Images by thesaintsproject.org
Bible verse 1: Rev: 12:1
Bible verse 2: Luke 1:45
Our Lady of Fatima has been said to have been foretold in Revelations, and Mary had set requests she made of mankind through the three children she visited. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three Portuguese children received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners and for the conversion of Russia. The third visionary, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.
Mary gave the children three secrets. Since Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta the following year, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927, concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell.
Pope John Paul II directed the Holy See's Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a "bishop in white" who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Saint John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981.
At Fatima, Our Lady said that God wished to establish worldwide devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady said that many souls would be saved from hell and the annihilation of nations averted if, in time, devotion to Her Immaculate Heart were established principally by these two means:
1) the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope together with the world's bishops in a solemn public ceremony, and
(2) the practice of receiving Holy Communion (and other specific devotions of about 1/2 hour in duration) in reparation for the sins committed against the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months--a practice known to Catholics as "the First Saturday" devotion.
There are five parts to the First Saturdays Fatima Request:
1. Spirit of reparation—The spirit of reparation is a loving desire to make reparation to and console the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Our Mother.
2. Confession in the spirit of reparation—If you can’t go to confession ON the first Saturday, going within eight days will suffice, as long as it’s made with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. Reparatory Communion—this is a non-negotiable. Ya gotta do it.
4. Recitation of the rosary
The rosary is a vocal prayer said while meditating upon the mysteries of Our Lord’s and Our Lady’s lives.
5. Fifteen-minute meditation—Also offered in reparation, the meditation may embrace one or more mysteries; it may include all, taken together or separately.
“The Message of Fatima is important to you and your family because it involves the salvation of souls, peace in the world and, if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima are not carried out, the consequences are the annihilation of nations and the enslavement of all mankind under militant atheists of Russia.” (http://www.fatima.org/whyfatima.asp).
Reflection question 1: What part of the requests made by Mary at Fatima seems the hardest to follow?
Reflection question 2: In our busy lives, it seems nearly impossible to make time to complete all of the parts involved in the request of the First Saturdays.
Act: If the five parts to the request seems too daunting or unreachable, try doing one of them to start. Or choose another devotion to get involved with; Mary wants everything we can offer her.
