Hearth & Altar

The Book of Job ends at a family table. After everything, the Lord blesses the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. He has children again. He has a household. And then the book says something you would not expect in a book about suffering. He saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Four generations sat at his table. Then Job died, old and full of years.

The Church puts that ending in front of families on a Saturday morning. The long argument is over, and what is left is a house full of people who belong to each other. Nobody in the last verses is arguing about why. They are eating.

Your table may be bigger or smaller than that, and some of the seats at it are empty. Scripture does not hide that Job's earlier children were lost. But the book insists that the story can continue at a table. What Job saw at the end of his life was the next generation and the one after that, and it counted as blessing.

Today is First Saturday. In 1925 Our Lady asked, in an apparition to Sister Lucia at Pontevedra, that Catholics spend five first Saturdays in a row in reparation to her Immaculate Heart. It is a quiet devotion, and a family can do it without leaving home.

• For our family, that we would see our children's children and give thanks, we pray to the Lord.
• For every home where the table has an empty place, that the Lord would bless the days that remain, we pray to the Lord.
• For our grandparents and elders, that they would be honored at our tables, we pray to the Lord.
• For Our Lady on this First Saturday, that her Immaculate Heart would keep our household, we pray to the Lord.

At supper tonight, ask the oldest person at the table to tell one story about their own grandparents. If your table has no one that old, tell one yourself.

Today's practice is the First Saturday devotion. The Church calls it the Five First Saturdays. Our Lady asked for five months in a row of confession, Communion, five decades of the Rosary, and fifteen minutes of quiet with the mysteries, all offered in reparation. This is the second Saturday for anyone who began in September.

For a household, keep it small. Pray one decade of the Joyful Mysteries together, since Saturday belongs to them. Then sit for five quiet minutes and let the youngest choose one mystery to talk about. Do not push to fifteen minutes with small children. A short prayer that is done beats a long prayer that is skipped. If you missed September, begin again today.