Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 5 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Feast

St. Aloysius Gonzaga is celebrated in the season called “Time after Pentecost,” the long portion of the Church year when families focus on living out the gifts of the Holy Spirit received at Pentecost. In plain terms, the rank “Double” indicates this is an important feast with its own proper prayers and readings; it takes liturgical precedence over ordinary weekday commemorations, so the Mass and the Divine Office are celebrated especially for this saint. No octave or vigil is noted here, so the observance is the single-day celebration proper to the feast.

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 9

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt not covet another person’s spouse.
The Ninth Commandment guards purity and marital fidelity within the heart, where deliberate desires begin. It distinguishes an unwanted temptation from a chosen desire and forbids willingly entertaining thoughts that would violate another person or another marriage.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Aloysius Gonzaga

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Confessor

Italian aristocrat and Jesuit seminarian and saint

Born: 1568-03-09 · Castiglione delle Stiviere
Died: 1591-06-21 · Rome

Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726.

Learn more about Aloysius Gonzaga

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the early Church, Confirmation was generally celebrated with Baptism as a “double sacrament,” highlighting the unity of Christian initiation. Eastern Churches continue to keep these sacraments united, while the Latin Church more clearly expresses the new Christian’s communion with the bishop, who serves the unity, catholicity, and apostolicity of the Church. In Confirmation, anointing with sacred chrism is a sign of consecration: the baptized share more completely in Christ’s mission and in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, so that their lives may give off “the aroma of Christ.” This anointing also gives the confirmand the seal of the Holy Spirit, marking total belonging to Christ and enrollment in his service forever. As families reflect on Confirmation, they can rejoice in this gift of belonging to Christ and his Church.

The sacrament of Confirmation is a profound moment in the life of a Catholic. Sacred chrism is consecrated by the bishop, and, in the Roman Rite when Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, the liturgy begins with the renewal of baptismal promises and the profession of faith. Through the laying on of hands, anointing with chrism, and the words “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit,” the confirmand receives the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Confirmation deepens baptismal grace, unites us more firmly to Christ, strengthens our bond with the Church, and gives us strength to spread and defend the faith as true witnesses of Christ. Given only once, it leaves an indelible spiritual mark, or “character,” enabling the confirmed person to profess faith in Christ publicly.

¶ 1296

Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Father's seal. Christians are also marked with a seal: "It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service for ever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological trial.

Today's Mass Readings

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