The Fatima Center wishes you a blessed and grace-filled Palm Sunday!
This coming First Saturday (April 3, 2021) coincides with Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday is the one day of the year when no one would normally receive Holy Communion. (At the Easter Vigil Liturgy, the Mass itself frequently begins at or around midnight and most people who do communicate at that Mass only do so after midnight, that is very early on Easter Sunday morning.) How, then, can one fulfill Our Lady’s request for a Communion of Reparation as part of the First Saturday devotion?
Strictly speaking, it may not be possible to do so. Previous generations of Catholics faced a similar situation with respect to the Sacred Heart devotion promoted by St. Margaret Mary Alacouqe. In decades past, Holy Communion was never distributed on Good Friday.[1] By liturgical law, the faithful could not receive Holy Communion at the Good Friday liturgy. Thus, those who wanted to make the Nine First Fridays devotion would have to plan accordingly in those years when Good Friday fell on a First Friday. Devotees of the Sacred Heart could not begin this devotion after the previous July until Easter of that year.
In the same way, those who are now in the middle of making a Five First Saturdays devotion may have to begin the sequence again.
But maybe not.
In 1930, at her confessor’s urging, Sister Lucia asked Our Lord about those who desire to perform the First Saturday devotion but who for some reason (such as perhaps being in remote areas where there is no Mass on Saturdays) cannot perform the requested reparatory acts on the First Saturday itself. In such circumstances, would the following Sunday be an acceptable day on which to perform them?
It is clear that this question particularly regarded the Communion of Reparation. There is never any insurmountable difficulty in praying the Rosary and performing the meditation on the First Saturday, and Our Lord had already clarified to Sister Lucia in 1926 that the Confession could be made within eight or more days of the Saturday. (But Our Lord stressed that this permission was not to be misconstrued by persons in the state of mortal sin. If our Confession must be delayed until sometime after the First Saturday, we must nevertheless take care to receive Holy Communion only if we are in the state of sanctifying grace!)
Now on May 29, 1930, Our Lord’s answer was that in certain circumstances, a priest may allow the faithful to make their First Saturday devotion on the following Sunday instead. “The practice of this devotion,” He said, “will be equally acceptable on the Sunday following the first Saturday when My priests, for a just cause, allow it to souls.”[2]
We must notice, above all, that this concession requires the permission of a priest. So depending on the judgment of one’s pastor or other priest, it may be possible to continue the Five First Saturdays devotion without interruption this month.
If one does not receive this permission from his or her priest, then the only recommendation we can offer is to make a most fervent and devout Spiritual Communion on First Saturday and a Sacramental Communion at the next opportunity, offering that Communion as part of the First Saturday devotion. This spiritual act will certainly be more efficacious if one spends considerable time offering prayers of preparation and thanksgiving before and after his Spiritual Communion. Such a Spiritual Communion does not meet the requirements as established by Heaven for the promised grace. Nevertheless, it may manifest a sincere desire on the part of the devotee of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. In such circumstances, one does well to trust that God will respond as only He knows. Rest assured, Our Heavenly Father is never outdone in generosity.
As a reminder, it is essential to this devotion to formulate an intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as we perform each of the four requested acts.
We should also encourage others (especially our family members) to join us in making the Five First Saturdays. As Sister Lucia said, whether the world has war or peace depends on the practice of this devotion no less than on the Consecration of Russia. Our Lady has promised to bestow upon the world miraculous graces of conversion and peace in response to the Consecration of Russia, but it is clear that we will not be able to bring about the Consecration until enough Catholics have acted on Our Lady’s request for the First Saturdays devotion.
Nothing is so important now as that we embrace these powerful monthly opportunities for making reparation, before it is too late.
END NOTES
[1] The liturgy on Good Friday was called the “Mass of the Presanctified.” This referred to the fact that the Sacred Host was “presanctified” on Holy Thursday. Only the priest would communicate at this Good Friday liturgy, consuming the Sacred Host which had been reserved in the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday. None of the lay faithful communicated on Good Friday. This liturgy was changed in 1955. However, there are a growing number of parishes and chapels where the Sacred Triduum is being celebrated according to the 1954 liturgical rubrics.
[2] Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II: The Secret and the Church (Buffalo, Immaculate Heart Publications, 1989), p. 529. See also Issue #49 of The Fatima Crusader – The Magnificent Promise for the Five First Saturdays, p. 13 (left column).