St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
S. Augustini Episcopi et Confessoris et Ecclesiæ Doctoris
FeastWhite
Understanding the Day
Season
Time After Pentecost
Week
Week 14 of Time After Pentecost
Rank
Feast
This celebration falls in the Time After Pentecost, the long season of the Church year when families focus on the life of the Church, growth in Christian discipleship, and the witness of the saints. The rank “Double” is an older liturgical category meaning this is an important feast; in family practice, treat it as a special day of prayer and remembrance rather than a solemnity with obligatory fasting or major liturgical changes. No octave or vigil is specified here, so observance is for the day itself. The celebration honors St. Augustine of Hippo for his ministry as bishop, his witness as a confessor of the faith, and his teaching as a Doctor of the Church.
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
The Corporal Works of Mercy
The Corporal Works of Mercy
Feed the hungry
Feeding the hungry supplies necessary nourishment to those who lack it. It is a corporal work because it serves a bodily need, and an act of mercy because charity responds to another’s misery rather than ignoring preventable want.
Give drink to the thirsty
Giving drink to the thirsty provides the water or other wholesome refreshment needed for life and health. The work includes direct aid and reasonable support for efforts that make safe water available to people in need.
Clothe the naked
Clothing the naked provides suitable clothing and protection to those who lack them. It safeguards bodily health and personal dignity while recognizing that unused or excess goods can answer another person’s genuine necessity.
Visit the imprisoned
Visiting the imprisoned brings humane presence and assistance to those deprived of liberty, including people unjustly confined or otherwise held captive. It neither approves wrongdoing nor abandons justice, but refuses to treat any prisoner as beyond dignity, truth, or mercy.
Shelter the homeless
Sheltering the homeless provides safe lodging or helps secure it for those without a stable place to live. Traditional language calls this harboring the harborless, extending hospitality and protection to the stranger and displaced person.
Visit the sick
Saint & Feast
Principal celebration
Augustine
St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
Christian theologian, philosopher, and saint (354–430)
Born
0354-11-13 · Thagaste
Died
0430-08-28 · Hippo Regius
Augustine of Hippo was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Participation in society is an essential expression of our dignity as human beings, calling each of us to help promote the common good. In family life, this includes taking responsibility for the education of our family; in daily life, it includes conscientious work and service to others and society. We are encouraged, as far as possible, to take an active part in public life and to support authority exercised within the moral order and for the common good. This common good includes respect for fundamental rights, the development of society’s spiritual and temporal goods, and peace and security. By creating and supporting institutions that improve human life, we help build a more just and caring world and offer future generations reasons for life and optimism.
¶ 1916
As with any ethical obligation, the participation of all in realizing the common good calls for a continually renewed conversion of the social partners. Fraud and other subterfuges, by which some people evade the constraints of the law and the prescriptions of societal obligation, must be firmly condemned because they are incompatible with the requirements of justice. Much care should be taken to promote institutions that improve the conditions of human life.
¶ 1917
It is incumbent on those who exercise authority to strengthen the values that inspire the confidence of the members of the group and encourage them to put themselves at the service of others. Participation begins with education and culture. "One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come with reasons for life and optimism."
Visiting the sick relieves the isolation and practical burdens caused by illness. Presence, care, needed assistance, and attention to spiritual needs all recognize the sick person as a neighbor rather than as a problem to be avoided.
Bury the dead
Burying the dead gives reverent care to every human body in view of its God-given dignity and the resurrection of the body. For the baptized, it also honors the body’s consecration as a temple of the Holy Ghost, while assisting the bereaved and securing a dignified burial.
Hermes
St. Hermes, Martyr
Greek saint
Born
0100-01-01 · Greece
Died
0120-01-01 · Rome
Saint Hermes, born in Greece, died in Rome as a martyr in 120, is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. His name appears in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum as well as entries in the Depositio Martyrum (354). There was a large basilica over his tomb that was built around 600 by Pope Pelagius I and restored by Pope Adrian I. The Catacomb of Sant'Ermete on the Salarian Way is named after him.
"There is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God" ( Rom 13:1).
¶ 1919
Every human community needs an authority in order to endure and develop.
¶ 1920
"The political community and public authority are based on human nature and therefore . . . belong to an order established by God" (GS 74 # 3).
¶ 1921
Authority is exercised legitimately if it is committed to the common good of society. To attain this it must employ morally acceptable means.
¶ 1922
The diversity of political regimes is legitimate, provided they contribute to the good of the community.
¶ 1923
Political authority must be exercised within the limits of the moral order and must guarantee the conditions for the exercise of freedom.
Baltimore track
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Lesson 24 — On the Sacrifice of the Mass
Q. 916.When and where are the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ?
A.The bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ at the Consecration in the Mass.
Q. 917.What is the Mass?
A.The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.
Q. 918.Why is this Sacrifice called the Mass?
A.This Sacrifice is called the "Mass" very probably from the words "Ite Missa est," used by the priest as he tells the people to depart when the Holy Sacrifice is ended.
Q. 919.What is a sacrifice?
A.A sacrifice is the offering of an object by a priest to God alone, and the consuming of it to acknowledge that He is the Creator and Lord of all things.