The first significant and explicit encounter happened in the spring of 1916. Again, the three children were in the fields taking care of the sheep, and as normally devout Catholic children in a small town in Portugal, they were dutifully saying their Rosary. They had decided though to develop a “shorthand” Rosary which consisted only of saying the first two words of each Hail Mary and Our Father, as they rushed through the Rosary in order to get back to their play and games.

Lucia recalls:

We had been told to say the Rosary after our lunch but as the whole day seemed too short for our play, we worked out a fine way of getting through it quickly. We simply passed the beads through our fingers saying nothing but “Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. . . .” At the end of each mystery, we paused awhile, then simply said, “Our Father” and so in a twinkling of an eye, as they say, we had our Rosary finished!

The angel approached as they were saying their abbreviated Rosary. Lucia described him as a shining, radiant figure, like crystal, appearing as a boy of fourteen or fifteen. He spoke to them and taught them a prayer and a way of praying that they practiced for the rest of their lives, as long as they were physically able.

He said to them: “Do not be afraid. I am the Angel of Peace, pray with me.”

And then, bowing down with his forehead toward the ground in a posture of profound adoration, he prayed and asked them to do likewise: “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.”

Lucia remembers, “He prayed thus three times” (I imagine for each person of the Trinity); “Pray thus. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to the voice of your supplication.”

Lucia describes how they were enveloped in an atmosphere of the supernatural for days and could scarcely converse with one another, so profound was the effect of this heavenly encounter on them. Mary had started them on the long journey of fervent love and sacrifice from their quickly said, greatly shortened Rosary to deep contemplative union with Heaven and heroic love and sacrifice so that souls could be saved.

The atmosphere of the supernatural which surrounded us was so intense that we hardly noticed our own existence for a long period of time. We stayed in the same position in which he had left us and repeated the prayer again and again. The presence of God was so intense and intimate to us that even between ourselves we could not say a word. On the next day we were still surrounded by the same atmosphere, and it only disappeared very gradually. Of this apparition none of us thought of speaking nor even of promising secrecy. Silence imposed itself upon us. It was all so intimate that it was not easy to say a single word on the subject. It made more of an impression on us, being the first clear manifestation.

They often spent long periods of time praying like this, repeating the prayer the angel taught them.

* * *

The sincere recitation of memorized prayers can lead to deep union, and this obviously happened with these children. This isn’t to say that there weren’t other very significant factors that led to their great holiness, factors which we will consider in due time.

Teresa of Avila, writing centuries earlier, makes a point of testifying that there were nuns in her convent who devoutly recited the Our Father and reached great depths of holiness and union with God without any special manifestations or any complicated theory of prayer or advancement in the spiritual life. Let’s not sell short the value of simple and devout recitation of memorized prayers in drawing us into deeper union with the Lord.

As faithful as the children were in frequently praying the prayer taught to them by the angel, there came a point in both Francisco’s and Jacinta’s lives when it became increasingly difficult.

Eventually Francisco said he couldn’t hold this position as long as the two girls could, and continued to say the prayer without his face to the ground. Jacinta, when dying, said she couldn’t put her face on the ground anymore, as she fell over, so she prayed kneeling. When the parish priest heard about this, he told her to pray only in bed, lying down. Lucia doesn’t comment on how aging may have affected her own ability to hold this posture. Perhaps it didn’t.

I must say that I was deeply moved by Lucia’s account of this first encounter with the angel and the very specific request the angel made as to how to pray. For many years now I have begun my early morning prayer time praying this prayer with my face toward the ground. I find it a very good way of recognizing the holiness and sovereignty of God and adopting the proper attitude of fear of the Lord and attentiveness to Him that is important for prayer and, indeed, necessarily characteristic of our overall relationship with Him.