The Season of Time after Pentecost (Ordinary Time) is the long stretch of the Church year when we follow Christ’s life and the growth of the Church through the teaching and witness of the apostles.
This celebration is the Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle (S. Bartholomæi Apostoli), ranked in the older liturgical classification as a “Double of the II Class.” There is no octave or special vigil attached here, so the day’s liturgies and prayers are celebrated on the feast itself.
Why it matters: feasts of apostles remind families that the Church is sent to proclaim the Gospel.
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
Bartholomew
St. Bartholomew the Apostle
Christian apostle and martyr
Born
0100-01-01 · Cana
Died
0100-01-01 · Albanopolis
Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Most scholars today identify Bartholomew as Nathanael, who appears in the Gospel of John.
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism teaches that society is essential to fulfilling the human vocation and should respect a just hierarchy of values, subordinating physical and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones. When means and ends are reversed—when what is only a means is treated as the ultimate goal, or persons are treated merely as means—unjust structures arise and make Christian conduct more difficult. As we reflect together, we are invited to appeal to our spiritual and moral capacities and to seek the conversion of our hearts, while also working to reform institutions and conditions that encourage sin. With God’s grace, charity helps us follow the path between giving in to evil and responding with violence; it respects others and their rights, calls for justice, and inspires self-giving love of God and neighbor. The family is one of the societies that corresponds directly to human nature, and every social organization should place the human person at its center. Society should promote virtue, encourage participation and responsibility, and, where sin has damaged social life, charity should urge just reforms. There is no solution to the social question apart from the Gospel.
¶ 1886
Society is essential to the fulfillment of the human vocation. To attain this aim, respect must be accorded to the just hierarchy of values, which "subordinates physical and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones:"
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.
The inversion of means and ends, which results in giving the value of ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing persons as mere means to that end, engenders unjust structures which "make Christian conduct in keeping with the commandments of the divine Law-giver difficult and almost impossible."
¶ 1888
It is necessary, then, to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him. the acknowledged priority of the conversion of heart in no way eliminates but on the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to institutions and living conditions when they are an inducement to sin, so that they conform to the norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder it.
¶ 1889
Without the help of grace, men would not know how "to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil, and the violence which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse." This is the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor. Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it."
¶ 1890
There is a certain resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men ought to establish among themselves.
¶ 1891
The human person needs life in society in order to develop in accordance with his nature. Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly to the nature of man.
¶ 1892
"The human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject, and the object of every social organization" (GS 25 # 1).
¶ 1893
Widespread participation in voluntary associations and institutions is to be encouraged.
Baltimore track
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Lesson 23 — On the Ends for which the Holy Eucharist Was Instituted
Q. 903.Does he who receives Communion in mortal sin receive the body and blood of Christ?
A.He who receives Communion in mortal sin receives the body and blood of Christ, but does not receive His grace, and he commits a great sacrilege.
Q. 904.Is it enough to be free from mortal sin to receive plentifully the graces of Holy Communion?
A.To receive plentifully the graces of Holy Communion it is not enough to be free from mortal sin, but we should be free from all affection to venial sin, and should make acts of lively faith, of firm hope, and ardent love.
Q. 905.What is the fast necessary for Holy Communion?
A.The fast necessary for Holy Communion is the abstaining from food, alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic drinks for one hour before Holy Communion. Water does not break the fast.
{T.N.: The reprint book, upon which this e-text is based, contains the statement, "Complete and unabridged, except for the rules governing reception of Holy Communion."}
Q. 906.Does medicine taken by necessity or food taken by accident break the fast for Holy Communion?
A.Medicine does not break the fast; food taken by accident within one hour before Communion breaks the fast.