The cloud which appeared indicated the Virgin’s arrival and, as usual, Lucia asked the Lady what she wanted. She revealed to the three children who she is and what she wanted: “I want a chapel to be built here in my honor, for I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue to say the Rosary every day. The war will end soon and the soldiers will return to their homes.”
Lucia said she had many things to ask of the Lady, “to heal some sick people, and to convert some sinners, etc.”
To this general request, the Virgin gravely responded: “Some, yes; others, no. People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.”
Growing sadder, she said, “Do not offend the Lord our God any longer; He is already deeply offended.”
“Then, opening her hands, Our Lady made them reflect on the sun and, as she ascended, the reflection of her own light continued to be projected on the sun itself.” Here, as with other manifestations at Fatima (like the mysterious pillars of incense arising, three times, from the holmoak tree upon which Our Lady stood), we recognize anew that incredible Mariophany of which Sr. Lucia would later write, addressing the Virgin as “a living tabernacle, a Monstrance, a living Temple, the permanent abode of the Most Holy Trinity.” Surely those words of Sr. Lucia’s grant a breath-taking glimpse into the “lights about this mystery” (the Holy Trinity) that she later received as a young nun but was not permitted to reveal. (Years later, a cardinal would publicly state, “While the death of God is proclaimed with arrogant glee, Fatima appears to be a supernatural light. It is God who reveals Himself with the impressive majesty of Sinai,” as the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon said at the 8th Fatima Congress at Kevelaer, Germany, on September 18, 1977.)
Lucia continued, “After Our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus appeared to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands.”
“When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our Lady; it seemed to me that it was Our Lady of Sorrows. Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done.”
“This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.”
At the precise moment Our Lady cast her own light upon the sun, the drenching rain suddenly stopped, the brooding clouds dispersed, and the sky became clearer. The sudden change immediately attracted attention of the great crowd of thousands.