It's not too late to make the best New Year's Resolutions for 2024

The Five First Saturdays Devotion

What if there was a New Year’s Resolution that could help solve mankind’s problems? Do you want world peace? Do you want to lessen crimes everywhere? Do you want a solution to illegal immigration? Do you want to eradicate drug abuse and abortion?

If you desire these things, then you must have recourse to a solution that can address the moral crisis in society. No amount of legislation or regulation can restore moral values. Human efforts are not sufficient. Then, the solution needs to be supernatural.

Our Lady at Fatima proposed such a solution in 1917. She appeared six times, promising that if the faithful did as she requested, she would bring the conversion of many sinners and peace in the world as a reward. During her sixth apparition on October 13, she performed a miracle in which the sun seemed to dance in the sky, which was witnessed by over 70,000 people near the area of her apparition.

One of the requests that has been neglected is the Five First Saturdays Devotion. This commitment can be a New Year's resolution that can make a real difference if done properly. Best of all, it is not too late to make the resolution now since it can be done on any five consecutive first Saturdays during the year.

The devotion and the promises

What is this devotion?

It is a simple devotion that consists of doing the following on the first Saturday of five consecutive months:

1. Go to confession.
2. Receive Holy Communion with the intention of offering reparation for the sins and blasphemies against Mary's Immaculate Heart.
3. Pray five decades of the Holy Rosary.
4. Keep Mary company for 15 minutes, meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary.

What is the promise?

Our Lady promises to be with the person at the time of his death, bringing the necessary graces for salvation.

Secondly, if this devotion is spread worldwide, then it is the second condition that will lead to the conversion of Russia, the conversion of many sinners, peace in the world, and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

A covenant with the Mother of God

This spiritual exercise summarizes the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It calls attention to her suffering. It brings consolation to her heart. It does reparation for the injuries committed by ungrateful men. It is pleasing to her Divine Son.

Covenants are contracts established between God and His people found in the Old Testament. God requests a symbolic gesture in exchange for a promise. For Abraham, the gestures requested were the change of name and circumcision. God promised to bless him with a multitude of descendants, more numerous than the stars in the sky, who were to become God’s chosen people.

The Five First Saturdays devotion is a devotion that is like a covenant with Our Lady. We console and have pity on the Immaculate Mother, who is “being pierced with thorns by ungrateful men.” In exchange, Our Lady of Fatima promises that “mankind will convert, and a period of peace will be given to mankind.”

The reward for this covenant

This peace will not be like the past “peace” after the two world wars. Those periods of peace were tenuous and led to yet more war. The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will characterize the peace guaranteed with this devotion.

Catholic thinker and man of action Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira talked about this era in glowing terms.

Fatima not only announces great tragedies but prophesies the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That would be enough to rule out an imminent end of the world. In fact, how could the end of history coincide with the historic triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
"The end of the world will not come now because it is clear from the Fatima context that the world will continue with a triumph of her Immaculate Heart. She did not say: 'My Immaculate Heart will win' but employed an expression with very sharp and distinct hues. There is a difference between a victory and a triumph: a triumph is an outstanding victory, a great victory, not an ordinary victory. Our Lady announces her triumph, that is, a victory with glory in which she will completely master the situation. Therefore, we will have the Reign of Mary, for one does not understand that she would win without being Queen."

Prof. de Oliveira insists that a triumph is not merely a victory but one clothed in glory and splendor:

“A triumph of Our Lady cannot fail to be splendid, for all that God does for Mary and on her behalf is a masterpiece. He reserved for Our Lady all his greatness. Her personal triumph has to be the most marvelous triumph in history.”

The best New Year’s Resolution

There are many resolutions you can make to help the world. Why not add this devotion? It is simple and straightforward. The promised results are world-changing. It is by far the best New Year’s Resolution for 2024.

This is the only resolution with a divine stamp of approval, encouragement, and a promise of moral conversion. Do it now. It is not too late. Then, keep doing it.