Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Eastertide

Week

Week 3 of Eastertide

Rank

Sunday

Eastertide is the fifty-day season from Easter Sunday to Pentecost, a sustained celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. The Second Sunday after Easter (Dominica 2 post Pascha) falls within this joyful period and continues the Church’s focus on the risen Lord and the life of the early Christian community. The rank “Semidouble” is an older liturgical term indicating a celebration of moderate importance: it is observed with its proper prayers and readings, but it does not outrank major feasts or the solemn days of the octave. Because this Sunday is within the Easter season, it participates in the octave’s extended rejoicing even though it is not itself a principal octave day.

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

Commandment 2

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
The Second Commandment protects the holiness of God’s name and everything specially dedicated to Him. It forbids using sacred names carelessly or falsely and requires reverence in oaths, vows, prayer, and speech about holy things.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Second Sunday after Easter

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Commemoration

Catherine of Siena

St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin

Italian Dominican saint (1347-1380)

Born: 1347-03-25 · Siena
Died: 1380-04-29 · Rome

Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, known as Catherine of Siena, was an Italian mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. Canonized in 1461, she is revered as a saint and as a Doctor of the Church due to her extensive theological authorship. She is also considered to have influenced Italian literature.

Learn more about Catherine of Siena

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism presents the Holy Trinity at the heart of God’s plan for salvation: the Father gives his beloved Son and the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and the glory of his name. Christ accomplishes this work through his Paschal mystery—his Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension—and the Church proclaims and celebrates this mystery in the liturgy. In the liturgy, Christ our redeemer continues the work of redemption through his Church, drawing the faithful into conscious, active, and fruitful participation. Liturgy includes divine worship, the proclamation of the Gospel, and active charity, calling us to serve God and neighbor. As we gather with the Church in prayer and worship, the liturgy helps root us in the Father’s love, strengthens the community’s new life in the Spirit, and sends us into the Church’s mission and service to unity.

¶ 1068

It is this mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:

¶ 1069

The word "liturgy" originally meant a "public work" or a "service in the name of/on behalf of the people." In Christian tradition it means the participation of the People of God in "the work of God." Through the liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church.

Today's Mass Readings

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