Considering Lourdes and the Miraculous Medal in addition to Fatima show the unity of  these apparitions, a unity until now not sufficiently explained.

    According to Abbe Richard, Mary has a life in heaven, a sequence of living actions, just  as she had while on earth. In the mysterious providence of God these apparitions are incidents  of her heavenly life which break visibly through to earth.

    We know that she is mother of her children by spiritual actions within their souls, the  graces she obtains for us, the inspirations she gives. In the apparitions she does something of a more spectacular nature, gives us more extraordinary help.

    The most apt way we can consider her is to realize that she is always a mother: she is  Mother of the Church at Guadalupe, Mother of the Church at Rue du Bac in Paris, Mother of  the Church at Lourdes,, Mother of the Church at Fatima.

    Father Messias Coelho deepened the understanding of Mary's Motherhood by indicating  that she gave a continuing message which became clearer with each new apparition. He said  they were all contained prophetically in that of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Laboure in the convent of the Daughters of Charity on Rue du Bac in Paris. Lourdes and Fatima clarify Our Lady's intentions. They were contained even earlier in the apparition of Guadalupe, here  in America. To understand Father Messias' conclusions we must recall the story.

    On the night of July 18, 1830, St. Catherine Laboure, a novice of the Daughters of Charity, was awakened from her sleep by a little child of extraordinary beauty and radiance whom Catherine recognized to be her guardian angel. He led her to the chapel sanctuary. After a few minutes Catherine saw a Lady descend the altar steps and proceed to seat herself in the Director's chair in the sanctuary. Catherine threw herself at the Lady's knees, conversed with her. The Lady told her that God wished to entrust her with a mission. The vision predicted the troubles which would come to France both in the near and distant future, but she gave words of confidence to Catherine. She gave the remedy "Come to the foot of the altar . . . There graces
will be shed upon all, great and little, who ask for them. Graces will especially be shed upon those who ask for them."

    It was a November 27 of the same year that the Medal itself was given. In the same sanctuary Our Lady reappeared, a dazzling vision of light in which she held a globe in her hands which she told St. Catherine "represented the whole world, France especially, each person in particular". On each finger there were three rings studded with gems, from the gems came rays which "symbolize the graces I give to those who ask for them. The gems from which rays do not fall are the  graces for which souls forget to ask". At this point the golden ball vanished from Mary's hands, her arms swept wide in a gesture of motherly compassion, from her jeweled fingers the rays of light streamed upon the white globe at her feet. On the globe was a serpent crushed beneath Our Lady's feet. An oval frame formed around the Blessed Virgin, and within it in letters of gold Catherine read the words: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The voice spoke again: "Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces: they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence." The tableau revolved, and Catherine beheld the reverse of the medal she was to have made. It contained a large M surmounted by a cross. Beneath the M were the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword. Twelve stars encircled the whole. The vision then disappeared. Later at the request of her confessor, who was charged with having the medal struck, Catherine asked the Virgin in prayer if there should be words on the back to balance those on the front, and she received the verbatim reply: "The M and two hearts express enough".

    The medal was propagated quickly. So many were the supernatural intervention of God through Our Lady's Medal, technically named the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, that  the people called it the Miraculous Medal; this name has remained to this day and has been  sanctified by a liturgical feast granted in its honor in 1895. Two canonical inquiries have
investigated and approved the supernatural character of the Medal. One took place in 1836  under the Archbishop of Paris, and the other was conducted in 1842 in Rome itself when the  miraculous conversion through the Medal of the Jewish banker Alphonse Ratisbonne, so like  the scriptural conversion of Paul, was certified. Again we have a charism subjected to the
proper Church authority and accepted as worthy of credence.

    But Mary in exercising her Motherhood at Paris had a long range plan. Father Messias  indicated that the Miraculous Medal was prophetic of the future visitations of Our Lady, but  especially of Lourdes and Fatima. To understand his thought we must realize that the Medal  is above all a symbol, symbolic in all its details. Our Lady has so implied: "the rays (from
the rings) symbolize the graces I give to those who ask for them". And to Catherine's  question concerning words to be put on the back of the medal Mary replied: "The M and two  hearts express enough". In other words, we are to meditate on the medal and determine its  meaning.

    Let us therefore try to understand the symbolism of the Medal, and see its unity with the  message of Lourdes and Fatima. Since Lourdes is so well known and its miracles so well  authenticated it does not seem necessary here to repeat in detail the history of this visit in  1858 of Our Lady to St. Bernadette. The revelant point is that the doctrine implicit in the  symbolism of the Medal became explicit at Lourdes and Fatima.

     The Miraculous Medal proclaims the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception: the prayers  "O Mary, conceived without sin" . . . on the face of the medal is clear; as also the Immaculate  Heart of Mary, pierced with the traditional sword, on the reverse. At Lourdes Mary identified  herself: "I am the Immaculate Conception". At Fatima she asked for devotion to her Immaculate  Heart, consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart in order that there be peace in the world.

    On the Medal Mary is symbolically crushing the head of Satan, the serpent of Genesis  III:15. At Lourdes she inspires Bernadette to preach penance and prayer - the tools to defeat  Satan; and during the February 19th apparitions at Lourdes, Bernadette heard demonic voices  shouting, "Begone, Begone," to Bernadette and the Lady. The Blessed Virgin quelled them with  a single glance of sovereign power. At Fatima Mary gives the children a vision of hell, the  devil's kingdom where "sinners go" and says that to save them "God wishes to establish in the  world devotion to my Immaculate Heart".

   At Lourdes Mary taught Bernadette how to say the Rosary, and only when saying the Rosary  did Bernadette see her. At Fatima the children were always saying the Rosary during the  visions, and Mary told them and the world to say the Rosary every day if we wish God's  blessings. How does the Miraculous Medal include the Rosary? The medal is entirely  symbolic; what then is the symbolism of the three rings on each of Mary's fingers, fifteen in  all? Father Messias indicated that the rings are the fifteen decades of the Rosary. When the  Medal was given Rosary rings were a common way of saying this prayer, rings with ten stones  for the Hail Mary's, a larger one for the Our Father. About 1850 the Church removed all  indulgences from ring Rosaries, and Our Lady used the chain Rosary at Lourdes and Fatima.  This is an adequate explanation for the symbolism of the rings; and it fits the fifteen rings from  which the rays which symbolized graces came. When Mary explained to Catherine that some  stones on the rings shed no rays, she said that they are symbolic of the prayers not said; they  would especially be symbolic of Rosaries not said (her favorite prayer, as Lourdes and Fatima  indicate).

    The M and bar surmounted by the cross on the reverse of the medal symbolize that Jesus  and Mary are approached together, that devotion to Mary leads to devotion to Jesus. They  symbolize also the penance to which Our Lady calls us. At Lourdes and at Fatima the Mother  asked that Chapels - of her Son - be built, that processions be held, that penance be done.
Mary leads people to the foot of the cross and to Jesus in the sacrifice of the cross, the Mass.

    There is a Eucharistic theme through all three sets of apparitions. At Rue du Bac Catherine  always saw Mary in the sanctuary of the Chapel, she was told to "come to the foot of the Altar."  There "graces will be shed upon all, great and little, who ask for them". At Lourdes she  ordered "you will tell the Prieststo have a chapel built here". During both the September and  October visitations Our Lady asked that a chapel be built at Fatima. During the preliminary  vision of the angel of Peace at Fatima in 1916, the angel held in his hand a Chalice surmounted  by a Host, from which drops of Blood flowed into the Chalice, and he gave the children  Communion.

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