What is First Saturday Devotion?

Meditation Set #1:  (Month of March)

Joyful Mysteries [Providence]



1. The Annunciation: “The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” As a child, Mary had vowed her virginity to God; and gone was any earthly hope of becoming the Savior’s mother. Other Jewish maidens might cherish such an honor. But Mary’s love for God was so great that she could not find self in it; that she was renouncing anything did not even occur to her. She simply loved God unto virginity, and left everything else to Him. That is how she became a Virgin Mother. Mary was totally abandoned to God’s Providence, and God did impossible things for her. I am in the palm of His hand; when things seem darkest, it is His hand closing over me - “the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” Total confidence in God - my happy obligation!
2. The Visitation: “The moment that the sound of thy greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leapt for joy.” The Savior must have a mother worthy of Him; that is why God created Mary Immaculate. His precursor, John the Baptist, should have credentials proportioned to His office; God would make His birth immaculate. That was one reason for the Mystery of the Visitation, though Mary did not know it. She greeted her aged cousin with warm affection, and at her words sanctifying grace poured into the soul of Elizabeth’s unborn child. Providence is not an atmospheric generality; it walks the earth. Mary’s words were John’s Providence. My family, my friends, my faith, my talents, my duties, my circumstances - these spell Providence, God’s Will, for me.
3. The Nativity: “There was no room.” This is a Joyful Mystery, but not a comfortable one. The hilly, hundred-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was always tiring and often dangerous; and Mary was but a few days from childbirth when she made it. Bethlehem, King David’s town, was host, seemingly, to all of David’s descendants. The courtyard inn was prosperously overcrowded, with room for more; but no room for Mary. The best that Joseph could do for her was a dark, damp, ill-smelling cave. Drama there was none; they were just cold and tired, and at peace. And in this “God-forsaken place,” God was born. Some people call pleasant things “providential.” Mary and Joseph thought everything was. Nothing is “God-forsaken”; everything God-foreseen. A truth for me to live by!
4. The Presentation in the Temple: “(Simeon) received Him into His arms and blessed God ... and she (Anna) began to give praise to the Lord.” Anna was something of a local phenomenon in Jerusalem. Everyone knew the story: how, as a young widow, she had come to the temple one day to pray, and had been there, praying and fasting, ever since - for all of sixty years! She had always been there, they used to say; she was more than a celebrity; she was a tradition. Simeon was neither. He was only “some old man down by the gate”; everyone had seen him, but no one took note of him. Anna, the temple figure, and Simeon of no renown - Providence chose both as the Savior’s childhood Prophets. Providence still “chooses both”; the “nobodies,” the “somebodies” are equally the instruments of God. His plans for me depend on what I am inside.
5. The Finding of Jesus in the Temple: “And not finding Him, they returned to Jerusalem in search of Him.” Mary had walked many times along the “strange ways” of Providence. An angel had proclaimed her God’s Virgin Mother; a sky full of angels had caroled the birth of her Son; a new star brought Magi to His feet; Simeon’s bittersweet prophecies were still her daily bread. But now Mary was just a mother who had lost her boy. She waited not a minute for angel or prophet. She began to look for Jesus. No one ever trusted Providence as Mary did, and no one ever searched as hard as she. God’s Providence saw to it that Jesus was returned to His Mother - after she had searched for Him. God provides - if I provide!

Sorrowful Mysteries [Penance]

1. The Agony: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus loved to be with His Apostles, and to preach to the multitudes; but He also loved to be alone with His Father. The Apostles were used to seeing Him leave their company after sunset, to spend His nights by Himself on a mountainside, praying. They talked about it among themselves and, when not too tired, wished they could accompany Him. They had their chance at last on Holy Thursday night; Jesus invited Peter, James, and John to watch and pray with Him on Mount Olivet. And they failed Him. He rose from His agony and found them asleep. Jesus is still in agony in His Body, the Catholic Church. If I am near a church or chapel, can I not watch one hour with Him in reparation for sin?
2. The Scourging: “He scourged Jesus.” Not the least of Christ’s miracles was His continual escape from physical suffering at the hands of His enemies. Divine intervention had prevented the Child-Christ’s death, and He came to no harm even in the pagan land of Egypt. His fellow townsmen, angered by His first sermon in the synagogue, dragged Him off to a high cliff to do away with Him, “but He departed from their midst.” Even when the elements seemed to conspire against Him as He crossed the storm-swept Sea of Galilee, Jesus slept unconcernedly. But it was quite otherwise on Good Friday, when Roman soldiers tied Him to a post and lashed His Body to ribbons. It is impossible to avoid suffering for long. Christ accepted His pain to atone for my sins. He wants me to do the same.
3. The Crowning: “Going out, he wept bitterly.” While Jesus was being outraged in the praetorium, while the soldiers scoffed and the Pharisees exulted, while the people called Christ’s blood upon their heads, one man wept and wept. In a lonely corner of the city, or perhaps in the seclusion of Olivet, brokenhearted Peter cried His heart’s blood out at the thought of what he had done to Jesus. How proud he had been that day a year ago when he said to Jesus: “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter had been the first to confess Christ; now he was the first to deny Him. Like Judas, he might have gone out and hanged himself; instead, he went out and wept. Judas was desperately sorry; Peter was humbly contrite. The heart of penance is repentance.
4. The Way of the Cross: “They led Him away to be crucified.” A woman followed Jesus as He made His slow way to Calvary. Her eyes betrayed her anxiety to draw near to Jesus. It was not an easy thing to do. The guards surrounding Jesus wasted no courtesy on the crowd that milled about; when a passerby delayed the procession, a soldier’s sword spun him out of the way. Still the woman followed; and her chance came. Jesus fell on His face; the soldiers busied themselves in flogging Him to His feet, and were even grudgingly grateful when Veronica ran up and wiped Jesus’ face with her veil. Veronica’s small service was heroic because it was done for Christ. By offering my thoughts, words, and actions to God often during the day, I turn them into “Veronica’s veils” for the suffering Body of Christ, His Church.
5. The Crucifixion: “Not a bone of Him shall you break.” The mere listing of Jesus’ sufferings in His Passion seem to exhaust the possibilities of human misfortune. In such agony, that He sweated blood; betrayed, denied, deserted; arrested, falsely accused, condemned unjustly; blindfolded, spat upon, beaten; ridiculed by Herod, scourged by Pilate; crowned with thorns; loaded with the Cross and then nailed to it; enduring utter dereliction of soul in the midst of a terrible thirst; and even after death, His side was opened with a lance. Yet Jesus never experienced two common evils. As the unblemished Lamb of God, He had never been afflicted by disease; and as the Paschal Lamb of sacrifice, not a bone of His crucified Body was broken. Illness and painful accidents - through them, patiently borne, “I fill up what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ.”

