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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Friday, May 17th, 2019.

This week on the Catholic Sprouts podcast, we have been celebrating Our Lady of Fatima.

In talking about the time a hundred and two years ago when Mary appeared to three poor shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.

We talked about the three children she appeared to, Lucia and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Hesenta.

We also talked about what Mary looked like when she appeared to them, that she was

wearing a white mantle trimmed with gold, holding a rosary, and that she appeared to them in the

pasture where they were tending their sheep. We also talked about the message of Fatima, that we need

to pray and suffer, as well as the three secrets that Mary revealed to the children.

And finally, yesterday we talked about the miracle of the sun that occurred on the final time that Mary

appeared to the children, and how over 70,000 people were there to witness that miracle that day.

Now, today we're going to talk about what happened to the three children after the

apparitions ended. So first of all, Hacinta and Francisco. Now, they were younger than their

cousin, Lucia. They were younger and they were brother and sister.

Mary had told the three children that they would all join her in heaven one day, that Hesinta and

Francisco would join her soon, but that Lucia would have to wait on earth for a long time before she would join them in

heaven. So in a big way, Lucia and Francisco knew that they would die young. Before that, though,

the three children took the message of Fatima to heart very seriously. They spent much time praying, and they always were

looking for opportunities to suffer. In fact, Lucia wrote later on that especially Hesinta

was very eager to suffer and to offer that to Jesus and Mary. From time to time, they would be walking out to

pasture their sheep, and they would pass someone who was hungry, and they would give them their lunch

so that they would have an opportunity to suffer with hunger and offer that to Jesus.

...