The Angel of Fatima

The Angel of Fatima

The Six Kowtows themselves did not come from the Fatima apparitions, but there is a very strong connection between Fatima and The Six Kowtows revealed by heaven through Lucia Phan almost 100 years later. The connection centers on the 1916 apparitions of the “Angel of Peace” to the little saints, Jacinta and Francisco, and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos (hereafter referred to as simply “Lucia”), who herself is now a “Servant of God” in the canonization process. It is no coincidence that these two messengers have the same name…

Most do not know that there were apparitions that are part of the Fatima message that occurred before and after those of Our Lady in 1917. We will discuss here those that occurred before the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and how they are directly related to The Six Kowtows.

These earlier apparitions were, in part, psychological preparation for the three young seers. These apparitions progressively move toward the ultimate apparitions of Our Lady. But they were much more than mere preparation. They really are in inseparable part of the Fatima private revelation.

In 1914 or 1915 in Fatima, there were three low-key, mysterious apparitions to Lucia and other girls who were shepherding with her. She said, “[…] before our eyes, we saw a figure poised in the air above the trees; it looked like a statue made of snow, rendered almost transparent by the rays of the sun.” She also said, “It looked like a person wrapped up in a sheet! You couldn’t make out any eyes, or hands, on it.” Elsewhere she describes it as “something like a white cloud in the shape of a human being, which had come down from the sky and was passing slowly in front of us, above the trees that stretched down to the valley at our feet, as if wishing to attract our attention and keep our eyes fixed on it.” She stated, “I do not know what it was nor what it meant. But I was left with an interior conviction which I do not want to conceal, and which tells me that it was the Guardian Angel [of Portugal]. Perhaps in that form and without speaking, he wished to make his presence felt and so prepare souls for the accomplishment of God’s designs.” In Lucia’s words in the next paragraph, we see that these apparitions were of the same Angel who would appear more clearly in a year or so…

In the spring of 1916, Lucia (9-years-old) was shepherding with Francisco (8) and Jacinta (6); they were surprised by the visit of an Angel. Lucia recounts:

Then we saw coming towards us, above the olive trees, the figure I have already spoken about. Jacinta and Francisco had never seen it before, nor had I ever mentioned it to them. As it drew closer, we were able to distinguish its features. It was a young man, about fourteen or fifteen years old, whiter than snow, transparent as crystal when the sun shines through it, and of great beauty. On reaching us, he said, “Do not be afraid! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” Kneeling on the ground, he bowed down until his forehead touched the ground, and made us repeat these words three times: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.” Then, rising, he said: “Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplications.” His words engraved themselves so deeply on our minds that we could never forget them. From then on, we used to spend long periods of time, prostrate like the Angel, repeating his words, until sometimes we fell, exhausted. [Emphasis added, as below]

After the Angel called them to generously pray and do penance in his second apparition that summer, Lucia related, “It was for this reason that we began, from then on, to offer to the Lord all that mortified us, without, however, seeking out other forms of mortification and penance, except that we remained for hours on end with our foreheads touching the ground, repeating the prayer the Angel had taught us.” Regarding Portugal, he says in the second apparition: “I am its Guardian Angel, the Angel of Portugal.” Before the third and final apparition of the Angel that fall, Lucia wrote,

As soon as we arrived there [a hill where they were shepherding], we knelt down, with our foreheads touching the ground, and began to repeat the prayer of the Angel: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You…” I don’t know how many times we had repeated this prayer, when an extraordinary light shone upon us. We sprang up to see what was happening, and beheld the Angel. He was holding a chalice in his left hand, with the Host suspended above it, from which some drops of blood fell into the chalice. Leaving the chalice suspended in the air, the Angel knelt down beside us and made us repeat three times: “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 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 indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.” Then, rising, he took the chalice and the Host in his hands.

As he gave them Holy Communion he said, “‘Take and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, horribly outraged by ungrateful men! Make reparation for their crimes and console your God.’ Once again, he prostrated on the ground and repeated with us, three times more, the same prayer ‘Most Holy Trinity…’ and then disappeared. We remained a long time in this position, repeating the same words over and over again. When at last we stood up, we noticed that it was already dark, and therefore time to return home.”

