First Saturday - today - at our parish

[MariaChristi]

Dear All,

How grateful I am to our pastor for reminding our school children at their First Friday Mass yesterday, not only about Love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but also for inviting them to come to First Saturday Mass to show their love for Mary. How Our Lady must have smiled!

Father is going to concelebrate with our priest in residence who usually offers the First Saturday Mass and pay special honor to Mary as God’s Mother and ours. The Legion of Mary invited the entire parish to come to Mass on this First Saturday, Sept. 6 – since Sept. 7 is also the date on which the Legion of Mary was “born” in 1921. (A group of lay persons met with their parish priest, prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance, and prayed the Rosary, asking how they might LIVE their consecration to Jesus through Mary.)

We hope that more parishioners will begin the First Saturday Devotion of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We hope they may also consider joining the Legion of Mary as either Auxiliary (praying) Members or Active Members (praying and also engaging in spiritual works of Mercy; and coming together for weekly meetings).

Mary’s birthday is Sept. 8 and it significant that this lay apostolate began on the vigil of the Feast of Mary’s Nativity. It is now the largest lay apostolate in the world. See HERE
We’re having a small “reception” after Mass (coffee, and refreshments) to celebrate the two anticipated “birthdays” of Mary (Sept 8) and of the Legion of Mary (Sept.7) together today.

For anyone unfamiliar with First Saturdays, see HERE

By God’s Grace may we learn to love as Jesus loved. May we learn to love Him as Mary did on earth and does now.

 

[chopstocky]

I plan on beginning my First Saturday devotion this weekend and am busy planning my schedule of Mass, confession, etc. It is difficult to find the combination of times that the parish offers for confession and mass to coincide with the Saturdays. Does attending the Saturday 5pm vigil mass fulfill both my Sunday obligation and the Saturday devotion or should I expect to attend mass both days?

 

[MariaChristi]

I plan on beginning my First Saturday devotion this weekend and am busy planning my schedule of Mass, confession, etc. It is difficult to find the combination of times that the parish offers for confession and mass to coincide with the Saturdays. Does attending the Saturday 5pm vigil mass fulfill both my Sunday obligation and the Saturday devotion or should I expect to attend mass both days?

Dear chop stocky,

Wonderful! So glad to read that you will begin your First Saturday devotion. A good explanation of the requirements can be read HERE. Confession can be 8 days before or eight days after your reception of Holy Communion (assuming no mortal sins). As to the vigil Mass for Sunday being your First Saturday Mass, personally, I see no problem with that, but if anyone else has asked a priest or read differently, I hope they will post on this thread.

Many parishes do not offer a special Mass on First Saturdays, so it seems to me that a vigil Mass would be ok – but I am no “expert” on this topic. If you are not sure and you can attend the vigil Mass for First Saturday and another Sunday Mass to fulfill your Sunday obligation, you may want to do that until you find out for sure. It seems to me that the most important matter is the heart’s desire to make reparation to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.