Reparation to The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The First Five Saturdays Devotion is a powerful Marian practice rooted in the messages of Our Lady of Fatima. This devotion, which involves prayer, confession, and meditation on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, is a call to make reparation for sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and to foster a deeper relationship with her Son, Jesus Christ. With its promises of grace and conversion, this devotion invites the faithful to join in Our Lady’s mission to bring peace to the world.
Why Five Saturdays?
The five first Saturdays correspond to the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They are:
- Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
- Blasphemies against her virginity
- Blasphemies against her divine maternity, at the same time the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all men
- Instilling indifference, scorn and even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children
- Direct insults against Her sacred images
On the First Saturday during Five Consecutive Months, the Devotion consists of:
- Going to Confession (to be in the state of grace)
- Receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion
- Praying five decades of the Rosary
- Meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary
In subsequent private visions and apparitions however, Sister Lucia presented to Our Lord the difficulties that devotees encountered in fulfilling some conditions. With loving condescension and solicitude, Our Lord deigned to relax the rules to make this devotion easy to observe:
- Confession may be done on other days other than the First Saturdays so long as one receives Our Lord worthily and has the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
- Even if one forgets to make the intention, it may be done on the next confession, taking advantage of the first occasion to go to confession.
- Sister Lucia also clarified that it is not necessary to meditate on ALL mysteries of the Rosary on each First Saturdays. One or several suffice.
With much latitude granted by Our Lord Himself, there is no reason for the faithful to hesitate or delay this pious practice in the spirit of reparation which the Immaculate Heart of Mary urgently asks.
“See, my daughter, My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ingrates pierce me at every moment with blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, make sure to console me and announce that all those who for five months, on the first Saturdays, go to confession, receive Communion, say five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for 15 minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the purpose of making reparation to Me, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.” Our Lady of Fatima