Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 13 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Feast

This day falls in Ordinary Time after Pentecost, a season focused on the growth of the Christian life through the teachings and example of the saints. There is no octave or vigil noted here, so the observance is celebrated on the day itself without an extended eight‑day period or special preceding liturgical watch. St. Joseph Calasanz is honored as a confessor — a man who lived a holy life and bore witness to the faith.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Ps 33:12
Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Ps 33:2
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Glory Be to the Father…

O God, Who through St. Joseph, Your Confessor, did graciously will to provide Your Church with a new help for the training of youth in the spirit of understanding and holiness; grant, we beseech You, that, following his example and through his intercession, we may live and teach so as to acquire an everlasting reward.
Through our Lord…

Weekly Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful
and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

℣ Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created.
℟ And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.
O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Weekly Formation

The Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry
Feeding the hungry supplies necessary nourishment to those who lack it. It is a corporal work because it serves a bodily need, and an act of mercy because charity responds to another’s misery rather than ignoring preventable want.
Give drink to the thirsty
Giving drink to the thirsty provides the water or other wholesome refreshment needed for life and health. The work includes direct aid and reasonable support for efforts that make safe water available to people in need.
Clothe the naked
Clothing the naked provides suitable clothing and protection to those who lack them. It safeguards bodily health and personal dignity while recognizing that unused or excess goods can answer another person’s genuine necessity.
Visit the imprisoned
Visiting the imprisoned brings humane presence and assistance to those deprived of liberty, including people unjustly confined or otherwise held captive. It neither approves wrongdoing nor abandons justice, but refuses to treat any prisoner as beyond dignity, truth, or mercy.
Shelter the homeless
Sheltering the homeless provides safe lodging or helps secure it for those without a stable place to live. Traditional language calls this harboring the harborless, extending hospitality and protection to the stranger and displaced person.
Visit the sick

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Joseph Calasanctius

St. Joseph Calasanz, Confessor

Spanish writer and saint

Born: 1556-09-11 · Peralta de la Sal
Died: 1648-08-25 · Rome

Joseph Calasanz, also known as Joseph Calasanctius and Iosephus a Matre Dei, was a Spanish Catholic priest, educator and the founder of the Pious Schools, which provided free education to poor boys. For this purpose he founded the religious order that ran them, commonly known as the Piarists. He became a close friend of the renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei. Joseph is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church, following his 1767 papal canonization.

Learn more about Joseph Calasanctius

Today in Church History

Attempted Assassination of Bishop Heffron
1915Event
In 1915, Bishop Patrick Heffron of Winona faced an attempted assassination by Rev. Louis M. Lesches, highlighting the tensions within the Church and the challenges faced by church leaders. This event underscores the struggles of clergy during a tumultuous period in American Catholic history.
Even in times of adversity, the Church remains a beacon of hope and resilience.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism emphasizes the close connection between each person’s good and the common good, which is the social conditions that help people and groups reach fulfillment more fully and easily. The common good includes respect for the person and fundamental rights, social well-being and development, and peace secured through a just order. It calls especially for prudence from everyone and for public authorities to make accessible what is needed for a truly human life, including food, clothing, health, work, education, culture, information, and the right to establish a family. As we reflect together, we can remember that the order of society is meant to serve persons and be founded on truth, built up in justice, and animated by love.

Participation in society is an essential expression of our dignity as human beings, calling each of us to help promote the common good. In family life, this includes taking responsibility for the education of our family; in daily life, it includes conscientious work and service to others and society. We are encouraged, as far as possible, to take an active part in public life and to support authority exercised within the moral order and for the common good. This common good includes respect for fundamental rights, the development of society’s spiritual and temporal goods, and peace and security. By creating and supporting institutions that improve human life, we help build a more just and caring world and offer future generations reasons for life and optimism.

¶ 1908

Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.

Today's Mass Readings

Open the day's Sancta MissaDivinum Officium · Divino Afflatu - 1954View readings

St. Joseph Calasanz, Confessor

Understanding the Day

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Collect

Weekly Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit

Weekly Formation

The Corporal Works of Mercy

The Corporal Works of Mercy

Saint & Feast

Joseph Calasanctius

Today in Church History

Attempted Assassination of Bishop Heffron

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3