DEVOTIONS
Our Lady of Grace
911 Park Blvd.
West Sacramento, CA  95691
(916) 371-4814
Fax: (916) 371-4816
First Friday
Sacred Heart of Jesus

According to the words of Christ through His apparitions
to St. Margaret Mary, there are several promises to those
that practice the First Friday Devotions:

"In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you
that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will
receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine
consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they
will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the
sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in
that last hour."[1]

The devotion consists of several practices that are
performed on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months.
On these days, a person is to attend Holy Mass and receive
communion."[2] If the need arises in order to receive
communion in a state of grace, a person should also make
use of the Sacrament of Penance before attending Mass.

Notice that until the 1950s if Good Friday fell on the first
Friday of April, only the priest could receive communion
then.
First Saturday
Immaculate Heart of Mary

The First Saturdays Devotion is a Roman Catholic practice which, according to
the visionaries, has been recommended by the Virgin Mary in several visitations,
notably Our Lady of Fátima. Catholics honour the Virgin on Saturdays because
they believe that as the Mother of Jesus Christ she must have suffered a great deal
and had much faith on Holy Saturday, before the Resurrection on Easter.
Devotees of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of
God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against her Immaculate Heart.

Any Catholic can practice the First Saturdays, alone or in a group. On the first
Saturday of five successive months, one goes to confession, attends Saturday Mass
and receives Holy Communion. Then the Rosary is recited. Then for at least
fifteen minutes afterwards one should meditate on the Rosary's mysteries. During
Communion one is to be visiting Jesus Christ, who, according to the doctrine of
Transubstantiation, is physically present in the Eucharist.  

The activities of the Five First Saturdays devotion are different from the same
devotions on other days in that all should be done with the intention in the heart
of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name
and her holy initiatives.

Sister Lúcia, the only Fátima visionary to survive into adulthood reported that the
Blessed Mother came to her in her convent at Pontevedra, Spain with the
following statement:

Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce
it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to
console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the
grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making
reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to
confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me
company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the
Rosary.
The First Saturdays devotion had already been an established custom in the
Catholic Church. On July 1, 1905, Pope Pius X approved and granted indulgences
for the practice of the First Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of
the Immaculate Conception. This practice greatly resembled the reported request
of Mary at the Pontevedra apparitions.