Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
One
Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Why is this a big deal? Why is the Immaculate Heart of Mary so important?
Because at Fatima God revealed precisely what our two options would be for the 20th and 21st centuries and then he gave us the exact plan for peace in the world but we have not listened. However, it is never too late. So, are you ready to listen now?
On July 13, 1917, Mary showed the three children of Fatima a vision of Hell and then said, “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” That is the remedy, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
“If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” However, if people do not cease offending God, the world will continue to experience war, famine, and persecution of the Church.
“To prevent this,” Our Lady said, “I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
God through Our Lady could not have stated it more clearly. The way to faith, conversion, and peace in the world is not through weapons and military intervention. God has willed that conversion and peace will come through devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And that means three things.
Consecration to Her Heart
Pray the Rosary every day
First Saturdays of Reparation
Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis consecrated Ukraine and Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady explicitly stated that once the Pope does his part, we must do ours if we want to experience the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart and the era of peace.
Our part is the daily Rosary and Five First Saturdays of Reparation. You are praying the Rosary. But are you living the Five First Saturdays of Reparation?
Two
Apparition of the Five First Saturdays
On December 10, 1925, Mary again appeared Lucia. Also appearing with her, by Her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested Her hand on Lucia’s shoulder, and as She did so, She showed her a Heart encircled by thorns, which She was holding in Her other hand. At the same time, the Child said, “Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of Reparation to remove them.”
Then the Most Holy Virgin said, “Look my daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making Reparation to Me.”
But too few have answered the call.
Three
At first, even Sr. Lucia ignored Our Lady’s request and did not make the message of Five First Saturdays known.
However, on February 15, 1926, as she was taking the trash to the dumpster behind the convent, where some months earlier she met a child whom she asked if he knew the Hail Mary, and he said he did, but he made no attempt to say it. So, she told him to learn it. On this day, she once again met the same child behind the convent. She asked him, “Did you do as I told you and learn the prayer?”
The child turned to her and said, “And have you spread through the world what our heavenly Mother requested of you?” With that, he was transformed into the resplendent Lord Jesus.
Sr. Lucia made her excuses to Jesus for not doing what Mary requested to which Jesus responded, “It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them…It would please me more if they did the Five with fervor and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your Heavenly Mother…”
Are we living the First Saturdays of Reparation and spreading them or are we making excuses?
Four
In 1930, Sr. Lucia of Fatima wrote a letter in which she made clear how the Consecration of Russia by the Pope and First Saturdays were related.
Once the Pope in union with the Bishops of the world would consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary then Jesus promised he would grant religious freedom to all people under the domination of Russia. Pope John Paul II made this Consecration in 1984. Then on December 8, 1991, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, all the countries under the Soviet Union were given their independence and granted religious freedom.
Jesus revealed to Lucia that once the Consecration is accomplished, “The Holy Father must then promise that upon the ending of this persecution of religion in Russia, he will approve and recommend the practice of the five first Saturdays.”
The time immediately following the granting of religious freedom in Russia was supposed to be the time when First Saturdays of Reparation kicked in. But we have not practiced the First Saturdays and fear, hatred, and war have covered the earth.
In the approved apparition of Cuapa Nicaragua, Our Lady said, “Renew the Five First Saturdays. You received many graces when all of you did this!”
Five
In a letter, Lucia wrote, “Our Lady promised to postpone the scourge of war if this devotion is spread and practiced. We see her putting off this chastisement in the measure that efforts are being made to spread it. But I am afraid that we are not doing all that we are able to, and that God, in no way satisfied, may raise the arm of his mercy and let the world be ravaged by this punishment, which will be as never been, horrible, horrible!... Peace or war depends on the Five First Saturdays along with the Consecration.”
It is time for us to commit to the Five First Saturdays of Reparation. That on the first Saturday of five consecutive months we go to Confession, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Mary company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Her.
Pope Benedict extended the time for confession up to 20 days before or after the first Saturday. Basically, go to confession once a month with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of Mary.
If you have done the Five First Saturdays, don’t quit! Jesus told Lucia that once she completed the Five First Saturdays she should continue in the place of all those who would not.