it meant at the time, but in humil­ity she rec­og­nized that it was only her job to report it, not to try to fig­ure it out. Only the Popes were able to see it until a few years ago when it was revealed to whole world.

What does it mean?

 Lucia’s vision does not imply that God was plan­ning to have the Pope shot, nor that she was able to pre­dict the future. The vision was an image of what would hap­pen in the 20th cen­tury: the bat­tle of the athe­is­tic sys­tems against the Church and all Chris­tians, and in a par­tic­u­lar way against the Pope. It shows the great suf­fer­ings of all those peo­ple who take their faith seri­ously and refuse to betray Christ. Lucia and her cousins were con­stantly moti­vated by this real­ity, repeat­ing, “Poor souls! Poor Holy Father!” The vision also shows that the mar­tyrs who suc­cess­fully give wit­ness to their faith earn more graces to strengthen the rest of us.

 When Mary came to Fatima, she reminded the world that she and her Son are actively involved in human his­tory. Though we nor­mally do not see their actions, our faith assures us that they are inter­ested and par­tic­i­pate in every­thing that goes on in our world. 

Our Lady of Fatima showed the chil­dren that prayer can change the course of his­tory. In explain­ing the third secret of Fatima, the Church has con­firmed that this hap­pened. His­tory was changed through prayer in a real way, when Pope John Paul II was shot, and yet lived on for many more years to see the fall of Com­mu­nism in Rus­sia and East­ern Europe. 

The silent army general

 Lucia led the way of prayer and penance that mil­lions of believ­ers would fol­low. Silently, from her clois­ter she gath­ered an army around the Pope and the Church . Her faith­ful trans­mis­sion of the Blessed Mother’s mes­sage has inspired count­less oth­ers to offer sim­ple prayers and sac­ri­fices for the good of the Church and the souls that are in dan­ger of being lost. Her exam­ple led many oth­ers to strive hard towards heaven. 

Lucia taught us a prayer that is very pow­er­ful. It helps us focus on our main goal in life and calls us to join in her spir­i­tual com­bat for oth­ers. The Holy Father invites us to repeat this prayer often: 

“Oh my Jesus, for­give us our sins.  Save us from the fire of hell.
 Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy.”

Bible Blurbs

• “See­ing his mother there with the dis­ci­ple whom he loved, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, there is your son.’ In turn he said to the dis­ci­ple, ‘There is your mother.’ From that hour onward, the dis­ci­ple took her into his care.” (John 19:26-27)
• “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gen­tle and hum­ble in heart.’” (Matthew 11:29)
• “Our bat­tle is not against human forces but against the prin­ci­pal­i­ties and pow­ers, the rulers of this world of darkness…You must put on the armor of God… ” (Eph­esians 6:12-13)

Pope Quotes

Excerpts from the mes­sage of Pope John Paul II, read at the funeral of Sor Lucia (14 Feb­ru­ary, 2005):

With pro­found emo­tion I learned that Sis­ter Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immac­u­late Heart, at the age of 97 years, was called by the heav­enly Father to the eter­nal dwelling of heaven. She has thus reached the end to which she always aspired in prayer and in the silence of the convent.

 The visit of the Vir­gin Mary, which lit­tle Lucia received in Fatima together with her cousins Fran­cisco and Jac­inta in 1917, was for her the begin­ning of a sin­gu­lar mis­sion to which she remained faith­ful until the end of her days. Sis­ter Lucia leaves us an exam­ple of great fidelity to the Lord and of joy­ful adher­ence to his divine will.

I remem­ber with emo­tion the var­i­ous meet­ings I had with her and the bonds of spir­i­tual friend­ship that, with the pass­ing of time, were inten­si­fied. I have always felt sup­ported by the daily gift of her prayer, espe­cially in the harsh moments of trial and suf­fer­ing. May the Lord reward her amply for the great and hid­den ser­vice she has done to the Church.

I love to think that the one who has received Sis­ter Lucia in the pass­ing from earth to heaven has been pre­cisely She whom she saw in Fatima so many years ago. May the Holy Vir­gin accom­pany the soul of this devoted daugh­ter of hers to the happy encounter with the divine Spouse.  

Saints and Heroes:

Blessed Fran­cisco and Jac­inta Marto were beat­i­fied in the Jubilee year, the youngest non-​​martyrs to achieve this recog­ni­tion of holi­ness. Mar­tyrs can be can­on­ized auto­mat­i­cally, but other saints have to be seen as an exam­ple of heroic virtue. These chil­dren were not beat­i­fied because they saw an appari­tion, but rather because of the way they responded to Mary’s call to holi­ness. Fran­cisco was born on June 11th, 1908. He was a boy who liked ani­mals and liked play­ing songs on his shepherd’s flute. Jac­inta, born on March 11th, 1910, was active and loved to dance to her brother’s music. They helped their cousin Lucia to tend the sheep, and together the three chil­dren saw the appari­tion of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. When Mary asked them to pray the rosary and offer sac­ri­fices for sin­ners, they took it seri­ously. They would give their food to beg­gars, give up drink­ing water on hot days, and pray often. In 1918, both chil­dren caught the Span­ish flu, and Mary appeared to them to tell them she was going to take them to Heaven soon. Fran­cisco, whom she promised to take first, was thrilled at the thought of going to Heaven, and tried to offer as many sac­ri­fices as he could before dying. He would take any med­i­cine or food that he was told to eat, with­out com­plain­ing. He received his first Com­mu­nion on April 13, 1919, and died the next day. Jac­inta was lonely with­out her brother, but was ready to offer any suf­fer­ing to save souls from hell. On Feb­ru­ary 20, 1920, she also went with Our Lady to eter­nal life.

