CMI organises inaugural movie forum to prepare for Fatima centenary celebration

BUKIT PADANG – The Church of Mary Immaculate here organised an inaugural movie forum on 10 May 2017 to prepare for the Fatima centenary celebration on May 13.

The event, held at the conference room, drew over 50 people.

The movie, The 13th Day, was the first major motion picture by directors Ian and Dominic Higgins.

Based on the memoirs of Sister Maria Lucia de Jesus dos Santos, and thousands of independent eyewitness accounts, The 13th Day is a dramatic retelling of the experiences of three shepherd children between May and October 1917.

The movie opens with Sister Lucia recalling the events that transpired between 13 May 1917 and 13 Oct 1917 in the Cova da Iria (Cove of Irene) region of Fatima, Portugal.  The date is 1937 and Sister Lucia, at the convent of Ponteverde, has been asked by her superiors to write down the events that she said “changed her life forever.”

Sister Lucia places the events in time, during a period of great turmoil – the First World War in Europe and the communist revolution in Russia.

Although primarily black and white, filmmakers Ian and Dominic Higgins creatively utilise colour in the film during those moments when the supernatural is breaking through to the natural world.

The first apparition took place on May 13, when Our Lady asked the children to pray the Rosary daily, and asked them to return to the same place, at the same time, on the 13th of every month for five months …

Abducted from their homes, thrown into prison and interrogated under the threat of death in the government’s attempt to silence them, Lucia and her younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto remained true to their story.

As part of the centenary celebration on May 13, there will be a Marian procession from the grotto to the church (weather permitting) at 5:30 pm before Mass.  This will be followed by the crowning of the statue in the church.  Before the procession, there will be the recitation of the Rosary at 4:45 pm followed by the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

On the same day, Pope Francis will canonise Bl Francisco and Jacinta Marto at Fatima, Portugal.