Understanding the Day
Season
Lent
Week
Week 2 of Lent
Rank
Weekday
Lent is a forty-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that prepares Christians for the celebration of Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday and moves the family’s attention toward repentance, spiritual growth, and closer fellowship with God. A “Greater Non-Privileged Feria” is a weekday of ordinary time within a solemn season: it is more important than a simple weekday but does not replace major feasts. In plain terms, this means the day keeps the Lenten character—penitential prayers, Scripture and devotional readings appropriate to the season—without the added texts or rites of a feast or solemnity. There is no octave or vigil associated specifically with this day; it falls within the second week of Lent and follows the liturgical pattern for weekdays in Lent.
Introit (Daily Prayer)
Ps 26:8-9
To You my heart speaks; You my glance seeks; Your presence, O Lord, I seek. Hide not Your face from me.
Ps 26:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?
Glory Be to the Father…
To You my heart speaks; You my glance seeks; Your presence, O Lord, I seek. Hide not Your face from me.
Ps 26:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?
Glory Be to the Father…
Mercifully help us, O Lord, to fulfill this holy observance, that by Your grace we may carry out those things which we have learned, on Your word, must be done.
Through our Lord…
Through our Lord…
Weekly Prayer
Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus,
I believe that Thou art present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love Thee above all things,
and I desire to receive Thee into my soul.
Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace Thee as if Thou wert already there,
and unite myself wholly to Thee.
Never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.
I believe that Thou art present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love Thee above all things,
and I desire to receive Thee into my soul.
Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace Thee as if Thou wert already there,
and unite myself wholly to Thee.
Never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.
Weekly Formation
Beatitude 2
The Beatitudes
Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.
Meekness is strength governed by reason and charity rather than by resentment or the desire to retaliate. The meek endure wrong without returning evil for evil and remain peaceful and teachable under God’s providence.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebrationCalendar title
Tuesday of Week 2 of Lent
A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.
Customs & Fasting
Traditional fast
Traditional Lenten fast.
Today in Church History
Founding of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family
1857FoundingThe Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family was founded on March 3, 1857, in New Orleans by Henriette DeLille. It focused on serving the poor and educating African American children.
The founding of this congregation underscores the Church's mission to serve marginalized communities.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
In the life of Christ, the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Paschal mystery shed light on all of his earthly life, revealing the Father’s love and the work of redemption. Although the Gospels do not record every detail of Jesus’ hidden and public life, they were written so that we may believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name. Everything in his life—from his birth to his Passion and Resurrection—reveals his divine sonship and saving mission. For Catholic families, Jesus is our perfect model: his humility invites us to follow him, his prayer draws us to pray, and his poverty calls us to accept freely the hardships that may come our way. United with him, we are enabled to share in what he lived for us.
God prepared the coming of his Son over centuries, making the rituals, sacrifices, figures, and symbols of the First Covenant converge on Christ. Through the prophets he announced the Messiah, and he also awakened a dim expectation of his coming among the pagans. St. John the Baptist was Christ’s immediate forerunner, preparing his way through preaching, a Baptism of conversion, and his witness even unto martyrdom. In Advent, the Church shares in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming and renews her ardent desire for his return. As we celebrate Christmas, we remember that Jesus was born in a humble stable to a poor family, with simple shepherds as the first witnesses. We are called to humble ourselves, become little before God, and be born of God, so that Christ may be formed in us and the mystery of Christmas may be fulfilled in us.
¶ 517
Christ's whole life is a mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of his cross, but this mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life: -already in his Incarnation through which by becoming poor he enriches us with his poverty; - in his hidden life which by his submission atones for our disobedience; - in his word which purifies its hearers;- in his healings and exorcisms by which "he took our infirmities and bore our diseases"; - and in his Resurrection by which he justifies us.