A little while before going to hospital, Jacinta said to me: “It will not be long now before I go to Heaven. You will remain here to make known that God wishes to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When you are to say this, don’t go and hide. Tell everybody that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; that people are to ask her for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side. Tell them also to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God has entrusted it to her. If I could only put into the hearts of all, the fire that is burning within my own heart, and that makes me love the Hearts of Jesus and Mary so very much!”
One day, I was given a holy picture of the Heart of Jesus, quite a nice one, as man-made pictures go. I took it to Jacinta: “Do you want this holy picture?” She took it, looked at it attentively and remarked: “It’s so ugly! It doesn’t look like Our Lord at all. He is so beautiful! But I want it; it is He just the same.” She always carried it with her. At night and during her illness, she kept it under her pillow, until it fell apart. She kissed it frequently, saying: “I kiss the Heart because I love it most! How I would love to have a Heart of Mary! Don’t you have one? I would love to have the two together.”
On another occasion, I brought her a picture of a chalice with a host. She took it and kissed it and, radiant with joy, she exclaimed: “It is the Hidden Jesus! I love Him so much! If only I could receive Him in Church! Don’t they receive Holy Communion in Heaven? If they do, then I will go to Holy Communion every day. If only the Angel would go to the hospital to bring me Holy Communion again, how happy I would be!” Sometimes, on returning from church, I went in to see her, and she asked me: “Did you receive Holy Communion?” And if I answered in the affirmative, she said: “Come over here close to me, for you have the hidden Jesus in your heart.”
At other times she told me: “I don’t know how it is! But I feel Our Lord within me. I understand what He says to me, although I neither see Him nor hear Him, but it is so good to be with Him!” On another occasion, she remarked: “Look, do you know this? Our Lord is sad, because Our Lady told us not to offend Him anymore, for He is already very much offended; yet nobody takes any notice, and they continue to commit the same sins!”