The Fourth Apparition: September 13, 1917

At least 30,000 people gathered at the Cova on this date.

When the apparition concluded, Lucia called to the crowd, "If you wish to see her --- look! Look!"

Many who were there saw a golden globe of light carry the Blessed Virgin to and from the site above the holm oak.

"Continue to say the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, to obtain the peace of the world and the end of the war, because only she can obtain it." - July 1917 request.

At every apparition Our Lady asked for the daily recitation of the Rosary, this day in September 1917 was no different:

"Continue the Rosary, my children. Say it every day that the war may end." - September 1917

Lucia also asked Our Lady about those who were asking for cures.

"And the conversions that some have asked to have brought about? The cures of the sick ones?"

Our Lady responded: "Some I will cure, and some I will not. In October I will perform a miracle so that all may believe."

Our Lady understands her children.  Her call is to conversion and for us to believe.  In some cases, a healing could be deleterious to ones faith and devotion.  Consider her response to Lucia's request in July:

Thus assured, Lucia began to place before the Lady the petitions for help that so many had entrusted to her. The Lady said gently that she would cure some, but others she would not cure.  "And the crippled son of Maria da Capelinha?"

Our Lady responded: "No, neither of his infirmity nor of his poverty would he be cured, and he must be certain to say the Rosary with his family every day."

We may wonder why Our Lady refused to cure some?  (To be sure she would aid in their conversion, as she promised to those who faithfully recite her rosary.)  In fact, sometimes, even after many years of prayer, some people are not healed of their disabilities.  I think the reason Maria da Capelina's son wasn't cured, was because the infirmity, the poverty, was the thing which would keep him from falling away from the faith, provided he continued to pray the rosary every day - which in turn ensured for him Our Lady's protection and intercession for his salvation.

Today we think we must be healed or something is lacking - we must have a profitable, secure life, without poverty - we think we need success and esteem, to be fashionable and admired.  We see being crippled as unsuitable, being poor as some sort of failure.  Yet it was to these Our Lord came, sending out messengers to invite the lame and the blind, the crippled, the poor.

If we can't do anything - we can pray the rosary every day.  Our Lady knows us better than we know ourselves.  It may not be necessary for us to be healed or delivered from our poverty ... lest we begin to imagine we have no need for God, or Our Lady, or anyone else, and we lose faith and stop praying.

 
Understanding and accepting our limitations makes it more difficult for us to look down on others.