Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Advent

Week

Week 3 of Advent

Rank

Weekday

Ember Saturday in Advent (Sabbato Quatuor Temporum in Adventu) falls within the season of Advent, the Church’s time of preparation and expectant waiting for the coming of Christ at Christmas. Advent is marked by prayer, penance, and hopeful watchfulness as families remember both Christ’s first coming and his promised return. The rank “Greater Non‑Privileged Feria” means this day is a weekday of special liturgical importance: it is not a solemnity or feast, but it receives elevated observance, with particular readings, prayers, and an emphasis on penitential practice. As an ember day, it is part of a traditional quarterly time of fasting, prayer, and often almsgiving intended for deeper spiritual renewal. There is no octave or vigil indicated beyond the ordinary Advent observance.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Ps 79:4, 2
Come, O Lord, from Your throne upon the Cherubim; if Your face shine upon us, then we shall be safe.
Ps 79:2
O Shepherd of Israel, hearken, O Guide of the flock of Joseph!
Glory Be to the Father…

O God, You Who tempered the flames of fire for the three young men, mercifully grant that the flames of sin may not burn us, Your servants.
Through our Lord…

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 Saturday in Advent

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Customs & Fasting

Traditional fast · Complete abstinence

Traditional Advent Ember Saturday fast and complete abstinence.

Today in Church History

Election of Pope Clement III
1187Papal
In 1187, Pope Clement III was elected, succeeding Pope Urban III. His papacy was marked by efforts to address the challenges facing the Church and the ongoing conflicts in the Holy Land, particularly during the time of the Crusades.
Leadership in the Church is crucial for guiding the faithful through trials and tribulations.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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.

When we pray to “our” Father, we enter a new relationship with God, recognizing that his promises of love are fulfilled in Jesus Christ and that we have become his people. This prayer reminds us that we belong to the Church’s communion with the one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and calls us to respond to the grace and truth given in Christ with love and faithfulness. Saying “our” Father draws us beyond individualism: it urges us to overcome divisions, to seek unity among all the baptized, and to bring before God everyone for whom he gave his Son. In daily prayer, these words help us pray with a wider heart, trusting in God’s boundless love for all people and all creation.

¶ 2780

We can invoke God as "Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. the personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God.

Today's Mass Readings

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

Ember Saturday 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 Saturday in Advent

Customs & Fasting

Today in Church History

Election of Pope Clement III

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3