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

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Sprouts. Today is Thursday, May 19th, 2020. This week on the Catholic Sprouts, we are talking about Marian apparitions. Specific times and places when Mary came to earth and appeared to the faithful with a message. We've already talked about Our Lady of Mount Carmel, our lady of good help,

Our Lady of Guadalupe, and yesterday we talked about Our Lady of Lords. Today, we are staying in the continent of Europe,

and we are talking about Our Lady of Fatima, who is also sometimes called Our Lady of the

Rosary. So again, Mary always appeared to specific people at a specific time and place, and it's

important that we understand the situation,

the state of the world when Mary appeared. So Mary appeared in Fatima in the year 1917.

Fatima is in Portugal, and what was happening in the world in 1917 was war.

1917 was right in the middle of World War I.

A terrible war where many people died in Europe or almost the whole world was at war.

So this is when Mary appeared. And so here is what happened. So three children,

they were Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta. Francisco and Jacinta were brother and sister and

Lucia was their cousin. They were rather poor. Their families were farmers. and each day they were sent out into the pasture

to watch the sheep. While they were there, they would eat their lunch and play games,

and they knew that they needed to spend a little bit of time praying. So they would oftentimes

pray the rosary really, really fast so they could get back to their games. Well, in the early part of 1917, an angel started appearing to these three children

and taught the children how to pray.

Then, on May 13th, 1917, when the children were praying, on top of a small tree, there was a bright light, and a beautiful woman appeared.

She was wearing white, wearing a crown, and holding a rosary.

And the three children knew that she was Mary.

She spoke to the children, and she gave them a message.

She told them to pray, to accept suffering, and offer it to her for the conversion of sinners.

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