The Fifteen Saturdays - The First Saturday

Prayer after Communion

O Jesus, King of glory, how is it that You have deemed it worthwhile to come and visit a sinful soul, such as mine? If humility so pleases you that it drew you from heaven to Mary’s womb, then behold, I humiliate myself before you, I who am most unworthy of possessing you. I confess, by so often sinning I have wounded you deeply, and am unworthy of any grace whatever. But I now long to make amends for the wrong done. I confidently throw myself into the arms of your mercy, and repeat a thousand times to you: I want to love you, my God, my Redeemer, my Jesus, my friend, my beloved, I want to love you.

I join my love to that offered to you by Blessed Mary during the nine months she carried you in her womb, and to the love of your purest and most faithful foster Father, St. Joseph. With my heart’s every beat I intend to offer you endless acts of love, and I join them to all the beats of the humblest and Immaculate Heart of Mary. I thank you, Eternal Father, O Spirit of Love, for the infinite gift you gave to us by giving us your divine Son, and I join my thanks to those offered to you in heaven by so many saints, once sinners but then saved by means of this divine Blood; to those thanks which are offered to you by all the just souls who are in heaven.

I wish to thank you especially, O my Jesus, with the feelings of humility and gratitude possessed by Virgin Mary, your Mother, in learning of her divine maternity from Archangel Gabriel; and with St. Joseph’s acts of humility and thanksgiving when from the same Archangel he came to understand his high station as your Guardian and as the Husband of the Mother of God.

My Guardian Angel, a witness of my acts of pride, help me to reform my life, my habits and my devotion to Mary. May you be the one to lead me to her, and from her obtain for me perfect humility, perfect love and lasting perseverance. Amen.

Invocations to Jesus after Communion

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, intoxicate me.
Water from the side of Jesus, wash me.
Passion of Christ, comfort me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
In your wounds hide me.
Do not let me ever become separated from you.
From the evil enemy defend me.
In the hour of my death call me.
And command me to come to you
that I may praise you with your Saints
world without end. Amen. (2)

Prayer to Obtain the Favor One Needs

O my Savior and my God, through your Birth, through your Passion and Death, through your glorious Resurrection, grant this favor to me … (express the desired favor). I ask this of you through the love of this Mystery, in honor of which I have partaken of your Sacred Body and your divine Blood; I ask this of you through your sweetest Heart, through Mary Immaculate, through your holiest Name, my Jesus, through which You have promised every favor. Amen

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin of Pompeii

O glorious Queen of the Holy Rosary, who placed your new throne of grace in the Valley of Pompeii, Daughter of the divine Father, Mother of the divine Son and Bride of the Holy Spirit, through your joys, through your sorrows, through your glories, through the merits of this Mystery, in honor of which I have come to Holy Communion, I ask that you obtain this favor for me (express the favor).

Prayer to St. Joseph

O majestic Father of Jesus and our Father, glorious St. Joseph, to your care the Eternal Father entrusted his beloved Son, to you the Holy Spirit offered his most chaste Bride, and Virgin Mary, all the treasures of her Virginity. You who can obtain so much by the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary, from them obtain this favor for me (express the favor desired).

My sweetest loves, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, for you may I live, may I suffer, may I die: may I be entirely yours, and yours alone.

Prayer to Jesus Crucified (3)

My beloved and good Jesus, here I am kneeling in your most holy presence, most fervently beseeching you to impress upon my heart sentiments of faith, of hope, of charity, of sorrow for my sins, and the firm intention to offend you no more; while with love and compassion I consider your five wounds, beginning with the one the holy Prophet David spoke of regarding you, my Jesus: "They have pierced my hands and feet, I can count all my bones" (Ps 22:16-17).

Here one recites the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Doxology, according to the intentions of the Pope.

Prayer

O Lord, to your wounds I recommend the Church, your Bride, and her exaltation and triumph; the Pope who is its visible Head; the uprooting of heresy and idolatry; peace among nations, the conversion of sinners; all my relatives, my friends, my enemies; and my spiritual and temporal benefactors; all those who pray for me and who ask to be remembered in my prayers, especially all the Associates and Benefactors of the Shrine and the Works of Pompeii and all the Members of the Pious Union for people in agony, established in the Shrine of Pompeii. May all this be applied to the Souls of Purgatory.

To the Virgin of Pompeii

O Mary, Immaculate Mother of Jesus and my most sweet Mother, Queen of the Holy Rosary, You who have deigned to choose the desolate Valley of Pompeii in our times, to illuminate the nations with the light of your graces and your mercy, turn your merciful eyes to me and acknowledge me as your servant and child who loves you, and cries: Mother of mercy.

Graciously run in haste at my cries; your immaculate steps will open before me the path of purity and peace.

May your sweetest voice resound in my ears, Mother of mine, for you possess words of life alone.

Open your hands full of favors, help this most unworthy servant of yours, who is calling upon you, and preserve him/her from the snares of the enemy.

Stretch forth even unto me the sweet chains of your Rosary with which you bind the hardest hearts; and clasp my rebellious heart to you, so that it may never again depart from you.

O Rose of unprofaned purity, by the fragrance of your virginal perfumes allure me to the love of heaven.