Because of their ages, he was giving First Holy Communion to Jacinta and Francisco! Who could ever say God is a Pharisee?

The Angel kowtowed and taught the children to pray to God in the kowtow position … and to kowtow before the Eucharist especially. As Lucia recounted, “Impelled by the power of the supernatural that enveloped us, we imitated all that the Angel had done, prostrating ourselves on the ground as he did and repeating the prayers that he said. The force of the presence of God was so intense that it absorbed us and almost annihilated us.” For the children there was no distinction between saying the prayers and kowtowing: it was all one message that the Angel gave. They continued to kowtow in this way the rest of their lives. This is obvious in the following incident. Before Lucia – now a religious sister – received her final apparition (of the Eucharist, the Trinity, and Blessed Mother) on June 13, 1929, in her convent’s chapel, she was kowtowing before the tabernacle while praying the Angel’s prayers.

The fact that she was saying the revealed prayers and kowtowing is significant. At Fatima the Angel taught the three children to kowtow; they did, but the people have not followed since then. This is human nature. People may pray but they will definitely not prostrate in prayer. This is one reason why God revealed The Six Kowtows through Lucia Phan in 2014; this aspect of the Fatima message was not complied with. To be sure, it was not malicious, but we did not, like the children, follow when the Angel said to “Pray thus.” He did not say to merely recite the prayers but to imitate his way of prayer, which was prayer with bodily prostration. This is exactly what is done in The Six Kowtows. So The Six Kowtows is not the first time the kowtow has been revealed in private revelation.

The prayers the Angel revealed are, likewise, related to the revelations through Lucia Phan. Both of the prayers he revealed are Eucharistic prayers, and devotion to the Eucharist is one of the main messages given through Lucia Phan. Four out of the five prayers revealed at Fatima are even incorporated into the Rosary of The Six Kowtows, as inspired by God. The Eucharist is a main thrust of the Angel’s apparitions, and this intense Eucharistic piety is carried over in the locutions given to Lucia Phan that started in 2011.

The Eucharist is “the bread of the angels” (Psalm 78:25). They worship the Eucharist night and day. But we have an advantage over the Angels in that we can receive the Eucharistic Jesus into our very bodies. Being pure spirits, Angels cannot be united with God in this way. We are very fortunate to consume and see Jesus in the Eucharist. The centrality of the Eucharist, though, has been seriously downplayed in recent decades. If Eucharistic devotion had to be promoted by the Angel at Fatima then, how much more so must it be encouraged today, when a large number of Catholics do not even believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and so receive Him unworthily.

Thus, the new messages focusing on The Six Kowtows and Eucharistic devotion are summed up in the Angel and the visionaries kowtowing before the Eucharist. The ideal way to practice The Six Kowtows is before the Eucharist. (The third focus of the messages to Lucia Phan is end times prophecy, which is not a subject of the Angel of Fatima, but even the end times element is clearly covered in the three-part secret revealed by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917.) It would be too simplistic to say that Lucia Phan is just an extension or updating of the Fatima message, but it is not far off the mark.

While bodily prostration has been practiced since the Old Testament and is practiced in other religions and in Eastern Christianity, kowtowing is a specific type of prostration and it is new to the Catholic world. One can say it was introduced to the Church at Fatima in 1916 by the Angel. Catholics proved themselves resistant to it since then for various reasons. Now, however, as we are deep into the end times, God felt it necessary to re-introduce this practice by revealing The Six Kowtows. Man is lost and must come back to God. And man must humble himself before God with the realities we cannot control at this point. God has made this significantly easier through The Six Kowtows, which Blessed Mother obtained from God for these reasons. Also, if one considers himself or herself to be an adherent of the Fatima message, kowtowing has to be part of that, for it was revealed by none other than the Angel of Fatima who said to “Pray thus” with soul and body. Please help us, dear Angel, to be faithful to this new practice that will lead us back to God, or help us in ongoing, daily conversion if we are already with God.