FIRST SATURDAY OF THE THIRTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, NOVEMBER 7, 2026
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also is dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belons to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”
REFLECTION
“You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”
The First Saturday Devotion is a beautiful Catholic tradition dedicated to honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary, making reparation for offenses against her, and drawing closer to Jesus through His Blessed Mother.
The devotion is especially associated with the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 and her request to Sister Lucia in 1925.
Our Lady asked the faithful to observe five consecutive First Saturdays of the month with four practices:
Go to Confession — with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Confession may be made within a suitable period before or after First Saturday.
Receive Holy Communion — in a spirit of reparation for offenses against Mary's Immaculate Heart.
Pray five decades of the Holy Rosary — meditating on the mysteries of Christ's life.
Keep Our Lady company for 15 minutes — meditating on one or more mysteries of the Rosary, apart from praying the Rosary itself.
According to the Fatima tradition, Jesus revealed to Sister Lucia five categories of offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
Blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception.
Blasphemies against her perpetual virginity.
Blasphemies against her divine motherhood and refusal to recognize her as Mother of humanity.
Actions that publicly encourage children to reject or despise Mary.
Insults and offenses against her sacred images.
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