Today first Friday of the month: practice, prayers, meditation
THE PRACTICE OF THE FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH
In the famous revelations of Paray le Monial, the Lord asked St. Margaret Maria Alacoque that the knowledge and love of her Heart spread throughout the world, like a divine flame, to rekindle the charity that languished in the hearts of many. Lord, showing her the heart and complaining about the ingratitudes of men, he asked her to attend Holy Communion in reparation, especially on the first Friday of each month. Spirit of love and reparation, this is the soul of this monthly Communion: of love that seeks to reciprocate the ineffable love of the divine Heart towards us; of reparation for the coldness, the ingratitudes, the contempt with which men repay so much love. Many souls embrace this practice of Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month due to the fact that, among the promises that Jesus made to St. Margaret Mary, there is that with which he assured the final penance (that is, the salvation of the soul) to who for nine consecutive months, on the First Friday, had joined him in Holy Communion.
But wouldn't it be much better to decide for Holy Communion on the First Fridays of all the months of our existence?
We all know that, alongside groups of fervent souls who have understood the treasure hidden in the weekly Holy Communion, and, better still, in the daily one, there is an endless number of those who rarely remember during the year or only at Easter, that there is a Bread of life, even for their souls; without taking into account those not even at Easter who feel the need for heavenly nourishment. The monthly Holy Communion constitutes a good frequency for the participation of the divine mysteries. The advantage and the taste that the soul draws from it, perhaps will gently induce to decrease the distance between an encounter and the other with the divine Master, even up to daily Communion, according to the most lively desire of the Lord and the Holy Church. But this monthly meeting must be preceded, accompanied and followed by such sincerity of dispositions that the soul truly comes out refreshed. The most certain sign of the fruit obtained will be the observation of the progressive improvement of our conduct, that is, of the greater resemblance of our heart to the Heart of Jesus, through faithful and loving observance of the ten commandments. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (Jn 6,54:XNUMX)
THE PROMISES OF OUR LORD FOR THE DEVOTEES OF HIS SACRED HEART
Blessed Jesus, appearing to St. Margaret Maria Alacoque and showing her his Heart, shining like the sun with the brightest light, made the following promises for his devotees:
1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state 2. I will put and keep peace in their families 3. I will console them in all their pains 4. I will be their safe refuge in life and especially at the point of death 5. I will spread copious blessings on all their endeavors 6. Sinners will find in my Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy 7. Lukewarm souls will become fervent 8. Fervent souls will soon reach great perfection 9. My blessing will also lay on the houses where the image of my Heart will be exposed and honored 10. To the priests I will give the grace to move the hardest hearts 11. The people who propagate this devotion will have their name written in my Heart and it will never be canceled.
12. To all those who, for nine consecutive months, will communicate on the first Friday of each month, I promise the grace of final perseverance: they will not die in my misfortune, but will receive the Holy Sacraments (if necessary) and my Heart their asylum will be safe at that extreme moment.
The twelfth promise is called "great", because it reveals the divine mercy of the Sacred Heart towards humanity.
These promises made by Jesus have been authenticated by the authority of the Church, so that every Christian can confidently believe in the faithfulness of the Lord who wants everyone safe, even sinners.
CONDITIONS To make oneself worthy of the Great Promise it is necessary to: 1. Approach Communion. Communion must be done well, that is, in the grace of God; therefore, if one is in mortal sin, one must first confess. 2. For nine consecutive months. So who had started the Communions and then out of forgetfulness, illness, etc. had left out even one, it must start over.
3. Every first Friday of the month. The pious practice can be started in any month of the year.
SOME DOUBTS
IF, AFTER YOU HAVE THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS WITH THE DUE PROVISIONS, A FALL IN DEADLY SIN, AND THEN DIE SUDDENLY, HOW COULD YOU SAVE YOURSELF?
Jesus promised, without exception, the grace of the final penance to all those who will have done Holy Communion well on the first Friday of each month for nine consecutive months; therefore it must be believed that, in the excess of his mercy, Jesus gives that dying sinner the grace to issue an act of perfect contrition, before dying.
WHO WOULD MAKE THE NINE COMMUNIONS WITH THE INTENTION OF CONTINUING THEN PEACEFULLY TO SIN, COULD HOPE IN THIS GREAT PROMISE OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS?
Certainly not, on the contrary, he would commit many sacrileges, because by approaching the Holy Sacraments, it is necessary to have the firm resolution to leave sin. One thing is the fear of going back to offending God, and another the malice and the intention to go on sinning.
MEDITATIONS FOR THE FIRST FRIDAY
FRIDAY Repentance.
