What is First Saturday Devotion?

Meditation Set #1:  (Month of February)

Joyful Mysteries [God in the Soul]



1. The Annunciation: “The Lord is with thee.” Gabriel, going from God to the Virgin Mary, merely exchanged one paradise for another. A sea of grace, Mary’s soul, almost without shore, depth, horizon. So perfect was she - “The limits of the Infinite,” one Church Father called her - that even the Lord God would become incarnate in her. The Virgin Mary, bright diamond set in the ring of all mankind, engaging Heaven to earth. But God is more mindful of His mercy than of His dignity. In every soul in the state of grace, the Blessed Trinity dwells, as truly, actually, as in Heaven, though unseen. I am not always near a church, but always I can pray to God in my soul.
2. The Visitation: “And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” In her old age, Elizabeth was with child - “The Elias who was to come” - and even the townsfolk didn’t know. According to Jewish custom, Elizabeth “secluded herself for five months,” and Zechariah had been struck dumb for His doubting! The secret was, gratifyingly, all theirs. So they thought, until Mary came from Nazareth to congratulate them. But Mary’s own secret must be given in exchange. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth cried out, “How have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” By the light of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth knows that Jesus was in Mary. Like Elizabeth, I can develop the habit of seeing Christ in my neighbor - a vital part of true Christian living. Prayerful devotion to the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Jesus,” is the key.
3. The Nativity: “She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes.” The fullness of time. The Mother of God held, wrapped in white swaddling clothes, the fruit of her womb - her arms white with the Harvest of her virgin body. But this was not an autumn, not a completion, not the final brush-stroke on a masterpiece. It was spring, the young beginning of new things, the first unpretentious line across a canvas. It was mere dawn’s perfection. Jesus had come to grow in wisdom and age and strength, then to teach, and then redeem, and finally to sanctify what He had saved with His Spirit, sent into the Church and into the hearts of men. The Holy Spirit living in my soul - that is the ultimate purpose of Christmas. Bethlehem looked forward - to me.
4. The Presentation in the Temple: “He came by inspiration of the Spirit into the temple.” Simeon stood in the shadow of the Temple gate, dim eyes dancing with expectation. He should have been “gathered to His fathers” long since, this bearded ancient. But hope had tethered His soul; God had promised him sight of the Christ. Crowds passed him by; then he saw Joseph and Mary holding Jesus. Common folk they were, and the Child like any other - as common as bread and wine. But Simeon stepped forward into the sunlight; His eyes had seen His salvation. The Holy Spirit led Simeon to the Temple and showed him God in a Child. My faith, too, is His doing. Soon, perhaps, I may need a great deal more. The Holy Spirit lives in my soul; iron faith is mine for the asking.
5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple: “Son, why has thou done so to us?” Jesus loved Mary and Joseph as only a Son who is God can love. Yet, without telling, He stayed behind in Jerusalem as they set out for Nazareth. He foresaw in detail the three-day agony, theirs for His tarrying. Their groundless self-reproach reproved Him; every step of their piteous searching was tracked across His heart. But it was “His Father’s business.” Completely at peace, Jesus returned to the Temple, where God’s Will was. Courage to do what God wants, whatever others may think - I need that every hour of the day. It is a Gift of the Holy Spirit in my soul. Constant praying to Him will give me strength to do God’s Will perfectly.

Sorrowful Mysteries [Judas]

1. The Agony: “Him who I kiss is the One. Hold Him fast.” No one who knew Jesus, or heard Him speak, or watched miracles radiate from His compassionate power, could remain indifferent to Him. If one did not love Jesus ardently, one hated Him. Even as a baby, He was hated by Herod who tried to murder Him; yet the Christ Child was loved by wiser men from the East. Pharisees hated Him with the cancerous malice bred of envy; the Apostles loved Him like little children. Even Judas had loved Him. And, infinitely, Jesus had loved Judas. The traitor’s kiss in the Garden was more than a sign for the soldiers - it was the memorial of a dead love. Jesus would rather be scourged by His frank enemies than be kissed by a treacherous friend. That is why my sins hurt Him more than the crimes of men who hate Him openly.
2. The Scourging: “Judas was full of remorse at seeing Him condemned.” In the early hours of Good Friday morning, Judas committed two great sins. He sold God the Son for silver that was His first crime. Then, realizing the enormity of such an act, and with waves of remorse surging over His poor soul, he sinned again, with scarcely less enormity and with an eternal finality - he doubted the mercy of God, and despaired of forgiveness. He thought His sin too big for God to forget. Judas could have become a great saint after betraying Jesus. Think of the heights of perfect humility he might have ascended had he turned to God for pardon. Jesus, who call Judas “friend” in the Garden, is offended less by betrayal than by despair.
3. The Crowning: “He brought back the thirty pieces of silver.” Midway through the Last Supper Satan entered Judas. St. John, reminiscing on the scene as he wrote His gospel, added a phrase that tells exactly the state of Judas’ soul: “And now it was night.” His soul was indeed black as night, and blind to the arresting blend of meekness and might he had once loved in Jesus. Judas’ one concern was the money His treachery would secure. Once the deed was done, however, sight was returned to His soul, and he saw His guilt with terrible clarity. “The price of Him was prized” shining dully in His hand was too much for him to bear. He ran to the Temple and flung the thirty coins at the Pharisees’ feet. Judas lost Jesus; then he lost the price he paid for Jesus. That is always the way with sin; we lose God, and we lose whatever we prefer to God.
4. The Way of the Cross: “I have sinned in betraying the blood of an innocent man.” What seems to be, on Judas’ part, a candid confession of His crime in all its terrible malice - “I have sinned; my sin is treachery; the man I betrayed is guiltless” - is actually an admission of rank infidelity. Judas did not believe that “the blood of an innocent man” was the Blood of an innocent God. Three years of close companionship did not open Judas’ eyes to Christ’s radiant divinity. That is why Judas the Apostle became Judas the Apostate. To realize Whom I offend when I commit sin is the surest way to overcome temptation. I should pray for a strong, living, practical faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
5. The Crucifixion: “Judas left then, and went and hanged himself.” Judas was an ambitious man, shrewd and wise. With many of His contemporaries, he was awaiting the restoration of Israel, God’s kingdom come on earth, and he was shrewd enough to see that the wonder-working Jesus would establish it. But Judas didn’t care at all for Christ’s way of reigning on earth. He had paid very close attention to Jesus’ talk about the Cross and the blessings of poverty, and it disgusted him. So he sold Jesus. Then he went and hanged himself. Judas had lost both this world and the next. The kingdom of Hell suffers no violence; Judas bought it for only thirty shekels. To refuse the Cross is to lose eternal happiness.

