Today is First Saturday.
FREE First Saturday Devotion Holy Card here:https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Freebies/e0159freebie.html
The Five First Saturdays devotion is one of the principal points of the Fatima
message. It centers on the urgent need for mankind to offer reparation and
expiate for the many injuries that the Immaculate Heart of Mary suffers from
the hands of both impious and indifferent men. History During the third
apparition on July 13, 1917, Our Lady revealed that she would come to ask for
the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and for the Communion of
Reparation of the Five First Saturdays. Consequently, she asked for the
devotion in 1925 and the consecration in 1929. While staying at the House of the
Dorothean Sister in Pontevedra, Portugal, Sister Lucia received a vision on
December 10, 1925 where the Blessed Mother appeared alongside a Boy who stood
over a luminous cloud. Our Lady rested one hand on the Boy’s shoulder while she
held on the other hand a heart pierced with thorns around it. Sister Lucia
heard the Boy say, "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother which
is covered with thorns with which ingrate men pierce it at every moment with no
one to make an act of reparation to pull them out." Our Lady expressed her
request in the following words, "See, my daughter, My Heart surrounded
with thorns with which ingrates pierce me at every moment with blasphemies and
ingratitude. You, at least, make sure to console me and announce that all those
who for five months, on the first Saturdays, go to confession, receive
Communion, say five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for 15 minutes
meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the purpose of making
reparation to Me, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the
graces necessary for the salvation of their souls." A few days afterward,
Sister Lucia detailed this vision in a letter addressed to Monsignor Manuel
Pereira Lopes, her confessor when she resided in the Asylum of Vilar in the
city of Oporto, Portugal.
Why Five Saturdays? Sister Lucia’s confessor
questioned her about the reason for the five Saturdays asking why not seven or
nine. She answered him in a letter dated June 12, 1930. In it she related about
a vision she had of Our Lord while staying in the convent chapel part of the
night of the twenty-ninth to the thirtieth of the month of May, 1930. The
reasons Our Lord gave were as follows: The five first Saturdays correspond to
the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate
Heart of Mary. They are: a. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception b.
Blasphemies against her virginity c. Blasphemies against her divine maternity,
at the same time the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all men d.
Instilling , indifference, scorn and even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother
in the hearts of children e. Direct insults against Her sacred images Let us
keep the above reasons firmly in our minds. Devotions have intentions attached
to them and knowing them adds merit and weight to the practice. Modifications
to the Five First Saturdays Devotion to facilitate its observation. The
original request of Our Lady asks one to confess and receive Communion on five
consecutive first Saturdayss; to say five decades of the Rosary; to meditate
during 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary for the purpose of making
reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for the sins of men.
In subsequent private visions and apparitions however, Sister Lucia presented
to Our Lord the difficulties that devotees encountered in fulfilling some
conditions. With loving condescension and solicitude, Our Lord deigned to relax
the rules to make this devotion easy to observe: A. Confession may be done on
other days other than the First Saturdays so long as one receives Our Lord
worthily and has the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. B. Even if one forgets to make the intention, it may be done on the next
confession, taking advantage of the first occasion to go to confession. C.
Sister Lucia also clarified that it is not necessary to meditate on ALL
mysteries of the Rosary on each First Saturdays. One or several suffice.
With
much latitude granted by Our Lord Himself, there is no reason for the faithful
to hesitate or delay this pious practice in the spirit of reparation which the
Immaculate Heart of Mary urgently asks. This devotion is so necessary in our
days The culture of vice and sin remains unabated even as one reads this.
Abortion, blasphemy, drug abuse, pornography, divorce and bad marriages,
religious indifference, the advances of the homosexual agenda and others are
just some of society’s many plagues that cut deeply into the Immaculate Heart
of Mary. We must console Our Lady amidst all these insults and injuries to her
and her Divine Son. She asks for reparation, she pleads for our prayers, she
hopes for our amendment of life. Let us listen to her maternal pleas and atone
for the ingratitude of men. The First Five Saturdays devotion stimulates the
spirit of reparation; it instills a tender love for the Holy Sacraments of
Confession and the Blessed Eucharist. It nurtures a holy affection for the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Rosary. Above all, it is an excellent means to
maintain one in the state of grace while immersed in the daily spiritual
battles and prosaic existence in the neo-pagan world that we live in. Let us
not delay in observing this devotion for it too gives us hope for eternal
salvation.
Thank you my brother-in-Christ Eric. This information is very useful in understanding this devotion. My children understand its purpose and.can't wait for first Saturday to arrive
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