Understanding the Day
Season
Lent
Week
Week 3 of Lent
Rank
First-class feast
Third Sunday of Lent is a weekly focus within the penitential season of Lent, a forty-day time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that prepares Catholics for Easter. The rank “Greater Sunday of the I Class” indicates this is one of the most important Sunday celebrations in the liturgical year: it has precedence in the calendar and its prayers, readings, and rites take priority over ordinary weekday observances. There is no octave or vigil attached specifically to this celebration in the given context; it stands as the principal Sunday liturgy of the third week of Lent. This day matters because it marks continued preparation for Easter through communal worship, penitential practice, and attention to conversion—core elements that shape family devotions during Lent.
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
Beatitude 2
The Beatitudes
Blessed are the meek; for they shall possess the land.
Meekness is strength governed by reason and charity rather than by resentment or the desire to retaliate. The meek endure wrong without returning evil for evil and remain peaceful and teachable under God’s providence.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebrationCalendar title
Sunday 3 of Lent
A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.
Today in Church History
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
In the Catechism, we learn that the title “Christ” means “anointed one.” Jesus fulfills Israel’s messianic hope as priest, prophet, and king. His birth was announced to the shepherds as the birth of the promised Savior, Christ the Lord, and he was conceived as holy in Mary’s virginal womb. God called Joseph to take Mary as his wife so that Jesus, who is called Christ, should be born of Joseph’s spouse into David’s messianic lineage. Anointed by the Father with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ words and works revealed him as the Holy One of God. Although some understood the Messiah in political terms, Jesus showed that his kingship is found in his redemptive mission: he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The full meaning of his kingship is revealed on the cross and proclaimed after his Resurrection.
In the Old Testament, the title “son of God” can describe angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings, expressing an adoptive sonship and a special closeness to God. Peter’s confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” however, acknowledges Christ’s divine sonship, a truth revealed by the Father and central to the apostolic faith. Jesus speaks of himself as the Son who knows the Father and carefully distinguishes his own sonship from that of his disciples. At his Baptism and Transfiguration, the Father calls Jesus his beloved Son, and Jesus names himself the only Son of God. The full meaning of this title is revealed in the Paschal mystery, and after the Resurrection the apostles proclaim the glory of the only Son from the Father. For family devotion, these readings offer a reverent way to reflect on Jesus Christ, the beloved and only Son of God.
¶ 438
Jesus' messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, "for the name 'Christ' implies 'he who anointed', 'he who was anointed' and 'the very anointing with which he was anointed'. the one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing.'" His eternal messianic consecration was revealed during the time of his earthly life at the moment of his baptism by John, when "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power", "that he might be revealed to Israel" as its Messiah. His works and words will manifest him as "the Holy One of God".