Septuagesima is the penitential pre-Lenten season that prepares hearts for Lent through Scripture, prayer, and simpler observance. A celebration ranked “Double” in the older liturgical system means this feast has a clear place in the liturgy: it is observed with particular prayers and proper readings, but it does not override the principal Sundays or the penitential character of the season. No octave or vigil is indicated for this day, so the observance is for the day itself.
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
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
Titus
St. Titus, Bishop and Confessor
early Christian missionary and church leader
Born
0013-00-00 · Crete
Died
0107-00-00 · Gortyn
Titus was an early Christian missionary and church leader, a companion and disciple of Paul the Apostle, mentioned in several of the Pauline epistles including the Epistle to Titus. He is believed to be a Gentile converted to Christianity by Paul and, according to tradition, he was consecrated as Bishop of the Island of Crete.
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism teaches that God’s omnipotence is central to our faith: his power is universal, loving, and shown in his fatherly care for us. As families, we can find hope in knowing that nothing is impossible for God, who rules the universe and governs history with wisdom and justice, even when suffering and evil test our faith. In the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of Christ, God reveals his power by conquering evil; and in our weakness, faith draws us to Christ’s power. Like the Virgin Mary, we are invited to trust that nothing is impossible with God. God also shows his almighty power through mercy, forgiving our sins and restoring us to friendship with him by grace.
¶ 269
The Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He is called the "Mighty One of Jacob", the "LORD of hosts", the "strong and mighty" one. If God is almighty "in heaven and on earth", it is because he made them. Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal. He is master of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his will: "It is always in your power to show great strength, and who can withstand the strength of your arm?
¶ 270
God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us ("I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty"): finally by his infinite mercy, for he displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins.
Dorothea of Caesarea is a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed at Caesarea Mazaca. Evidence for her actual historical existence or acta is very sparse. She is called a martyr of the late Diocletianic Persecution, although her death occurred after the resignation of Diocletian himself.
God's almighty power is in no way arbitrary: "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could not be in his just will or his wise intellect."
¶ 272
Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe".
¶ 273
Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. This faith glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's power. The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that "nothing will be impossible with God", and was able to magnify the Lord: "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name."
¶ 274
"Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God. Once our reason has grasped the idea of God's almighty power, it will easily and without any hesitation admit everything that [the Creed] will afterwards propose for us to believe - even if they be great and marvellous things, far above the ordinary laws of nature."
¶ 275
With Job, the just man, we confess: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted" ( Job 42:2).
¶ 276
Faithful to the witness of Scripture, the Church often addresses her prayer to the "almighty and eternal God" (“omnipotens sempiterne Deus. . ."), believing firmly that "nothing will be impossible with God" ( Gen 18:14; Lk 1:37; Mt 19:26).
Baltimore track
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Lesson 1 — On the End of Man
Q. 142.What does our "understanding" mean?
A.Our "understanding" means the "gift of reason," by which man is distinguished from all other animals, and by which he is enabled to think and thus acquire knowledge and regulate his actions.
Q. 143.Can we learn all truths by our reason alone?
A.We can not learn all truths by our reason alone, for some truths are beyond the power of our reason and must be taught to us by God.
Q. 144.What do we call the truths God teaches us?
A.Taken together, we call the truths God teaches us revelation, and we call the manner by which He teaches them also revelation.
Q. 145.What is "Free Will"?
A."Free Will" is that gift of God by which we are enabled to choose between one thing and another; and to do good or evil in spite of reward or punishment.