by
Damien F. Mackey
One rarely hears even mentioned the Nine First Fridays (Five First Saturdays) – the Communion of Reparation package so desired by Heaven.
Here it was mentioned but not explained; mentioned in a negative context
without its benefits being proclaimed.
Keeping all the Jewish Law - impossible.
We used to be told that if you go to Mass on Sundays and say the Rosary you’re right.
So said a Dominican priest during a homily in the context of smug Pharisaïsm.
Keep the whole Law and you will be pleasing to God.
Jesus, of course, turned all that on its head, calling the Scribes and Pharisees ‘hypocrites’ (Matthew 23:13): ‘Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to’.
Similarly, the Dominican priest noted that there was far more to it than just going to Mass on Sundays and saying the Rosary.
[There is a verse in Acts (15:29) that almost seems to support the simple view: Do this, and you will be OK: ‘You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well’].
Sadly, there are those who make the effort to have their children baptised and confirmed, thinking, then, they are “done”. Now they can freely get on with their lives, often making quite a success of things in a worldly sense, while ever remaining at an immature level of faith.
The Dominican went on to include the Nine First Fridays, the completion of which can be considered by some faithful to make them right.
Nothing he said was at all incorrect within its context.
We do need to be warned against smugness, complacency and presumption.
One rarely hears even mentioned the Nine First Fridays (Five First Saturdays) – the Communion of Reparation package so desired by Heaven. Here it was mentioned but not explained; mentioned in a negative context without its benefits being proclaimed.
[A few weeks later, at the same church, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, a Dominican priest in his 90’s did mention the Nine First Fridays, with a brief explanation of them, though he said that they were “not compulsory”].
I could not help wondering that instead of the Nine First Fridays being brought up in passing, in a negative context, wouldn’t it be far better to proclaim the devotion and its marvellous effects and the promises associated with it?
Surely Heaven’s remedy will provide a perfect antidote to any tendency to Pharisaïc smugness and the like, promising, as it does, that: “Tepid souls shall grow fervent … Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection”.
At the end of the 17th century Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and asked her to spread devotion to His Most Sacred Heart. In a letter written to her Mother Superior in May 1688, St. Margaret Mary set out what is called The Great Promise Our Lord made regarding the Nine First Fridays and what we must do to earn it:
“On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to His unworthy slave,
if I mistake not: ‘I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that Its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under My displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, My divine Heart
making Itself their assured refuge at the last moment.'”
We need help with our complacency and presumption, and this is it!
We’d be silly to neglect it.
If we do these devotions properly, to the best of our ability, the Promises are beyond all telling: https://holycross-olog.vermontcatholic.org/nine-first-fridays-devotion-of-reparation-to-the-sacred-heart-of-our-lord
1. I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their homes.
3. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
4. I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
5. I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
9. I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored.
10. I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant all to those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
First Friday Requirements: To meet the requirements for the First Friday Devotion a person must, on each First Friday for nine consecutive months:
1. Attend Holy Mass
2. Receive Communion
3. Go to Confession
