My Pilgrimage to Fatima Portugal

Excerpts from my Journal

December 6, Lisbon

We had an amazing time meandering around Lisbon yesterday. We walked about 6 miles visiting five churches, attended eucharistic veneration and two masses, one being in Latin.  The city center of Lisbon is vibrant and filled with people from all walks of life and countries. The sun was shining this brisk December morning and we enjoyed sitting outdoors for lunch in a cafe on the main piazza. The fish was excellent washed down with a tasty local beer.   All in all it was a great day and a perfect prelude for our Pilgrimage to Fatima.

 

Today we are taking a bus to Fatima where the Blessed Mother made herself visible to three little Portuguese children in 1917. Read More about Fatima Here.

Three Fatima Children  Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto

December 7, 2019

We arrived in Fatima on the ninety minute bus ride from Lisbon at 1:00pm.  We walked by countless souvenir shops for about 1/2km to our hotel called the Fatima Guest House situated next to the main shrine about a two minute walk to the holy site.

 

After a much needed nap and lunch we strolled around the main site of the Fatima shrine. It’s off season so there were no big crowds. My initial observation about this very important and holy shrine is it was like experiencing two very different time zones simultaneously.

Fatima Basilica in Late Afternoon Light

There is the old Basilica on one end of the shrine and a very sterile, post-modern circular church and giant abstract Cross directly adjacent to it.  In the middle of the two churches is an expansive open paved lot to accommodate the massive crowds, in addition to the shrine to our Lady in the center where the actual apparitions occurred.

 

I must admit to being a little disappointed and disheartened at first due to the stark  cold, sterile nature of the shrine and the many tourists who walked aimlessly around the holy site chatting loudly like it was some sort of amusement park. The overall design, layout and minimalistic architecture do nothing to enhance the spirituality and holiness of the Fatima Shrine in my opinion.

I tried to kneel and pray at the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel and found it difficult due to the sterile “cube” nature of the chapel environment. The Eucharist is enshrined in a hanging rectangular silver panel that doesn’t give the Holy Eucharist the supernatural sense of spirituality I believe it deserves, but again this is only my opinion.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary

This is still a very holy and blessed place because it is where the Blessed Mother appeared and spoke to the three Portuguese children. Click Here for Three Secrets of Fatima.

I decided I wouldn’t let my initial impressions take away from my pilgrimage experience.

Pilgrims Lighting Candles and Making Intensions

When you think about the incredible awe inspiring religious art and architecture created during the past centuries like Chartres Cathedral and St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican then compare it to the post-modern architecture and iconography on display at the Fatima shrine it tends to detract from the true message of Fatima not reinforce it in my opinion.

Walking the Way of the Cross Camino at Fatima

I will admit the Way of the Cross Camino located about 2km from the main Fatima site leading to a Shrine of the Blessed Mother and the homes of Lucia Santos and Francisco was a true spiritual highlight for me.  Along the trail are small shrines with reliefs from the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and ends with a beautiful statue to the Blessed Mother where pilgrims gathered to pray. This is the site where the Blessed Mother appeared to the children and asked them to “Pray Pray Pray”.

 

About 1/2km after the Blessed Mother Shrine you come to the Casa of Lucia.  Walking through the humble home of her childhood gives you a real glimpse into the way people lived and worked in rural Portugal 100 years ago.

December 8, 2019 Feast of the Immaculate Conception

This is our final day in Fatima. It’s a rainy, foggy morning yet the streets and shrines are filled to capacity with pilgrims for this Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I have mixed feelings and emotions about my pilgrimage here to this holy shrine. 

I’m very glad I made this pilgrimage even though it’s been a little anticlimactic and in some ways disappointing.  My primary disappointment has to do with the clash between traditions, iconography and architecture vs. the post-modern, stark, sterile, non-spiritual, relatively empty secular humanistic sensibility integrated into this very holy place.

Fatima Shrine at Night

I must remind myself the pilgrimage is really about what happened here in 1917. The Blessed Mother appeared to three children and shared three secrets  concerning the good Lords displeasure with humanity and what must be done to bring mankind closer to God and turn people from their sinful ways.  I can’t let the garish souvenir shops and modern influences in the architecture bring my spirits down and take away from my spiritual experience.

After a second walk and rosary along the “Way of the Cross” Camino, I returned to the main Fatima Shrine to find it filled to capacity with pilgrims singing and beautiful music playing over loud speakers.  At that precise moment, standing in the center of the Fatima Shrine square surrounded by fellow pilgrims I realized why I had made this spiritual sojourn.  It was what Fatima was suppose to be and I went ahead and lit a candle, said a prayer for my friends and family and my negative feelings faded away.

Three Quotes from Lucia

Daily Sacrifices

“Putting up with any sacrifices that are asked of us in our day-to-day lives becomes a slow martyrdom which purifies us and raises us up to the level of the supernatural, through the encounter of our soul with God, in the atmosphere of the presence of the Most Holy Trinity within us. We have here an incomparable spiritual richness!”

Message of Fatima

“Hell is a reality. It is a supernatural fire and not physical. It cannot be compared to fire that burns wood or charcoal… Continue preaching about hell because Our Lord himself spoke about hell, and it is in Sacred Scripture. God does not condemn anyone to hell. God gave men the liberty to choose, and God respects this human liberty.” 

“Let us all willingly endeavor to follow faithfully the path that He has mapped out for us. Yes, because it was out of love that God sent us this pressing call from his mercy, in order to help us along the way of our salvation.”

The End-Times

“The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Do not be afraid, because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. However, Our Lady has already crushed his head.”

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