Dear WAF Spiritual Directors, 

The Holy Season of Lent will be with us and the preparations for Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum. 

You will note that in this centennial year of the First Saturday Devotion, as we try to promote and raise awareness of this essential but sadly neglected part of the Fatima Message, the 4th of April, a First Saturday of the month, is Holy Saturday. 

The observance and fulfilment of the Devotion with the conditions requested by Our Lady may cause some confusion. 

Many parishes will have a regular yearly schedule for the Triduum. May I kindly offer some practical ways to help keep the 1st Saturday. 

Morning Prayer of the Church Lauds. 

The celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, perhaps at a tomb or an image of Our Lady of Sorrows as suggested in the Directory of Popular Piety, could include some time for confession and a 15minute meditation and recitation of the Rosary. 

Holy Saturday is the day that reminds us of the sorrows of Our Lady but also of the hope in her Immaculate Heart as she awaits Easter Sunday. A meditation on the crucifixion, the 5th Sorrowful Mystery, can easily incorporate the 13th and 14th Stations of the Cross and the grief of Our Lady. 

Confession and meditation and the Rosary, three of the four conditions, can thus be fulfilled on Holy Saturday morning. The confession requirement, of course, can be fulfilled during Holy Week or the following week of Divine Mercy Sunday. 

The remaining condition of Holy Communion can be fulfilled at the Easter Vigil or indeed on Easter Sunday morning. This is a possibility clearly attested to by Sr Lucia when she asks the Lord about Vigil Mass or a Sunday Mass when it is not possible through the year to receive Holy Communion on a Saturday morning. 

May I encourage you to plan ahead the schedule as best as you can and, if necessary, to ask some of the faithful to lead the Rosary and meditation to free priests up for confessions.

Ave María 

Canon Jason Jones 

National Spiritual Director