Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On December 10, 1925, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima, with
the Infant Jesus at her side resting on a bright cloud, appeared to the
Venerable Servant of God Lucia dos Santos, the surviving shepherd child
of Fatima, who was, at the time, a Postulant with the Sisters of Saint
Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain. During the apparition, Our Lady rested one
of her hands on the shoulder of Lucia and, with the other hand, showed
Lucia her Immaculate Heart encircled with thorns. The Child Jesus then
spoke to Lucia with these words: “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 to
remove them.”[1]
After these words of the Infant Jesus, Our Lady spoke:
Look,
my daughter, at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful
men pierce me 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 all 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 the mysteries of the
Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.[2]
The
words of Our Lady referred to the second part of the Secret or Message
of Fatima revealed to the shepherd children of Fatima – Saints Francisco
(† 4 April 1919) and Jacinta († 20 February 1920) Marto, and the
Venerable Servant of God Lucia dos Santos († 13 February 2005) – on
July 13, 1917, the third of her six apparitions from May to October of
that year.
At the conclusion of the apparition on July 13th, Our Lady showed the three shepherd children an understandably terrifying vision of Hell and spoke to them with these words:
You
have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God
wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If
what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be
peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending
God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When
you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the
great sign given you by God that He is about to punish the world for its
crimes by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of
the Holy Father.[3]
Our
Lady taught the shepherd children that the devotion to her Sorrowful
and Immaculate Heart is a devotion of reparation for the many and
grievous sins which offend the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, her Divine
Son, and, therefore, offend her Heart perfectly united to His Most
Sacred Heart. The reparation made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary for the grievous offenses caused
by man’s sins thus rescues souls from eternal death and brings peace to
the world.
To
prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my
Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be
peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing
wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy
Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.[4]
In
the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will
consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of
peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith
will always be preserved, etc.[5]
Our Lady’s words regarding devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart are the second part of the Secret or Message.
Regarding
the Devotion of the First Saturdays, the Venerable Servant of God Lucia
received a second vision of the Child Jesus on February 15, 1926, just
some two months after the vision of December 10, 1925. In the vision of
February 15, 1926, when the Venerable Servant of God said to the Child
Jesus that her confessor had declared that the devotion of the First
Saturdays was not lacking in the world, Jesus replied:
It
is true, my daughter, that many souls begin them, but few finish them,
and those who do finish them, do so to receive the graces that are
promised. It would please me more if they did five decades with fervor
and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of their
heavenly Mother, than if they did fifteen decades in a tepid and
indifferent manner.[6]
In
both the apparitions of December 10, 1925, and of February 15, 1926,
the substance of the devotion is made clear: 1) a profound realization
of how sin offends Our Lord and His Immaculate Mother, 2) a humble and
contrite heart which strives to make reparation for sins committed and
the offense they cause to Our Lord and His Immaculate Virgin Mother, and
3) trust in the promise which accompanies the devotion, that is, Our
Lady’s promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces
necessary for salvation, those who observe the First Saturdays with true
repentance and the desire to make reparation. The devotion is not an
isolated act but expresses a way of life, namely, daily conversion of
heart to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart,
under the maternal guidance and care of the Sorrowful and Immaculate
Heart of Mary, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Our
Lady’s insistence on the devotion of the First Saturdays is a wonderful
expression of her unfailing maternal love. Even as she appeared at
Tepeyac in 1531 to bring her children to Our Lord and thus free them
from enslavement to Satan and to deadly sin, so she appeared at Fatima
to the three shepherd children and at Pontevedra to the Venerable
Servant of God Lucia dos Santos to show her children the way to freedom
from the rebellion before God, which is grievous sin with its fruit,
eternal death. At Pontevedra, Our Lord Himself, the Infant Jesus,
appeared to confirm the devotion of the First Saturdays as an
efficacious means of reparation for sins and conversion of heart to His
Most Sacred Heart through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of His
Virgin Mother.
As we prepare to celebrate, on this coming December 10th,
the centennial of the apparition of the Infant Jesus and His Divine
Mother to the Venerable Servant of God Sister Lucia dos Santos, we are
deeply conscious of the great need of reparation for the sins which
offend the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate
Heart of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the same time, we are
deeply conscious of how the same sins so profoundly disrupt the order of
life in society, resulting in civil strife within nations and wars
among nations, and in violent attacks on human life, on marriage and the
family, and on the free practice of religion in many nations. The
agents of the thoroughly evil ideology of atheistic communism continue
to spread
its poisonous lies with their fruit which is destruction and death.
To prepare the celebration of the centennial, I invite you to join me in nine weeks of prayer, beginning on this coming October 8th and ending on this coming December 10th, the 100th Anniversary of the apparition at Pontevedra.
During the nine weeks, I invite you to pray for the grace of sincere
repentance for sins committed and heartfelt engagement in the acts of
reparation of the First Saturdays Devotion – the sacramental confession
of our sins, the worthy reception of Holy Communion, the recitation of
five decades of the Rosary, and union of heart with
the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary by meditating for fifteen
minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making
reparation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, – by each of us, in our families
and parishes, and throughout the universal Church. If you are not
already doing so, I
urge you to begin, already on the First Saturdays of the coming months
of November and December, the heartfelt practice of the devotion of the
First Saturdays of Reparation. Trust the promise of Our
Lady of Fatima that the fruit of your devotion, by God’s grace, will be
the salvation of many souls and peace throughout the world.
May
Our Lord, through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, grant us,
during the nine weeks of prayer, an abundant gift of divine grace, of
love which inspires the devotion of the First Saturdays in reparation of
the offense which our sins give to His Most Sacred Heart and the
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of His Virgin Mother. Let us commit
ourselves to the devotion of the First Saturdays and the way of life,
the way of divine love, which it expresses: daily conversion of heart to
Christ’s Most Sacred Heart, under the maternal guidance and care of the
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls. Let us trust that, through the confession of our
sins and the worthy reception of Holy Communion – the most perfect
communion
of our hearts with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus – , and through the
meditation on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the mysteries of our
communion with the Lord – the Mystery of Faith – in the Church, we will
be purified of sin and confirmed in grace to be His faithful “fellow
workers in the truth”[7] for the salvation of the world.
Yours in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
and in the Purest Heart of Saint Joseph,
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
September 8, 2025
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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