FIRST SATURDAY PAPER

Tell everybody that God gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tell them to ask graces from her, and that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be venerated together with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Ask them to plead for peace from the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the Lord has confided the peace of the world to her. (Our Lady of Fatima to Jacinta.)1

First Saturday Devotion

…The practice of the five first Saturdays involves: 1) Going to confession, which may be done from 8 days before to 8 days after the first Saturday. Of course, if a person is in the state of serious sin, the confession must be made before receiving communion. 2) Receiving Holy Communion. 3) Recitation of 5 decades of the rosary. 4) Meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the rosary. All of the above (except confession) must be done on the first Saturday of 5 consecutive months with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart. For those who make the five first Saturdays, Our Lady of Fatima has promised to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation.

The Brown Scapular and Consecration

…Another request of Our Lady of Fatima-one which includes all the others-is that we consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. What this consecration means we have stated earlier. Simply put, we can say that in consecrating ourselves to Mary we give and entrust ourselves to her so that she may bring us ever closer to the Heart of Christ, this Christ Who brings us to the Father in the Holy Spirit. This act of consecration obviously includes our willingness to observe the other requests of Our Lady of Fatima.

A great sign of our consecration to the Immaculate Heart is the wearing of the Brown Scapular. Sister Lucia has said that all Catholics should wear the Brown Scapular as part of the Fatima message. She said, The Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable…In 1251, when she gave the Scapular to St. Simon Stock and thereby to the world, the Queen of Heave stated: Whosoever dies clothed in this shall never suffer eternal fire. Wearing the Scapular serves as a constant reminder of one’s personal consecration to Mary and of the necessity of imitating her virtues and heeding her requests.” Only priests properly authorized can validly enroll one in the Brown Scapular. 2

Promises of Our Lady to Those Who Pray the Rosary

Over the years, in various apparitions, Mary has stressed the importance of the rosary. She has promised great blessings to those who pray the rosary. To St. Dominic and to Blessed Alan she stated:

  1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces.
  2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
  3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armour against Hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
  4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
  5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.
  6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
  7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
  8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
  9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
  10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven.
  11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.
  12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
  13. I have obtained from my Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.3

Can we refuse our most loving Mother her request that we daily pray the rosary?

Notes:
1    Rev. Edward J. Carter, Mother at Our Side, Shepherds of Christ Publications, Morrow OH, 1993, p. 23.
2    Ibid., p. 21-22.
3    Ibid. p. 83-85.