What is First Saturday Devotion?

Meditation Set #1:  (Month of August)

Joyful Mysteries [Saint Joseph]



1. The Annunciation: “She was found to be with child.” Great gladness for Mary! God’s own doing, the Son of God lay tabernacled in her virginal womb. Joyful Mysteries, indeed for her, but, for Joseph, sad bewilderment. He knew nothing of the angel’s visitation, nothing of God’s overshadowing. He knew only of Mary’s sanctity, and still read the peace of innocence in her eyes; yet she was with child. Joseph could say nothing. He could only endure a storm of perplexities, until an angel dispersed the clouds: “Do not be afraid, Joseph … that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Joseph bore His trial, the Cross of the Christ Child, in silent, trustful patience. His silence says to me: Do likewise.
2. The Visitation: “Mary remained with her about three months.” In quick response to the angel’s revelation, Mary hastened to her cousin Elizabeth’s home. In Nazareth, Joseph was left alone to His thoughts. Rather, to His one meditation – Mary. He was not lonely; in the highest sense. Mary still remained; she abided in every fiber of His heart. His love for her was a holy thing; it was that highest form of love called prayer, the silent gazing on spiritual grandeur. That is why, in the Gospels, Joseph has nothing to say. Mary was His joyful Mystery. I share Joseph’s absence from Mary. When I pray to her, I bridge Heaven and earth.
3. The Nativity: “Joseph … of the house and family of David.” Twenty-eight generations had seen the descendants of David brought to humble station. David had been heir to the splendid spoils of a hundred petty kingdoms; King Solomon, His son, bowed low to no man on earth; but Joseph of Nazareth was a carpenter. Still the vocation is not the man. King David’s penitential psalmody was no fictional piety – adultery and murder were His crimes; Solomon, maker of God’s Temple, worshiped idols and did not repent, whereas Joseph of Nazareth was the world’s most holy man. He was the regal soul; a fit court, even in a cave, for the tiny Prince of Peace, who saw only with the eyes of God. St. Joseph’s was not “headline” holiness. He is the patron of unnoticed saints. He’d like to be mine!
4. The Presentation in the Temple: “They had fulfilled all the things prescribed in the Law of the Lord.” The doorway to sanctity has a double lock. Doing one’s duty is the outside key. Joseph was meticulous about this, exact without fuss. Simply, he “fulfilled all things prescribed.” But so did the Pharisees. They spent their lives doing just the right thing. They could match Joseph jot for tittle. But they had only the outside key, and theirs was “outside” piety – “within, full of dead men’s bones.” Joseph had the inside key: doing one’s duty for God. Praying, working, sleeping, eating, all to please God, who sees in secret only. It takes only a moment to say, “For You Lord,” as I begin my day, and each occupation of the day. It’s the inside key to greatness of soul.
5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple: “In sorrow Thy father and I have sought Thee.” Joseph would not live to see Jesus done to death. But he was not spared the lot of the saints – suffering with Christ. To Joseph, the Incarnation had been an agonizing dilemma; for the Savior’s birth, he could do no better than a cattle-shed; Herod’s wrath had driven him to pagan Egypt, there to fend for His family; he had stood by, heart heavy as stone, while Simeon somberly prophesied concerning Jesus and Mary. Now, His fifth and most terrible sorrow: he had lost the boy Jesus. Joseph, silent prophet of the Sorrowful Mysteries! St. Joseph was a very human person. And so he suffered. He suffered as he did everything else – for God. It was part of His “inside key” – and is part of mine.

Sorrowful Mysteries [Death]

