While I squander time finding the next-most earliest apparition of Our Lady, (and not post as a result, sorry) this is still very important for us to do.

Our Lady at Fatima gave us specific instructions. She further gave Sister Lucy after that more details and more things we are to do. I think "she told us to" is really all the reason needed but I also think, and this thought I guess comes first, that anyone looking at Fatima seriously can not deny something supernatural was occurring there and that the Blessed Mary Mother Of God did appear to those kids and did tell them specific things. They thought Russia was a sick kid is some neighboring village when she told them we have to pray for Russia and all that.

There's a bible story about a king who had some kind of sickness. He was told to -- I dont' know lie down on the ground somewhere, or take a bath in some specific place, something like that-- do something very easy to do. He balked at the idea. His advisor asked him if the instruction was complicated and seemed like a cure, would he do it? The king said yes. So the advisor said, well King maybe do this easy thing and just accept the gift. In Jesus' life, the miracles he performed involved some sort of, usually very small, ritual almost always. So making a gesture is not out of the ordinary.

Here, Our Lady gave us relatively simple tasks and the promise she made for this are big. She always gives more than she asks even if she seems to ask a lot (really though? Some prayers? confess sins ie be humble and own up to our own failings as people? Make peace with those around us before asking for some supernatural imposition of peace? Acknowledge that we're all in this together and we are our brother's keepers?If that's too much, we're screwed.)

Don't believe? OK. Maybe you don't. I ask you to try it anyway. This Saturday, take the time to say some Hail Marys and meditate on some Mysteries of the Rosary. But, consider it real and a mystery that is beyond our understanding if that makes it easier (as that is what it is anyway).

Just consider that a young woman in occupied Palestine heard an angel (Gabriel) deliver to her a message from God. Consider that she said, after suspicion and incredulity, "behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to thy word" or something along those lines and that "she conceived by the Holy Spirit". That she conceived a baby (Jesus) but also that she conceived in her mind the commitment she was making. There was a bigger plan at work and she had a role in it. She thought it through as best she could probably, anyone would. You see how this is applicable to us, right?

Say some Hail Marys (ten please, but really I'll take a few but it's not me your saying this to so consider that) if you are not really into this and just trying it because I'm asking (THANKS, btw!), and think about what it meant for her to hear an Angel and to accept a role in this.

Move on to the next mystery you'll consider while saying some Hail Marys: maybe (hopefully) her visitation to her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. (It's called the Visitation, the last one was called the Annunciation). She's pregnant, right? It was common for pregnant women to help each other. How else would one learn and who else knew about the birth process? So, think about this a bit. She sought allies or mentors and she helped out someone who was pregnant while she was going to need such help when she was ready to give birth. It's just very reasonable so far.

Next, she gives birth. The conception, God's plan, comes to fruition or at least the next step does. The fruit of her womb is born, Jesus. But this is just the beginning of it all. Say your Hail Marys over this mystery that seems just as real and every day as any other birth. If you have kids, then you know how much this is barely a beginning.

You can find how to pray the Rosary many places on line, you can find videos to do it along with but I don't recommend them (they either take to long you can' t really mediate with them without a ton of practice and finding the right ones) and I don't thinks she's asking anyone to do that if they do not know the mysteries to mediate on. She has said (I forget which apparition) that one good decade (ten Hail Marys) and good meditating is better than just saying the words without mediating. I sometimes find it hard to meditate while saying it, not always though. Often time is the problem. When it is not, but I find meditating hard while saying it, I mediate a bit before and after the 10 Hail Marys. There are ways to read and say bible passages that spell out the mysteries before each Hail Mary, but I think if you don't really do this then just meditating on them earnestly at face value is a good start.

If you are doing this because I asked, and not really up on all this Catholicism stuff, then THANK YOU! If you don't get a mystery, pick another and mediate on that. She asked for 5 decades to be prayed and meditated on. Technically she might not have asked for all the prayers before and after, but I don't know that for sure. So, if you're new to this and just trying it please consider up to 5 mysteries while saying some Hail Marys. Not more. I won't ask you that. But consider them and consider her real when you do this. 15 minutes on some of the mysteries, 5 if you can. 10 Hail Marys on them, or at least some of them, if you can. A couple on the others of the 5 if you can.

Ask her to help you understand. If you do this Saturday, thank you. If you mean it, then thank you thank you. Take a minute or two Sunday to reflect on that, because if you did ask her to help you understand you have to make yourself available to her to understand.

If you give her this time, and really do it and really mean it, and drop your ego and noise that might be going on in your mind or around you (this is not hard but there is some things that are just conducive to meditating and listening and praying and a lot of things that are not). Altered states are not helpful for this, not drug induced, not cranking up Sabbath or P-Funk, not anything other than natural calming meditative quite. Just, the same way you'd give your attention fully to someone else in life, give her that in the prayer on Saturday and if you want her to help you understand then a couple of minutes a day morning or night (or both really) to be open to her to answer you some how. She might answer that way. She might put something in your life or come across in a more social way or some other way. Discern cautiously, as she did when she questioned Gabriel, but don't look gift horses in the mouth either. If you did this right, with the right state of mind, humble, open, and not prideful or anything like that, I know she'll answer quietly. It is the supernatural we're talking about. The life everlasting is an afterlife, and while here in this life it is not sex drugs and rock and roll that is offered, think Thomas Merton not Taylor Hawkins.

If you struggle in life, try this. if the world seems a mess (well, it is), try this. It's simple really compared to our struggles or the mess of the world. So, why not try it?