Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 11 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Feast

St. Cajetan, Confessor, is observed during the Time after Pentecost, the liturgical season that follows Pentecost and focuses on the growth of the Church through the lives of the saints and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. In plain terms, “Double” is a historic rank indicating this feast has greater liturgical importance than local memorials: it is celebrated with its own proper prayers, readings, and, in older rubrical practice, more solemn ceremonial elements than simple commemorations. There is no octave or vigil indicated here, so the observance is celebrated on the single calendar day without an extended eight‑day octave or a required vigil the evening before.

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

Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

Three Eminent Good Works to Overcome Our Sinfulness

Prayer
Prayer raises the mind and heart to God in adoration, thanksgiving, repentance, and petition. As a work of penance it turns the sinner back toward God, acknowledges dependence on grace, and joins personal needs to the honor owed to Him.
Fasting
Fasting is the willing restraint of food or other lawful satisfactions for a spiritual purpose. It disciplines bodily appetite, expresses sorrow for sin, and strengthens prayer when practiced with humility rather than display.
Almsgiving
Almsgiving is the gift of money, goods, time, or practical assistance to those in need or to works of charity. It makes repentance fruitful in mercy, loosens attachment to possessions, and recognizes Christ’s claim in the poor.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Cajetan

St. Cajetan, Confessor

(1480–1547) Founder of the Theatines

Born: 1480-10-01 · Vicenza
Died: 1547-08-07 · Naples

Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene, known in English as Saint Cajetan, was an Italian Catholic priest and religious reformer, co-founder of the Theatines. He is recognised as a saint in the Catholic Church, and his feast day is 7 August.

Learn more about Cajetan

Commemoration

Donatus

St. Donatus, Bishop and Martyr

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In understanding moral actions, freedom plays a crucial role: when we act deliberately and choose freely in light of conscience, our actions can be evaluated as good or evil. The morality of an act involves three interconnected sources: the object chosen, the intention or purpose behind it, and the circumstances surrounding it. For families, this means that good intentions, such as wanting to help a neighbor, are important but cannot make an action that is evil in itself good or just. We are invited to consider not only why we act, but also what we choose and the circumstances of our choices, since a morally good act requires goodness in its object, end, and circumstances. We may not do evil so that good may result from it.

The Catechism teaches that our passions—our feelings and emotions—are natural parts of human life and can dispose us toward beatitude. Love, desire, joy, fear, sadness, and anger are among the principal passions. In themselves, these feelings are neither morally good nor evil; their moral character depends on how they engage reason and will. When governed by reason and directed by an upright will, they can contribute to good actions, virtue, charity, and beatitude. In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit works in the whole person, including sorrows, fears, and sadness, so that human feelings may reach their fulfillment in charity and divine beatitude. As we reflect together, we can acknowledge our feelings and ask that they be directed toward the good, with hearts moved to love.

¶ 1757

The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three "sources" of the morality of human acts.

Today's Mass Readings

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