On December 10, 1925, Mary and the Child Jesus appeared to Sister Lucia, the sole surviving Fatima visionary, at a convent in Pontevedra, Spain. Our Lady rested her hand on Lucia's shoulder, revealing a heart encircled by thorns.

The Child Jesus said: "Have compassion on the heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation..."

Our Lady spoke next, saying: "Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with 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 fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."

March 1st 2003 is First Saturday.

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), February 27, 2003

Answers

Yeah; one of the comforting things about my friend Larry who died, is that he did those first Fridays and Saturdays. There's a lot of comfort in that not only for him but those he left behind.

Thanks for the reminder; I need to get to it myself.

Late have I loved thee.

It was Monica of all people that told me about that phrase of Augustine.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), February 27, 2003.

It was kind of nice that last month and this month, First Saturday was a week *before* First Friday - sorta gave us two "special" weekends in a row! :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 27, 2003.

Late have I loved thee

Thanks, yourself.

full text.

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), February 27, 2003.

Holy smoke...! I've never seen the full quote.

Is that awesome or what?

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), February 27, 2003.

I *love* the mental picture it presents of Christ - not a dispassionate observer, way up in Heaven just looking down, waiting for *us* to come to *Him*, but standing RIGHT NEXT to us, pounding on the door, yelling, shouting, doing everything He possibly can to get our attention! :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 27, 2003.

-- jake (jake1@pngusa.net), February 27, 2003.

Christine, Jake,

Did you ever see the movie "Young Frankenstein"?

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), February 28, 2003.

Ye.e.e.e.esss.... go on ... what's the connection/punch line? ;-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 28, 2003.

By the way, if anyone is in the Los Angeles area tomorrow, there TWO separate groups that have First Saturday masses & devotions at the Monastery of the Angels in Hollywood. Here's their web site for more info - hope to see you there! :-)

http://www.op- stjoseph.org/nuns/angels/liturgy.htm

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 28, 2003.

First Friday

FiRsT fRiDaY

FIRST FRIDAY

fIrSt FrIdAy

-- (first@friday.note), March 07, 2003.

Hurray for the First Saturday devotion! May us Catholics do all we can to make acts of reparation for the horrible thorns that the Child Jesus said pierce our holy Mother's Immaculate Heart at every moment.

Isabel, just wondering... have you (or anyone else) ever heard of the Nine consecutive First Friday and Saturday Devotions to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the same time? Otherwise known as the Double Great Novena? I don't know what to make of it, and was wondering if other Catholics on this forum knew about it and its authenticity.

Sincerely,

Robert

"Pray the Rosary every day, to obtain peace for the world." Our Lady of Fatima, 1917.

-- Robert P (robertp234@hotmail.com), April 24, 2003.

Robert,

Very interesting. While I know of the First Fridays and First Saturdays, and even know many people who have made them at the same time (of course, finishing with the Saturdays first since there are four less of those.) But I never heard it referred to as the Double Great Novena when this is done. Are there seperate graces and promises to those who make them in such a manner? You have me curious now, I will have to research. Let me know if you find out first.

Unfortunately for me, I have a hard time making the First Fridays. Our priest has Mass on First Friday during school hours, so all the school children can attend (and I have to work.) But we have been going to the First Saturdays for quite some time. We just keep going, just in case we managed to 'mess one up' somehow.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), April 24, 2003.

Hi Isabel,

It's great to hear about others attending the First Saturdays! I am so happy to be offering my fifth consecutive First Saturday to Our Lady this coming month of May (my first one ever). And to think, I never would have started this wonderful devotion (or started praying the Rosary every day) if my wife hadn't left me in November! There has been some good that came out of this horrible tragedy after all!

I just started the Nine First Friday devotion last month too. (As you say though, it can be pretty tough to get to Mass on Fridays if one has a hectic work schedule.)

I too am scared of “messing one up” so I figure I’ll just keep going to Mass on the First Saturdays and Fridays of the month.

