Fatima: Day One

After checking in to our very conveniently located hotel, many of us were lured into the shopping district where religious objects and Portuguese souvenirs are sold. My brother Gabriel asked me for a Portuguese national soccer team t-shirt, but the only ones I could find where made of an itchy polyester. Thanks to him, I paid attention to the similarities between soccer fanaticism and religious fervor. I noticed that the Portuguese are passionate about both Futbol and Fatima. Our guide even explained that whenever there is a “big match,” her sons ask her to light a candle and offer it to Fatima so that their team wins.

My first encounter inside the Fatima compound was the enormous fire pit. You buy candles (on your honor) of all shapes and sizes, and in voto (to give thanks or to ask for a petition) you offer them to the Virgin of Fatima. Some candles were taller than humans others were shaped like organs and body parts. As we made our offering, I was struck by the people walking on their knees, from one end of the esplanade to the other (at least two football fields in size). A special path made of smooth marble functions as a path from the older basilica to the new church. Most of the people walking on their knees were women, but I did see a few men do it as well. Speaking of soccer, people used shin guards to protect their skin; I also noticed the use of hotplates as knee pads.

Father Steve Corder led our first mass in the Chapel of the Sacred Family inside of the Basilica. Unfortunately, my parents missed it because they were late and did not know where to go. The message I took away from the mass was to be thankful for our friends, especially Mary and others who take us closer to God. On the way out of mass, my parents found me in the Chapel of Apparitions where there was a Spanish mass. My mother thought I was missing and my father realized that even one minute late is too late.

After dinner, we met at the esplanade to pray the rosary (5 decades / 10 languages) followed by a procession of light while singing Fatima’s version of the Ave Maria. I’ve never been on a pilgrimage before nor have I attended the World Cup, but when my brothers and father returned from Germany during the last series, my father was struck by how many nations of the world united for the love of soccer. Similarly, I was struck by the same thing in Fatima, but for the love of the Blessed Mother. Unlike the World Cup however, which only happens every four years, pilgrims come to Fatima from all over the world every singe day.