Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Eastertide

Week

Week 3 of Eastertide

Rank

Sunday or semidouble observance

Eastertide is the fifty-day season from Easter Sunday to Pentecost that celebrates Christ’s Resurrection and the life of the Church renewed in grace. A feast in this season, such as the commemoration of St. Hermenegild, is meant to be celebrated with joy and prayer, placing the saint’s witness within the context of the risen Lord.

The rank “Semidouble” is a traditional liturgical classification that indicates this celebration has a proper Mass and Office elements to be observed, but it does not supersede higher-ranking days; in plain terms, it is more significant than an obligatory memorial but below major solemnities. No octave or vigil is specified here, so the day is observed on its assigned date without an eight-day extension or particular prior-night liturgy.

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 8

The Beatitudes

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Persecution for justice’s sake is suffering endured because one remains faithful to God, the faith, or virtue. The blessing belongs not to suffering caused by one’s own wrongdoing, but to steadfastness when fidelity brings loss, hostility, or punishment.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Hermenegild

St. Hermenegild, Martyr

Visigothic prince and Catholic martyr

Born: Toledo
Died: 0585-04-13 · Tarragona

Saint Hermenegild or Ermengild, was the son of King Liuvigild of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. He fell out with his father in 579, then revolted the following year. During his rebellion, he converted from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity. Hermenegild was defeated in 584 and exiled. His death was later celebrated as a martyrdom due to the influence of Pope Gregory I's Dialogues, in which he portrayed Hermenegild as a "Catholic martyr rebelling against the tyranny of an Arian father."

Learn more about Hermenegild

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church recognizes the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience as gifts Christ proposes to every disciple. Those freely called to consecrated life embrace these counsels within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, seeking to follow Christ more closely and to give themselves totally to God. Consecrated life takes diverse forms, including religious life in community or solitude, the hidden prayer and penance of hermits, and the dedicated service of consecrated virgins. These varied callings enrich the Church’s life and holiness, serving the Kingdom and signifying the glory of the world to come. As we reflect together, we can give thanks for those who answer this call and for the many ways their lives point us toward Christ.

¶ 915

Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. the perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.

¶ 916

The religious state is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.

Today's Mass Readings

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