Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 4 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Feast

This feast falls in the Time after Pentecost, the season of the Church year when families focus on the life of the Church and the growth of Christian discipleship after the coming of the Holy Spirit. There is no octave or vigil specified here, so the celebration is observed on the day itself without an eight-day extension or required preparatory vigil. The commemoration of St. Basil the Great, a Confessor and Doctor of the Church, matters because it highlights a Christian example of pastoral leadership, faithful teaching, and prayerful holiness.

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 8

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt not bear false witness.
The Eighth Commandment requires truthfulness and respect for another person’s good name. It forbids lies, false testimony, rash judgment, slander, detraction, and the needless disclosure of faults, because justice and charity both govern speech.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Basil the Great

St. Basil the Great, Confessor and Doctor of the Church

4th-century Christian bishop, theologian, and saint

Born: 0329-01-01 · Kayseri
Died: 0379-00-00 · Kayseri

Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great was an early Roman Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia from 370 until his death in 379. He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed heresies within the early Christian church such as Arianism and Apollinarianism.

Learn more about Basil the Great

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Baptism is a profound sacrament of faith that marks the person baptized as belonging to Christ and signifies liberation from sin. As families attentively follow its gestures and words, they are invited to see the riches that Baptism signifies and brings about: the sign of the cross marks the candidate with Christ’s redemption, and the proclamation of God’s Word calls forth the response of faith. Baptism itself signifies and brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through union with Christ’s Paschal mystery. The anointing with sacred chrism signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit, while the white garment and candle show that the newly baptized has put on Christ, risen with him, and been enlightened by him. As a child of God, the baptized person is oriented toward the Eucharist and can pray, “Our Father.”

The Catechism teaches that every person who has not yet been baptized may receive Baptism. Where the Gospel is newly proclaimed, adult Baptism is common, and the catechumenate has an important place in preparing adults to receive God’s gift in Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. This formation helps catechumens’ conversion and faith mature within the Church, introducing them to Christian life, faith, liturgy, charity, and the practice of the evangelical virtues through successive sacred rites. Catechumens are already joined to the Church and are embraced with love and care.

Children also need the new birth of Baptism because they are born with a fallen human nature and original sin. In Baptism, they are freed from the power of darkness and brought into the freedom of God’s children. The Church encourages parents to have their children baptized shortly after birth, recognizing both the priceless grace offered to the child and parents’ role as nurturers of the life God has entrusted to them. Infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church, with explicit testimony from the second century onward.

¶ 1242

Today's Mass Readings

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