Isabel, here’s a page I found on the Internet about the “Double Great Novena”. Tell me what you think. Yes, there seems to be a whole set of separate graces and alleged promises for this one. Here it is…

http://members.tripod.com/~LaPieta/dnov_ena.html

God Bless. Sincerely,

Robert

-- Robert P (Robertp234@hotmail.com), April 25, 2003.

Very interesting, Robert P. Thanks.
I just thought I'd mention something ... The "first Friday" of a month is not necessarily followed by the "first Saturday." Sometimes, as in February, March, and November of 2003, the "first Saturday" is the first day of the month, thus preceding the "first Friday" by six days.
JFG

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), April 25, 2003.

Robert,

I read that link. Thank you so much. I will also do some more research on this. It will have to be after this weekend, (have a busy one planned) but I am anxious to find out all I can about this nun and this novena. If this be true, I must do what I can to make this Double Novena. I have many things to pray for. First and foremost, for the salvation of the souls of myself and my family.

Of the original requirements for the First Saturdays and First Fridays, Confession was one. Please don't neglect that one. As long as it is within the octave, then that requirement is fulfilled. It is a good idea to go to confession at least once a month anyway.

That's great to be offering you fifth First Saturday during the month of May, the month of Our Lady!

God bless, and may Our Lady help you to persevere. Yes, good can come from unfortunate circumstances, such as yours. I can surely attest to that.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), April 25, 2003.

John -- Good point about the first Fridays not necessarily following the first Saturdays every month (and vice versa). I'll have to check my calendar every month to be sure I don't make any mistakes!

Isabel -- Wow, I didn't know that the month of May was the month of Our Lady! Feel so ignorant. (So much I need to learn about important Catholic feast days too.)

Isabel, by the way, if you dig up any more noteworthy info about this nun and this double novena, could you please let me know? I couldn't find any more other than what was at the Web site link I posted. (But then again, I really didn't look/search as hard as I probably could've.)

And yes, I thankfully haven't forgotten confession as one of the requirements so far, along with the others. I have this beautiful "act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart" prayer that I've been saying on the First Saturdays. It's nice. Anyway, take care.

Robert

P.S. Isabel, how about this. I'll pray a huge prayer for the Salvation of you and your family's souls (your children's included, of course) if you say a teensy weensy prayer for me... so that I may indeed be blessed with the grace of perserverance. Deal?

-- Robert (robertp234@hotmail.com), April 28, 2003.

Jmj

Robert P, your exchange with Isabel about May being one of the "months of Mary" (along with October, month of the Rosary) reminded me that many parish churches have "May crownings." At some of these, a beautiful old Marian hymn (that I learned in the 1950s) is sung. It goes like this (and I hope you hear the music some day, because the melody and chords put most modern hymns to shame) ...

[Verse 1]
Bring flowers of the rarest,
bring blossoms the fairest
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale.
Our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale!

[Refrain:]
O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.
O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.

[Verse 2:] Their lady they name thee,
Their mistress proclaim thee.
Ah, grant that thy children on earth be as true
as long as the bowers
are radiant with flowers,
as long as the azure shall keep its bright hue. [Repeat refrain]

Sing gaily in chorus.
The bright angels o'er us
re-echo the strains we begin upon earth.
Their harps are repeating
the notes of our greeting,
for Mary herself is the cause of our mirth. [Repeat refrain]

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), April 29, 2003.

John -- I wish I did have the good pleasure of hearing a Marian hymn like this one at one of my local parishes. I’m sure it does sound as beautiful as it looks.

-- Robert (robertp234@hotmail.com), April 30, 2003.

We sing that hymn often in our parish. I learned it as a child in the sixties in school. It is beautiful indeed.

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), April 30, 2003.

Geez, sorry Robert. I was not ignoring you. I honestly did not see your post until today. I have been so busy, that I have just perused threads quickly and posted quickly. Had our last soccer tournament tonight, though, so things should ease up a little now. Well, kind of. Now I have birthdays for all three of my children approaching, and end of the school year stuff (science fair, music concerts, etc.) Whew! Life is definitely interesting around here, if not chaotic.

