THE MAGNIFICENT
PROMISE FOR THE FIVE FIRST SATURDAYS
An Introduction-
The
promise that the Mother of God makes in establishing the devotion of
the Five First Saturdays is among the most powerful ever made. With the full assent and cooperation of Her Divine Son, Our
Lady offers all Her children of Earth the absolute certainty of
salvation and a place in Heaven for all eternity!
It
is indeed a measure of Our Lady's celestial influence and a monument
to Her Heart overflowing with love that She asks so little of us in
return for fulfilling this great promise of salvation.
To those who piously perform this holy devotion of Reparation,
She solemnly pledges the gift of Heaven, saying in clear and certain
terms: "I promise salvation."
But
the Queen of Heaven promises us even more!
While the justice of God condemns many souls to hell because of
their sins against the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, our further
pledges that our acts of Reparation to Her Heart (and most especially,
the Five First Saturdays) will be instrumental and efficacious in
saving the souls of many, many others.
While
we will only know in Heaven how many souls our acts of Reparation to
the Immaculate Heart have saved, there can be no question that our
devotion and charity will mightily increase the everlasting happiness
and glory which God has prepared for His elect.
Never
before has Our Blessed Mother's promise been so simply, beautifully
and compellingly explained. Never
before have we had so convenient and complete a description of both
the practice and the promise of the Five First Saturdays!
OUR LADY'S
UNIQUE ROLE IN OUR SALVATION
I
have no doubt that, after you read this, you will agree that it should
be read and pondered by millions of souls.
Our Blessed Mother has done so much for us.
She has suffered so much for you and me and each one of Her
children. Indeed, no one,
not even the greatest martyr, suffered more than She did at the foot
of the Cross, sorrowfully beholding the terrible torments of Her
Divine Son as He shed His life's blood for our salvation.
Yet stood there She did, to console Him and to cooperate with
Him in the great Act of Redemption.
It
is through the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ that Heaven
was reopened to us and the graces necessary for our salvation were won
through the sufferings and sacrifices of Jesus.
Yet without Mary's cooperation, Jesus would not and could not
have offered up this awesome sacrifice of Himself on the cross, which
assured our salvation. It
was only through Her "YES" at the moment of the Annunciation
that Jesus, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, became the man
and dwelt amongst us. Only
through the free consent of Mary could and did Our Lord assume His
human nature in Her womb: "Fiat"
"Let it be done to Me according to Thy word" (Luke
1:38). Only at these words of Mary (and not before) did Jesus take
on the human body necessary for His sacrifice on the Cross for our
salvation. "There is
no remission without the shedding of blood" (Hebrews 9:22).
Without
the necessary cooperation and assent of Mary, we would not have had a
Savior to open the gates of Heaven for us.
Our destiny as children of God and inheritors of Heaven would
literally have been impossible without Her.
Blessed be the mane of Mary, the great Mother of God!
MARY'S GREAT
LOVE FOR ALL HER CHILDREN
Our
Blessed Lady's cooperation with God's great plan for our redemption
did not stop at the Annunciation or at Bethlehem.
As Pope Pius XII taught, God the Father would not have
permitted the Crucifixion had not, at the foot of the cross, Our Lady
been willing to surrender Her rights as the Mother of Her Divine Son.
And indeed, she did freely, if sorrowfully, give up those
rights so that our salvation could be effected and countless millions
of souls are saved.
When
you consider Her sorrow and grief at the sight of Her beloved Son
dying in great agony on the Cross, only then can you truly understand
how much Our Lady has suffered for our sake and out of true maternal
love for the whole human race. As
Simeon said in Luke 2:35, Her Heart was pierced with sword as She
watched Her Son die on the Cross.
It would have been far, far easier for Mary, His Mother and our
Mother, to die in place of Her Son, Whom She loved so tenderly, both
as Her Child and as Her God.
Yet
out of love for God and out of Her love for us, Her Immaculate Heart
allowed Itself to be transfixed with this sword- so that you and I
might gain Heaven and avoid the torments of Hell for all eternity!
OUR LADY'S
IMMACULATE HEART AND YOU!
How
Our Lady loves us! And
how much She yearns for us to love Her in return! Her Immaculate Heart
remains forever open wide to each one of Her beloved children.
It is precisely because She loves us so much that She that She
grants us the power to freely console and comfort Her through making
Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart.
The tremendous power of the Five First Saturdays is proof
positive of Our Heavenly Mother's love and concern for us.
As
you will read in this new booklet, Our Lord Jesus Christ has declared
that His Blessed Mother's sufferings did not end with His Crucifixion,
but continue unabated today through the ingratitude, indifference and
outright enmity of people in the world.
As hard as it may be for us to accept, there are people who
actually hate Our Lady and who work actively to promote that hatred
amongst other souls. We can see the dreadful evidence of this enmity (whose roots
are satanic) in the flood of blasphemous films, books and television
programs that threaten to engulf our civilization as well as in the
tragic decline in Marian devotion within the Church itself.
Our
Lady had told Sister Lucy that Her Immaculate Heart (the wellspring of
so much selfless love and the source of so much mercy) is bitterly and
cruelly pierced by the blasphemies and sins of ungrateful men and
women.
It
is important to note here that the great and abiding love which Our
Lady has for each one of us is not merely a tremendous gift, but also
a stupendous opportunity for us to win eternal merit in Heaven through
consoling and comforting Her Immaculate Heart.
The great "secret" of the devotion of the Five First
Saturdays is how our sacrifices (as embodied in the sacraments of
Penance and Holy Communion) can actually remove the thorns that pierce
and torment Her Most Immaculate and Pure Heart!
THE ETERNAL
DESTINY OF MANY SOULS IN YOUR HANDS!
Almighty
God leaves the decision to cooperate with Heaven's plan for our
salvation and peace in the world to each and every one of us. When, at Fatima, Our Lady showed the three child seers the
horrific vision of hell, it was not to frighten them, but rather to
encourage and inspire them and us to work, pray and sacrifice all we
could for the salvation of souls.
She reminded them (and us) that many souls go to hell because
they have no one to pray and sacrifice for them.
Your
prayers (especially every Rosary you say) are critically important in
this effort. There are
millions upon millions of our fellow Catholics who need to know about
the great promise that Our Lady has given us in the devotion of the
Five First Saturdays.