Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 25 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Sunday

Some years have more Sundays between Pentecost and Advent than the ordinary sequence of Sundays after Pentecost supplies. The calendar therefore resumes the unused Sixth Sunday after Epiphany in November, using its original prayers and readings while remaining in Time after Pentecost; it does not begin a second Epiphany season. This arrangement lets the Twenty-Fourth and Last Sunday after Pentecost remain immediately before Advent.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Jer 29:11-12; 29:14
The Lord says: “I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. You shall call upon Me, and I will hear you; and I will bring back your captivity from all places.”
Ps 84:2
You have favored, O Lord, Your land; You have restored the well-being of Jacob.
Glory Be to the Father…

Grant us, we beseech You, almighty God, ever to think of spiritual things and in every word and work always to do what is well pleasing in Your sight.
Through our Lord…

Weekly Prayer

Weekly prayer content will appear here once it is scheduled.

Weekly Formation

Presumption, Despair, and Hope

Sins Against the Theological Virtues

Presumption on God’s mercy
Presumption expects salvation or forgiveness without the repentance, grace, and cooperation God requires. It distorts hope by treating divine mercy as permission to remain in sin or by trusting one’s own power to reach heaven without God’s help.
Despair of God’s mercy
Despair is the deliberate loss of hope in God’s mercy or in the possibility of salvation. It falsely judges sin, weakness, or suffering to be greater than God’s power and goodness and therefore tempts the soul to stop seeking forgiveness and grace.

The Theological Virtues

Hope
Hope is the infused virtue by which a person confidently expects eternal life and the graces needed to reach it, relying on God’s goodness, promises, and power. It stands between despair, which distrusts mercy, and presumption, which expects heaven without conversion and grace.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Resumed

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Commemoration

Albert the Great

St. Albert the Great, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church

German-Dominican friar and saint (c. 1200–1280)

Born: 1193-01-01 · Lauingen
Died: 1280-00-00 · Cologne

Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia, Albert von Bollstadt, or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, considered one of the greatest medieval philosophers and thinkers.

Learn more about Albert the Great

Today in Church History

Canonization of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys
1982Canonization
On November 15, 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Marguerite Bourgeoys, a French-Canadian nun who founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. She was instrumental in establishing the first school in Montreal and is considered a pioneer of education in Canada.
Saint Marguerite's dedication to education highlights the Church's commitment to nurturing the mind and spirit.
Death of Saint Albert the Great
1280Church Father
Saint Albert the Great, a Dominican bishop and Doctor of the Church known for his vast knowledge and writings on philosophy and theology, died on November 15, 1280. He was a teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas and contributed significantly to the integration of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine.
Saint Albert's life reminds us of the harmony between faith and reason.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Baptism gives us the grace of purification from all sins, yet the baptized continue to struggle against disordered desires. With God’s grace, we can grow in chastity, purity of intention and vision, discipline of our feelings and imagination, and prayer. Modesty is an important part of this path: it protects the intimate center and mystery of each person, guides how we look at and treat one another, and encourages patience, decency, and discretion in loving relationships. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents helps awaken respect for the human person. In a culture shaped by unhealthy curiosity and excessive displays of intimate matters, Christians are called to purity of heart, respect, and restraint. Through prayer, temperance, chastity, and purity of intention and vision, we can learn to see all things according to God.

¶ 2523

There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.

¶ 2524

The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another. Everywhere, however, modesty exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man. It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.

Today's Mass Readings

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

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Resumed

Understanding the Day

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Collect

Weekly Prayer

Weekly Formation

Presumption, Despair, and Hope

Sins Against the Theological Virtues

The Theological Virtues

Saint & Feast

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany Resumed

Albert the Great

Today in Church History

Canonization of Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

Death of Saint Albert the Great

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3