Understanding the Day
Season
Lent
Week
Week 4 of Lent
Rank
Weekday
Lent is a penitential season of forty days preparing Catholics for the Easter Triduum and the joy of Easter. A “Greater Non-Privileged Feria” is an ordinary weekday in the liturgical week that has a higher rank than a simple feria: it keeps the season’s penitential character and the assigned readings and prayers for that weekday, but it does not have the additional liturgical privileges of special feasts or memorials. There is no octave or vigil associated with this day itself in the provided context.
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 6
The Beatitudes
Blessed are the pure of heart; for they shall see God.
Purity of heart is singleness of purpose before God, together with purity in thought, desire, word, and deed. A heart cleansed from divided and sinful attachments is made capable of knowing God more clearly and seeing Him in glory.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebrationCalendar title
Thursday of Week 4 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
Christ established the Twelve as an apostolic college, with Peter at their head. Peter, the rock of the Church and shepherd of the whole flock, received the keys of the Church; the apostles’ pastoral office continues in the bishops under the primacy of the Pope. As Peter’s successor, the Pope is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of unity among the bishops and the whole company of the faithful, with full, supreme, and universal power over the Church. United with the Pope, bishops serve as visible sources of unity in their own particular Churches, caring for their people with priests and deacons while also sharing concern for all the Churches—especially the poor, those persecuted for the faith, and missionaries. This structure shows the Church’s unity: many local Churches and bishops gathered under one head.
¶ 880
When Christ instituted the Twelve, "he constituted [them] in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among them." Just as "by the Lord's institution, St. Peter and the rest of the apostles constitute a single apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, are related with and united to one another."
¶ 881
The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. "The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of apostles united to its head." This pastoral office of Peter and the other apostles belongs to the Church's very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope.