The great secret of Fátima

Our world faces an unprecedented political, economic, social, moral and spiritual crisis for which there is no human solution. God loves us and foresaw these times. In 1917, He sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal with Heaven’s solution.

On 13 July 1917, Our Blessed Mother revealed that God wills to establish in the world devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. To prevent divine punishment, Our Lady would return to ask for the consecration of Russia to her immaculate heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. She said:

“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.”

The magnificent promise

As promised, Our Lady returned to request the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

On 10 December 1925, she appeared to Lucia in Pontevedra, Spain. By her side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested her hand on Lucia’s shoulder and showed her a heart encircled by thorns, which she held in Her other hand. Our Lady 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.”

Why five First Saturdays?

In 1925, indulgenced Saturday devotions to Our Lady already existed, although no indulgence carried the magnificent promise of final perseverance. Lucia asked Our Lord why He wanted to establish a new devotion consisting of five First Saturdays. He answered:

“It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin, but few persevere to the end, and those who persevere do it to receive the graces promised for it. Souls that make the Five First Saturdays with fervour and to make reparation to the Heart of your Mother in Heaven please me more than the tepid and indifferent who make the fifteen.”

God in His goodness asks us only for five First Saturdays to obtain Our Lady’s promised graces but emphasises that we must offer the devotion with fervour and the intention of making reparation. Our Lord explained to Lucia why He seeks five Saturdays of reparation.

“There are five types of blasphemies and offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

• Blasphemies against Her Immaculate Conception
• Blasphemies against Her Perpetual Virginity
• Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognise Her as the Mother of men
• Blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children indifference or scorn, or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother
• Offenses of those who outrage her directly in her holy images”

Lucia summed up why we must attach such great importance to this devotion:

“Our Good Lord in His infinite mercy asked me … to make reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to implore pardon and mercy in favour of souls who blaspheme against her, because the Divine Mercy does not pardon these souls without reparation.”

As promised, Our Lady also returned to request the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart in an apparition to Lucia on 13 June 1929.

Participate

First Saturday Devotion is one of the principal points of the Fátima message. It centres on the urgent need for mankind to offer reparation and expiate for the many injuries that the Immaculate Heart of Mary suffers from the hands of both impious and indifferent men.
On the first Saturday for 5 consecutive months, the devotion consists of:

• Going to Confession
• Receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion
• Saying 5 decades of the Rosary
• Meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary