The Immaculate Heart of Mary · Fátima
Five FirstSaturdays
A monthly offering of reparation, through Mary to Jesus: confession, Holy Communion, five decades of the Rosary and fifteen minutes of meditation.
Your five First Saturdays
0 / 5 markedA private record on this browser only. Mark a date after observing the devotion. Your five-month period stays fixed as time passes; an unmarked date is not automatically judged missed.
Four practices, one intention
According to Sister Lucia’s account, Our Lady requested this devotion at Pontevedra, Spain, on 10 December 1925. Five consecutive First Saturdays are offered in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. All four practices share this intention; they are not simply dates to collect.
1. Sacramental confession
Go to confession with the intention of making reparation. The World Apostolate of Fátima gives a window of eight days before or after the First Saturday; receive Communion in a state of grace. Ask your priest about your circumstances or any broader pastoral allowance.
2. Holy Communion
Receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A Saturday evening anticipatory Mass may be used. The devotion does not replace the Sunday obligation.
3. Five decades of the Rosary
Pray five decades, contemplating the mysteries of Christ with Mary. Offer the prayer with the same intention of reparation.
4. Fifteen minutes of meditation
Keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on one or more mysteries of the Rosary. This period of reflection is additional to praying the five decades, not a substitute for them.
A devotion lived in faith, not anxiety
The associated promise belongs to private revelation, not a mechanical guarantee of salvation. Christ alone is our Saviour; Mary’s intercession directs us to him. A tracker does not certify sacramental participation. If illness, access to the sacraments or a missed month makes the practice difficult, ask your priest for guidance and resume peacefully, without scrupulosity. The World Apostolate encourages continuing the devotion after the initial five months.
Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
A historical prayer for private devotion, not an additional required formula for the Five First Saturdays.
Heart of Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, Heart most amiable, Delight of the ever Adorable Trinity, worthy of all the veneration and tenderness of angels and of man; Heart most like the Heart of Jesus, whose most perfect image thou art; Heart full of goodness, ever compassionate towards our miseries,—vouchsafe to thaw our icy hearts, and change them to the likeness of the Heart of Jesus. Infuse into them the love of thy virtues, inflame them with that blessed fire with which thou dost ever burn. In thee let the Holy Church find safe shelter; be thou its guardian, and its ever-sweet asylum, its tower of strength, impregnable against the inroads of its enemies. Be thou the road leading to Jesus; be thou the channel whereby we receive all graces needful for our salvation. Be thou our help in need, our comfort in trouble, our strength in temptation, our refuge in persecution, our aid in dangers; but most in the last struggle of our life, at the moment of our death, when all hell shall be unchained against us to snatch away our souls,—in that dread moment, that hour so terrible, whereon hangs our endless doom, ah, then, most tender Virgin, do thou make us sensible how great is the sweetness of thy Mother's Heart, and the power of thy might with Jesu's Heart, opening to us in the very fount of mercy itself a safe refuge, that so one day we too may join with thee in paradise in praising Jesu's Heart for ever and for ever. Amen.
The Raccolta (1857), no. 81 · Ambrose St. John translationRecording not yet available
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