The Blessed Mother appeared to three children in Fatima in 1917. Our Lady made three requests one of which was penance. As with Lent, a period of penance, it becomes worth the discussion to see how Our Lady, Penance and the Rosary all tie together.
When we look at penance and its use in the Gospels it was used to turn way from and bring life back to God. Thematically as well as the Gospels, the apparitions of Our Lady have also spoke of atonement, turning away from sin and praying the Rosary. And Fatima was a striking reminder of that. The Blessed Mother said that men needed to change their lives and ask for forgiveness for his sins. Sr Lucia who was one of the children the Blessed Mother appeared to spoke of how much she remembered Our Lady stressing not to offend God anymore and that God was already extremely offended with the way things were going. Keep in mind this was 1917.
It was not only Sr Lucia who spoke on penance but Jacinta the other young girl who was at the apparition of Fatima said that if mankind only knew what eternity was they would change their lives, using the Biblical definition of penance, turning away from sin. Part of message also was that the Lord liked sacrifice to help make up for sin and that many of the souls that go to hell are go because there is no one to make sacrifices for them. So the question is how these sacrifices are defined. The sacrifice the Blessed Mother asked was for us to offer up the suffering that God may send us. We often here to offer up our cross. According to Our Lady sacrifice is required by everyone. One of the hopes of Fatima it would seem was that a person would turn problems over to God.
Additionally, Pope Benedict, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, helped unpack the third mystery of Fatima and that basically it was a cry of Penance Penance and Penance according to the Angel that appeared to the children with a flaming sword in his left hand. . Cardinal Ratzinger contributed a theological commentary at the end of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2000, in part was an attempt to interpret the Secrets of Fatima. He said that we needed to accept the urgency of penance conversion and faith are all relative to the sign of the times that we need to accept these principles. But ultimately according to Sr Lucia the purpose of the apparitions of Fatima was to help people grow in faith and hope.
Another commonality of the Rosary and Penance is that the Rosary is usually prescribed as a penance a person may receive after they go to confession, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and receiving absolution.
In the end The Rosary is the path to salvation it is a pray that Our Lady advocates in her messages is sacrifice, and penance in conjunction with prayer and can most poignantly seen in the apparitions of Fatima.
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