Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Lent

Week

Week 4 of Lent

Rank

First-class feast

Sunday 4 in Quadragesima falls in the middle of Lent, the Church’s season of penance, prayer, and conversion preparing hearts for Easter. The rank “Greater Sunday of the I Class” means this Sunday is one of the most important liturgical days of the season: the Sunday Mass and its readings take precedence in the family’s weekly rhythm and public worship, and other optional memorials or lower-ranking commemorations are omitted. There is no octave or vigil tied specifically to this title; it is a regular Sunday in Lent with special solemnity.

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 3

The Beatitudes

Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.
The blessed mourners grieve chiefly for sin—their own and the sins of the world—and bear unavoidable trials in union with God. Their promised comfort is not mere earthly relief but the consolation of grace and, finally, eternal joy.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Sunday 4 of Lent

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Commemoration

Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas, Confessor and Doctor of the Church

Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church

Born: 1225-01-25 · Roccasecca
Died: 1274-03-07 · Fossanova Abbey

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, the foremost Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. A Doctor of the Church, he was from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily.

Learn more about Thomas Aquinas

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the ministry of Jesus, we see the close connection between his mighty works and the coming of God’s kingdom. His signs show that the kingdom is present in him, attest that he is the promised Messiah, and invite us to believe in the One sent by the Father. By healing and freeing people from hunger, injustice, illness, death, and demonic domination, Jesus gave messianic signs; yet he came above all to free humanity from sin, the deepest slavery that harms our vocation as God’s children. Jesus chose the Twelve to share in his mission of preaching the kingdom and healing. Among them, Peter received a unique mission: to strengthen his brothers in faith and to exercise authority in the Church, including the authority symbolized by the keys of the kingdom. As we reflect together, we can place our trust in Christ, whose works bear witness that he is the Son of God and whose kingdom brings victory over sin and the powers of death.

In the moments leading up to his Passion, Jesus reveals his divine glory in the Transfiguration, confirming Peter’s confession and showing that he must go by the way of the cross in Jerusalem to enter into his glory. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ’s glorious coming and recalls that we enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he is prepared to die there; he weeps for the city and expresses his desire that it would know the things that make for peace. His humble entry into Jerusalem reveals the coming kingdom that he will accomplish through the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. For Catholic families, this passage invites us to listen to Jesus, to meet trials with faith, to grow in humility, and to prepare our hearts for the joy of the Resurrection.

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Today's Mass Readings

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