A week from today shall be a First Saturday of the month, a day in which to make reparation to God and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. How to make that reparation shall be provided in another post.
Years ago, Father Gonsalves, who was Sr. Lucia's confessor when she was in the convent of Tuy, Portugal, had written a list of questions to ask the Lord should He choose to visit the sister again. One of the questions was as follows: "Why five Saturdays and not nine or seven, in honor of the Sorrows of Our Lady?"
For her part, Sr. Lucia prayed and implored the Lord to inspire her with the answer to the questions. It was her habit, on late Thursday evenings until Friday, to make a holy hour from eleven o'clock in the evening until midnight. This holy hour was Sr. Lucia's response to the requests of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary at Paray-le-Monial [1689]. It was during one of these holy hours that, as Sr. Lucia explained, Lord deigned to respond:
"As I was in the chapel with Our Lord part of the night of May 29-30, 1930, and speaking to Our Lord about questions four and five, I suddenly found myself more intimately possessed by the Divine Presence…here is what was revealed to me:
'My daughter, the reason is simple. There are five kinds of offenses and blasphemies uttered against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception.
2. Blasphemies against Her perpetual Virginity.
3. Blasphemies against Her divine Maternity, while refusing at the same time to recognize Her as Mother of men.
4. The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to place in the hearts of children indifference or scorn, or even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother.
5. The offenses of those who outrage Her directly in Her holy Images.
There, My daughter, is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to request this small act of reparation and, in consideration of it, to move My mercy to forgive souls who have had the misfortune to offend Her. As for you, seek unceasingly, through your prayers and sacrifices, to move My mercy with regard to these poor souls.'
With these words, Our Lord proves true that "What offends the Mother, offends the Son." Our Lord's words also strongly indicate that it was through the intercession of the Virgin's Immaculate Heart, Ark of the Covenant and Sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, that His Mercy was "moved" to to forgive souls who offend Her! So the means of mercy [most especially in our times] are again given - reparation to God for the blasphemies committed against His Virgin Mother. What was revealed to Sr. Lucia was not meant only for her but also to each one of us:
"As for you, seek unceasingly, through your prayers and sacrifices, to move My mercy with regard to these poor souls."
Once more, we see the theme of true Catholic Action: Pray, Study, Act! The prayer is the daily Rosary, the study is of our faith as well as spiritual meditation, and the act is summed up in the Two Great Commandments.
But even this is not enough for the faithful Catholic. Above all, reparation must still be made...Remember the Morning Offering, the Nine First Fridays, and the Five First Saturdays.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Sweet Heart of Mary, be our salvation!
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
After all the talk on the email list about the rosary and five first Saturdays I went to the yahoo group and looked up what you had written about it and printed that out. I wanted to thank you though so I thought I'd stop by here and give you a very big Thank you for all your hard work and all you do for us and the Blessed Virgin as well. I was only doing first Saturdays really by accident when we had our Carmelite meetings now I fully intend to make the effort to do it on my own regardless. It will mean confession and mass at different churches because we're so rural but it is most definately going to be worth it! Again thank you!
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