First Saturday of the New Year, Today!

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Many read the Prayer Forum, praying for intentions posted, sometimes with a reply but often, just praying. It is a blessing to give and receive prayers. Today, this First Saturday of the New Year, I ask you to pray the Rosary in reparation for the sins committed against God and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Re-reading St. John Paul II’s Letter “On the Most Holy Rosary” I was blessed especially by his explaining the addition of the Mysteries of Light:

…This addition of these new mysteries, without prejudice to any essential aspect of the prayer’s traditional format, is meant to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary’s place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory…

Traditionally the Joyful Mysteries are prayed on Saturdays, and today perhaps we can pray our Rosary gazing on the Christmas crib in our homes or in Church, remembering the apparition of Jesus and Mary to Sister Lucia in Spain in 1925:

Lucia was a postulant in the Convent of St. Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain when she had the apparition of our Blessed Mother. She was standing over a cloud of light with the Child Jesus at her side. The Blessed Virgin put one hand on Lucia’s shoulder, while her other hand sustained her Immaculate Heart that was surrounded with thorns. The Child Jesus said: "Have compassion on the Heart of your Blessed Mother. It is surrounded with thorns that ungrateful men pierce each moment, and there is no one that is willing to offer an act of reparation to take the thorns away."

Our Lady immediately said to Lucia: “Look, my daughter. My Heart is surrounded with thorns that ungrateful men pierce unceasingly with their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me and announce that for all those, who for five consecutive first Saturdays, confess, receive Holy Communion, pray the Holy Rosary and accompany me for15 minutes by meditating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary with the intention to do reparation, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with the graces needed for salvation.”

For more on the devotion of Five First Saturdays, see HERE