First Fridays Devotion

[1] The Devotion of the Nine First Fridays is based on revelations from Jesus Christ reportedly received by Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun, between 1673 and 1675 in Paray-Le-Monial, France.

On these days, a person is to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist with the intention of honoring the Sacred Heart and making reparation for sins.

If the need arises, in order to receive communion in a state of grace, a person should also make use of the sacrament of penance before attending Mass.

[8] In 1889, Pope Leo XIII permitted priests and bishops worldwide to offer one morning votive Mass of the Sacred Heart on the first Friday of each month in churches or oratories where special devotions to the Sacred Heart were held, provided no feast of the Lord, double of the first class, or privileged feria, vigil, or octave occurred on that day.

[9] This permission was retained in the 1962 Missal, which remains the authorized liturgical text for the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite under the terms of Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum, though the rubrics were altered to restrict the use of this permission to first Fridays on liturgical days of the third and fourth class; additionally, the 1962 rubrics allow two such votive Masses to be said on first Fridays, with no requirement for these Masses to be said in the morning (evening Masses having been permitted by Pope Pius XII by his 1953 apostolic constitution Christus Dominus).