Our Blessed Lady's Saturday

The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady. Her feast in the traditional calendar falls on August 22nd. And her Assumption, a holy day of obligation, falls always on the 15th. Therefore, August's editions of Our Blessed Lady's Saturday will be devoted to her Immaculate Heart. Today is also the first Saturday of August.

Here is a good precis of the First Saturday devotion, from Memorare.com:
The desire for a First Saturday devotion revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three children at Fatima in 1917. On December 10, 1925, the Virgin revealed more details about the devotion to Sister Lucia, the only seer still alive and at that time a cloistered nun. From that time, the devotion has spread throughout the world on the day (Saturday) that the Church has traditionally honored the Blessed Virgin. There is no distinct confraternity/association for this devotion, though many apostolates incorporate it into their devotional program.

Purposes
To establish devotion (in accordance with God's wishes) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to make reparation for...
1. Attacks upon the reality of Mary's Immaculate Conception
2. Attacks against her the reality of Mary's Perpetual Virginity
3. Attacks upon Mary's Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
4. Those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and hatred for Immaculate Mary
5. For those who insult Mary directly in her sacred images.

Practices
The devotion involves the following practices on five consecutive first Saturdays with the specific intention of making reparation for the offenses (above) against the Blessed Virgin.
1. Go to Confession (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday)
2. Receive Holy Communion
3. Recite five decades of the Rosary*
4. "Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary" (separate from the Rosary itself)*
(*Preferably done in the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle or at Exposition)

Promises
1. The Virgin Mary's assistance at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation for those who practice the devotion.
2. Salvation of souls and peace as a result of promoting of the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart.

This prayer is from The Raccolta

Heart of Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, Heart most amiable, on which the Adorable Trinity ever looks with complacency, worthy of all the veneration and tenderness of angels and of men; Heart most like the Heart of Jesus, whose most perfect image thou art; heart full of goodness, ever compassionate towards our miseries, - vouchsafe to thaw our icy hearts, that they may be changed entirely to the likeness of the heart of Jesus. Infuse into them the love of thy virtues, inflame them with that blessed fire with which thou dost ever burn. In thee let the Holy Church find safe shelter; protect it, and be its sweet asylum, its tower of strength, impregnable against every inroad of its enemies. Be thou the road leading to Jesus; be thou the channel whereby we receive all graces needful for our salvation. Be thou our help in need, our comfort in trouble, our strength in temptation, our refuge in persecution, our aid in all dangers; but especially in the last struggle of our life, at the moment of our death, when all hell will be unchained against us to snatch away our souls, - in that dread moment, that hour so terrible, whereon our eternity depends, and, yes, most tender Virgin, do thou then make us feel how great is the sweetness of thy motherly Heart, and the strength of thy power with the Heart of Jesus, by opening for us a safe refuge in the very fount of mercy itself, whereby we too may one day join with thee in Paradise in praising that same Heart of Jesus for ever and for ever. Amen.