Within three years of beginning to recite the Fatima prayers, two shepherd children reached extraordinary levels of sanctity. They died as children and were beatified in May 2000 by John Paul II. Of course, they did not only say the Fatima prayers. They also prayed the Rosary and offered many sacrifices for sinners, as Mary had called them to do. But the Fatima prayers were an essential part of the “program” Mary outlined for them.
We should look more closely at these prayers. The focus was on the Rosary, but the Fatima prayers lacked a clear context or structure for recitation. You can say them a few times, but this method hasn’t become very popular yet. Many people need some organization, especially in their prayer life, which a Chaplet of the Fatima Prayers could provide.
The Divine Mercy Devotion, which shares some strong similarities with the Fatima Program, can serve as a logical template for building a Chaplet.
We say on the large (Rosary) bead of the Divine Mercy Chaplet:
Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
The second prayer the Angel taught the children of Fatima was:
O Most Holy Trinity, I adore you profoundly. I offer you the most precious body, blood, soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences by which he is offended. And through the infinite merits of his most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of sinners.
The similarity between the two prayers is clear. Eucharistic offering is central to both, as is “atonement for” and “reparation for” sinners. There is no need to detail each prayer; one can instinctively understand the main similarity. We should recite the Fatima prayer on the large bead.
On the small beads of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, we say:
For the sake of his sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
This was the first prayer taught by the Angel to the children:
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope [in], and I love you, and I beg pardon for all those who do not believe or adore, do not hope[in] and do not love you.
The Divine Mercy prayer requests mercy for the entire world. The Fatima prayer asks for forgiveness for all offenses. This Fatima prayer should be recited on small beads.
The Divine Mercy Chaplet ends with a triple ejaculation said on the last three small beads:
Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and the whole world.
Mary taught the children this ejaculation: Most Holy Trinity, I adore you. My God, My God, I love you in the most Blessed Sacrament.
Repeated three times, this is the final Fatima prayer said on the last three beads.
The two Chaplets are not the same; they differ in notable ways beyond the shared themes I mentioned. I didn’t mean to imply they are the same; I only meant that using the Divine Mercy Chaplet as a model makes it reasonable to arrange the Fatima prayers in a similar manner.
Another similarity between the Divine Mercy Devotion and the Fatima Program is the significant role both assign to an image. The “Jesus, I trust in you” picture is comparable, in each context, to the “Last Vision of Fatima.” Both encourage meditation.
You have already noticed the differences between the two sets of chaplet prayers. Divine Mercy is Eucharistic and focuses on the Father and the Son, while the Fatima prayers are also Eucharistic but clearly Trinitarian. This Trinitarian focus reflects our core belief. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the “Trinity is the central mystery of our faith and life.” (234)
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