Poetic tribute to Our Lady of Fatima

In relation with our ongoing Fatima Apostolate, we offer this poetic tribute to Our Lady of Fatima, introduced by some related passages from Holy Writ.

Citations from Sacred Scripture

He hath set his tabernacle in the sun. All the glory of the king’s daughter is within in golden borders. (Psalms 18:6, 44:14)

As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted. I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatic balm: I yielded a sweet odor like the best myrrh: I have stretched out my branches as the turpentine tree, and my branches are of honor and grace.

As the vine, I have brought forth a pleasant odor: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue.

Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.

All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the most High, and the knowledge of truth. (Ecclesiasticus 24:19, 20, 22-28, 30-32)

O Fatima

O Queen of Portugal;
more beautiful
than the purest gold;
adorned in a brilliant cloak,
finer than the finest silk;
rested upon a holm oak,
Immaculate ewe didst bestow
Her heavenly glow
upon three little shepherds…
of Fatima.

Fiat mihi secundum
verbum tuum[1]
their faith as a grain
of mustard seed…[2]
no doubt
(unlike Thomas),[3]
they believed
O sweet, childlike
innocence!
Faith as pure,
as mother’s milk,
they humbly obeyed
Her fond requests,
despite the rebukes,
the chastisements,
of the unbelievers,
the sceptics.

Anno Domini
1917
the year, in which,
our holy Queen,
Mother of the Incarnation,
the Word made Flesh,[4]
came down into
a land of poverty
with a message for
humanity;
not to kings,
to royalty,
didst she speak,
but, rather,
to three poor, little
shepherds,
like her…
so humble,[5]
and so meek…
Mary and
her little lambs…
in Fatima, Portugal.

Thirteenth day
of May,
the Queen
didst first appear
a sight, so bright,
like the angelic light
to the shepherds
long ago,
tending their flocks
on the outskirts,
of a town called…
Bethlehem.[6]
Save, this time,
the heavenly emissary
was the Queen herself,
the Virgin Mary.
“What dost thy Grace
want of me?” asked she,
perplexed,
young shepherdess,
as wast the Virgin
at the Archangel’s
strange request.[7]
And, Thou,
O Queen of the Rosary,
her inquisition didst allay,
with a simple exhortation…
“Pray.”
“Pray the Rosary, every day.
And, make sacrifices.
Make acts of reparation,
for the sins committed
against the Sacred Heart
of the Incarnation.”

The thirteenth day
of July
the children saw
a frightful sight,
a ghastly vision
to their innocent eyes,
so surreal…
a vision of Hell,
a place, so real,
though, many,
even prelates deny

On the thirteenth day
of October,
another month
of our blessed Mother,
Our Lady didst appear,
amidst the clouds
and startled crowds,
though, she, they
could not see, or hear
Yet…
to their surprise…
thousands of
astonished eyes…
did see the sun
dance in the sky.

Immaculate Mother
of Sacred Child
Virgin most merciful,
Mother undefiled,
Thine Immaculate Heart
wrapped ‘round,
by the thorns so vile,
which pierced
His sacred Crown,
lacerated by
the blasphemies
of sinful man,
which thou didst reveal
to the seer, Sister Lucia,
these scandalous denials:
thine Immaculate Conception;
thy divine maternity
and motherhood of man;
thy perpetual virginity…
and …in addition,
these acts of sedition:
disgracing thy Grace’s images,
and, amongst thy children…
fostering indifference.

Mediatrix of all graces,
Mother most pure,
Mother most chaste,
O Queen of the Holy Rosary,
Mother of the human race:
We beseech thee,
We implore thee,
tarry not,
do make haste;
make the hierarchy
open their eyes to see,
Thy words to embrace,
as obedient sons
of their loving Mother,
to heed thy words,
to humbly obey,
this we ask,
this we pray…
For the Consecration
of Russia
to thine Immaculate Heart,
that she would return
to Holy Mother Church,
and never more depart;
Please set in motion
the establishment of
the First Saturdays devotion;
And, finally,
the revealing
of that hidden portion
of thy message
to the three little seers
of Fatima…
“In Portugal,
the dogma of the Faith
will always be preserved…
et cetera.”

Give us hearts like theirs…
pure and undefiled,
hearts of self-denial,
of self-sacrifice,
the will to fulfill
acts of penance
and reparation,
to cast away sin and vice,
for only by means of these
shall the Sacred Heart
of the Lamb of God
be worthily appeased.

Ave Maria,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum:
benedicta tu
in mulieribus
et benedictus
fructus ventris tui,
JESUS.
Sancta Maria,
Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora
mortis nostrae.
Amen.

Footnotes

1 Luke 1:38.

2 Matthew 17:19; Luke 17:6.

3 John 20:24-29.

4 Ibid. 1:14; Galatians 4:4.

5 Luke 1:48.

6 Ibid. 2:8-9.

7 Ibid. 1:29.