St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
S. Augustini Episcopi et Confessoris et Ecclesiæ Doctoris
FeastWhite
Understanding the Day
Season
Time After Pentecost
Week
Week 12 of Time After Pentecost
Rank
Feast
This celebration falls in the Time After Pentecost, the long season of the Church year when families focus on the life of the Church, growth in Christian discipleship, and the witness of the saints. The rank “Double” is an older liturgical category meaning this is an important feast; in family practice, treat it as a special day of prayer and remembrance rather than a solemnity with obligatory fasting or major liturgical changes. No octave or vigil is specified here, so observance is for the day itself. The celebration honors St. Augustine of Hippo for his ministry as bishop, his witness as a confessor of the faith, and his teaching as a Doctor of the Church.
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 Spiritual Works of Mercy
The Spiritual Works of Mercy
Admonish the sinner
Admonishing the sinner is a charitable warning intended to help a person recognize and leave serious wrongdoing. It requires truth, prudence, and concern for the person’s salvation, not humiliation, anger, or a desire to display superiority.
Instruct the ignorant
Instructing the ignorant means teaching needed truth to someone who does not know it, especially truth concerning faith and moral duty. The work presumes patience and accuracy and differs from winning an argument or displaying knowledge.
Counsel the doubtful
Counseling the doubtful helps a person whose judgment is uncertain to recognize a sound and morally lawful course. Good counsel applies truth prudently to the actual difficulty and does not replace conscience with another person’s preferences.
Comfort the sorrowful
Comforting the sorrowful shares another person’s burden through truthful consolation, patient presence, and appropriate help. Christian comfort neither dismisses grief nor offers false assurances, but strengthens hope in God amid real suffering.
Bear wrongs patiently
Bearing wrongs patiently means enduring injuries that cannot prudently be corrected without yielding to hatred or revenge. It does not require enabling abuse or refusing lawful protection; patience governs the heart while justice addresses the wrong.
Saint & Feast
Principal celebration
Augustine
St. Augustine of Hippo, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
Christian theologian, philosopher, and saint (354–430)
Born
0354-11-13 · Thagaste
Died
0430-08-28 · Hippo Regius
Augustine of Hippo was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.
No Church history reflection has been prepared for this date yet.
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Participation in society is an essential expression of our dignity as human beings, calling each of us to help promote the common good. In family life, this includes taking responsibility for the education of our family; in daily life, it includes conscientious work and service to others and society. We are encouraged, as far as possible, to take an active part in public life and to support authority exercised within the moral order and for the common good. This common good includes respect for fundamental rights, the development of society’s spiritual and temporal goods, and peace and security. By creating and supporting institutions that improve human life, we help build a more just and caring world and offer future generations reasons for life and optimism.
¶ 1918
"There is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God" ( Rom 13:1).
¶ 1919
Every human community needs an authority in order to endure and develop.
Forgiving injuries releases the will from hatred and the desire for personal vengeance. Forgiveness can coexist with prudent boundaries, restitution, and lawful consequences, because it concerns charity toward the offender rather than pretending no wrong occurred.
Pray for the living and the dead
Praying for the living and the dead entrusts the needs of others to God’s wisdom and mercy. It embraces people who cannot repay the prayer, including enemies and the faithful departed who may still need purification.
Hermes
St. Hermes, Martyr
Greek saint
Born
0100-01-01 · Greece
Died
0120-01-01 · Rome
Saint Hermes, born in Greece, died in Rome as a martyr in 120, is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. His name appears in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum as well as entries in the Depositio Martyrum (354). There was a large basilica over his tomb that was built around 600 by Pope Pelagius I and restored by Pope Adrian I. The Catacomb of Sant'Ermete on the Salarian Way is named after him.
"The political community and public authority are based on human nature and therefore . . . belong to an order established by God" (GS 74 # 3).
¶ 1921
Authority is exercised legitimately if it is committed to the common good of society. To attain this it must employ morally acceptable means.
¶ 1922
The diversity of political regimes is legitimate, provided they contribute to the good of the community.
¶ 1923
Political authority must be exercised within the limits of the moral order and must guarantee the conditions for the exercise of freedom.
¶ 1924
The common good comprises "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily" (GS 26 1).
Baltimore track
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Lesson 24 — On the Sacrifice of the Mass
Q. 916.When and where are the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ?
A.The bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ at the Consecration in the Mass.
Q. 917.What is the Mass?
A.The Mass is the unbloody sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ.
Q. 918.Why is this Sacrifice called the Mass?
A.This Sacrifice is called the "Mass" very probably from the words "Ite Missa est," used by the priest as he tells the people to depart when the Holy Sacrifice is ended.
Q. 919.What is a sacrifice?
A.A sacrifice is the offering of an object by a priest to God alone, and the consuming of it to acknowledge that He is the Creator and Lord of all things.