You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Tuesday, May 14th, 2019. This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we are talking about Our Lady of Fatima, particularly the time 102 years ago when Mary appeared to three poor shepherd children. She appeared to them the 13th of the month

for several months in a row. And the first time she appeared was on May 13th. So we've already

talked about the three children that she appeared to, Lucia and her two cousins, Francesco and Jacinta.

Today we're going to talk about what the apparition of Mary actually was, what the children

saw when Mary appeared to them.

So first of all, the three children, of course, had an angel appeared to them for several

months before Mary appeared to them for several months before

Mary appeared to them, and through this angel, they learned how to pray. They also, in a big way,

were preparing for seeing Mary when she appeared to them. And so on May 13, 1917, the three children were out with their sheep in a pasture near where their

family lived, and this of course happened in Fatima, Portugal. So they were out there when all of a

sudden a woman appeared to them. She appeared near the top of a small tree that was in their sheep's pasture.

The woman, they describe her as radiating light as being brilliantly bright. She wore a white mantle that was trimmed with gold and she held a rosary. Leachia also described her as very beautiful.

Now at the beginning of the apparitions, the visions, this woman did not say who she was.

Now we can guess, of course, that she was Mary because she was holding a rosary,

but she did not confirm this to the children until many months later. The children, of course,

were surprised and a little bit scared when Mary appeared to them, but she was very gentle and mostly during the times that

she appeared to them, she simply urged them to pray. She repeatedly told the children to pray

the rosary every day. Now in 1917, especially in Europe, things were not very good. Europe was in the middle of

the First World War. Many, many people died throughout all of Europe during this war.

In fact, they oftentimes say that a whole generation of men died. It was a horrible war. In fact, they oftentimes say that a whole generation of men died. It was a horrible war.

Mary told the children, and remember, they were children. She told them they needed to pray the

...