Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Advent

Week

Week 3 of Advent

Rank

Weekday

Ember Friday in Advent (Feria VI Quatuor Temporum in Adventu) falls during the season of Advent, the Church’s quiet, expectant time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. Advent focuses on watchfulness, prayer, and readiness for the Lord’s arrival—both in remembrance of the Nativity and in hopeful expectation of his final coming. The rank “Greater Non‑Privileged Feria” indicates this is a weekday observance of significance: it is more solemn than an ordinary weekday but is not a feast, solemnity, or privileged weekday that would displace higher celebrations. As an ember day, it belongs to the traditional quarterly times of fasting, prayer, and penance; Ember Fridays typically emphasize penitential practices and special prayers for the clergy and the fruits of the earth.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Ps 118:151-152
You, O Lord, are near, and all Your ways are truth. Of old I know from Your decrees that You are forever.
Ps 118:1
Happy are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Glory Be to the Father…

Put forth Your power, O Lord, we beseech You, and come; that those who trust in Your goodness may soon be delivered from all harm.
Who livest…

Weekly Prayer

Weekly prayer content will appear here once it is scheduled.

Weekly Formation

God’s Design for the Body and Marriage

Sins Crying to Heaven

Grave rejection of God’s design for the body and marriage
The traditional referent is a deliberate bodily union between persons of the same sex. Traditional teaching calls it a sin that cries to heaven because such an act rejects the generative order God placed in bodily union and marriage.

The Seven Capital Virtues

Chastity
Chastity is the virtue that orders the gift of the body and its powers according to God’s design and one’s state in life. It preserves personal dignity, faithful love, and rightful boundaries by bringing desire under reason, grace, and charity.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Ember Friday in Advent

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Customs & Fasting

Traditional fast · Complete abstinence

Traditional Advent Ember Friday fast and complete abstinence.

Today in Church History

Promulgation of 'Dignitatis Humanae'
1965Doctrine
The Second Vatican Council promulgated 'Dignitatis Humanae,' a declaration on religious freedom, affirming the right of individuals to religious liberty.
The Church's affirmation of religious freedom underscores the dignity of each person's conscience and faith journey.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Lord’s Prayer, taught and given to us by Jesus, is truly unique: in its words, the Son gives us the words he received from the Father, and he reveals the needs of his human brothers and sisters. It is not a formula to repeat mechanically. Through God’s Word, the Holy Spirit teaches God’s children to pray to their Father and makes these words “spirit and life” within believers. From the Church’s beginning, Christian communities prayed the Lord’s Prayer, and it remains deeply rooted in the Church’s liturgical prayer. In Baptism and Confirmation, it is handed on as part of new birth into divine life; in the Eucharist, it is prayed by the whole Church and anticipates the Banquet of the kingdom. As we pray it together, we can do so in hope, looking eagerly for the Lord’s return.

The Our Father, entrusted by Jesus when his disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray,” is the fundamental Christian prayer and the “most perfect of prayers.” As the summary of the whole Gospel, it stands at the center of Scripture and comes to us from Jesus, the master and model of prayer. It is also the quintessential prayer of the Church, forming part of the major hours of the Divine Office and the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. When we pray it together in family devotion, we can remember that, in the Eucharist, its petitions express hope for the Lord until he comes.

In the Catechism, we are reminded that when we pray to God as our Father, we do so with filial boldness, trust, and the joyful assurance of being loved. Jesus reveals the Father to us, and the Spirit enables believers to share in the Son’s relationship with him. As we pray, we are invited to humbly cleanse our hearts of false images of God and to approach the Father as he has been revealed by the Son. The Lord’s Prayer reveals both the Father and ourselves, drawing us into communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. It also calls us to continual conversion: to desire to become like the Father through grace and to cultivate a humble, trusting heart like that of little children.

Today's Mass Readings

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

Ember Friday in Advent

Understanding the Day

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Collect

Weekly Prayer

Weekly Formation

God’s Design for the Body and Marriage

Sins Crying to Heaven

The Seven Capital Virtues

Saint & Feast

Ember Friday in Advent

Customs & Fasting

Today in Church History

Promulgation of 'Dignitatis Humanae'

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3