Five First Saturdays — Immaculate Heart of Mary
Communions of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asked by Our Lady of Fatima. On 10 December 1925 at Pontevedra, she promised to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months confess, receive Holy Communion, pray five decades of the Rosary, and keep her company for fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary — all with the intention of making reparation to her.
Practice and promise: Our Lady of Fatima to Sr. Lucia at Pontevedra, 10 December 1925; later clarifications (including Feb 1926 and 29 May 1930) on Confession, intention, and the five blasphemies.
What Our Lady asks
On the first Saturday of five consecutive months, do these four acts, each with the explicit intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1.Go to Confession (may be within about eight days before or after the First Saturday, provided you receive Communion in the state of grace and offer the Confession in a spirit of reparation).
2.Receive Holy Communion — on the First Saturday itself.
3.Pray five decades of the Rosary — on the First Saturday itself.
4.Keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes, meditating on one or more mysteries of the Rosary — an additional meditation, not merely the time spent saying the decades.
Form the intention of reparation for each act. If you forget, Our Lord told Sr. Lucia you may form it at the next Confession (and, for the other acts, repeat them that same First Saturday with the right intention if there is still time).
Source: Five First Saturdays conditions as given at Pontevedra (1925) and clarified to Sr. Lucia (Confession window; intention of reparation).
Suggested sequence for First Saturday
1.Form your intention of reparation (prayer below).
2.Sacrament of Penance (today, or within the allowed window around this Saturday).
3.Holy Mass and Communion of reparation.
4.Five decades of the Rosary (any set of mysteries; many use the Joyful on Saturday).
5.Fifteen minutes of meditation on the mysteries (see below).
6.Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart.
If there is no Mass on Saturday where you live, or you have a serious obstacle, a priest may allow you to fulfil the devotion on the following Sunday for a just cause — ask your priest.
Sequence: SanctumNomen pastoral guide. Sunday permission with a priest’s just cause follows the Fatima clarifications given to Sr. Lucia.
Prayers for First Saturday
Intention of reparation
Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You this First Saturday —
my Confession, Holy Communion, Rosary, and meditation —
in reparation for the blasphemies and ingratitude with which
your Heart is pierced, and for the conversion of sinners.
O Mother, I wish to console you, and to obtain for us the grace to love
your Son Jesus and never offend Him again.
Source: SanctumNomen intention formula in the spirit of Fatima reparation to the Immaculate Heart.
Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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 grievances that cause you such pain, and to atone by means of
our prayers and sacrifices for the offences with which men return your love.
Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. Hasten the conversion of
sinners, that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord, already so much
offended. And get for us, dearest Mother, that we may enjoy the happiness of
living and dying in the friendship of God. Amen.
Source: traditional Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart (common First Saturday / Fatima form).
The fifteen-minute meditation
After (or apart from) the five decades, set aside a quiet quarter of an hour with Our Lady. Choose one mystery, or move slowly through several. You may sit before the Blessed Sacrament, before an image of Our Lady, or in any peaceful place.
Recall the Gospel scene of the mystery.
Speak to Mary as to your Mother: thank her, console her, ask her help.
Offer the meditation in reparation for the five kinds of offences against her Heart (below).
End with a simple resolution — a kindness, a sacrifice, or a prayer for someone who does not love her.
An extra Rosary, fruitfully meditated, can serve as this quarter hour if it is truly contemplative time with her — not a rushed second set of decades.
Source: the fifteen-minute meditation required by Our Lady at Pontevedra, distinct from the five decades of the Rosary.
Why five First Saturdays?
On 29 May 1930 Our Lord explained to Sr. Lucia that five Saturdays of reparation answer five kinds of offences against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1.Blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception.
2.Blasphemies against her perpetual Virginity.
3.Blasphemies against her divine Maternity, refusing at the same time to acknowledge her as the Mother of men.
4.The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in children’s hearts indifference, scorn, or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother.
5.The offences of those who outrage her directly in her holy images.
Source: Our Lord to Sr. Lucia, 29 May 1930 — the five blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Our Lady’s promise
“I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all 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 fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”
Source: Our Lady of Fatima to Sr. Lucia at Pontevedra, 10 December 1925 (traditional English wording).
Notes
• Communion, Rosary, and the fifteen-minute meditation must be on the First Saturday (unless a priest transfers the devotion to Sunday for a just cause).
• Confession may be on another day nearby, but offer it in reparation and receive Communion in the state of grace.
• After five consecutive months, nothing more is required for the promise — yet Sr. Lucia kept the First Saturdays all her life, and Our Lady still asks for Communions of reparation.
• Related prayers in the catalog: Rosary (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, Luminous Mysteries); Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart; other Marian reparatory prayers.