First Fridays & First Saturdays

[Lil Red]

How could I explain First Fridays and First Saturdays for an article I'm writing for a newsletter?

[Lil Red]

help?

[littleflower+JMJ]

I attended the First Friday one parish had and the priest explained it as us offering every month to Our Lord and the Blessed Mother for our intentions, and we use the first friday and saturday of the month because we want to offer the first fruits of the month (harvest) and its with those two days because they hold the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. With it being the first Fri and Sat of the month, we are able to ask for the most graces. First Fridays and First Saturdays are important days to rededicate and reconsecrate ourselves and to take part in the sacraments frequently to help us stay in grace and ask for more for the upcoming month.

I know its not a canon law or theology answer but hopefully something to help just alittle until someone smarter than me can answer you! lol

[Era Might]

First Fridays are in honor of the Sacred Heart. Technically there are only nine of them, but a lot of people follow the devotion every month. Our Lord gave the promises of First Friday to St. Margaret Mary. First Saturdays are in honor of the Immaculate Heart, and there are five of them, but some people keep these every month as well. I believe the devotion was given by Our Lady of Fatima.

[N/A Gone]

Since I dont "do" the sacred heart stuff...what exactly is first friday and Saturday?

[Era Might]

Our Lord gave 12 promises to St. Margaret Mary. The final one was:

[quote]In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.[/quote]Our Lady of Fatima told Sr. Lucia:

[quote]Look, my daughter, at my heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at 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 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 fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.[/quote]

[N/A Gone]

St. Mary Margaret?

Fatima?

So, after this "private revelation" we have a change in christian soteriology?

No thank you.

anyway I can be catholic but utterly ignore the private revelations?

[Era Might]

What change? I'm not sure what you mean.

[Church Punk]

The first Friday/ Saturday devotions are centred around making repairation for our sins, the sacriledges and outrages committed thoughout the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Various groups hold differnent types of prayer gatherings for this. IE Blue Army, Alliance of the tw hearts etc. At my parish we have an all night vigil every frist Friday and Saturday. With confession, mass, rosary, all holy offices, and perpetual adoration all done in the spirit of repairation.

[N/A Gone]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1270038' date='May 10 2007, 12:52 PM']What change? I'm not sure what you mean.[/quote]


I dont want to hijack the thread. and I fully respect you Era, maybe it is just a convert thing but issues such as private revelational prayers and "do this and you get this" situations really bother me. I dont "do" them, I dont "do" indulgances. I am not going to preach how I think they are wrong. But I just dont feel they are right in the nature they are done.

Like the first one

"do this and my love will do this..." Does that seem right to you? What about the numerous who are faithful, but have never heard of the magic spell?

I dont mean to be disrespectful, if you wanna do it go ahead. I just sometimes have major issue with catholic practices. If I could be a catholic in theology, hold to the patristic theology. Embrace the eucharist and sacraments in that sense. But ignore the issues in the modern mass, as well as the practices like this. well, I would have never converted

[Era Might]

It is not a magic spell. When the rich young man came to Our Lord and asked how he could receive eternal life, what did Our Lord tell him?

[quote]If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.

--Matthew 19:21[/quote]
Why did the man have to sell everything he had? Why was his treasure in Heaven dependent upon this action? Because it was a way for him to remove obstacles to God in his life. When Our Lord gives us a special message and devotion, they are not magic spells. They are ways for us to be holy, and special opportunities for grace. First Fridays and First Saturdays are a way for us to receive Holy Communion, to confess our sins, and to rededicate ourselves to the will of God. If the rich young man had sold everything, but did not give up his sins, he would not have entered eternal life. The same is true of First Fridays and other devotions such as the scapular. They assume that we are living lives of holiness. They do not magically keep us from sin, but they are vehicles of grace to help us on our way to Heaven, if we cooperate with grace in the rest of our lives.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1270077' date='May 10 2007, 12:29 PM']I dont want to hijack the thread. and I fully respect you Era, maybe it is just a convert thing but issues such as private revelational prayers and "do this and you get this" situations really bother me. I dont "do" them, I dont "do" indulgances. I am not going to preach how I think they are wrong. But I just dont feel they are right in the nature they are done.

