Centenary anniversaries offer the Catholic faithful a chance to seek spiritual renewal, revitalize devotion, review historic moments, make a pilgrimage and connect with the saints who made the same journey. Today we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the request for the First Saturday devotion. What should we be seeking today?
At Fatima, Mary revealed her Immaculate Heart, pierced with thorns and in need of reparation. She tells the three shepherd children in the June apparition that “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” She reiterates in the July apparition, telling them that Jesus wants this devotion established. “If what I say is done, many souls will be saved.”
Sr. Lucia was a young novice at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain, when the Blessed Mother and the Child Jesus appeared to her on Dec. 10, 1925, asking for the First Saturday Communions of reparation. The Child Jesus would again appear to her on Feb. 26, 1926, in the courtyard of the convent, asking what was being done to spread the devotion that the Blessed Mother asked of her.
On today’s centenary celebration, here are two questions to ask ourselves:
1) Are we letting the First Saturday devotion be established in our own hearts?
2) Are we telling others about this devotion and helping to spread it?
In 1925, the world was recovering from a terrible war and a crippling pandemic. Many areas of Europe were living under the oppression of anti-religious governments. Russia, now the Soviet Union, was a communist regime intent on destroying all notion of God. China, already influenced by the Soviet Union, would later succumb to atheistic communism.
Today in 2025, 100 years later, it seems our world is in a similar crisis of faith. Apostacy is at massive levels. Younger generations seek solutions from the State rather than a Creator who loves them and gravitating to socialism and communism. The world always seems to be on the verge of civil or worldwide conflicts. Many souls will not make it to heaven in this godless system and whole nations could be annihilated. God doesn’t want this for mankind. He loves us.
The Heart of Mary gives us a pathway to him and a refuge as we make the journey. He wanted to give us the best GPS route on the map – the surest and shortest way to reach our final destination.
He also wants us to learn from the best. Along the way, we will experience flat tires, missed turns, potholes and engine troubles. Her Heart teaches us how to fix things right. We will learn virtue – patience, charity, humility, perseverance, obedience and others – as we conform our will to God’s. The fire of God’s purifying love burns but is “sweet” as the saints have described. Mary’s Heart helps keep our eyes on the road through this painful process of holiness.
During our theological congress on the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts in Fatima over this past weekend, Sr. Angela de Fatima Coehlo, introduced the topic of reparation with the first and third questions that God asks humanity in the book of Genesis.
1) “Where are you?”—after the fall of Adam and Eve; and
2) “Where is your brother?”—after Cain kills Abel.
Where are you? God is seeking you. It is your soul He wants to save. He never abandons His mission of salvation. He gathers all of His children into the bosom of His Sacred Heart – the Heart of God, which is love and mercy itself.
He also seeks the lost sheep, the one that strayed from the 99, the prodigal son, the Samaritan woman, the rich man, the unfaithful servant, the tax collector and his chosen one, Peter, who denied him. He seeks your children, too, many who have walked away from their religious roots.
Where is your brother? God wants us to participate in the mission of salvation. At Fatima, Mary’s Heart was pierced by the thorns of sin and ingratitude. Much like the Sacred Heart revealed to St. Margaret Mary, we are asked to console her heart and repair for these sins. Similar to the First Friday devotion, the First Saturday devotion was given to us as the way in which we can participate.
When Lucia was asked to spread this devotion, Mary tells her, “You, Lucia, at least try to console me and say that to all those who on five consecutive first Saturdays, 1) confess; 2) receive Communion; 3) pray five decades of the rosary; and 4) keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary, I promise to be with them at the time of their death with all the graces necessary for their salvation.”
In less than 25 words, Mary explains the devotion. Later, Jesus explains why five – because there are 5 blasphemies against her Heart that deeply offend Him, and so His justice demands reparation. These sins have to do with the rejection of Mary’s role in salvation history that the Church has developed since the earliest centuries, and the unbelieving and atheistic systems that hate and mock her – and God.
If you can find a church on a Saturday that offers Mass and confession, you can do this. You can console Mary’s Heart, remove the thorns of sin, help save a soul and contribute to your own salvific needs.
We’ve been given 100 years to respond. Let’s commit to getting this devotion firmly established in the world, and first in our own hearts.
Barb Ernster is the National Coordinator/Communications Manager/Editor for the World Apostolate of Fatima USA.
