The Five
First Saturdays
The Child Jesus spoke these words: "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 was holding a heart encircled with sharp thorns and
then She said to Sister Lucia:
"Behold my heart surrounded with the thorns
which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.
You at least try to console me. Announce in my name that I
promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the
First Saturday of five consecutive months shall:
1 confess and receive Holy Communion;
2 recite five decades of the Rosary;
3 and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen
mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention
of making reparation to me."
Why
Five Saturdays?
Christians have always honoured the Blessed Virgin on Saturday because of her constant
faith in Jesus on that first Holy Saturday before the Resurrection.
Five first Saturdays of reparation were requested to atone for the five ways in which
people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1.attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception
2.attacks against her Perpetual Virginity
3.attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all
mankind
4.for those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and
even hatred of this Immaculate Mother
5.for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.
Letter
of Sister Lucia explaining this devotion:
1 November, 1927, letter to Doņa Maria de Miranda, her godmother,
Sister Lucia wrote:
"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdays
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you to
practice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifested
a desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, dear
godmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, but
also to make it known and embraced by many other persons.
"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus in
Communion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on
the mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few days
earlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intention
the following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receives
Holy Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences against
the Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.
"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dear
Heavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her.
As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't it
true that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Them
and Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...They
were happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as they
did, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoy
Him here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolation
for being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save many
souls."
"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdays
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you to
practice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifested
a desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, dear
godmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, but
also to make it known and embraced by many other persons.
"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus in
Communion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on
the mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few days
earlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intention
the following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receives
Holy Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences against
the Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.
"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dear
Heavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her.
As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't it
true that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Them
and Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...They
were happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as they
did, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoy
Him here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolation
for being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save many
souls."
Act of
Reparation for First Saturdays
O Most holy Virgin and our Mother, we listen
with grief to the complaints of your Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns which
ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Moved
by the ardent desire of loving you as our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to your
Immaculate Heart, we prostrate ourselves at your feet to prove the sorrow we feel for the
grievance that men cause you, and to atone, by means of our prayers and sacrifices, for
the offences with which men return your tender love. Obtain for them and for us the pardon
of so many sins. A word from you will obtain grace and amendment for us all. Hasten, O
Lady, the conversion of sinners, that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord,
already so much offended, and will not fall into hell. Turn your eyes of mercy toward us,
that henceforth we may love God with all our heart while on earth and enjoy Him forever in
heaven. Amen.
 
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