Understanding the Day
Season
Time After Pentecost
Week
Week 22 of Time After Pentecost
Rank
Simple feast
Septuagesima is the preparatory season before Lent in the older liturgical practice called the divino afflatu calendar. The Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sanctæ Mariæ Sabbato) is celebrated on Saturdays during this season as a special devotion honoring Mary’s ongoing role in the Church’s life and in the spiritual formation of Christian households. The rank “Simple” indicates this is a proper devotion of modest liturgical weight: it is observed with particular prayers or antiphons in the Divine Office but does not supersede more important solemnities or Sundays. There is no octave or vigil attached here; this is a recurring weekly observance.
Daily Prayer
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Weekly Prayer
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Weekly Formation
Anger and Meekness
The Way of Darkness
Anger
Sinful anger is a disordered movement toward revenge or punishment beyond what justice and charity allow. The emotion of anger can arise without sin, but it becomes vicious when deliberately nursed into resentment, hatred, cruelty, or uncontrolled retaliation.
The Way of Light
Meekness
Meekness moderates anger so that strength remains under the command of reason and charity. It is not weakness or indifference to injustice; it enables correction and defense of the good without hatred, cruelty, or loss of self-possession.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebrationCalendar title
Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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Today in Church History
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Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Chastity is the integration of sexuality within the person, fostering unity in our bodily and spiritual being and protecting the integrity of life and love. It calls us to self-mastery, conscious and free choices, and freedom from being ruled by our passions. This is a lifelong path of growth, sometimes marked by imperfection and sin, supported by self-knowledge, prayer, obedience to God’s commandments, and the practice of virtue. As we reflect together, we can remember that chastity also involves respect for every person and for education that honors the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life. It is both a moral virtue and a gift of God’s grace, as the Holy Spirit helps the baptized imitate the purity of Christ.
Charity is the foundation of all virtues, guiding us toward self-mastery and the gift of self, particularly through the practice of chastity, which reflects God's fidelity and love. Chastity flourishes in friendships, teaching us to emulate Christ, who invites us into a deep spiritual communion. Every baptized person is called to embrace chastity appropriate to their life situation—whether through marriage, single life, or consecrated celibacy—each fostering a commitment to love and respect. Engaged couples, in particular, are encouraged to practice chastity as a way to strengthen their relationship, ensuring that their expressions of love are reserved for the sacred bond of marriage, thereby enhancing mutual respect and fidelity.
The Catechism teaches that sexual pleasure is morally disordered when it is sought for itself, apart from its procreative and unitive purposes. It identifies lust, masturbation, fornication, pornography, and prostitution as serious disorders of sexuality that harm chastity and the dignity of persons. Sexual union is ordered to the good of spouses and to the generation and education of children, and the full meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation is achieved in the context of true love and marriage. Pornography and prostitution particularly reduce people to objects of pleasure or profit, while rape is always an intrinsically evil act that gravely violates another person’s freedom, dignity, and integrity. As we reflect together, we can uphold chastity, respect the dignity of every person, and remember that personal circumstances, such as anxiety, habit, immaturity, destitution, blackmail, or social pressure, can lessen moral culpability in some cases. We should also be mindful of the grave harm done to vulnerable people, especially children.