Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 5 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

First-class feast

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist is celebrated in the season after Pentecost. This season centers on the life of the Church and the growth of Christian witness in the world.

The rank “Double of the I Class” is a high liturgical rank. In plain terms, it means this feast has primary importance in the Church’s calendar: the Mass and Office for the day are celebrated with special prayers, proper readings, and a fuller liturgical observance than an ordinary feast. There is no octave or vigil specified here, so the celebration is kept on the single day with its proper rites.

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

Nativity of John the Baptist

Nativity of St. John the Baptist

The Nativity of John the Baptist celebrates the birth of John as narrated in the Gospel of Luke.

The Nativity of John the Baptist celebrates the birth of John as narrated in the Gospel of Luke. The feast is observed on June 24, six months before Christmas in the liturgical calendar.

Learn more about Nativity of John the Baptist

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Confirmation perfects the grace received at Baptism, giving the Holy Spirit to root us more deeply in our divine filiation, strengthen our union with Christ and the Church, and help us witness to the Christian faith through both words and deeds. It seals the Christian with an indelible spiritual mark and can therefore be received only once. In the Eastern tradition, Confirmation is given immediately after Baptism and followed by the Eucharist, highlighting the unity of Christian initiation. When Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, the renewal of baptismal promises expresses its close connection with Baptism. Candidates who have reached the age of reason are called to profess the faith, be in the state of grace, intend to receive the sacrament, and prepare to live as disciples and witnesses of Christ in the Church and in the world.

Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, we receive the new life of Christ. Yet we still live with human frailty, suffering, illness, death, and the inclination to sin, so this new life can be weakened or even lost by sin. In his mercy, the Lord continues his work of healing and salvation in the Church through the sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick. In Penance, we confess our sins and receive God’s pardon and peace, being reconciled with God and with the Church. As we pray together, let us remember our call to conversion, forgive one another, and rely on Christ’s grace as we strive for holiness and eternal life.

¶ 1320

The essential rite of Confirmation is anointing the forehead of the baptized with sacred chrism (in the East other sense-organs as well), together with the laying on of the minister's hand and the words: "Accipe signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti" (Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.) in the Roman Rite, or "The seal of the gift that is the Holy Spirit" in the Byzantine rite.

Today's Mass Readings

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