Glorious Mysteries [The Sacraments]

1. The Resurrection: “Thou has anointed Him with holy oil.” From the time when Samuel anointed Saul as first king of the Jews, the leaders of the Israelites were God’s “anointed ones.” Especially would their Savior, their “Jesus,” be their Messiah, their anointed One, their “Christ.” And Jesus Christ, when He came, was anointed King indeed - anointed with the Holy Spirit Himself that every knee in Heaven and on earth should bend before Him. And Jesus was also anointed by Mary of Bethany, as He reclined at table with Simon the leper. She poured out a vial of costly nard upon His head, and she did it for His burial. Extreme Unction, the anointing “for our burial,” has wonderful effects upon the well-disposed. It will be the doorway to my eternal Easter in Heaven, if a holy life has made me worthy of its full effect.
2. The Ascension: “Go teach all nations.” Just before His Ascension, our Lord said to His Apostles, “You are to be my witnesses.” The Apostles and their successors in the priesthood were authorized to preach that “the kingdom of God - the Catholic Church - is at hand.” They could admit men into the Church through Baptism, feed their souls with the Body of the Lord, offer the Holy Sacrifice for them, pray for them in the Church’s name, advise and console them in times of trouble, forgive their sins in the name of Christ. The Catholic priest is Christ’s witness to the world. Priests are human, like all of us, but they are “clothed with power from on high” for our benefit. The Catholic priest, father of our souls, deserves His children’s love.
3. Pentecost: “Thou art a priest forever.” In Old Testament times, the chief office of the Jewish priest was to offer sacrifice to God - rams, fatlings, the scape-goat, first fruits of the harvest, the Paschal Lamb. Many of these sacrifices were “victims for sin.” Jesus Christ, who came to perfect the Mosaic Law, was at the same time Priest and Victim. “I Myself lay down My life.” The Catholic Priest, “another Christ,” is also a victim. If necessary, he must die for His flock. But he must live for His flock, as well. He is not only a “priest forever”; he is a priest, and priestly, all the time. Catholic priests make many hidden sacrifices for their flocks, sacrifices known only to God. Miraculous Pentecostal graces are not at hand to support them; they need our prayers.
4. The Assumption: “Male and female He made them.” In Eden, Adam had God above him to love, and all creation below him to rule and delight in. But he had no one, at first, to share His happiness. “Not good,” said God; and out of Adam He made Eve to be His bride, and the mother of our race. Thousands of years after, in a setting by no means paradisial, God made a “Man born of a Woman” - in a Bethlehem cave; Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. But Mary was not only His Virgin Mother. She was His spiritual Bride. On Calvary, Mary was given as the Heavenly Mother of all the children of men. The Sacrament of Matrimony reflects the sacred union of Christ and His Bride, the Catholic Church personified by Mary. Marriage is holy. Holy, too, should parents and children be.
5. The Coronation: “Increase and multiply.” With omnipotent ease, simply by willing what He had thought upon, God created all things out of nothingness. Compared with Him, the star-laden universe is no more spectacular than a kicked-up cloud of dust. But on one of those specks of dust, the Earth, He has fastened all His loving attention. It is the home of His favorite child, Man. So much does God love the human race that He himself became a Man to make us love Him more. And though men can do absolutely nothing by themselves, God has given them a mighty power, with everlasting consequences. They have the power to beget eternal children. Marriage ends with death; but the fruit of marriage will live forever. The eternal happiness of children depends largely upon the virtue of their parents.