First Fridays & Saturdays
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First Fridays.
Looking for a concrete way to increase your devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Mother? Devotion to the First Fridays and First Saturdays incorporates devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary into your monthly routine.
What are First Fridays?
Our Lord gave her the special task to spread devotion to His Most Sacred Heart at a time when religion was growing cold in the hearts of mankind.
Looking for a meaningful way to increase your devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Dedication to the First Fridays incorporates devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus into our monthly routines. In the 17th century, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a cloistered nun, began receiving visions in which Christ asked her to foster devotion to His Sacred Heart. One of the devotions received through these visions is the “First Friday devotion,” which calls for the faithful to receive the Eucharist on the first Friday of the month for nine consecutive months in honor and reparation of Jesus’ Sacred Heart.
He said to her:
"Behold this heart which, not withstanding the burning love for men with which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from most Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude, even in the sacrament of my love [the Eucharist]. But what pierces my heart most deeply is that I am subjected to these insults by persons especially consecrated to my service."
Jesus revealed several promises for those who observed First Friday devotions, including reception of the sacraments before death, perseverance in the Faith, and consolation of Christ’s love at one’s death.
The specific conditions to receive the Great Promise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are:
1. Receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays of the month (this assumes that the person is in a state of grace, having made a sacramental confession for any mortal sins prior to receiving communion).
2. Having the intention, at least implicitly, of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all the sinfulness and ingratitude of men.
What are the First Saturdays? Five consecutive Saturdays in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
What are the First Saturdays?
The First Saturday Devotion is another way to devote yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and honor our Holy Mother. When the Virgin Mary appeared to the 3 children of Fatima in 1917, she told the oldest child, Lucia, that she would grant special graces to persons who practiced the First Saturday Devotion.
The practice of the First Saturday devotion was requested by Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, multiple times starting in 1917.
She said to Lucia, the oldest of the three children: “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.”
Years later she repeated her request to Sr. Lucia, the only one still living of the three young Fatima seers: "Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the rosary, and keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the 15 mysteries of the rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”
Why 5 Saturdays?
Our Lord appeared to Sr. Lucia on May 29, 1930 and gave her the reason- it is because there are 5 types of offenses and blasphemies commited against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
2. Blasphemies against Our Lady's perpetual virginity
3. Blasphemies against her divine maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize her as the Mother of men
4. Blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children, indifference or scorn or even hatred of their Immaculate Mother
5. Offenses of those who outrage Our Lady directly in her holy images
Never think that Jesus is indifferent to whether or not His mother is honored! (catholiccompany.com)
On the First Saturday of 5 consective first Saturdays, the faithful should:
1. Go to Confession (shortly before or after the first Saturday).
2. Receive Holy Communion on the first Saturday of each month.
3. Say the Rosary (Five decades recited sometime during the day).
4. Meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary (one or more) for 15 minutes.