The 13th Day

Before watching this film I classed my self as an agnostic, believe in something but not sure what.

In January 2014, a distant friend of mine from my past asked me if I had heard of the miracle of Fatima, to which I replied that I had not. He encouraged me to "Google" it, which I did. I was instantly surprised by what I found.

I am a person that does not believing something unless it can be verified and proved. I may have an open mind on something until proved or dis-proved. Faith and the bible fell in to that category, I neither believed or dis-believed as there was no proof, just lots written about things thousands of years ago.

The film, portraits very well the events leading up to Oct 13th 1917, coupled with actual photographs. Up to 100,000 witnesses saw the same thing. Believers and none believers reported the same things. People miles away from the event also reported seeing the same (so no mass hypnosis going on).

But it is not just the films story that converted me to a believer. I experienced some things very strange...

When I was recommended to watch the film I discovered that it was available to watch on Youtube. Whilst staying at my friends house I logged my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy Note I) on to my friends home internet connection as my mobile signal (Three UK) was too weak to do even the most basic things. When I went to bed late on Sunday evening I decided to watch the film. I logged on to Youtube, found the film and watched it without any buffering problems. Its one of those films that seams like it is just 30 mins. I was spellbound!

Immediately after watching the film I wanted to check some of the other video out that were no doubt about the same topic... however every time I tried to select the video my phone told me there was no internet connection, which was strange because I have just finished watching the film (The 13th Day) without a single problem! This made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! Also, at this very same time, I don't know why, but I checked for a small lump I had had for quite a long time... and guess what? It had vanished. I had it before I watched the film and now it was completely gone!. I went to check and realised that I in fact had NOT logged on to my friends internet router )I have made a mistake earlier)and only had my mobile internet... which I knew was not working well enough.

For me, all of these things have been a wake up call and I now look on the prophesies and the Bible in a different light.

I encourage you to watch the film and "Google" things... the evidence is there. Search "Miracle of Fatima" and select images.

The worrying thing about the film is that we are running out of time to do something about it. Save yourself and everyone else you can.

Steve - steve@spmarketing.info

I was greatly saddened that they omitted 'Jesus' from the Hail Mary they prayed in the prison scene. Also, I just read that the children stopped dancing and singing after the Apparition, but the film seemed to focus on the dancing and singing, which is unfortunate because for truly devout Catholics, we know that dancing and singing tend towards worldliness. The black and white and eerie messaging seemed be the focus, rather than the Apparition itself. I think aspects of the messaging were very accurate like the persecution the children experienced, but it did not express the depth of the simplicity of the message and the religiosity. I think the children didn't demonstrate how deep their conversion really was.

The Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit, if many churches are correct. If many churches are correct, The Trinity is a Family-- two Parents and a Progeny, just like a human family. (Humans are made in the "image" and "likeness" of God according to Genesis 1:26) In the Book of Job which is part of the bible,the Lord is compared to a father and also a mother with a womb. "From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens"--Job 38:29. Because God can also be thought of like a mother (Isaiah 42:14,Isaiah 66:13,Matthew 23:37), all three roles (father,mother,progeny) in a basic human family are filled in the Trinity. Saying that the "Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit" is simply another way of saying that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son" which has been official Catholic Church teaching for centuries. According to the Catholic Church, the Son is begotten from the Father. If this is true, the Father is the Father (Parent) of the Son. According to the Church, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.If this is true, the Father and the Son are the Parents of the Holy Spirit. According to the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" paragraph 264, "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and...from the communion of both the Father and the Son" Of course, the scriptures are vague if the Holy Spirit is the 3rd or 2nd Person of the Trinity--whichever of these is true,the First Person and the Second Person may be the Parents of the Third.

