Last week, we reflected upon the appearances of Mary at Fatima, Portugal. She appeared to the three young children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta each month from May until October of 1917. It was a sign and proof of Mary’s presence.

Her message to the world brought tens of thousands of people  — believers, doubters and even skeptics — to witness the miracle of the sun on Oct. 13 at the conclusion of those apparitions.

As we wrote last week, the message of Mary at Fatima was completely consistent with the revelations of the Gospels and the incarnation of Jesus in the world.

In short, her message did not tell us anything new, anything that in faith we did not already know. Rather, Mary’s message was in the form of a reminder.

Reading the “signs of the times,” Mary warned the world and the Church about the dangerous changes taking place in the modern world.

She foretold the coming suffering flowing from the nascent Russian experiment in the Communist ideology. Various similar forms of atheistic authoritarianism that have ignored both human dignity and the spiritual component of human existence have since risen and fallen in countries throughout the world.

We cannot ignore either that in the century since the apparitions at Fatima societies like our own, which have boasted of protecting freedom, have experienced their own failures.

At times the heavy emphasis on individual freedom has veered off into a search for personal and material pleasure as a manifestation of that freedom. The result of abortion, family breakdowns and an emphasis on financial profits instead of human dignity is sadly another characteristic of modern society.

In July of 1917, Mary famously gave to the three children a vision of hell. She told them that many sinners are going to hell, losing their way in this modern world. That was a further reminder that heaven and hell are real. Both exist.

All of us are given sufficient grace and opportunity to choose to be with God in heaven. But in this life, choose we must. That is the point of the test we go through in this life.

Mary’s reminder at Fatima was, in a way, a repetition of her words at the wedding feast of Cana. “Do whatever He tells you,” she said.

Behind those words is the understanding that the world and the life we are engaged in in this world, comes from God. We are not chance, we are not accidents. Rather, we are the product and result of God’s love and God’s will. But we are only what we were made to be if we return God’s love and fulfill His will.

As a result of their visions, moved by the words of Mary, the three young children of Fatima took on a particular emphasis in their lives. They became attentive and eager to do penance for their sins and the sins of others.

Penance is one of those elements in the life of faith that seem to have been greatly deemphasized in recent decades. But it is, in fact, vital for salvation.

St. Teresa of Avila wrote that every sin, even those which seem the smallest to us, must have reparation made for it before God’s love.

What is the penance that we do for our sins? Is it simply the brief prayers requested by the priest on the rare occasions when we go to confession? Do we fast in any fashion? Instead of sleeping in, do we offer the sacrifice of getting up, perhaps using the time to go to Mass on a weekday?

How about deliberate choices to live more simply and to give some of the money we’ve saved to the Church or to the poor? Do we offer as a joyful penance regular prayer together as a family?

Each of us should ask ourselves in an examination of conscience, “What do I do as a regular penance for my sins?” If the honest answer is, “Not much,” then we have work to do.

Mary’s reminder at Fatima called us to the joys of heaven. God gives us the help we need so the modern world will not overcome us. Still, we must reform and convert.

It is lives of prayer and real penance that dispose us to choose God, to choose the joys of heaven.