The Fatima Prayer is not an official part of the Holy Rosary, yet it is often prayed at the end of each decade. Revealed by Our Lady to the three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917, the prayer is sometimes surrounded by controversy because of its origins. But whatever one makes of the visions, the prayer itself remains simple, profound, and powerful.

Our Lady instructed the children to add this prayer to their Rosary after showing them a vision of hell. It was not primarily a plea for their own salvation, but for the salvation of those most forgotten by the prayers of the living. The text of the prayer holds together a personal confession and a universal intercession:

“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.”

At its heart, the Fatima Prayer reminds us that all prayer is rooted in repentance. Even praise and thanksgiving flow from the recognition that the graces we receive are not deserved by our own merit but given through God’s mercy. It echoes the truth of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

It also recalls Christ’s own words in the Lord’s Prayer: “…and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). The common thread is both personal and universal: the intimacy of “O my Jesus” alongside the breadth of “save us from the fires of hell.” We are never isolated in our prayer — we are connected to the whole Church.

The closing petition — “Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy” — challenges us to see ourselves in that plea. We are all in need of God’s mercy. But it also reminds us to pray for those forgotten by others, those who have no one left to intercede for them. At Fatima, the shepherd children were asked to pray for souls in anguish for whom no one prays. That reminder is both sobering and hope-filled: our prayers matter.

In this way, the Fatima Prayer aligns with the penitential prayer at Mass: “…and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.” Our faith is never private. We rely on the prayers of one another, of the saints, of the whole Church across time and space. And we are called to remember in prayer those who cannot, or will not, pray for themselves.

Pause. Pray. Pass it on.