O Heart of Jesus, ardent furnace of love for all men redeemed by You with Your passion and death of the Cross, I come to you to humbly ask you for forgiveness of so many sins with which I offended Your infinite Majesty and I deserved the punishment of the Your justice. You are full of mercy and for this I come to you, confident of obtaining, together with forgiveness, all the graces you promised to those who would have approached the holy sacraments of Confession and Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months. I recognize myself as a vile sinner, unworthy of all Your favor, and I humble myself before Your infinite goodness, for which you have always sought me and patiently waited for me to come to You to enjoy Your infinite mercy.
Here I am at Your feet, my lovable Jesus, to give you all the adoration and all the love I am capable of, while I beg You: "Have mercy, my God, have mercy on me according to Your great mercy. In Your goodness blot out my sins. Wash me from all my faults. Purify me and I will be cleansed, wash me and be whiter than snow. If you want you can heal my soul. You can do everything, my Lord: save me. "
II FRIDAY Faith. Here I am, my Jesus, on the Friday of the second month, the day that reminds me of the martyrdom you underwent to reopen the gates of Heaven and escape from the bondage of the devil; this thought should suffice to understand how great your love for me is. Instead I am so late in mind and so hard in heart that I have always found it hard to understand and answer you. You are close to me and I feel You far away, because I believe in You, but with a faith so weak and so clouded by so much ignorance and by so much attachment to myself, that I cannot feel Your loving presence. Then I beg you, O my Jesus: increase my faith, annihilate in me what you don't like and prevent me from seeing Your features of Father, Redeemer, Friend. Give me a living faith that makes me attentive to Your word and makes me love it like the good seed that You throw in the soil of my soul. Nothing can disturb the faith that I have in You: neither doubt, nor temptation, nor sin, nor scandal.
Make my faith pure and crystalline, without the weight of my personal interests, without the conditioning of life's problems. Let me believe only because it is you who speak. And you alone have words of eternal life.
III FRIDAY Trust.
My Jesus, I come to you to fill my heart in need of love, because he often feels alone. Too many times I have trusted men and often my trust has been betrayed. Today I give you my trust, I give it to you in the most absolute measure, because I know that you will carry me on your arms, towards the best destinations. You are the only one who deserves man's trust: full, total trust, because you have never failed in Your word. You are the faithful God, the Creator who has stretched the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. The world is dizzy; You give love, serenity and peace. You give the certainty of being saved and in your name every Friday many souls rise to the life of grace. In your name I too rose today in the certainty of being saved, because you promised it. With Your Great Promise you have manifested Your power, but with Your mercy you have shown love. And ask me for a love response.
Here I am, O Lord, I answer you by giving you all my trust, and since I trust you, I entrust you, in the certainty that every prayer, every renunciation, every sacrifice, offered to you with love, will get a hundred from you for one.
IV FRIDAY Humility.
My Jesus, I believe you present in the SS. Sacramento, an unquenchable source of all good. For Your Body that you give me in Holy Communion, let me contemplate Your face in the Celestial Homeland. Immerse me in the pure wave of Your Blood, O Lord, so that I learn that in hiding, in humble self-sacrifice, peace and joy of hearts are born.The world is pride, display and violence. Instead you teach humility which is service, gentleness, understanding, goodness. You made yourself my food and drink with the Sacrament of Your Body and Blood. And you are my God! You have thus shown me that to save me you had to make yourself humble, hide yourself, let yourself be annihilated. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Your annihilation: anyone can worship or trample on You. And you are God! Human insipidity is capable of any profanation. And you call with love, wait for love. Humble and hidden in the Tabernacle You made yourself the God of waiting. From the bottom of my nothingness I ask you for forgiveness for when I have not listened to Your Voice. My Lord, on this fourth Friday I ask you for the gift of humility. It is humility that saves human relationships, that saves the unity of families, but above all it is humility that makes my relationships with you true and constructive. Because you love the humble and despise the proud, let me be humble to be loved by You. Let me know how to imitate the humble Thy Handmaid, the Virgin Mary, whom you loved for her virginity, but whom you chose for her
humility. This is the gift I want to bring you today: my purpose of being humble.
V FRIDAY The repair. I come to you, my Jesus, with many sins and many defects. You forgave me all in the sacrament of Confession, but I still feel indebted for so much love of reparation: love that erases every trace of my sin, first inside me, and then in the Church, my spiritual mother, whom I have damaged with my sin decreasing in it the love of Your Kingdom. For this reparation I offer you Your own immolated Body and Your blood shed for the salvation of many. Even if very unworthily I offer you, in union with your divine sacrifice, the renunciation of any illicit satisfaction, I offer you every sacrifice required by fidelity to the duties I have towards my family, the sacrifices required by my daily work; I offer you all my physical and moral sufferings, so that numb consciences, sick and upset families, too warm hearts find the way of faith, the brightness of hope, the fruitful ardor of charity. And you, my Jesus
Eucharistic, come to me with Your Holy Spirit, Perfect Comforter. Light up my mind, inflame my heart, so that I can love you with all my strength above all things and thus repair my sins and those of the whole world. Grant me to know how to make you loved even by all my loved ones, until one day you will unite us all in Your eternal Kingdom to enjoy Your mercy in happiness that has no end.