Like the first one

"do this and my love will do this..." Does that seem right to you? What about the numerous who are faithful, but have never heard of the magic spell?

I dont mean to be disrespectful, if you wanna do it go ahead. I just sometimes have major issue with catholic practices. If I could be a catholic in theology, hold to the patristic theology. Embrace the eucharist and sacraments in that sense. But ignore the issues in the modern mass, as well as the practices like this. well, I would have never converted[/quote]

It's fine to ignore Private Revelation (though I think it's somewhere in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that there are private revelations), but one cannot ignore indulgences: They are a part of the dogma of the Catholic Church.

Denzinger 740a, 758, 989, 998:

740a And lest in the future anyone should allege ignorance of the doctrine of the Roman Church concerning such indulgences and their ellicacy, or excuse himself under pretext of such ignorance, or aid himself by pretended protestations, but that these same persons may be convicted as guilty of notorious lying and be justly condemned, we have decided that you should be informed by these presents that the Roman Church, which the other churches are bound to follow as their mother, has decreed that the Roman Pontiff, the successor of PETER the key bearer, and the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, by the power of the keys, to which it belongs to open the kingdom of heaven, by removing the obstacles in the faithful of Christ (namely the fault and punishment due to actual sins, the fault by means of the sacrament of penance, but the temporal punishment due for actual sins according to divine justice by means of the indulgence of the Church), for the same reasonable causes can concede indulgences from the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints to these same faithful of Christ, who belong to Christ by the charity that joins the members, whether they be in this life or in purgatory; and by granting an indulgence by apostolic authority to the living as well as to the dead, has been accustomed to dispense from the treasury of the merits of Jesus Christ and the saints, and by means of absolution to confer that same indulgence or to transfer it by means of suffrage. And for that reason that all, the living as well as the dead, who have truly gained such indulgences, are freed from such temporal punishment due for their actual sins according to divine justice, as is equivalent to the indulgence granted and acquired. And thus by apostolic authority in accordance with the tenor of these letters we decree that it should be held by all and be preached under punishment of excommunication, of a sentence automatically imposed latae sententiae. . . . .

758 18. Indulgences are pious frauds of the faithful, and remissions of good works; and they are among the number of those things which are allowed, and not of the number of those which are advantageous. [Condemned in the Bull "Exsurge Domine," June 15, 1520]

989 Since the power of granting indulgences was conferred by Christ on the Church, and she has made use of such power divinely given to her, [cf.Matt. 16:19; 18:18] even in the earliest times, the holy Synod teaches and commands that the use of indulgences, most salutary to a Christian people and approved by the authority of the sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church, and it condemns those with anathema who assert that they are useless or deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them. . . .

998 I steadfastly hold that a purgatory exists, and that the souls there detained are aided by the prayers of the faithful; likewise that the saints reigning together with Christ should be venerated and invoked, and that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics should be venerated. I firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the Mother of God ever Virgin, and also of the other saints should be kept and retained, and that due honor and veneration should be paid to them; I also affirm that the power of indulgences has been left in the Church by Christ, and that the use of them is especially salutary for the Christian people.

[Aloysius]

promises from private revelation are just describing one way to accomplish that favor with God; not the primary or only way. you are free to ignore them.

but indulgences are an important doctrine: you must on the one hand repent of your sins and be forgiven, and on the other hand attempt to [i]repair the damage[/i] caused by sin through prayer and penance. Since the Church is the Body of Christ on Earth, with the power to bind and loose, one must look to her for where she places the effective remedies; she places them on good prayers which will enrich your prayer life and, by participating in them, you will receive indulgences and graces from God through the Church; just like one goes to receive the sacraments from the Church, and not apart from the Church, one must also go to the Church to receive indulgences, ie that which repairs the damage done to your soul by sin which still remains after you are forgiven.

