Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 3 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Feast

This feast falls in the Time after Pentecost, the season in the Church year when families focus on the growth of the Church through the Holy Spirit and living out Christ’s teaching in everyday life. In plain terms, the rank “Double” indicates a liturgical celebration of notable importance: it receives its proper prayers and readings at Mass and in the Divine Office rather than being fully superseded by higher-ranking observances. There is no octave or vigil noted here, so the local and family observance is typically concentrated on the single day itself.

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

John of San Facundo

St. John of St. Facundus, Confessor

Spanish Augustinian friar, priest and saint

Born: 1419-06-24 · Sahagún
Died: 1479-06-11 · Salamanca

John of Sahagún, OESA, was a Spanish Augustinian friar and priest. He was a leading preacher of his day, and was known as a peacemaker and reconciler of enemies among the nobles and factions of Salamanca. He was declared a saint by the Catholic Church in 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII.

Learn more about John of San Facundo

Commemoration

Basilides

Sts. Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius, Martyrs

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 that all the prefigurations of the Old Covenant find their fulfillment in Christ, who began his public life by being baptized by St. John. This voluntary act manifests Jesus’ self-emptying, and the descent of the Spirit upon him is a prelude to the new creation. Through his Passover, Christ opened the fountain of Baptism to all, so that we may be born of water and the Spirit and enter the Kingdom of God. From Pentecost onward, the Church has celebrated and administered Baptism, calling believers to repent, believe in Jesus, receive forgiveness of sins, and welcome the gift of the Holy Spirit. Baptism unites the believer with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; through water and the life-giving Word of God, it becomes a sacrament of new life. For families, these passages offer a beautiful invitation to remember Baptism as God’s gift, through which believers are brought into communion with Christ.

From the time of the apostles, becoming a Christian has involved a journey with essential elements: hearing the Word, accepting the Gospel through conversion, professing faith, receiving Baptism, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and admission to Eucharistic communion. The forms of this initiation have varied through the centuries. Today, adult initiation reaches its culmination in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, while infant Baptism calls for continued instruction and a post-baptismal catechumenate so that baptismal grace may grow in personal life. As we reflect together, we can give thanks for the Church’s care in leading people step by step into the fullness of Christian initiation.

¶ 1226

From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism. Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in Jesus: Jews, the God-fearing, pagans. Always, Baptism is seen as connected with faith: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household," St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi. and the narrative continues, the jailer "was baptized at once, with all his family."

Today's Mass Readings

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