FRIDAY The donation.
My Lord Jesus, You gave yourself to me in the Holy Eucharist to show me how great and powerful Divine Love is. I want to give it to you with unlimited trust and without reservations, because you see the sincerity of my love. But precisely because my love, while being sincere, is so weak and distracted by the things of the world, I want to offer you my total and unconditional donation. I trust that You, with Your grace, will make it ever more true. I firmly believe in you, therefore I seek you by loving you, and I give you all my being and all my things together with my dearest affections, until I constitute one thing with you, because your life I cleansed in my soul. I am sure that if this happens, you will be the consolation that no one else can give me; you will be my strength, my comfort in every day of my life. You gave yourself to me and I give myself totally to you, so that I can understand how big your love is.
On this day you give me your light with full hands, and you make me understand that to make this donation, I must be humble and strong in faith. For this I need your help, your assistance, your strength. This is what I ask you with so much love, because I want to achieve the most intimate closeness to You Eucharistic, not only today, but in all the days of my life. And You, my Lord, make sure that, for this donation to You, I resist every seduction of people, things, money, pride, and is always Your witness, always looking for Your love and Your glory .
VII FRIDAY The abandonment.
Too many times I got confused by getting excited. Then I lost sight of You, my True good, and I forgot the purposes that I gave You in the first preceding Fridays. Now I ask you, O my Jesus, to be You to take care of me and my things. I want to abandon myself completely in You, certain that You will resolve all my spiritual and material situations. I want to peacefully close the eyes of my soul, to turn the thought away from every trouble and from every tribulation and to return to You, because You only work, saying: think about it! I want to close my eyes and let myself be carried by the current of Your grace on the infinite sea of Your love. I want to abandon myself to You to let myself be worked by You, who are the Almighty, with all the trust of my heart. I just want to tell you: you think about it! I don't want to worry about me anymore, because you, who are infinite Wisdom, worry about me, my loved ones, my future. I only ask you: my Lord, think about it. I want to abandon myself in You and rest in You, blindly believing in Your infinite goodness, in the certainty that You will train me to fulfill Your will and you will carry me on Your arms towards what is true good for me.
In my spiritual and material needs, leaving aside worries and anxieties, I will always tell you how now I tell you: my Lord, think about it.
VIII FRIDAY Prayer.
I really have to learn to pray. I understood that instead of doing Your will, I have always asked You to do mine. You came for the sick, but I, instead of asking you for your care, I always suggested mine. I forgot to pray as you taught us in our Father and I forgot that you are a Father full of love. Hallowed be thy name in this necessity of mine. Your kingdom come, also through this situation, in me and in the world. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, having this need of mine as you like best, for my temporal and eternal life. I believe that You are infinite goodness, therefore I am sure that You intervene with all Your omnipotence and resolve the most closed situations. If even the illness persists, I will not be agitated, but I will close my eyes and with such confidence I will tell you: Your will be done. And I will be certain that you will intervene and perform, as divine doctor, every healing, even the miracle if necessary. Because there is no medicine more powerful than your love intervention.
I will no longer trust men, because I know this is what hinders the work of your love. My confident prayer will always be addressed to you, because in you I believe, in you I hope, I love you above all things.
IX FRIDAY The purpose.
I have come to the end of the Nine First Fridays requested by You to fill me with the graces foreseen by Your Great Promise. During these nine months you have helped me to grow in faith and in the life of grace. Your love drew me to you and made me understand how much you suffered to save me and how great is your desire to bring me to salvation. All the love of a God poured out on me, illuminated my soul, strengthened my will and made me understand that there is no use in man even gaining the whole world if he then loses his soul, because lost the soul everything is lost, saved the soul is saved everything. I thank you my Jesus, for so many gifts and I offer you, as a testimony of my gratitude, the purpose of approaching the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion more often with the adoration, respect, devotion and fervor of which I can be capable. . And You continue to assist me, or my Jesus, with Your always vigilant and always merciful love, because I learn to love you for Yourself, even more than for Your benefits. I want to be able to always tell you sincerely: My love, I love you very much. And You who said: "I myself will lead my sheep to pasture and I will make them rest" (Ezekiel 18, 15), lead me too, because you feed me with Your love and always rest on Your heart. In particular I want to offer you in thanks for all your benefits, the purpose of never leaving Mass on Sunday and other holidays, and to teach my family members also about the observance of this third Commandment which You gave us because we come to draw on your love the joy and serenity that no one else can give us.