Understanding the Day
Season
Lent
Week
Week 2 of Lent
Rank
Weekday
Lent is a forty-day season of repentance, prayer, and fasting that prepares Christians for Easter. A “Feria” is an ordinary weekday in the liturgical calendar. The rank here—Greater Non-Privileged Feria—means this day is a regular weekday office of Lent with fuller liturgical observance than a simple feria: the proper Lenten prayers, readings, and penitential character are kept, but it is not a feast of a saint or a higher-ranked celebration that would replace the weekday liturgy. There is no octave or vigil attached to this day; it is part of the second week of Lent’s continuous observance.
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
Beatitude 4
The Beatitudes
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for justice; for they shall be satisfied.
To hunger and thirst for justice is to desire holiness and every virtue with the urgency of bodily hunger and thirst. The promise of being filled means that God satisfies this sincere desire through grace now and perfect righteousness in heaven.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebrationCalendar title
Wednesday of Week 2 of Lent
A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.
Customs & Fasting
Traditional fast
Traditional Lenten fast.
Today in Church History
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Church’s origin is rooted in the Holy Trinity’s plan and unfolds gradually through history as the “family of God,” called to share in divine life. God created the world for communion with him, brought about through the gathering of people in Christ, which is the Church. After sin disrupted communion with God and one another, God began gathering his People, preparing this gathering through Abraham and Israel and bringing it to fulfillment in the New Covenant instituted by Christ. Jesus inaugurated the Church by proclaiming the Kingdom of God, gathering a little flock around himself, and preparing and building his Church through the Twelve and the other disciples. The Church is born above all from Christ’s total self-giving for salvation, anticipated in the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross, where the blood and water flowing from his side symbolize her origin and growth. As we reflect together, we can give thanks for God’s loving plan to gather his people into communion with him in Christ.
The Church, established and sustained by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, is missionary by her very nature: she is sent to all nations to make disciples and to spread the Gospel through preaching (CCC 767). To fulfill this mission, the Holy Spirit gives the Church varied hierarchical and charismatic gifts and directs her as she proclaims and establishes the Kingdom of Christ and God among all peoples (CCC 768). Although the Church will receive her perfection only in heavenly glory, she journeys through the persecutions and consolations of this world, longing for the Kingdom’s full coming and enduring great trials before the final gathering of the just (CCC 769). The Church is present in history while also transcending it; with the eyes of faith, she is seen in both her visible and spiritual reality as bearer of divine life (CCC 770). She is a community of faith, hope, and charity, visibly structured and also the mystical Body of Christ, a single reality made up of human and divine elements through which Christ communicates truth and grace (CCC 771).