Today is June 6, Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter.
We read at today’s Mass, “He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep'” (Jn 21:17-18).
Today is not just any Friday — it’s the First Friday of the month, and that gives us a beautiful opportunity to dive deeper into one of the Church’s most powerful devotions: the First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Today’s Gospel leads us directly to what the First Friday devotion is all about: reparation. Reparation for the times we, like Peter, have denied Christ by sin, by silence or by neglect. Reparation for the ways the love of Jesus is rejected in the world today.
The First Friday devotion began through the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus revealed his Sacred Heart — burning with love for humanity and wounded by our indifference. Jesus asked that the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi be set aside as a feast in honor of his Heart and that the faithful receive Holy Communion in reparation.
The devotion took root thanks to her confessor, St. Claude de la Colombière, and was later promoted by the Jesuits and officially endorsed by the Church.
Why Friday?
Here’s how it works:
The faithful are invited to attend Mass and worthily receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months. That means going to confession if needed and approaching the altar with a heart free from mortal sin. It’s like a novena stretched across time — a sustained offering of love, trust and repentance.
And there’s a promise attached: Those who persevere in this devotion will not die without the sacraments. That means a final opportunity for repentance and the grace of being united to Christ in our final moments. It’s not magic; it’s mercy. By fostering a spirit of reparation, we open ourselves to receive God’s mercy at the hour we need it most.
Why Friday? Because Friday is the day of the Passion — the day Christ’s Heart was pierced for love of us. When we receive the Eucharist, we touch that Heart. We come into contact with the living, beating love of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament.
Many Catholics also spend time in Eucharistic adoration on First Fridays or pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart. These practices express our love for Jesus and help counter the world’s indifference with devotion.
So if you haven’t begun the First Friday Devotion, today is a great day to start. And if not this month, consider beginning next month. Christ’s Heart waits for us. Let’s run to it.
Let us pray,
O God, who by the glorification of your Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit have unlocked for us the gates of eternity, grant, we pray, that, partaking of so great a gift, our devotion may grow deeper and our faith be strengthened. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
