On December 10, 1925, Our Lady made a formal request to observe the Five First Saturdays as a path to conversion and world peace. Yet, most Catholics are still not doing the devotion properly, if at all. For more than a century, human solutions have kept failing while we ignore the very remedy God gave us.
To secure the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, Our Lady made two specific requests. One is the Five First Saturday devotion.
It consists of doing four things on the first Saturday of five consecutive months with the intention of repairing the injuries done to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
- Go to confession.
- Receive Holy Communion.
- Pray five decades of the Holy Rosary.
- Keep Our Lady company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
There are 13 common mistakes people make when doing this devotion.
Mistake 1: Ignorance of the Magnitude of the Promise
The most common error is that people do not realize the extraordinary promise attached to this request. Our Lady told Sister Lucia: “I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.” This is not merely a promise of comfort when we grieve or ask for help. It is a guarantee, first of all, that Mary will be present at the time of the person’s death. In addition, she will bring the specific graces needed to save one’s soul at the most decisive moment of a person’s life.
Mistake 2: Failing the Requirement of “Consecutive” Saturdays
The devotion must be performed on the first Saturday of five consecutive months. Many wrongly believe they can skip a month and simply add another later. However, if the chain is broken for any reason, one must begin the series of five again. There is a reason for this. In an interior locution given to Sr. Lucia, Our Lord said that the number of Saturdays was five, rather than nine or fourteen, to make it easier for people to do. It should not be seen as a difficult or even an impossible request. With good planning, it will not take more than an hour and a half each first Saturday.
Mistake 3: Rigidity Regarding the Day of Confession
A frequent misconception is that one must go to Confession on the First Saturday itself. While this is ideal, Our Lord broadened the requirement to accommodate the faithful. In February 1926, Sr. Lucia asked if people could go to confession an octave before or after the first Saturday. Our Lord clarified that “Confession could be made many more days before or after the first Saturday,” provided the soul is in a state of grace when receiving Holy Communion. This makes it easier when confession is normally after the morning mass.
Mistake 4: Believing Holy Communion is Restricted to Saturday Morning
Many faithful struggle to find a first Saturday morning Mass, but the requirement is flexible. In fact, the requirement is not about attending Holy Mass. It is about receiving Holy Communion. For this reason, Our Lady called this devotion by a different name: “Communion of Reparation.” So, Holy Communion can be received at the Saturday morning or evening Mass, or even outside of Mass, such as at Communion services in larger cities or busy airports. In addition, in 1930, Our Lord told Sister Lucia that receiving on the Sunday following the first Saturday is acceptable for fulfilling the devotion, with the priest’s permission.
Mistake 5: Praying the Entire 15-Decade Rosary Instead of Five
While praying the full rosary is always praiseworthy, the devotion requires only five decades. Confusion often arises because the devotion also requires a separate 15-minute meditation. One should not confuse the two. Overlapping the rosary with the meditation of the mysteries is not recommended. The purpose of one is specifically to encourage the rosary. The other’s purpose is to keep Mary company for 15 minutes. They are distinct and separate elements.
Mistake 6: Neglecting the 15 Minutes of “Company”
The second most neglected detail of this devotion is the need to show appreciation to Our Lady. She said to Sr. Lucia, “Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary.” The key action is to keep her company. It is a mother’s appeal to be loved by her children. To neglect this is to miss the very “soul” of the devotion—the act of consoling a mother’s heart outraged by the sins of humanity.
Mistake 7: Misunderstanding 15 Minutes of Meditation
Another frequent mistake is how people meditate. First, it needs to be done with the spirit of keeping her company. It is recommended to do this while looking at a favorite image or statue of Our Lady, whether at home, a shrine, or in a church.
There are two ways to do this. One can meditate for fifteen minutes on a single mystery, such as the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or on several, such as the five Glorious Mysteries.