The song John posted is an absolutely lovely song. We sing it every May during our crowning at Church. I have a concrete statue of Our Lady in my front yard flower garden, and every May we sing this song when we crown her, as well. Thanks, John, for posting the whole song, I would often forget the other versus.

I will say more than a teensy-weensy prayer for you Robert. You can be sure of that. I think the Holy Ghost has it in for you. ;-) I am very grateful for your prayers. I have not had much time to search for that info yet, but when I do I will post it here or email you. Is that you real email. Mine is correct, only I adopted jake's idea of putting 'remove' in there to stop all the spam.

-- Isabel (joejoe1REMOVE@msn.com), April 30, 2003.

Sara and Isabel,
I'm very glad to read that you too know "Bring Flow'rs of the Fairest."

Isabel, you wrote: "I would often forget the other verses."
That made me take another look at verses 2 and 3 shown above, which I copied-and-pasted from another Internet site. By golly, I didn't really recognize them, on closer look. So I went to my organ accompaniment and found the following as verse 2 (with no verse 3):

Our voices ascending,
In harmony blending,
Oh, thus may our hearts turn, dear Mother, to thee.
Oh, thus shall we prove thee
How truly we love thee.
How dark without Mary life's journey would be!
[Repeat refrain]

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 01, 2003.

That second verse that you just posted looks alot more familiar. I think that is the one they sing at church. I only know the first verse and chorus by heart, and that is usually all we do when we sing it at home. Thanks, again.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), May 01, 2003.

Hi Isabel,

Thanks so much for your response. Yes, that's my real email address. You seeem to have two though. Which one (msn or yahoo) can you be reached (without the "remove") at?

-- Robert (robertp234@hotmail.com), May 01, 2003.

I can be reached at the msn one. I just started using it again, but with the REMOVE in there. I started using a fake one because I was getting a bunch of spam and stupid email. (I mean, how many work from home, refinance your home, Viagra emails do they need to send out? Shheees.) But I had never thought of doing something so simple as putting REMOVE in there, and I thought that was a great idea. This way people from here can email me if they so desire.

-- Isabel (isabel@yahoo.com), May 01, 2003.

Ooops! I had it set in my browser to remember the yahoo address, and keep forgetting to change it.

-- Isabel (joejoe1REMOVE@msn.com), May 01, 2003.

John

The first version you wrote is the one we sing here. Either words are beautiful though.

Isabel,

The statue that you have in your garden sounds beautiful. What a lovely idea! As I was growing up we had two processions every year in our parish. One in May for Our Lady, and a Corpus Christi procession round about the Feast of Corpus Christi. We still have the Corpus Christi Procession every year, but not the one for Our Lady. We also had a statue of Our Lady which a member of the Legion of Mary would take from house to house throughout the month of May. The statue would stay in that house overnight before being moved on to the next family. We would all gather round and pray the Rosary, and as children got so excited that it was 'our turn' to have the statue!

Must go and get ready for work and stop this reminiscing!

God bless

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), May 02, 2003.

Sara,

I think it (my statue) is pretty. When all my flowers start blooming I will take a picture and either post it or email it to you, if you would like to see it. I planted a hibiscus behind Our Lady this year (I wanted something that would get taller than her with big blooms) and I hope is comes up. No sign of life yet, though. I will give it a few more weeks.

That's too bad they don't do the processions or Our Lady, anymore. But it is good they do the Corpus Christi procession. Last year we had a big Corpus Christi procession through central park. That was really nice, we got permission, and some policeman even helped keep watch over our different 'stops.' (We had little 'altars' set up every so often that we stopped at and said a decade of the rosary.) We always have a May procession, processions of Palm Sunday, and.......I'm drawing a blank.....well, anyway, we have a few others throughout the year.

Gotta go and be a little productive today.

-- Isabel (joejoe1REMOVE@msn.com), May 02, 2003.