Saturday, January 29, 2011

REPARATION COMMUNION OF THE FIRST SATURDAYS

In the apparition of July 13 in Fatima, Our Lady announced: ‘In order to avoid war, I’ll return to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Reparation Communion of the First Saturdays’.

She returned to ask for the latter devotion, when She appeared to Sr. Lucy on December 10, 1925, in Pontevedra, Spain. She said then: ‘Look, My daughter, at My Heart surrounded by the thorns with which ungrateful men at every moment pierce Me through blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console Me and tell that I promise to assist, at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for their salvation, all those who, in the First Saturday of five consecutive months, went to Confession, received Holy Communion, recited five decades of the Rosary and made Me company for fifteen minutes, while meditating in the 15 mysteries of the Rosary, all with the intent of making reparation to My Immaculate Heart’.

Our Lady showed then Her Heart surrounded with thorns, which represent our sins. She called for acts of reparation, in order to remove them, namely the reparation devotion of the five First Saturdays of the Month. In exchange, She promises us ‘all the graces necessary for salvation’.

Jesus Himself, appearing to Sr. Lucy in the following two years, on February 15 of 1926 and December 17 of 1927, insists on the spreading of this devotion. Sr. Lucy wrote: ‘War or peace in the world depend on the practice of this devotion of the First Saturdays, together with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary’.

Why five?
The First Saturdays are five, according to this revelation of Jesus, because ‘five are the kinds of offenses and blasphemies directed at the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

1.  Blasphemies against Her Immaculate Conception.

2.  ...against Her Virginity.

3.  ...against Her Divine Maternity, including the refusal to receive Her as Mother of all men.

4.  Offenses of those who try to instill in the hearts of children indifference, contempt and even hate against this Immaculate Mother.

5. ...of those who offend Her directly in Her sacred images’.

Conditions
The conditions to gain the privilege of the First Saturdays are four:


l. Confession. For each First Saturday a confession with intention of reparation is needed. It may be made in any day, before or after the First Saturday, provided one is in the state of grace when receiving Communion.The seer asked: - ‘My Jesus, people may forget to formulate that intention (of reparation)!? Jesus replied: - They can do it in the following confession, taking advantage of the first opportunity they have to go to Confession’.
The other three conditions must be fulfilled on the First Saturday itself, except if a priest, for just cause, grants that they may be fulfilled on the following Sunday.

2. Communion of Reparation.

3. Five decades of the Rosary.

4. Meditation, during 15 minutes, on one, several or all mysteries. It is equally good to meditate, instead, for three minutes, before each of the five decades of the Rosary being recited.

In all these practices one must have the intention of doing reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The Devotion of the Five First Saturdays of the Month was approved by the Bishop of Leiria on September 13,1939, in Fatima.
_______________________________________
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO 
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
(Pope Pius XII)
 

Queen of the Holy Rosary, Help of the Christians, Refuge of the human race, Conqueress in God’s battlefields, to You and to Your Immaculate Heart.


In this tragic hour of human history, we entrust and consecrate ourselves, and the Holy Church. She is the Mystical Body of Your Jesus, suffering and bleeding in so many parts and tormented in so many ways, we consecrate to You the whole world torn by bitter strive and consumed by the fire of hatred the victim of its own wickedness.

Look with compassion to all material and moral destruction to the suffering and fears of fathers and mothers of husbands and wives, of brother and sisters and innocent children. Look at the many lives cut down in the flower of youth so many bodies torn to pieces in brutal slaughter so many souls tortured and troubled and in danger of being lost eternally.

Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God! Obtain especially those graces, which can convert human hearts quickly. Those graces, which can  prepare, establish and insure peace. Queen of Peace, pray for us; Give the world at war the peace for which all are longing, Peace in Truth, Justice and the Charity of Christ. Give them peace of the arms and peace of mind, that in tranquillity and order the Kingdom of God may expand.

Grant Your protection to infidels and to those still walking in the shadow of death; give them peace and permit that the sun of truth may raise upon them; and that together with us they may repeat before the Only Saviour of the World: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among men of good will (Lk2.14).

Give peace to the people separated by error and schism, particularly those, who have special devotion to You and among whom there was no home, where Your venerable Icon was not honoured, though at present it may be hidden in the hope for better days. Bring them back to the One Fold of Christ, under the One True Shepherd.

Obtain peace and complete liberty for the Holy Church of God, check the spreading flood of neo-paganism, arouse within the faithful love of purity the practice of Christian life and apostolic zeal, so that the people who serve God, may increase in merit and number. All of humanity were once consecrated to the Heart of Your Son. All our hopes rest in Him, Who is in all times sign and pledge of victory and salvation.

Forever we consecrate ourselves to You and to Your Immaculate Heart, Oh, Mother and Queen of the World! May Your love and patronage hasten the victory of the Kingdom of God, may all nations, at peace with each other and with God, proclaim You Blessed and sing with You from one end of the earth to the other, the eternal Magnificat of glory, love and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus, in which alone, they can find Truth, Life and Peace.