The Invitation Directly from Jesus Christ: First Friday Devotions
The Invitation Directly from Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ appeared to St. Margaret Mary between 1673 and 1675, and He gave her the 12 Promises. When you say the “Hail Holy Queen” at the end of your Rosary, you say, “Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
To fully understand the First Friday Devotion, we must look at the total Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Catholic Church is governed and taught by the Holy Spirit, so the Church has approved and promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Church instituted the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which, over time, has grown to be celebrated as a solemnly with an octave (8 days) by the universal church after the Octave of Corpus Christi.
You all know that by the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, we lost the right to Heaven, and from the time of Adam and Eve, Heaven was closed. By the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, the Son of God became man.
Then Jesus came and devoted his entire life to the Redemption and restoration of the Human Race. Some of us think all men are saved, but this is untrue. While Jesus allowed himself to be sacrificed on the cross for all of us men, but only some of us will be saved. The gift He gave to us will only be experienced by those who cooperate with the graces of Redemption. We need to be attentive and obedient to the Sacraments we receive. In other words, if you are not doing your part, you MAY not be invited into Heaven.
Jesus and His Father created the Blessed Eucharist, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, supernaturally put into the form of common bread and wine that becomes the Eucharist when the Priest Consecrates it during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. If you do not believe this, stop now and go research the Eucharistic Miracles recorded and reported so that you will believe. The Eucharist is actually the heart of Jesus, and that, my friends, is just a FACT.
In the 18th century, Jesus came to St. Margaret Mary and gave her the 12 Promises. His gift to you and I. The First Friday promise is in His 12th Promise.
The 12th Promise is:
The all-powerful love of My heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance: they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments: My Heart shall be their assured refuge at the Last hour.
What is understood is that to receive Holy Communion, you must have recently gone to Confession and be in a state of grace, with no mortal sins, like missing your Sunday Mass or Holy Days of Obligation.
We live in a time of abundance in many places in the world. We all have more food than we can eat, a comfortable place to live, at least one vehicle, health, and all the stuff we need or think we need. We were talking about teens today and birthday gifts. The teens we know have everything that they want the day after they want it, thanks to Amazon. I’m guessing that is true for you as well.
But most, if not almost everybody, really needs more Jesus. And what most, if not almost everybody, is saying is that they can’t find the time or desire to attend Mass. You have heard the reasons: it’s boring, and I’m not getting anything out of it, or I don’t like Father. Jesus said to St. Margaret Mary:
“Behold this Heart which has loved men so much that It spared no sacrifice, not even death, and annihilation, in order to testify to them Its love. And in return, I receive from the greater part of mankind only ingratitude, by reason of the contempt, irreverence, sacrilege, and coldness which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. This I feel more keenly than all I endured in My Passion.”
