Fatima in Pictures

Hey friends!

Well, even when you are a big-time blogger like me (HAHAHA!!) you still answer to your mother.

And so, to please my wonderful mother who took such great care of my children while I was in Fatima, here is a quick pictorial sharing of our time in Fatima.

I already shared thoughts on our trip to Fatima, and the beautiful message of Fatima in a podcast episode.

But in case you, like my mom, were hoping for some pictures, here are a few, although, since my kids weren’t with, I didn’t take very many pictures.

On our first day in Fatima, we went to the “Shrine Village”.

This is where the children lived.

We visited their houses and prayed where Mary appeared to them in August of that year since imprisonment kept them from meeting her on the 13th in the usual place.

It was a rainy day, but that area of Fatima is very similar to how it was 100 years ago when Mary appeared to the children, which was really cool to reflect upon.

We also visited where the angel appeared to the children and instructed them in prayer. This is also where the children received Eucharist from the angel.  

There is also a really beautiful station of the cross in this area that ends in a beautiful chapel. We spent lots of time praying and watching.

While in the shrine village we also were able to visit the homes of the children and see where Fransisco died.

The next day we spent at the big shrine in Fatima.

This is where Mary appeared to the children, revealed the secrets to them, and asked them to build a chapel for her.

The place is HUGE.  

There is a basilica on one end that houses the bodies of all 3 visionaries. On the other end, there is another huge church. The chapel of the apparitions is beautiful as well.

We spent most of our second day in prayer as well.

I brought nearly 800 prayer intentions with me and it took a big chunk of time (the whole afternoon) to get through all of those intentions, although it was a joy to do it.

Bill and I also lit candles for all of the intentions we brought with us and the intentions of the people we love.

This is a lovely statue of St. Fransisco, one of the visionaries.

His body was buried just below this statue. Reflecting on his short life has been quite powerful for me. I find his love of the Eucharist and acceptance of suffering quite moving.

We spent most of our time at the Apparition Chapel. Mass was being said there almost constantly, so we heard our beautiful liturgy in several different languages.

This statue of Our Lady of Fatima sits where Mary appeared to the children 100 years ago. Quite powerful to be right there where Mary appeared.

We actually returned to the site of the apparitions that night as well. It is a beautiful place to see at night.

That evening we also did a little bit of suffering. Like many other religious sites, there is a long walkway in the square that pilgrims are invited to crawl down in a kneeling position while reciting the rosary.

We had seen people doing this during the day, but since we couldn’t read Portuguese we didn’t really understand what was going on–and maybe we didn’t want to understand!

But, that evening when we used Google Translate to figure out a big sign said we felt like we had to do it–even though it was TOUGH!

My feet got all ripped up. But, the entire message of Fatima is redemptive suffering. You can see part of the walkway in this picture. It ends at the apparition chapel, which you can see in the bottom left of this photo.

We traveled from Fatima to Sintra the following day. Sintra is an old, romantic city on the other side of Lisbon. While there we were basically tourists.

We saw the Penna Palace as well as the Moorish Castle, both of which stand on the top of some immense hills.

The picture below is of a pretty cool thing that happened when we were at the tip-top of the Moorish Castle (the way the heck up there!).

It had been a dreary day, but all of sudden it started to hail and the wind was blowing like crazy. And we were WAY up there in a mostly ruined old castle. SO SCARY!  

It was crazy. But, the storm was brief, and when it was done God put this amazing rainbow across the entire sky. It was unreal! We were high enough to see the ENTIRE rainbow, but my camera’s lens was too tight to capture the whole thing. Incredible.

The last day of our vacation we spent on the Portuguese coast. It’s an incredible country and we met so many wonderful people. Such a blessing to be able to go on this trip!

And there is a little pictorial view of our time in Fatima. Like most vocations, I got home kicking myself for not taking more pictures, but oh well. It was a remarkable trip and I am so grateful that Our Lady made it all happen.

Your sister in the small things,

Nancy