Understanding the Day
Season
Lent
Week
Week 4 of Lent
Rank
Weekday
Lent is a penitential season of forty days preparing Catholics for the Easter Triduum and the joy of Easter. A “Greater Non-Privileged Feria” is an ordinary weekday in the liturgical week that has a higher rank than a simple feria: it keeps the season’s penitential character and the assigned readings and prayers for that weekday, but it does not have the additional liturgical privileges of special feasts or memorials. There is no octave or vigil associated with this day itself in the provided context.
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
Thursday of Week 4 of Lent
A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.
Customs & Fasting
Traditional fast
Traditional Lenten fast.
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 about the significance of Christ's Ascension into heaven. After his Resurrection, Jesus entered definitively into God's heavenly domain and sits at the right hand of the Father, his humanity glorified. This event inaugurates the Messiah's kingdom, which will have no end. Christ also remains our high priest and mediator, constantly interceding for those who draw near to God through him. For family devotion, these truths offer hope: Christ, the head of the Church, has gone before us into the Father's glorious kingdom, opening access to God's life and happiness so that we may hope to be with him for ever.
In Christ’s Ascension, we see him established as Lord over all creation and history, sharing in God’s power and authority and bringing God’s plan toward its fulfillment. He is the head of the Church, his Body, and his kingdom is already present in mystery: on earth, the Church is its seed and beginning. Yet Christ’s reign still awaits its full fulfillment when he returns in power and great glory. As we pray, worship, and live through the struggles of this present age, we wait and watch with hope, joining the Church in the prayer: “Maranatha! Our Lord, come!”
¶ 661
This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.