My parents still attend First Friday devotions. What is the origin of that practice?
The Holy Hour and the Communion of the First Friday in each month were established by Margaret Mary Alcoque. She was of the Visitation order and entered the convent of Paray on 25 May 1671 with final vows in November 1672. She had frequent apparitions attributed to Christ and was cured often of infirmities; she suffered through her devotions, which she attributed to Christ. She established the practice called Holy Hour which consisted of lying face down on the floor in prayer for the hour from 11 p.m. until midnight on the first Friday in each month. Communion was then taken on the day, called First Friday. Christ allegedly showed her the desire to make his love of all men known and he allegedly instructed her that the Friday after the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi is the feast of the Sacred Heart (cf. C. E. Vol. IX, p. 653). Probably on 27 December 1673 Christ is alleged to have appeared to her. First Friday Communion and the Holy Hour began in June or July 1674. In 1675 the “
