Most Holy Trinity, I adore You profoundly

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.

The prayer of the Angel who appeared to the children at Fatima is appropriate to the Feast of the Transfiguration, when the Church celebrates the glory of God made manifest to Peter, James and John on the mountain top.

The prayer reminds us of the doctrine of the Trinity, and it reminds us of the fundamental calling of the Christian to an attitude of adoration. It is also Eucharistic in character - as was the apparition of the Angel during which the prayer was revealed - and it calls us to pray for the conversion of sinners.

An interesting aspect of the apparitions of the Angel is the part played in them by the posture of prayer - kneeling, and more precisely, prostration with the forehead touching the ground as the children pray as taught by the Angel. One contemporay apostolate for Eucharistic Adoration with children encourages this posture in prayer - the Children of Hope apostolate of the Community of St John.

For the first year of preparation for the centenary of the apparitions, the shrine at Fatima invite pilgrims to follow a "way" that is based on the apparitions of the Angel. The notes to accompany the Pilgrim Itinerary include an account of the apparitions given by Sr Lucia and directions for prayer and meditation. During a visit to Fatima at the end of May, we were able to follow this "way" on one of the days.