Glorious Mysteries [Purgatory]

1. The Resurrection: “He descended into Limbo.” There were many holy men before the time of Christ, but no Saints. That is, none of them had yet entered Heaven. Sin had locked the gates of their Father’s House, and until Jesus inserted the key of His Cross, they were detained in Limbo. Between His death and resurrection, Jesus visited these souls, some already purified, others still suffering, to proclaim their redemption. Adam and Eve were there; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; all Jew and Gentile, who had died in God’s friendship. There, in the dwelling of the dead, Jesus preached the dawning of eternal life. Like Limbo, Purgatory is a reality. “Nothing undefiled shall enter into Heaven.” If burying the dead is a work of mercy, praying for the dead is more merciful still.
2. The Ascension: “They shall be saved - by fire.” One of the mysteries of Calvary was the twin presence in Christ’s soul of the joyful Beatific Vision and the most terrible suffering. Christ on the Cross, drinking from the fountains of life while dying in terrible thirst; lost in bliss at the sight of His Father, yet crying out, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”; bathed in the light of God, yet preyed upon by the powers of darkness. This great mystery of the Cross is faintly reflected by the souls in Purgatory. Their joy is unspeakable; they are saved, and drawing nearer to Heaven every moment. But their suffering is enormous; they would welcome all the pains of earth put together in exchange for the torments they endure. Christ’s ascension to Heaven followed Calvary. Mine will follow Purgatory - unless I avoid Purgatory by avoiding sin.
3. Pentecost: “Tongues of fire rested on them” Jesus did not choose for His Apostles men of iron wills. He chose (as God always does choose) “the weak things of the earth.” He chose Peter, who “savored not the things of God,” and denied His Master thrice; He chose James and John who wanted the first two places in Heaven; He chose Philip who, after three years, did not recognize the Heavenly Father in Jesus; He chose Judas, who sold Him and bought Hell for thirty pieces of silver. Weak, untrustworthy, timorous, sinful men, the Apostles - until Pentecost. Then, divine fire came down upon them, and they went forth “rejoicing to suffer for the name of Jesus.” Purgatory has two fires. One, like the first of Pentecost, is God Himself. More searing than any earthly fire, the infinite purity of His presence purifies the Poor Souls.
4. The Assumption: “Purify your souls with love.” The Mother of God died of love. God has poured so much love for Himself into her soul that at last she could not contain it without having Him as well. So she died. She never felt the weakness of old age, or disease, or physical suffering. Her agony was the pain of love. When her soul had reached its incomparable perfection, God took her up to Heaven, as one might pick a lovely flower full-blown in a field. Mary’s love for God caused her death; God’s love for Mary brought her, pure body and soul, to Heaven. “Love causes the chiefest pain.” What was true for Mary is true for the souls in Purgatory. It is their growing love for God alone that torments them until their release.
5. The Coronation: “God has prepared for me a crown of justice.” Mary had been given many wonderful privileges without any merit of her own; her Immaculate Conception, for example, and her initial fullness of grace. But her Coronation was not such a gift. She bought her Heavenly glory with her earthly sufferings; the Cross had won her the crown. She is Queen of the Angels, because she is closer to God than they; but she is also Queen of Martyrs because she suffered more for God than all the martyrs together. The seven stars about her head are her Seven Sorrows, their splendor outshone by her Son’s glorious wounds. Heaven suffers violence. I must suffer patiently now, and merit greater happiness in Heaven; or I will suffer in Purgatory, with greater pain and no merit.