One of the most important aspects of the Fatima message was Our Lady’s request for the First Saturday devotion. In the July 13, 1917, apparition at Fatima, Our Lady said to the children, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart…I shall come to ask for the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays.” She came expressly with the request for this devotion when she appeared to Sister Lucia on Dec. 10, 1925, in Pontevedra, Spain, where she was preparing for religious life.
The First Saturday Devotion
With the intention of making reparation for the offenses against the Immaculate Heart, we are asked to:
Go to Confession (may be 8 days before or after, if you are in a state of grace)
Receive Holy Communion (can be received at a Saturday evening anticipatory Mass)
Pray five decades of the Rosary
Keep Our Lady company for 15 minutes while meditating on one or more of the mysteries of the Rosary.
Our Lord told Sister Lucia that there are five ways that people offend and blaspheme against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These blasphemies offend God, because they offend against the work of the Holy Spirit in the creation and role of Mary in salvation history.
1. Offences against her Immaculate Conception – by denial or ridicule
2. Against her Perpetual Virginity
3. Against her Divine Maternity, refusing to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
4. Those who implant in children’s hearts, indifference, contempt and even hate against this Immaculate Mother
5. Insults directed against her sacred images – ridicule and the infliction of damage to them.
The Great Promise
Our Lady promised to assist all those who will practice the devotion of the first Saturday on five consecutive months with the graces necessary for salvation at the hour of their death. This is not a guaranteed passage into heaven. Our cooperation with grace is always required.
Monthly practice as a sign of our devotion
Our regular practice of the First Saturdays is a sign of our devotion to the Immaculate Heart and a desire on our part to make reparation for the blasphemies against her. Our Lady said at Fatima, “Many people go to hell because there is no one to offer sacrifices for them.” Practicing the First Saturday devotion monthly atones for their sins, consoles the Immaculate Heart of Mary and is a spiritual act of mercy. It also helps us develop the habit of monthly confession, to aid in our spiritual growth.
Sister Lucia wrote of this devotion: “Our Lady presented another rung on the ladder to salvation to her children, increasingly oppressed by sin, to help them live in the grace of God. It was a new invitation to conversion by a Mother who, grieved and concerned about the dangers and fears that her children face, patiently guides them along a more secure path.”
Fulfilling the requirements when opportunities are limited
One can practice the First Saturdays individually or communally. The Rosary and 15 minute meditation can be said at anytime during the day.
If a Saturday morning Mass is not available, you can offer your Holy Communion at a Saturday evening anticipatory Mass. There is no need to attend Mass again on Sunday. You may also offer a Spiritual Communion in reparation to the Immaculate Heart, if a Mass or Holy Communion is not available on first Saturday.
Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Confession
Our Lord told Lucia that if people cannot go to confession on the first Saturday, it can be within 8 days, and “can be longer provided that when they receive Me on the first Saturday, they are in a state of grace and have the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
FIRST SATURDAY RESOURCES
Treasures of First Saturday Devotion by Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, includes an aid to practicing the devotion, with meditations, prayers and explanations of the blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart.
Give Me Consolation provides a step-by-step process to completing the First Saturdays, incorporated with a personal prayer journal.
First Saturdays of Reparation is based on the Treasures of First Saturday Devotion, by Father Andrew Apostoli, CFR, with full color illustrations and additional prayers and articles.
Subscribe to Soul Magazine and learn more about the message of Fatima and how to live it today.
Present your prayer requests for remembrance during Masses offered at the Blue Army Shrine.