Our Lady of Fatima made known to Sr. Lucia a request that devout Catholics make “communions of reparation” on five consecutive first Saturdays of the month. This has become known as the “First Saturday Devotion.” Its intention is to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the many offenses she endures from mankind.
In addition to receiving Holy Communion on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, Our Lady included other conditions to fulfill: sacramental confession, praying five decades of the Rosary, and keeping her company by meditating for fifteen minutes on the Rosary Mysteries (either in church or before a statue or image of Our Lady).
To those who faithfully meet all these conditions on five first Saturdays in reparation to her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady has promised to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for eternal salvation. In other words, she will ensure that those who have completed her request sometime during their life will not die in a state of mortal sin.
Why a Separate Meditation?
Why did Our Lady request that we meditate on the Rosary Mysteries for fifteen minutes? Praying the Rosary itself involves meditating on the Mysteries and it takes about fifteen minutes to pray. Why doesn’t the simple act of praying the Rosary fulfill the request for fifteen minutes of meditation?
Let’s focus on what “meditation” means in this context to help explain.
Traditionally, to “make a meditation” involves a structured time of guided meditation—not simply to think about something or dwell upon in a random way. When someone makes a meditation properly speaking, they have planned a specific topic on which they will mentally dwell for a set amount of time, examining it from all sides, and making concrete resolutions to practice specific virtues extracted from it.
If you’ve ever used a Catholic meditation book, you’re already familiar with this. Each day has a topic and usually involves questions or suggestions in which the reader can apply the meditation to specific areas of one’s life.
Our Lady has asked that, in addition to praying the rosary on the first Saturdays, we should also spend fifteen minutes meditating on one or more of the Rosary Mysteries in order to better exemplify the virtues they contain.
Here is the manner in which Sr. Lucia of Fatima, the woman to whom Our Lady made this request, completed her first Saturday Rosary meditations.
Sr. Lucia’s Method for First Saturday Meditation
Sister Lucia says:
“Here is my way of making the meditations on the mysteries of the rosary on the first Saturdays:
First mystery, the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Our Lady.
First prelude: to imagine myself seeing and hearing the Angel greet Our Lady with these words: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace.’
Second prelude: I ask Our Lady to infuse into my soul a profound sentiment of humility.
1st point: I will meditate on the manner in which Heaven proclaims that the Most Holy Virgin is full of grace, blessed among all women and destined to become the Mother of God.
2nd point: The humility of Our Lady, recognizing Herself and declaring Herself to be the handmaid of the Lord.
3rd point: How I must imitate Our Lady, in Her humility, what are the faults of pride and arrogance through which I most often displease the Lord, and the means I must employ to avoid them, etc.
On the second month, I make the meditation on the second joyful mystery. The third month, I make it on the third joyful mystery and so on, following the same method of meditating.
When I have finished the Five First Saturdays, I begin five others and meditate on the sorrowful mysteries, then the glorious ones, and when I have finished them I start over again with the joyful ones.”
Try It Yourself!
You can see from the above passage that Sister Lucia starts with one of the Rosary Mysteries, identifies the key virtue demonstrated in it by Mary and Jesus, considers in depth the manner in which they practiced it, and resolves to do likewise in her own life, rooting out all that is opposed to it.
One of the temptations with praying the Rosary is to run through the beads quickly, dwelling in a superficial way on the Mysteries. To make the meditation as Our Lady requested allows us to dig deeply into just one or two Mysteries to pull out more from them than we may have otherwise done.
Our Lady is always guiding us to new depths in the spiritual life. The First Saturday devotion does this over the course of five months so that we, through Mary’s intercession, may grow in virtue more quickly—and more perfectly reflect Our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you want to learn more about the Fatima apparitions and what they mean for you, personally, sign up for the life-changing series Fatima: The True Story.
