Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Septuagesima

Week

Week 2 of Septuagesima

Rank

Second-class feast

The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (In Purificatione Beatæ Mariæ Virginis) is celebrated during Septuagesima, the pre-Lenten season that prepares hearts for Lent through brief, reflective liturgy. As a “Double of the II Class,” this feast is an important celebration in the older liturgical ranking: it takes precedence over ordinary feria observances and calls for fuller liturgical solemnity—more elaborate prayers, antiphons, and the use of proper propers—while not rising to the highest solemnities such as major feasts or octaves. There is no octave or vigil attached in this canonical context, so the celebration is observed on its appointed day. For families, the feast honors Mary’s faithful obedience and the ritual of purification connected to the Presentation of Our Lord.

Daily Prayer

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Weekly Prayer

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Weekly Formation

Idolatry, Sorcery, and Faithfulness

The Works of the Flesh

Idolatry
Idolatry gives a creature, image, power, or human good the worship or absolute trust owed to God alone. It is a work of the flesh because it turns the heart from the Creator toward something finite and makes that created thing the governing object of life.
Sorcery
Sorcery seeks hidden power, knowledge, or control through occult practices rather than through God’s providence and lawful means. It violates faith by appealing to spiritual powers apart from God and can involve superstition, deception, or direct openness to evil.

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Faithfulness
Faithfulness is steadfast reliability toward God and toward rightful human commitments. It makes belief, promises, duties, and relationships stable rather than subject to convenience, mood, or pressure.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

early episode in the life of Jesus

The Presentation of Jesus is an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, describing his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem. It is celebrated by many churches 40 days after Christmas on Candlemas, or the "Feast of the Presentation of Jesus". The episode is described in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament. Within the account, "Luke's narration of the Presentation in the Temple combines the purification rite with the Jewish ceremony of the redemption of the firstborn ."

Learn more about Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates the fullness of time, the fulfillment of God’s promises and preparations. God invited Mary, a young Jewish virgin of Nazareth, to conceive his Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s mission is united to that of the Son: he sanctified Mary’s womb and caused her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own. From the beginning of his human life, Jesus is Christ, anointed by the Holy Spirit. As families reflect on this mystery, we can remember that God prepared for it through the history of his people, especially through holy women who hoped confidently for salvation. What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is rooted in what it believes about Christ, and Mary’s place in God’s plan helps illumine our faith in him.

In the Catechism, God is called “Father” as Creator of the world, as the Father of Israel through the covenant and gift of the law, and as the loving protector of the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed. This name expresses both God’s first origin and transcendent authority, as well as his goodness and loving care for his children. Human fatherhood and motherhood can point toward God, yet human parents are fallible; God surpasses every human distinction and is the source and standard of all fatherhood and motherhood. Jesus reveals God’s fatherhood in an unparalleled way: God is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, and the Son is eternally related to the Father. The Church therefore confesses the Son as truly God, eternally begotten and consubstantial with the Father.

In the Catechism, we learn that before his Passover Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit, the “another Paraclete” or Advocate. The Spirit, already at work since creation and speaking through the prophets, would be with and in the disciples, teaching them and guiding them into all truth (CCC 243). Sent to the apostles and the Church by the Father and by the Son after Jesus returned to the Father, the Spirit’s mission reveals the mystery of the Holy Trinity more fully (CCC 244). The Church confesses that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life, equal with the Father and the Son, and worshipped and glorified with them (CCC 245). Eastern and Western traditions express the Spirit’s eternal origin in complementary ways: from the Father through the Son, and from the Father and the Son, while confessing the same mystery of faith (CCC 246-248).

Today's Mass Readings

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