O dear Rose of the Lord, I sigh for you through love and sorrow. Soften me with your tears; move me with your compassion; pierce me with your sorrows; strengthen me with your grace.

O Mary, Mother of grace, pray for me. Receive me as your servant.

Grant that I always trust in you; may I always think of you, always invoke you, always serve you, always love you. May I live, act, suffer and die for you.

And in the hour of death deliver me from the devil, and lead me by the hand to Jesus, your Son and my Judge.

O Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God, inexhaustible source of goodness, sweetness, love and mercy, receive my heart. Make it similar to yours.

Purify it by your intercession, sanctify it by your love, detach it from the love of creatures. And may that divine fire which inflames your heart inflame mine also, now and for ever. Amen.

Memorare to the Virgin of Pompeii

Remember, O most gracious Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession through the Rosary was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Mother of Mercy, Virgin of virgins, powerful Queen of Victories. To you I come, before you I stand: I implore compassion, I seek grace. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but through your most sacred Rosary, through the favor you have shown to your Shrine of Pompeii, graciously hear and answer me. Amen.

Repeat three times: Queen of the Holy Rosary, pray for me.

Then recite the Litanies of Our Lady (4). Finally say a prayer for the glorification of Blessed Bartolo Longo.

A Hail Mary for all the Associates of the Shrine of Pompeii scattered throughout the world, and who wish to be remembered in our prayers.

A Hail Mary to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners, with the following ejaculatory prayers:

Sweet Heart of Mary – be my salvation.

Refuge of sinners – pray for me.

O Mary conceived without sin – pray for me who am turning to you.

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, pray for me.

Blessed be the holy and immaculate Conception of Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God..

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A Reading

A Favor of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii

In Manduria: on the eve of the first Saturday

An extraordinary sign from heaven came to the town of Manduria, in the Province of Lecce, on the evening of Friday, June 29, 1888.

On June 30th, in the Shrine of Pompeii and in very many Italian and foreign towns, the pious practice of the Fifteen Saturdays of the Rosary in preparation for the great solemnity of October, was about to begin.

It was therefore the eve of the first Saturday of the Rosary, when the heavenly Queen, through a remarkable miracle, wanted to give the people of Manduria a new testimonial of her pleasure with the holy practice, which for three consecutive months her loving children would dedicate to her in the Shrine of Pompeii and in thousands of different places.

Angela Massafra, a young woman of 24, had already been bedridden for three years. Shriveled, with internal paralysis and covered with sores, she had exhausted all her energies. The doctors had given up all hope. The certificate of Dr. Tommaso Massari gives all the details of her illness.

The patient herself was preparing for death, and already toward the end of June of 1888 she had received the holy Viaticum and the Anointing of the Sick. Yet she had never left off her devotion to Mary’s holiest Rosary, and had never forsaken the dear image of the Virgin of Pompeii: she unceasingly recommended herself to this.

Being in such an extreme condition, awaiting death at any moment, it happened that one evening at the door of her room she saw a woman, unknown to her, who approached her bed as though to pay her a visit, and without a word then withdrew. She informed her relatives who paid it no heed, attributing everything to hallucinations, the effect of her weakness, even more so seeing that the woman had remained silent.

However, on the evening of the 29th, which fell on the Friday preceding the Saturday on which the practice of the Fifteen Saturdays was to begin, Angela, by no means hallucinating, once again saw the same woman, in very white and shining clothes, in an attitude of kindness and compassion, enter her room, approach her bed and sit by her side.

At first the young peasant woman was frightened as she did not know who this mysterious woman was, nor what she wanted; but then she noticed that the unknown woman, after rising from her seat, had placed an alabaster vase full of lily-like flowers on the bed, and without a word spilt a part of them over the bed.

The lilies which had been spilt were fifteen, and each one of them bore something written, as on a note. Angela read these two words: Fifteen Saturdays.

The remarkable lady, who until that moment had acted in silence, turned to the sick woman and, pointing these words out to her, identified herself by speaking. She was in fact the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii. The confessor of the sick woman did not think it prudent to render public the words spoken by Our Lady. However, we can be sure that the Queen of Heaven takes pleasure in this manner in which She is honored throughout the world, especially at her beloved Shrine of Pompeii, and that She grants great favors to those who honor her with the holy practice of the Fifteen Saturdays of her Rosary.

Therefore Our Divine Lady of Pompeii, as if to show that she never leaves her children who invoke her without also granting them a material sign of the compassion and love binding her to them, with inexpressible graciousness removed her veil and with it dried the sick woman. Angela, overwhelmed by surprise and by a holy fear that had invaded her, was unable to pronounce a syllable.

This done, Our Lady gathered up the notes spread on the bed, and turning toward the door of the house, with slow steps withdrew leaving behind her rays of light.

Angela, beside herself and wrapped in sweet heavenly joy, all of a sudden felt healed and could barely await the morning, to rise and shout out: a miracle.

The morning of June 30th, the first Saturday of the Fifteen of the Rosary, came: she rose from bed, attempted to move her legs which had been shriveled for three years, and to her surprise and of those around her she was able to walk. She got dressed by herself, and while she was telling her mother all that had taken place, Dr. Tommaso Massari entered the house.