The observance of the First Saturdays in honor of the Immaculate Virgin Mary had been approved by the Church a number of years before the apparitions at Fatima. The Holy See had granted on the 13th of June, 1912, a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, to all who on the first Saturday of any month perform special exercises of devotion in honor of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in reparation for the blasphemies against her name and her prerogatives. (Preces et Pia, Opera No. 835– Ed. 1938)
Act of Reparation: To be recited on the First Saturdays
Most Holy Virgin and our beloved Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of thy Immaculate Heart surrounded with thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Moved by the ardent desire of loving thee as our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to thy Immaculate Heart, we prostrate ourselves at thy feet to prove the sorrow we feel for the grievances that men cause thee and to atone, by means of our prayers and sacrifices, for the offenses with which men return thy tender love.
Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. A word from thee 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.
Turn thine eyes of mercy towards us, that henceforth we may love God with all our heart while on earth and enjoy Him forever in heaven. Amen.
Act of Consecration and Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of MARY
O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and tender Mother of men, in accordance with thy ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate to thee, myself, my brethren, my country, and the whole human race.
Reign over us and teach us how to make the Heart of Jesus reign and triumph in us and around us, as It has reigned and triumphed in thee.
We want to atone for the many crimes committed against Jesus and thee. We want to call down upon our country, and the whole world, the peace of God in justice and charity.
We promise to imitate thy virtues by the practice of a Christian life without regard to human respect. We resolve to receive Holy Communion on the first Saturday of every month, and to offer thee five decades of the Rosary on this day, together with our sacrifices in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.
We promise to imitate thy virtues by the practice of a Christian life without regard to human respect. We resolve to receive Holy Communion on the first Saturday of every month, and to offer thee five decades of the Rosary on this day, together with our sacrifices in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.
The Observance of the First Saturdays consists of:
1. Communion of Reparation.
2. Prayer of Reparation for grievous offenses against the Immaculate Heart.
3. Rosary.
4. A sacrifice made to console the Immaculate Heart.
Note: By this practice a Plenary Indulgence may be gained.
In the third apparition at Fatima Our Lady declared:
“. . . I shall ask for the consecration of the world to my Immaculate Heart, as well as Communion of reparation on the first Saturday of the month. If my requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be Peace . . . otherwise . . . wars and persecutions and great sufferings . . . My Immaculate Heart will finally triumph.”
The Five First Saturdays
Eight years after the apparitions at Fatima, when Lucy was a Lay-Sister in a secluded convent in Spain, Our Lady appeared to her, holding the Divine Child, on the 10th of December, 1925. The Infant Jesus, pointing to the Immaculate Heart of Mary surrounded with thorns, said:
“Have compassion on this most sweet Heart continually martyred by the ingratitude of men.”
And only eight years before, at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin revealed her promise:
“My child, behold my Heart all pierced with thorns which the blasphemies and ingratitude of men drive deeper at every moment . . . make known to men that:
“I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, the first Saturdays of five consecutive months, go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, say the Rosary, and spend a quarter of an hour with me in meditation on the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, with the object of making reparation to me.”
Before disappearing, she addressed the three children:
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say this prayer very often:
“O Jesus, I offer this for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for all the wrongs done to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
The observance of the Five First Saturdays is the same as on the First Saturdays with additions:
1. Confession with special fervor to console the Immaculate Heart.
2. Meditation for fifteen minutes on one or more mysteries of the Rosary.
Mary’s magnificent promise at Fatima, approved by Church authorities, should induce pious souls to make the Five First Saturdays. The confession asked by the Blessed Mother may be made a week before, or after the Communion. The Rosary may be recited at any convenient time of the day, and the fifteen-minute meditation may be made at any time of the day, either on all the mysteries as a whole or on one mystery each month. It is permissible to combine the Rosary and meditation by thinking on each mystery a few minutes before reciting the decade. A sermon for the occasion may be substituted for the meditation.
~Retrieved from CatholicHarborofFaithandMorals.com