No human has literally seen God. (Exodus 33:20; John 1:18; 1 John 4:12) The Bible says that "God is a Spirit," a form of life that is invisible to the human eye. God can be seen directly by angels, though, because they are spirit creatures. (Matthew 18:10) Moreover, some humans who die will be raised to life in heaven with a spirit body and will then be able to see God.-Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 John 3:2. How to "see" God now. The Bible often uses the idea of seeing figuratively, to represent enlightenment. (Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 5:21; John 9:39-41) In this sense, a person can see God now with "the eyes of (his) heart" by having faith so as to know Him and appreciate His qualities. (Ephesians 1:18) The Bible describes steps to build this kind of faith. Learn about God's qualities, such as his love and generosity as well as his wisdom and power, through his creation. (Romans 1:20) After being reminded of God's creative works, the faithful man Job felt as though God were right before his eyes.-Job 42:5. Get to know God by studying the Bible. "If you search for (God), he will let himself be found by you," the Bible assures us.-1 Chronicles 28:9; Psalm 119:2; John 17:3. Learn about God through the life of Jesus. Since Jesus perfectly reflected the personality of his Father, Jehovah God, he could rightly say: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also."-John 14:9. Live in a way that pleases God, and see how he acts in your behalf. Jesus said: "Happy are the pure in heart, since they will see God." As noted earlier, some who please God will be resurrected to heaven and will thus "see God" there.-Matthew 5:8; Psalm 11:7. Did not Moses, Abraham, and others actually see God? In accounts where it might seem that the Bible says that humans literally saw God, the context shows that God was represented by an angel or appeared by means of a vision. Angels. In ancient times, God sent angels as his representatives to appear to humans and to speak in his name. (Psalm 103:20) For example, God once spoke to Moses from a burning bush, and the Bible says that "Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at the true God." (Exodus 3:4, 6) Moses did not literally see God, though, for the context shows that he actually saw "Jehovah's angel."-Exodus 3:2. Similarly, when the Bible says that God "spoke to Moses face-to-face," it means that God conversed with Moses intimately. (Exodus 4:10, 11; 33:11) Moses did not actually see God's face, for the information he received from God "was transmitted through angels." (Galatians 3:19; Acts 7:53) Still, Moses' faith in God was so strong that the Bible described him as "seeing the One who is invisible."-Hebrews 11:27. In the same way that he spoke to Moses, God communicated with Abraham through angels. Granted, a casual reading of the Bible might give the impression that Abraham literally saw God. (Genesis 18:1, 33) However, the context shows that the "three men" who came to Abraham were actually angels sent by God. Abraham recognized them as God's representatives and addressed them as if he were speaking directly to Jehovah.-Genesis 18:2, 3, 22, 32; 19:1. Visions. God has also appeared to humans through visions, or scenes presented to a person's mind. For instance, when the Bible says that Moses and other Israelites "saw the God of Israel," they really "saw a vision of the true God." (Exodus 24:9-11) Likewise, the Bible sometimes says that prophets "saw Jehovah." (Isaiah 6:1; Daniel 7:9; Amos 9:1) In each case, the context shows that they were given a vision of God rather than a direct view of him.-Isaiah 1:1; Daniel 7:2; Amos 1:1. And so on... Conclusion: it's all about faith and visions people have. Me, Rodrig Andrisan, I really admire people with real faith. I admire even more those who prefer to die rather than give up their faith, although this is a proof of incapacitation, they may not be right. About the film now: it's well done, the music is beautiful, the children are beautiful. I hope that the real ones in 1917, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto have really seen something, at least a sun eclipse, repeated 6 times in a row, for 6 months, each time on the 13th. The film is just an order of the Catholic Church. People, billions, are weak and very ignorant, they need faith, unfortunately, blind faith. And Catholics do what they can to keep them in faith. Like everyone else, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. and so on and so on...

The problem with most religious films is that the filmmakers have a habit of equating religion with piety and piety with gross sentimentality. There is also usually a surfeit of kind priests and nice nuns being kind and nice to beatific children or else they will be about Jesus, saints and miracles and the inexplicable. Perhaps the most famous religious movie about sainthood is "The Song of Bernadette" with an unlikely Jennifer Jones as Saint Bernadette. That turned out to be so much better than it might have been, not free from piety but very well written, directed and acted.

Of course Lourdes, where many Christians, or at least Catholics, believe the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, is probably the most famous place of pilgrimage in Christianity outside of Israel. Fatima, where a similar apparition is said to have happened in 1917, is less well known. The movie "The Miracle of Fatima" was a decent enough attempt to deal with those events and now we have "The 13th Day", a kind of amateur docu-drama about what happened at Fatima. Co-directed by Dominic and Ian Higgins it comes across as something commissioned by the Catholic Church purely for Catholics, (it certainly won't win any converts), and is acted by a cast of non-professionals.

The amazing thing is it, too, is nowhere near as bad as it could have been though it's certainly no "Song of Bernadette". Stylistically it's closer to Rossellini's "The Flowers of St. Francis" but without the rigor or the beauty that Rossellini brought to his subject and what passes for acting certainly lets it down. Non-believers will either avoid the film like the plague or will see it as nothing more than Catholic propaganda while believers might find it closer to a demonic horror movie than a tale of future saints. Shot mostly in monochrome with colour inserts it's well enough made but unlikely to appeal to all but the very few.