Thomas Griffin is the chair of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island, where he lives with his wife and sons. He is the author of Let Us Begin: Saint Francis’s Way of Becoming Like Christ and Renewing the World (OSV, September 2024).
In 1917, three children heard Mary’s urgent plea: embrace her heart, offer sacrifices for souls, and pray the Rosary every day. In 2025, that call is more needed than ever.
Our Lady of Fatima is an apparition of Mary that took place between May and October of 1917. Mary appeared to three young children — Lúcia, Jacinta, and Francisco. These poor and simple children were chosen by Mary to bring about the devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as well as explicitly make known the Blessed Mother’s desire for the world to pray for the salvation of souls and global peace.
Her Heart, our salvation, and peace. These are the three main takeaways for Catholics living in 2025 to know and live by, regarding Mary’s appearance at Fatima.
First, her Heart. Mary spoke to the children about the love and power she has in giving aid to souls. She said to the children: “[Jesus] wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world. I promise salvation to those who embrace it; these souls will be beloved of God like flowers arranged by me to adorn his throne.”
This line ought to move us to truly reflect on the fact that the heart of Mary is the heart of the Mother of God. This heart proclaimed that it was a handmaid for the Lord. This heart carried the unborn Jesus, gave birth to him, cared for him, and watched him breathe his last for the sake of the world. Those who embrace Mary’s heart do so so that they may better know and fall in love with the heart of Jesus Christ.
If we seek to follow Jesus unreservedly, then we ought to be moved to love everything he did. This includes his Mother. When we ask her for aid, she will enable us to become holy through the power of her intercession.
Second, Our Lady of Fatima spoke about the seriousness of salvation. She said, “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially when you make a sacrifice, ‘O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’”
Our faith is life or death. To gloss over this fact is a disservice to the truth and to the dignity of the human person. Mary makes this clear by making the following request: “Pray, pray much, and sacrifice for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to sacrifice and pray for them.”
Mary implores these three children, and the entire world, to pray for the conversion of others. We can pray for them, but we are also called to love them by making sacrifices for them. Doing so, intentionally, will bring about eternal ramifications for these individuals while also purifying our own souls.
Finally, Mary spoke about the need to pray for world peace. She said this would be accomplished through a strong devotion to the Rosary: “Pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”
Her strong command here is a desire to communicate her love for every single human heart. Since she is the Mother of us all, she deeply yearns for all of her children to be saved but also to be cared for. The ugliness of war and the heinous acts of certain countries are ultimately the result of human brokenness. For that sinfulness to be mended, we need our Mother.
Today, may the celebration of Fatima push each of us to draw closer to the Heart of our Mother and to intercede for the conversion of the world. Doing both will bring us closer in intimacy to Jesus Christ, which is the entire mission of the Mother of God.