1. The Agony: “My soul is sad unto death.” Jesus Christ was a supreme idealist. He expressed His great ambition at the Last Supper: “That they may all be one; one in us, Father, as Thou in Me and I in Thee are One … that while Thou art in Me, I may be in them.” But Jesus was a realist as well. He knew the price He had to pay for His divine idealism. “I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized.” Jesus had to suffer and die. And in the Garden of Olives, His soul seemed to dissolve at the thought of His coming Passion. Christianity does not do away with death. But it does give death its meaning. To reflect upon death is not morbidity; it is wise common sense.
2. The Scourging: “We have no power to put any man to death.” Nothing was more attractive in the personality of Christ than His spirit of optimism. To the Jews of Palestine, a proud people subject to pagan Rome, spiritually starved by the jot-and-tittle Pharisees and Scribes, the Savior’s heartening words were like the first delightful breath of spring after a long winter. The burden of His message was confidence in God, the omnipotent Father who watches over His children, supplying all their needs. His children’s death was the object of His love, too. The Pharisees, with all their malice, had no power to kill Jesus; even mighty Rome could not kill Jesus; even mighty Rome could not crucify Him unless His Heavenly Father permitted it. If suffering can be a blessing, surely death should be. God longs to have me die in His friendship.
3. The Crowning: “Behold the Man!” “Crucify Him!” Jesus Christ was only thirty-three when He died. Some people, failing to understand the meaning of Our Lord’s life, regret His “ultimate death.” “How sad,” they say; “undone at such an age! His best years still before him! Think of the miracles He might have wrought, the wise words He would have spoken! In a few more years the Pharisees themselves would have fallen to their knees before Him!” They forget that Jesus had come to redeem the world by offering Himself in sacrifice. And to make His sacrifice as generous as possible, He made it in the full vigor of His young manhood. My God, I will to accept death, whatever and whenever it may be, in union with Christ’s death, to help save souls.
4. The Way of the Cross: “They led Him away to be crucified.” Simon was glad, after a while, to help Christ with His Cross; the holy women wept as He passed by; Veronica wiped His Face with her veil. But Mary just looked at her Son. Her Son, her Child, her Baby, her God … Mary and Jesus looked at each other. The heart of God, the heart of God’s Mother, loving each other with immense love; each perfectly submissive to the Father’s adorable will calling upon His Son, and Mary’s Son, to die for the world; but each completely crushed at the other’s immense sorrow. God wants me to accept not only my own death, but also, when God calls them, the passing of those I love. Like Mary, I’ll be overcome with grief; like Mary, I must say “Fiat” to God’s will.
5. The Crucifixion: “Into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” Dying had not been an easy matter for Jesus. But being dead was glorious. The world, though it did not know it, was redeemed; all creation had become the Chosen Race. Heaven would soon be filled with a multitude of souls who were patiently awaiting their release from Limbo. After His death, Jesus hastened to announce their deliverance, bringing with Him the soul of the Good Thief. All the bitter suffering He had borne for the world was a thing of the past. Glory and honor and power and exaltation and endless bliss awaited Him in His Father’s house, where He reigns forever. Death is not the end of life. It is only after death that I will really begin to live.

Glorious Mysteries [Mary and Myself}

1. The Resurrection: “Son, behold thy Mother!” Meditating upon all your high privileges, Mary, fills me with deepest admiration. But you care very little about that. Admiration is an easy virtue. You want more than awe; you want imitation. You want me to love your Son as you loved Him; to love my family and relatives as you loved Joseph and Elizabeth; to love my friends as you loved your neighbors at Nazareth; to love and pray for my enemies as you prayed for those who crucified your Son. And you want me to love you with all my heart, as Jesus did with all of His. When you rose from the dead, Jesus, you went first to see your Mother. May she hold first place in my heart, after You.
2. The Ascension: “They went back to Jerusalem.” When you appear in the Gospels, Mary, you are always superior to situations, ever avoiding extremes. If asked to be God’s Mother, another girl might have pleaded her unworthiness, or become self-complacent; but your consent came from your humility. Of course, you went “hastily” to Elizabeth; but then, charity brooks no delay! At Cana, where Jesus seemed to refuse your request, you neither lost confidence nor berated Him; instead you quietly told the waiters, “Do as He tells you.” On Calvary, you neither swooned from grief nor gave way to anger; you stood by your Son. And when He ascended to Heaven, you neither tried to delay Him, nor mourned His going; you returned to Jerusalem to pray. Mary, teach me the virtue of avoiding extremes in my conduct.
3. Pentecost: “Fiat.” Many astounding graces fell to the Apostles’ lot on Pentecost; and perhaps the most remarkable was their new-born desire to suffer for Christ. Not merely the resigned acceptance of suffering, but joy of heart in the midst of contempt and persecution. You did not receive that grace on Pentecost, Mary. It had been conceived in your heart long before, when Jesus was conceived in your womb. You had read and meditated upon the Old Testament Prophets. You knew the Messiah would one day become “A worm and no man, the outcast of the people.” You knew He would “tread the winepress for the Virgin daughter of Juda” – for the Church, and for you, Mary. But because that was God’s will, you said “Fiat” with a heart full of joy and thanksgiving. Mary, help me to be patient, and more than patient, in suffering.
4. The Assumption: “I have espoused thee to Me in faith.” When you were assumed to Heaven, Mary, two of your noblest virtues dissolved in the light of glory. Your faith melted into sight, hope blossomed into possession. But not until you reached Heaven. While on earth, you lived the most perfect life of faith the world has ever known. Mere reason did not tell you that Jesus was God. You believed it, because an angel said it; and Jesus Himself said it; you took their word for it. When you saw your Son dying on the Cross; you did not see the world being reconciled to God. You believed it, because Jesus had declared that, by His death, He would draw all things to Himself. Mary, help me to live a “life of faith” – to believe, and to act accordingly.
5. The Coronation: “My delight is to be with the children of men.” Many non-Catholics, not understanding you, Mary, think it unnecessary to love you. They think there should be no one between the soul and God; they say you are in the way. They don’t realize that your sole interest lies in bringing us closer to God. They say that you keep us from Christ, as a fence separates two fields. But we know that you lead us to Christ, as a fence unites two fields. I love you because Jesus did – and because God has placed in your hands all the graces I need to love Him and to keep His commandments. “Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter Heaven,” said Jesus. In Heaven, Mary, you are those children’s Mother.”