The Secret Power of Saturdays, Difficult to obtain Today

Saturday is dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary. Don’t take my word for it, Pope John XXII, (take care to note those numerals) in his Sabbatine Bull (Sacratissimo uti culmine), declared it to be so. The Holy Roman Inquisition said so in a decree ratified by Pope Paul V on Jan 20, 1618, and we can find that fact uncontroverted in current Church teaching.

The idea that the Blessed Mother plucks certain poor souls out of purgatory (please God, I’ve been relying on the hope in this) is a hot potato having an 800 year chain of fights, however. Pope John XXII wrote on March 3, 1322, that Our Lady appeared to him and explained that Our Lord had had decreed in Heaven ratifying the plenary indulgence granted to members of the Carmelite order the plenary indulgence, but extending it to include a promise that Our Blessed Mother would come to get any poor souls who had obtained these indulgences out of purgatory on the following Saturday (hot dog!). Far be it from Mother Church not to have controversy over such a decree, however. Despite having been settled by Pope Paul the V in 1613, there is yet the insertion of dark clouds on the belief again today. So despite having been removed from the current Book of Indulgences, I find it hard to square up with the affirmative statements made by past popes, including Pope Benedict XIV’s Opera omnia, IX, Venice, 1767, pp. 197, in which he said “that the faithful should rely on it.” There are a number of stipulations if you go this route, not the least of which is abstaining from flesh meat two days per week (a topic I regularly mention that number fasts anymore let alone abstain from meat).

So, Saturday is the day Holy Church dedicates to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and there is this controversial idea that she rescues people early from purgatory on Saturdays if they followed the stipulated devotions an practices. Then, we come along to yet another Saturday devotion with special privileged promises attached. FIRST SATURDAY!

First Saturday appears to be Our Lady’s concession to settle the controversies of the Sabbatine Privilege, but yet make it even clearer as to the point. Fasting, prayer, and devotion secure a habit of heart pleasing enough to God that it expiates sins far greater than the involuntary punishment of Hell. (see the quote from St. Anselm on this point that one Mass heard devoutly worth far more than 100 after death from yesterday’s piece). So Our Lady, at Fatima, on July 13, 1917, delivered the First Saturday devotion. She 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. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays.“

If you can even find a Saturday Mass where you live (my recent informal survey of masstimes.org revealed that most parishes in the United States have stopped saying Mass proper for Saturday in lieu of providing the convenience “vigil” Mass for all the folks who can’t seem to go to Mass on Sunday morning — what are they doing on Sunday morning that they can’t go to Mass?), then go to Mass, and offer reparation for your sins and those of the world to Our Lord. It’s obvious that we need to still be doing so today.

Describing the actual devotion of five First Saturdays to Sr. Lucia, Our Lady said to her: “Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with 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 fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

There’s your opportunity: 1) Go to Mass; 2) Go to confession (good luck finding that, too); 3) recite five decades of the Holy Rosary (the glorious mysteries are apropos for Saturday); and, 4) spend at least fifteen minutes in contemplative prayer ruminating the fifteen mysteries with intention of reparating for the lack of repentance in the world today and the crimes committed against God and His Saints, especially His Mother.

It’s obvious to me that just finding the Mass said by you and finding confession is meritorious today in most of the country. You may not even be able to complete the devotion in some parts of the country!

Our Lady is smart to ask for this from us, though. Like St. Anselm said, one Mass heard with devotion is most pleasing, but offering a contrite heart to God (Ps. 50 in some, 51 here) through the additional prayer and the self-sacrifice is even more pleasing. By promising and completing five mysteries, it is a fulfillment of another directive of the psalms to make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them. It pleases God, and it changes you, because you fast, pray, and moderate your intentions for something asked of you.

How can you go wrong? Now, find a Mass for Saturday near you here, if you don’t already know (I suspect most of you already know).

This article, The Secret Power of Saturdays, Difficult to obtain Today is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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