The Rosary is necessary! Heaven itself requests it! In all the apparitions at Fatima, Mary asked for the Rosary to be prayed daily; in her last apparition – on October 13th, 1917 – she introduced herself as the Queen of the Holy Rosary.

Sister Lucy, one of the three children to receive the apparitions, later told Father Fuentes: “Mary told my cousins and I that she would give to the world the last means of salvation: the Rosary and the veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And because these are the last means of salvation, there will be no others. God is offering us the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. If we reject this last means of salvation, we will no longer be pardoned by heaven. You see, Father, Our Lady has given the Rosary new powers in these times in which we live. So, there is no problem, be it material or especially spiritual, (…) however difficult it may be, which we cannot solve by praying the Rosary. By means of the Rosary we shall be saved, we shall be sanctified, we shall console Our Lord and save many souls.”

These statements seem bold, but they are not. God chooses to use nondescript and humble means to achieve great things: “… and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong.” (1 Cor 1:27)

Let us allow Sister Lucy to describe the value of the Rosary in more detail:

1) The Rosary is the best protection against error

“One should pray the Rosary every day! Our Lady repeated this in all the apparitions, as if to prepare us for these times of diabolic confusion, so that we will not be deceived by false teachings. (…) Diabolic confusion is descending upon the world and deceiving souls. It is necessary to defy it.”

2) The Rosary preserves and nourishes faith

“This prayer re-enkindles the fire of faith, which in many souls is not yet fully extinguished. This even happens to those who do not pray the Rosary meditatively. Simply grasping the Rosary beads is a reminder of God, of the supernatural. The simple reminder of the mystery of each decade is more than a ray of light which keeps the glowing wick in souls alive.”

3) The Rosary unites souls to God

“After the holy liturgy of Mass, the Rosary is the prayer which unites us most strongly with God and is the best means for us to gain insight into the mystery of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Eucharist. (…) The Rosary is the prayer of the rich and the poor, of the learned and unlearned. Whoever leads souls away from this devotion, deprives them of their daily spiritual bread.”

The three seers:
Jacinta, Lucia and Francisco

Sister Lucia