The Child Jesus spoke these words: "Have pity on the heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered withthorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to removethem with an act of reparation."
Our Lady was holding a heart encircled with sharp thorns andthen She said to Sister Lucia:
"Behold my heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.
You at least try to console me. Announce in my name that I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months shall:
1 confess and receive Holy Communion;
2 recite five decades of the Rosary;
3 and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
WhyFive Saturdays?
Christians have always honoured the Blessed Virgin on Saturday because of her constantfaith in Jesus on that first Holy Saturday before the Resurrection.
Five first Saturdays of reparation were requested to atone for the five ways in whichpeople offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1.attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception
2.attacks against her Perpetual Virginity
3.attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of allmankind
4.for those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt andeven hatred of this Immaculate Mother
5.for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.
Letterof Sister Lucia explaining this devotion:
1 November, 1927, letter to Doña Maria de Miranda, her godmother,
Sister Lucia wrote:
"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdaysto the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you topractice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifesteda desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, deargodmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, butalso to make it known and embraced by many other persons.
"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus inCommunion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating onthe mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few daysearlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intentionthe following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receivesHoly Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences againstthe Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.
"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dearHeavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her.As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't ittrue that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Themand Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...Theywere happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as theydid, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoyHim here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolationfor being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save manysouls."
"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdaysto the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you topractice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifesteda desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, deargodmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, butalso to make it known and embraced by many other persons.
"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus inCommunion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating onthe mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few daysearlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intentionthe following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receivesHoly Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences againstthe Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.
"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dearHeavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her.As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't ittrue that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Themand Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...Theywere happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as theydid, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoyHim here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolationfor being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save manysouls."
Act ofReparation for First SaturdaysO Most holy Virgin and our Mother, we listenwith grief to the complaints of your Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns whichungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Movedby the ardent desire of loving you as our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to yourImmaculate Heart, we prostrate ourselves at your feet to prove the sorrow we feel for thegrievance that men cause you, and to atone, by means of our prayers and sacrifices, forthe offences with which men return your tender love. Obtain for them and for us the pardonof so many sins. A word from you will obtain grace and amendment for us all. Hasten, OLady, the conversion of sinners, that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord,already so much offended, and will not fall into hell. Turn your eyes of mercy toward us,that henceforth we may love God with all our heart while on earth and enjoy Him forever inheaven. Amen.
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