Time after Pentecost is the long season in which the Church reflects on Christ’s life, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the growth of Christian discipleship in ordinary time. The rank “Semidouble” is a traditional liturgical classification: in plain terms it means this is a notable celebration with its own prayers and readings, but it does not overrule more solemn seasons or major feasts. There is no octave or vigil attached here, so the observance is celebrated on the day itself. Short prayers, a reading from Scripture, and a brief family discussion make the day meaningful and approachable.
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
Commandment 7
The Ten Commandments
Thou shalt not steal.
The Seventh Commandment protects another person’s rightful goods and the justice owed in work, trade, promises, and contracts. It forbids taking, keeping, damaging, or using what belongs to another without right and requires restitution when an injustice can be repaired.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebration
Margaret of Scotland
St. Margaret, Queen and Widow
Queen of Scotland from 1070 to 1093
Born
1045-01-01 · Baranya County
Died
1093-11-16 · Edinburgh
Saint Margaret of Scotland, also known as Margaret of Wessex, was Queen of Alba from 1070 to 1093 as the wife of King Malcolm III. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". She was a member of the House of Wessex and was born in the Kingdom of Hungary to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile. She and her family returned to England in 1057. Following the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, her brother Edgar Ætheling was elected as King of England but never crowned. After the family fled north, Margaret married Malcolm III of Scotland by the end of 1070.
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism teaches that Christ instituted seven sacraments, which touch the important stages of Christian life by giving birth, growth, healing, and mission to faith. Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist lay the foundations of Christian life: through Baptism we are born anew, Confirmation strengthens us, and the Eucharist nourishes us with the food of eternal life. Baptism is the gateway to life in the Spirit and to the other sacraments. Through it we are freed from sin, reborn as children of God, made members of Christ, incorporated into the Church, and made sharers in her mission. Its immersion in water symbolizes burial with Christ in his death and rising with him as a new creature. Scripture’s images of water, the ark, the Red Sea, and the Jordan River help us reflect on Baptism as liberation, salvation, communion with Christ’s death, and the promise of eternal life. As we pray and learn together, these truths can help us treasure the sacramental life Christ has given his Church.
¶ 1210
Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. the seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.
A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.
Following this analogy, the first chapter will expound the three sacraments of Christian initiation; the second, the sacraments of healing; and the third, the sacraments at the service of communion and the mission of the faithful. This order, while not the only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic whole in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. In this organic whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of sacraments": "all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end."
¶ 1212
The sacraments of Christian initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist - lay the foundations of every Christian life. "The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. the faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity."
¶ 1213
Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."
¶ 1214
This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature."
¶ 1215
This sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit," for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God."
¶ 1216
"This bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical] instruction are enlightened in their understanding . . . ." Having received in Baptism the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person baptized has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes "light" himself:
¶ 1217
In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing of the baptismal water, the Church solemnly commemorates the great events in salvation history that already prefigured the mystery of Baptism:
Baltimore track
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Lesson 13 — On the Sacraments in General
Q. 617.What is the use and effect of giving the Sacraments conditionally?
A.The use of giving the Sacraments conditionally is that there may be no irreverence to the Sacraments in giving them to persons incapable or unworthy of receiving them; and yet that no one who is capable or worthy may be deprived of them. The effect is to supply the Sacrament where it is needed or can be given, and to withhold it where it is not needed or cannot be given.
Q. 618.What is the difference between the powers of a bishop and of a priest with regard to the administration of the Sacraments?
A.The difference between the powers of a bishop and of a priest with regard to the administration of the Sacraments is that a bishop can give all the Sacraments, while a priest cannot give Confirmation or Holy Orders.
Q. 619.Can a person receive all the Sacraments?
A.A person cannot, as a rule, receive all the Sacraments; for a woman cannot receive Holy Orders, and a man who receives priesthood is forbidden to receive the Sacrament of Matrimony.