Vocab­u­lary

Apos­tolic zeal: Intense enthu­si­asm and work for bring­ing souls to Christ.

Clois­ter : Lit­er­ally: “enclo­sure”. A place of reli­gious seclu­sion. Usu­ally it refers to a reli­gious com­mu­nity with a cen­tral with min­istry of prayer, who live exclu­sively within a con­vent or monastery, with min­i­mal con­tact with the out­side world

Devo­tion to Mary:  Friend­ship with the Blessed Mother of God, char­ac­ter­ized by speak­ing with her in prayer and imi­tat­ing her virtues. Mary is a “prayer part­ner” who helps us focus on God and do his will.

Hope:

Super­nat­ural hope:  Con­fi­dence in God’s gift of heaven. Con­fi­dence in God’s mercy.

Human hope:  Con­fi­dence that good will hap­pen. Con­fi­dence that things will work out well

Humil­ity:  Virtue that reminds us we do not know every­thing and that God can be trusted to guide us as a good Father.

Penance:   Expres­sions of con­ver­sion and repen­tance. Some exam­ples of penance: help­ing the needy, prayer, fast­ing, rec­on­cil­ing with our neigh­bor, etc. 

Pos­tu­lant:  A period of dis­cern­ment for can­di­dates who would aspire to enter the novi­tiate of a reli­gious congregation.

Rally:   To come together for a com­mon pur­pose, espe­cially to assist or sup­port a cause or per­son, etc

Dis­cus­sion Ques­tion Options

1. What qual­i­ties con­sti­tute true friend­ship (write on the board)? Which of these is it pos­si­ble to live in your friend­ship with Mary, and how? 
2. Can you think of other sto­ries that you have heard, or expe­ri­enced per­son­ally, in which you can see how Christ or Mary played a role in mak­ing things turn out a cer­tain way? Or is there a time when you prayed for some­thing spe­cific, and knew that your prayers affected the way it came out?
3. Why was it impor­tant for Sor Lucia to enter the con­vent? What did she hope to accom­plish there? Do you think she was more effec­tive in her mis­sion? Why or why not?
4. How many dif­fer­ent exam­ples are given in the text about the humil­ity of Sor Lucia? How did she live it (in ways that are not nec­es­sar­ily pointed out in the text)?
5. Some peo­ple try to deny that hell is real. Why do they say this? Why is it impor­tant for us to believe that hell is real? Why is it impor­tant to believe that pur­ga­tory is real? 

Jour­nal Writ­ing Options

1. What is your rela­tion­ship with Mary like? Do you con­sider her a friend, a mother, or just a dis­tant statue? Have you ever done any spe­cial activ­i­ties or prayers sur­round­ing Mary? Write about what your friend­ship with Our Lady is now, and what you would like it to be.
2. Imag­ine that Our Lady said to you, as she said to Lucia: “Pray, pray very much and make sac­ri­fices for sin­ners; for many souls go to hell because there are none to sac­ri­fice them­selves and to pray for them.” What would you answer to her? Would it change the way you live your life? Do you truly believe that some peo­ple around you are entrusted to your prayers, and if you do not pray for them, no one will?   

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

1. Sor Lucia was a friend and guardian of Pope John Paul II before she even met him per­son­ally. Have cur­rent mag­a­zines and news­pa­pers so each stu­dent can choose some­one in the news that they can pray for in a spe­cial way (pres­i­dents, reli­gious fig­ures, crim­i­nals, actors, etc.).
   •  Write the names on slips of paper for the bul­letin board to remind them of their prayer intentions.
   • As a class, come up with a sac­ri­fice res­o­lu­tion that they can offer for their spe­cific inten­tion (no TV on a cer­tain day, etc.)
2. Have a timed Bible search. Give stu­dents 10 min­utes to try to find all the pas­sages that they can find that has some ref­er­ence to the real­ity of heaven (teams are optional). Stu­dents report their find­ings, read­ing the verses aloud. List the results on the board, and have stu­dents make their own list on an index card for future ref­er­ence. Do the same for all men­tions of Heaven. 
3. Find out if there is a local clois­tered com­mu­nity, and plan a trip to visit there. Many clois­ters wel­come the pub­lic for Mass, although the sis­ters remain in a sep­a­rate part of the chapel. Look for a Poor Clare monastery, Clois­tered Carmelite com­mu­nity, etc. 
4. In groups, pre­pare pre­sen­ta­tions for the rest of the class, going more in-​​depth on the story of Fatima:
   • Give the his­tory of the apparitions
   • Give an overview of the more impor­tant words that Mary spoke to Lucia
   • Present the three secrets of Fatima
   • Describe the modern-​​day Fatima shrine 
   • Stu­dents may go to the inter­net to see pic­tures from Fatima (http://www.santuario-fatima.pt/portal/multimedia.php)

Resources

More infor­ma­tion on Fatima
http://www.fatimavirtual.com/

The secret of Fatima
www.zenit.org/english/archives/documents/FATIMA_ENG.hml . 

Pope John Paul II’s mes­sage for the funeral of Sor Lucia
http://www.zenit.org/english/

 Book:
Mem­ory and Iden­tity  by Pope John Paul II, pub­lished Feb­ru­ary 2005. 
(Last pages deal with Fatima and the May 1981 attempt on the Pope’s life.)

 Movies/​DVDs :
Appari­tons at Fatima pro­duced by Daneil Costelle (www.ignatius.com)
Mir­a­cle of Our Lady of Fatima   (www.ignatius.com)