First Saturday
“Whether the world has war or peace depends on the practice of this devotion, along with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
-Sister Lucia on peace and first Saturdays
Background Information on the First Friday and First Saturday Devotions
COMMUNION OF REPARATIONS
Communion of Reparations occurring on First Fridays and First Saturdays, are the most important Catholic devotions connected to a promise of peace, both in terms of personal inner peace and global peace, according to Catholic teaching. The connection lies in the transformative power of making reparation for the sins and offenses committed against Jesus Christ, particularly in the Holy Eucharist, and for sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is closely tied to the themes of repentance, sacrifice, and prayer for the conversion of sinners.
The concept of reparative devotion grew out of private revelations in the Catholic tradition, particularly those to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century, and the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. Both emphasized the importance of reparation for sin through prayer, penance, and devotion to the Eucharist.
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE COMMUNION OF REPARATIONS
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- Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession): Sacramental confession is absolutely necessary, and should be lived in the context of a life of prayer and penance for ourselves, other sinners and the Holy Souls in purgatory.
- Attending Mass First Fridays and First Saturdays
- Receiving Holy Communion in a state of grace with intention of offering reparation for sins.
- Eucharistic Adoration: Spend time in adoration of Blessed Sacrament, offering love and worship to counter indifference and sacrilege.
- First Friday Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, offering reparation for sins committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
- First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in accordance with Our Lady of Fatima’s request, to console her heart and pray for the conversion of sinners. Recite 15 minutes of rosary with meditation
- Daily Prayer: Offering the Rosary and prayers of reparation
FIVE CONSECUTIVE FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTIONS
The promises attached to the First Saturday devotions:
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- Salvation of our own soul
- Salvation of sinners
- Peace in the world
During her July apparition at Fatima, Our Lady said to Lucia, "I shall come to ask... that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world." Appearing with the Queen of Heaven in that apparition was the Infant Jesus, Who said to Lucia: "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."
Our Lady then spoke: "See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console me. Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary”
TWELVE PROMISES ASSOCIATED WITH NINE CONSECUTIVE FIRST FRIDAY DEVOTIONS
Jesus made the following 12 promises to St. Margaret Mary in favor of those who consecrate to the Sacred Heart, in a spirit of reparation, the First Friday of each month. The Church grants a Plenary indulgence to those who attend Mass and receive Communion in honour of The Sacred Heart of Jesus on the First Friday of each month for nine consecutive months.
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- I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
- I will establish peace in their homes.
- I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
- I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.
- I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
- Sinners will find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
- Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
- I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed andhonoured.
- I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
- Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names writtenin My Heart.
- I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My allpowerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in My disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS LIVING THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA
Jesuit priests, including Fr. Hubert Schiffer, attributed their survival at Hiroshima to divine protection. They believed they were spared because they lived according to the message of Our Lady of Fatima—praying the Rosary daily and consecrating themselves to Mary. Fr. Schiffer reportedly said, “We survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We prayed the Rosary daily in that home”.
"We can pray anywhere, but there is no more fitting place to pray on earth than in the sacramental presence of the Lord. There we are profoundly struck with the swesome mystery of God's grace."
-Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop-Emeritus of Toronto
First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTION
During her July apparition at Fatima, Our Lady said to Lucia, “I shall come to ask... that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world."
Appearing with the Queen of Heaven in that apparition was the Infant Jesus, Who said to Lucia: "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation." Our Lady then spoke: "See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console me. Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary."
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and tender Mother of men and women, in accordance with your ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate to Your Immaculate Heart myself, my brothers and sisters, my country and the whole human race.
Reign over us, Most Holy Mother of God, and teach us how to make the Heart of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ reign and triumph in us even as It has reigned and triumphed in You.
Reign over us, Most Blessed Virgin, that we may be Yours in prosperity and in adversity, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in life and in death. O most compassionate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven, watch over our minds and hearts and preserve them from the impurity which You lament so sorrowfully at Fatima.
Assist us in imitating You in all things, especially purity. Help us to call down upon our country and upon the whole world the peace of God in justice and charity.
Therefore, Most Gracious Virgin and Mother, I hereby promise to imitate Your virtues by the practice of a true Christian life without regard to human respect. I resolve to receive Holy Communion regularly and to offer to You five decades of the Rosary each day, together with my sacrifices, in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.
THE PARDON PRAYER
The angel who appeared to the children called himself the Angel of Peace and the Angel of Portugal. He taught them the following prayer:
My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.
THE ANGEL PRAYER
On one occasion, the three children saw the angel prostrate before a host and chalice that hung in the air. Worshiping the Eucharist, the angel prayed.
Most Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee 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 indifferences whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
THE EUCHARISTIC PRAYER
During the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, the children found themselves "moved by an interior impulse," as Lucia later explained, to say the following prayer together:
Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee!
My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
THE SACRIFICE PRAYER
The Blessed Mother taught the children to offer all their personal sacrifices to God by praying,
Oh my Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
"OH IMMACULATE HEART, DELIVER US!"
Extract of the prayer of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart that St John Paul II made on March 25, 1984 before the image of Our Lady of Fatima brought from Cova da Iria, Portugal.
Immaculate Heart!
Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today,
and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future!
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against the life of man from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us. Accept, O Mother of Christ,
this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies. Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the “sin of the world,” sin in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love!
May it put a stop to evil!
May it transform consciences!
May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!
Amen.
