Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 14 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Weekday

This day falls in the Time after Pentecost, the long liturgical season following Pentecost Sunday that covers most of Ordinary Time. It focuses on the daily life of the Church, the teachings of Jesus, and how Christian discipleship is lived out week by week. The rank “Feria” (a weekday) means this is a normal weekday celebration of the Office and Mass rather than a feast, memorial, or solemnity. In practice that means the prayers and readings follow the weekday cycle for the fourteenth week of the season rather than special propers reserved for higher-ranking commemorations. There is no octave or special vigil attached to this observance in the given context.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Ps 83:10-11
Behold, O God, our Protector, and look upon the face of Your Anointed. Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.
Ps 83:2-3
How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts! My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord.
Glory Be to the Father…

Protect Your Church by Your abiding mercy, we beseech You, O Lord, and since all mortals fall without You, may Your help keep them from danger and guide them to salvation.
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.

Weekly Formation

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

Admonish the sinner
Admonishing the sinner is a charitable warning intended to help a person recognize and leave serious wrongdoing. It requires truth, prudence, and concern for the person’s salvation, not humiliation, anger, or a desire to display superiority.
Instruct the ignorant
Instructing the ignorant means teaching needed truth to someone who does not know it, especially truth concerning faith and moral duty. The work presumes patience and accuracy and differs from winning an argument or displaying knowledge.
Counsel the doubtful
Counseling the doubtful helps a person whose judgment is uncertain to recognize a sound and morally lawful course. Good counsel applies truth prudently to the actual difficulty and does not replace conscience with another person’s preferences.
Comfort the sorrowful
Comforting the sorrowful shares another person’s burden through truthful consolation, patient presence, and appropriate help. Christian comfort neither dismisses grief nor offers false assurances, but strengthens hope in God amid real suffering.
Bear wrongs patiently
Bearing wrongs patiently means enduring injuries that cannot prudently be corrected without yielding to hatred or revenge. It does not require enabling abuse or refusing lawful protection; patience governs the heart while justice addresses the wrong.

Featured Saint

Modern saint

Featured saintCalendar title

Friday of Week 14 of Time after Pentecost

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Customs & Fasting

No traditional fast · Complete abstinence

Traditional Friday complete abstinence.

Today in Church History

Pope Benedict XVI Becomes Longest-Lived Pope
2020Event
In 2020, Pope Benedict XVI reached the milestone of being the longest-lived pope in history, surpassing Pope Leo XIII. This event highlights the longevity of papal leadership and the enduring legacy of Benedict's contributions to the Church, particularly in the areas of theology and ecumenism.
The longevity of Pope Benedict XVI serves as a reminder of the enduring nature of the papacy and the wisdom that comes with age.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Law of the Gospel invites us to make a decisive choice between two ways, centered on the Golden Rule: treating others as we wish to be treated. It is summed up in Jesus’ new commandment to love one another as he has loved us (CCC 1970). The apostolic teachings help us live this love through virtues flowing from faith in Christ and animated by charity, encouraging genuine love, patience in tribulation, constancy in prayer, generosity, and hospitality (CCC 1971). The New Law is a law of love, grace, and freedom: love infused by the Holy Spirit moves us to act, grace gives us strength through faith and the sacraments, and freedom leads us from servitude into friendship with Christ and the status of sons and heirs (CCC 1972). Along with its precepts, the New Law includes the evangelical counsels, which help remove obstacles to the growth of charity and are practiced according to each person’s vocation (CCC 1973-1974).

The Catechism teaches that God’s Law is a fatherly instruction: it points us toward the promised beatitude and warns us away from evil. Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, and Christ is its end, for he alone teaches and bestows God’s justice. Natural law shares in God’s wisdom and goodness, expresses the dignity of every human person, and grounds fundamental rights and duties; its enduring principles remain a necessary foundation for moral rules and civil law. The Old Law, whose moral teachings are summed up in the Ten Commandments, prepared the way for the Gospel. The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit received through faith in Christ and active through charity. Expressed especially in the Sermon on the Mount and communicated through the sacraments, it fulfills and perfects the Old Law. As we reflect together, we can thank God for this New Law of love, grace, and freedom, which reforms the heart and includes the evangelical counsels proposed by the Lord to his disciples.

Today's Mass Readings

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

Friday of Week 14 of Time after Pentecost

Understanding the Day

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Collect

Weekly Prayer

Act of Spiritual Communion

Weekly Formation

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

Featured Saint

Friday of Week 14 of Time after Pentecost

Customs & Fasting

Today in Church History

Pope Benedict XVI Becomes Longest-Lived Pope

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3