Special Status of the Communal First Saturdays
- We must understand that an imprimatur of a book and the approval of a devotion accompanying the Liturgy according to Church Law are two separate matters. Not only does The Communal First Saturdays book have an imprimatur, but its order of devotion accompanying the Mass has a separate church approval.
- The Communal First Saturdays® is the first canonically approved public First Saturdays devotion accompanying the Liturgy with a standardized text in various languages. It can be established in any parish. The devotional materials are Church-approved.
- This is an official approval of the public practice of the 4 requirements of the First Saturdays Devotion with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
- This is also official approval of the arrangement of the requirements in such a way as to prepare us for the Mass and help us derive the greatest effect of the Eucharist after Mass. For more detailed information, please see The Order of the Communal First Saturdays pamphlet.
- The Communal First Saturdays also fulfills what Sr. Lucia made known after 1944 that prayer and penance should be public and collective1 (communal).
- It should be understood that this prayer and penance is in addition to fulfilling our Sunday and Holy Day Obligations.
- So, apart from these obligations, the ultimate public prayer and penance of the Fatima Message is the First Saturdays done in a public and communal way.
- The Communal First Saturdays is a prayer that reflects the words of Pope St. John XXIII: “Clearly the most efficacious kind of prayer for gaining the divine protection is prayer that is offered publicly by the whole community; for Our Redeemer said: “Where two or three are gathered…””
- The Communal First Saturdays is the antidote to the problem Sr. Lucia identified: “People lack peace because they lack…public and collective prayer.”1 The Communal First Saturdays helps bring peace to the people.
1 (cf. “A Pathway under the Gaze of Mary,” p. 247).