Where does the First Saturdays Reparatory Communion come from?

In Fatima, Portugal, Father Gonçalvès, who had replaced Father Aparicio as Sister Lucia’s confessor, asked her to respond in writing to five questions on the devotion of the first Saturdays of the month. Here is an excerpt of Sister Lucia’s answers:

1.  When was this request made? On December 10, 1925.

How? By an apparition of Our Lord and of the Most Blessed Virgin who showed me her Immaculate Heart surrounded by thorns and asking for reparation.

Where? In Pontevedra (Passage Isabella II). The first apparition (took place) in my room, the second near the gate of the garden where I worked.

2. What are the required conditions? For five months, on the first Saturday, receive Holy Communion, say the Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, and go to confession with the same intention. Confession can be made on another day, provided one is in a state of grace while receiving Holy Communion.

3. The benefits or promises?

"To the souls who will seek to make reparation to me in this way (Our Lady says), I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for their salvation".

4. Why five Saturdays and not nine, or seven in honor of the sorrows of Our Lady?

Finding myself in the chapel with Our Lord for part of the night of the 29th to the 30th of this month of May 1930, and speaking to Our Lord about questions four and five, I suddenly felt possessed more intimately by the divine presence and, if I am not mistaken, here is what was revealed to me:

“My daughter, the reason is simple. There are five kinds of offenses and blasphemies uttered against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1) blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception,

2) blasphemies against her virginity,

3) blasphemies against her divine maternity, refusing at the same time to recognize her as Mother of men,

4) the blasphemies of those who publicly seek to instill in the hearts of children indifference or contempt, or even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother,

5) the offenses of those who outrage her directly in her holy pictures.

“This, my daughter, is the reason for which the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired me to ask for this small reparation, and, in consideration of it, to show my mercy and forgive those unfortunate souls who have offended her. As for you, seek unceasingly, by your prayers and your sacrifices, to direct my mercy towards these poor souls”.

Sister Lucia also confided to Father Aparicio (letter of March 19, 1939):

“Peace or war in the world depends on the practice of this devotion, united with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why I have so desired its propagation; and then, above all because such is the will of our good God and of our dear Heavenly Mother.”

Source: www.fatima100.fr