Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Christmastide

Week

Week 2 of Christmastide

Rank

Second-class feast

The Circumcision of the Lord and Octave Day of the Nativity (In Circumcisione Domini et Octava Nativitatis) is celebrated on the eighth day after Christmas, closing the Octave of the Nativity during the season of Christmastide. An octave is an eight‑day extension of a major feast, so this day both commemorates the Lord’s circumcision according to Jewish law and marks the conclusion of the Christmas octave’s concentrated celebration of the Incarnation. The rank “Double of the II Class” indicates this is a principal liturgical feast with a high place in the calendar: it outranks ordinary memorials and obliges the community to observe its particular prayers and readings, while remaining within the broader Christmas season.

Daily Prayer

The Introit for this day has not yet been generated.

Weekly Prayer

Weekly prayer content will appear here once it is scheduled.

Weekly Formation

Defrauding Laborers of Their Wages

Sins Crying to Heaven

Defrauding laborers of their wages
Defrauding laborers means withholding, delaying, or diminishing the just wages owed for their work. Scripture treats this as a sin crying to heaven because a worker’s livelihood may depend on that pay and the stronger party exploits an unequal position.

The Cardinal Virtues

Justice
Justice is the steady will to give God and each person what is due. It governs worship, rights, promises, property, work, authority, and social duties by measuring conduct according to objective obligation rather than convenience or favoritism.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Circumcision of the Lord and Octave Day of the Nativity

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Customs & Fasting

No traditional fast

No fast or abstinence today: Circumcision of the Lord is a holy day of obligation

Today in Church History

No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism teaches us that the Word became flesh through the Incarnation for our salvation. Jesus reconciles us with God, reveals God’s love, and was sent so that we might live through him and have eternal life. By taking on human nature, Jesus also becomes our model of holiness, teaching us to listen to him, walk in the way of truth and life, and love one another as he has loved us. This mystery invites us to enter into communion with the Word and become partakers of the divine nature through divine sonship. As we confess that Jesus Christ truly came in the flesh, we join the Church’s joyful faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.

God, in his goodness, created us to share in his blessed life. He draws close to us, calling us to seek, know, and love him, and through his Son invites us in the Holy Spirit to become his adopted children. Christ sent the apostles to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all nations, and all the faithful are called to hand on this faith by professing it, living in fraternal sharing, and celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. Catechesis serves this mission by educating children, young people, and adults in the faith and initiating them into the fullness of Christian life. As we grow in faith, celebrate the sacraments, take part in the Church’s community, and bear witness to the Gospel, we help hand on the treasure received from the apostles to the next generation.

¶ 456

With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

Today's Mass Readings

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