Peace Doves of Fatima

 Greetings in Jesus and Mary….

We are three days away from the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Also, today is the feast of the third visit of Our Lady to the children at Fatima. I was going to write about the final document on the Synod but I will wait until the Feast Day is over. There is so much bad news coming to us in all directions that I wanted to share peace and hope with all of you. I found this story in the book, “The Woman Shall Conquer” by Don Sharkey printed in 1954 shortly after WWII.

This is a story about the doves that were released during a pilgrimage in Portugal in Dec. 1946 for the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the declaration of Mary Immaculate as Queen of Portugal in 1646 by King Joao IV. He had taken his crown from his head and had placed it at the foot of the statue of Our Blessed Mother. He declared Her Queen of Portugal under the title of the Immaculate Conception. By oath he bound himself and his successors to defend the dogma that Mary was conceived free of original sin. He ordered the event inscribed on stone tablets in every town and city of the land. The monarchs of Portugal never wore a crown after that. The crown belonged to Our Lady. This renewal of the consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Conception was to be done in the cathedral in Lisbon on Dec. 8th.

There was a woman in the village of Bombarral, Dona Maria Emilia, who had purchased six doves to be placed in an arch of flowers and as Our Lady of Fatima statue was to pass….the doves were to fly and create a flutter of white wings as She entered their village. The arch was not built in time so the doves were released by two girls who carried them in a box as the statue of Our Lady entered the city of Bombarral. One dove died on the way and two flew away but three took flight at the foot of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima as she was being carried. This procession was to be a distance of 90 miles with a few stops between the Cova da Iria and the cathedral in Lisbon.

(OK, I have to put this in this article, I have a pet cockatiel bird and he is free most of the day to fly around and HE CHOSE TO SIT ON ME NOW FOR ATTENTION so I guess it is time to put him in his cage….does he know I am writing about birds...ha ha).

The entire population of Bombarral came out to greet Our Lady as She passed in procession through their village. Everyone was amazed that the three doves remained perched at the foot of Our Lady throughout the entire procession (the birds would occasionally leave for food but always came back). In various villages the statue was greeted by loud cheers, bands, fireworks, and an airplane that dropped flowers from time to time on the way to Lisbon…..the birds were not disturbed and did not leave Our Lady’s feet.

The first stop in Lisbon was at a new parish church, Our Lady of Fatima. The Cardinal Patriarch met the procession at the church doors to greet Our Lady. The doves left Our Lady and went to where the Cardinal was speaking. They looked up to him as if they were listening. The statue was kept at the Church for two days and the doves remained with Her. On Dec. 7th while Communion was being distributed, one of the doves perched atop the crown at the head of Our Lady and remained there with its little white wings wide open during the whole of Communion.

When the statue approached the floodlighted cathedral one of the doves flew to the topmost pinnacle. It remained there during the nightlong vigil. In the afternoon of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8th, the Cardinal, the hierarchy of Portugal, the President of the country, the Premier, and members of the diplomatic corps were in the cathedral to renew the act of Consecration. In procession back to the Cova da Iria, the doves disappeared.

This is such a beautiful story, it needs to be made into a movie for all to see and gain hope of peace! There is such a rich history in the Catholic Church of many such miracles that have happened and we need to bring them forward because the world has a very very pale light of Christ right now! May we as Carmelites during this Novena and always seek to ignite the world on fire with the Love of God with our prayers as little St. Therese and all the saints always hungered for!

Even though we see sin and disasters happening all around us; we must live in hope. We must pray the Rosary as She has asked, wear Her Brown Scapular as a sign of our Consecration to Her and offer Her many Fatima prayers of reparation for the sins of the world. Pray for our Church and world leaders to act with faith and love as these Portugese leaders did of old. Our Lady of Fatima has told us: “In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me; and it will be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.”

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
Saints Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco, pray for us!

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Another Miracle in a Portugese Speaking Country