The First Saturday Devotion
The First Saturday Devotion or the “Five First Saturdays” is a devotion given by Our Lady of Fatima to the world in order for us to make reparation for the many offences committed against her Immaculate Heart.
History
Our Lady appeared to three peasant children in the village of Fatima, Portugal in 1917. It was during World War I. The children were Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto. She appeared to them six times, on the 13th of the month, from May to October.
It was on the 13th of July that Our Lady first mentioned the First Saturdays. Having shown them a vision of Hell she said that God wished to save poor sinners by establishing devotion to her Immaculate Heart. She said the war was going to end but that another greater war would break out if people did not heed her:
“To prevent this I come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If they listen to my requests Russia will be converted and there will be peace.”
The second time the First Saturdays were mentioned was by Our Lady to Lucia on the 10th of December 1925 when she was a postulant in Spain at the Convent of St Dorothy, Pontevedra. Our Lady appeared to Lucia with the Holy Child. Firstly the Child Jesus spoke to her saying:
“Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother covered with the 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:
“My daughter, look at my Heart surrounded with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least console me….”
She then told Lucia what we are to do.
What to do?
For five consecutive first Saturdays of the month we are to:
Go to the Sacrament of Confession
(We may go to Confession within eight days prior to the First Saturday but must remain in a state of grace)
Receive Holy Communion
Pray Five decades of the Holy Rosary
Meditate for fifteen minutes on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary
(It can be a meditation on just one mystery, or several, or on a passage of the Gospels about Our Lady)
Why are we asked for five First Saturdays?
Jesus told Sr Lucia (on the 29th of May 1930) that there are five ways in which the Heart of His Blessed Mother is offended and blasphemed:
1. Blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception
2. Blasphemies against her perpetual Virginity
3. Blasphemies against her Divine Maternity, also refusing to recognize her as the Mother of mankind
4. Blasphemies of those who publicly sow scorn, indifference or hatred in the hearts of children towards His Immaculate Mother;
5. The offenses of those who cause her direct outrage in her holy images.
What are the Promises of the Five First Saturday Devotion?
First Promise – Personal Salvation
Our Lady promises all those who fulfill the Five First Saturday Devotion according to her instructions the graces that they need when dying in order to achieve their personal salvation.
Second Promise – the Salvation of Many Sinners
Through the prayers, sacrifices and reparations of the Five First Saturday Devotion the pardon and salvation of many sinners will be granted by Jesus and Mary.
Third Promise – Peace Throughout the World
This devotion of the Five First Saturdays, which Our Lady of Fatima earnestly requests of us, along with the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, will eventually bring about an end to war and grant peace to the whole world.
These wonderful promises should encourage us to commit ourselves to the First Saturday Devotion with sincere hearts.
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