Mistake 8: Forgetting to Formulate the Intention of Reparation
This is perhaps the most neglected detail. Each part of the devotion—the Confession, the Communion, the rosary, and the 15-minute meditation—must be offered specifically as an act of reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lord made this clear when he said, “If they forget to formulate the intention, they can do so at the next confession.” As another example, just to be crystal clear, when one receives Holy Communion, it should be offered as an act of reparation, specifically for sins against the Immaculate Heart.
Mistake 9: Stopping After Only Five Saturdays
While the promise is attached to five consecutive Saturdays, the spirit of the message is one of continuous reparation. Sister Lucia herself practiced this “every month” throughout her long life to “console Our Heavenly Mother.” We should not consider this devotion as “one-and-done.” The more the world injures the Immaculate Heart, the more necessary this devotion is. It will continue, even in the era when Mary’s Immaculate Heart has triumphed.
Mistake 10: Viewing it as Less Important than the Consecration
Most people familiar with the Fatima message fixate on the consecration of Russia that the Pope and the bishops were asked to do, or on the third secret. It is a grave mistake to forget how important the Five First Saturday devotion is.
Everyone knows the crux of the Fatima message is devotion to the Immaculate Heart. This is affirmed when Our Lady said, “God wills to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” This is the means by which many sinners will convert, and peace will be granted to the world. The main act associated with the Immaculate Heart devotion is the Five First Saturday devotion.
Mistake 11: Disregarding the Request to Pity Jesus’ Mother
Though Our Lady did promise a reward to those who practice this devotion, it is not the most important part of it. In 1917, Our Lady mentioned that she would return to ask for the “Communion of Reparation.” This happened on December 10, 1925, when the Infant Jesus said to Sr. Lucia, “Have pity on your Most Holy Mother’s Heart, which ungrateful men pierce with thorns unceasingly. No one removes them by making acts of reparation.” We can never neglect the importance of “having pity” on Mary’s heart.
Mistake 12: Ignoring Our Lord’s Twofold Insistence in 1926
Because man is so ungrateful to Mary, we tend to think Jesus is just as indifferent. It should be stressed that Jesus was the first to make the request in 1925. And then, in two other subsequent apparitions in 1926, He insisted that it be given importance. The following apparitions to Sr. Lucia seemed to be because, in the Infant Jesus’s assessment, she had not done enough to spread the devotion.
Mistake 13: Lack of Attention on the Five Specific Blasphemies
Lastly, most who practice this devotion do so without making an effort to understand how Our Lady’s heart is being wounded. Our Lord revealed that there are five types of blasphemies and offenses committed against Mary:
- Against her Immaculate Conception.
- Against her Perpetual Virginity.
- Against her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of men.
- Instilling indifference, contempt, or even hatred for her in the hearts of children.
- Against her sacred images.
Reparation is an act of repairing an injury. The quality of reparation depends much on the awareness of the injuries.
The Neglected Solution to the World’s Problem
The Five First Saturdays devotion is truly the forgotten part of the Fatima message. In these dark times, when the world’s crisis is reaching ever new depths, we must recognize that this devotion is not merely an option—it is the only remedy given to an endangered world. While world leaders fruitlessly search for peace through failing treaties and human alliances, God has already provided His own solution for man’s “unsolvable” problems. Fatima stands unique in history as the only apparition that guarantees a specific roadmap to the conversion of sinners, a certain period of peace, and the Triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
The true metric of this Triumph is the restoration of order, where the Immaculate Heart is no longer injured by man’s sins or pierced with thorns by the blasphemies of an ungrateful generation. Every act of reparation we perform—every rosary, every Holy Communion, and every fifteen minutes of “company”—serves to remove a thorn and hasten the hour when the Queen of Heaven will decisively crush the head of the serpent.
If you have never done this devotion, may the promise of assistance at the hour of death move you to begin today. If you have done it once, remember that Our Lord would be pleased with continuous reparations. If this devotion is a permanent practice, may this article help you avoid anything that hinders it from better consoling the Immaculate Heart.
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We urge you to join TFP’s America Needs Fatima campaign to spread this spiritual offensive. Let us take our cue from Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who twice in 1926 insisted that this devotion be made known to convert Russia and the world.