Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Christmastide

Week

Week 2 of Christmastide

Rank

Simple feast

The Octave Day of the Holy Innocents falls within Christmastide, the liturgical season that celebrates the birth and early life of Jesus. This day is the conclusion of the octave of the Holy Innocents, marking the eighth day following the principal celebration of those martyrs. As an octave day, it serves both to extend the memory of the Holy Innocents and to invite reflection on themes tied to the Nativity—Christ as the vulnerable child and the cost of discipleship.

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

Counsel, Command, and Consent

Ways of Being Accessory to Another’s Sin

By counsel
A person becomes accessory by counsel when advice, planning, or persuasion helps another choose a sinful act. Responsibility depends on knowing the act is wrong and on the real influence the counsel has in bringing it about.
By command
A person becomes accessory by command when authority is used to order another person to do wrong. The superior bears responsibility for directing the act, while the subordinate remains bound not to obey a command contrary to God’s law.
By consent
A person becomes accessory by consent when approval is knowingly given to another’s sinful plan or action, especially when that approval is needed for it to proceed. Consent can be expressed in words, decisions, votes, or any deliberate authorization.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

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.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Holy Innocents

Octave Day of the Holy Innocents

narrative from the Gospel of Matthew

The Massacre of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem. Modern scholarship finds no evidence that it happened outside the passages in Matthew, though it is congruous with Herod's character.

Learn more about Holy Innocents

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.

The Catechism highlights the profound mystery of the Incarnation: Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, not a mixture of the divine and human. Without ceasing to be God, the Son of God became man and our brother. The early Church defended and clarified this faith against errors that denied or confused Christ’s true divinity, true humanity, or his one divine person. The councils also proclaimed that Mary is truly the Mother of God, because the Son of God was conceived in her womb and born from her according to the flesh. For Catholic families, these truths invite us to wonder at Jesus Christ, who became man for our salvation and remains one of the Holy Trinity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents the Catholic faith as an organic and unified whole, helping readers connect its themes through cross-references and an analytical index. Its references to Sacred Scripture invite readers to consult the biblical passages themselves for deeper understanding, and serve as a valuable tool for catechesis. Some small-print passages provide historical, apologetic, or supplementary doctrinal explanations, while quotations from patristic, liturgical, magisterial, and hagiographical sources enrich the presentation of doctrine. The Catechism seeks to deepen faith so that it matures, takes root in personal life, and shines forth in personal conduct. It also recognizes that adapting doctrine and catechetical methods to different cultures, ages, spiritual maturity, and circumstances is the responsibility of particular catechisms and especially those who instruct the faithful.

Today's Mass Readings

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