Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Passiontide

Week

Week 2 of Passiontide

Rank

First-class feast

Palm Sunday (Dominica in Palmis) begins Passiontide and recalls Jesus’ solemn entry into Jerusalem, when people welcomed him with palms. In the liturgical calendar used here (divino_afflatu), it is a Greater Sunday of the I Class: that means it is one of the highest-ranking feasts of the year. There is no octave or vigil attached above, but Palm Sunday leads directly into Holy Week, the final days of Lent that culminate in the Triduum.

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 5

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy.
The merciful recognize another’s misery and act to relieve needs of body or soul. Their mercy imitates God’s compassion and disposes them to receive mercy from Him, without making mercy contrary to truth or justice.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Palm Sunday

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Commemoration

Benedict

St. Benedict, Abbot

founder of Christian monasticism, founder of the Benedictine order

Born: 0480-03-03 · Norcia
Died: 0547-03-23 · Abbey of Monte Cassino

Benedict of Nursia, often known as Saint Benedict, was a Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964, Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe.

Learn more about Benedict

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the mystery of salvation, Jesus’ violent death was not a mere coincidence but part of God’s plan, while those involved still acted freely rather than as passive players in a predetermined scenario. God’s eternal plan includes each person’s free response to his grace, and, for our salvation, he permitted the acts flowing from human blindness. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, fulfilling the prophecy of the suffering Servant and offering a universal redemption from slavery to sin. In loving solidarity with sinners, Jesus was given up for us so that we might be reconciled to God. For our family’s prayer and reflection, these passages invite us to remember God’s benevolent love: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and he suffered for every human person without exception.

The Church is the profound mystery through which Christ fulfills and reveals God’s plan to unite all things in him. Saint Paul describes the union of Christ and the Church as a “great mystery,” and the Church, united to Christ as her bridegroom, bears the hope of glory. As a sacrament, the Church is a visible sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all people. She contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies, serving as Christ’s instrument for salvation and as the visible plan of God’s love for humanity. The Church is the assembly gathered by God’s Word into the People of God and, nourished by Christ’s Body, becoming the Body of Christ. Both visible and spiritual, human and divine, she already begins the unity of the human race and awaits her perfection in heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed.

¶ 601

The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures." In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.

Today's Mass Readings

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