[The Joey-O]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1270077' date='May 10 2007, 01:29 PM']I dont want to hijack the thread. and I fully respect you Era, maybe it is just a convert thing but issues such as private revelational prayers and "do this and you get this" situations really bother me. I dont "do" them, I dont "do" indulgances. I am not going to preach how I think they are wrong. But I just dont feel they are right in the nature they are done.

Like the first one

"do this and my love will do this..." Does that seem right to you? What about the numerous who are faithful, but have never heard of the magic spell?

I dont mean to be disrespectful, if you wanna do it go ahead. I just sometimes have major issue with catholic practices. If I could be a catholic in theology, hold to the patristic theology. Embrace the eucharist and sacraments in that sense. But ignore the issues in the modern mass, as well as the practices like this. well, I would have never converted[/quote]

I think you may be having a hard time with an understanding of indulgences, but before I go there, I want to briefly make a note about your argument. I would point out that we believe basically what you say when we go through the act of baptism. We believe that God's love grants us grace that cleanses our soul from original sin and from all sins we've committed thus far both in eternal and temporal punishment. We believe that the act of receiving the Eucharist adds more grace to our lives. We believe that Reconciliation cleanses our soul from the further sins we commit and adds more grace. Acts do carry grace with them, not because of our effort to earn the grace but because God chose those acts to carry His grace.

One then asks how is sin cleansed? The answer that the Church teaches (if I'm wrong on, this correct me. I'm fairly certain that, generally speaking I'm right, but my language may be off.) that sin is forgiven in Reconciliation and Baptism, the guilt is removed, our relationship with God is restored. In Baptism this occurs both eternally and temporally. In Reconciliation, this occurs only eternally. The temporal ramifications of your sin still exist. To put it analagously: If take up smoking and, after a while, realize that it was a stupid thing to do, you repent of that action and stop smoking. At that point, you've recommitted yourself to a life of health and are heading in the right direction (loosely analogous to guilt and eternal punishment removed...I guess). However, you still have damage on your lungs. Somehow, one needs to scrub the lungs clean and get them back into good shape (ok, so it's not a very good analogy).

I wont venture a guess as to why one cleanses eternally and temporally and the other only eternally. I don't have time to look this up, gotta finish papers. So, if anyone wants to explain this better, it would be really helpful.

Anyways, indulgences aid in the temporal formation of the soul. It really isn't enough that we are cleansed, there is an ontological restoration that must occur in the soul. When we sin, there is litterally damage done to the soul. Post Baptism God forgives us for committing a sin against Him in Reconciliation, but at the same time He chooses to let us work out the restoration of the soul. The wording of these particular indulgences (Fatima and St. Mary Margaret) seems sort of strange. I don't think anyone here would deny that if one rejects God after going through the indulgences, then they forfeit eternal life. Also, it seems that the promise of salvation is given through baptism. It's just contingent on the person remaining faithful.

[Aloysius]

these promises aren't indulgences; though there are indulgences attached to this particular devotion.

the promises are just pious beleifs stemming from a private revelation. if one really truly and sincerely follows this devotion, I really do believe that promise that they will have the grace of final repentence. but that's from private revelation, that's not really so much about induglences as it is about saying that they will have strengthened their faith enough that they will be able to persevere till the end.

Anyway, your analogy was pretty spot on there. from whence are you getting that baptism clears everything both eterally and temporily completely? I don't dispute it, it may be worded correctly like that somewhere, maybe the context would help me understand; but it is my understanding (if not based on theology, then based on common sense and observation) that a baptized person is still subject to the temporal effects of original sin and any actual sin (if he wasn't baptized as a babe)... case in point, all of the things listed as consequences of the fall still apply to baptized persons (death, sickness, labor pains, et cetera); and baptized persons do not to my knowledge completely stop being tempted and affected by the sins they committed prior to their baptism.