Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 14 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Second-class feast

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary is observed in the Time after Pentecost as a devotion that remembers key moments of suffering in Mary’s life connected to her Son. The rank “Double of the II Class” indicates a solemn celebration: more liturgical weight than an ordinary memorial, with fuller prayers and, where applicable, proper readings and a fuller ceremonial tone in parish worship.

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 Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Charity
Charity as a fruit is the mature delight of loving God and neighbor under the action of the Holy Ghost. It is called a fruit because supernatural love has become not only right but spiritually fruitful and pleasing in its exercise.
Joy
Joy is the spiritual gladness that follows charity’s union with the beloved good, above all with God. It can remain beneath sorrow and suffering because its deepest cause is God’s possessed or hoped-for goodness rather than favorable circumstances.
Peace
Peace is the tranquility produced when desires are rightly ordered within the soul and charity unites persons in the good. It is more than quiet or lack of conflict, since true peace depends on union with God, justice, and ordered love.
Patience
Patience bears present suffering without abandoning the good or surrendering to disordered sorrow. As a fruit of the Spirit it gives steadiness under trials whose end may not yet be visible.
Kindness
Kindness is a gracious readiness to treat others with warmth and to make charity evident in manner and action. It removes needless harshness and makes the good attractive without compromising truth.
Goodness
Goodness is the active inclination to do what is morally good and beneficial to others. As a fruit of the Spirit it reflects an interior uprightness that readily expresses itself in worthy deeds.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Our Lady of Sorrows

Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady of Sorrows is a title of Mary focused on the sorrows she endured in relation to the life and death of Jesus.

Our Lady of Sorrows is a title of Mary focused on the sorrows she endured in relation to the life and death of Jesus. The devotion is commonly organized around seven sorrows, and its Roman Catholic feast is celebrated on September 15.

Learn more about Our Lady of Sorrows

Commemoration

Nicomedes

St. Nicomedes, Martyr

Roman martyr

Customs & Fasting

No traditional fast · Complete abstinence

Traditional Friday complete abstinence.

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the Catechism, we see that Mary’s virginity and motherhood have a profound place in God’s saving plan. Her virginity reveals God’s absolute initiative in the Incarnation: Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit, has God as his Father, and is truly the Son of God made man. As the New Adam, Christ inaugurates the new creation and gives the Holy Spirit and grace to redeemed humanity. Mary’s faith, free obedience, and undivided gift of herself to God’s will enabled her to become the mother of the Saviour. At once virgin and mother, she is also the symbol and most perfect realization of the Church, which receives God’s word in faith and brings forth children to new and immortal life through preaching and Baptism. In our prayer, we can thank God for Mary’s faithful yes and ask for the grace to receive his word with faith.

In these Catechism readings, the Ten Commandments, or “Decalogue,” are presented as God’s “ten words,” revealed to his people within the covenant. They are connected with the Exodus, God’s great liberating event, and they express the implications of belonging to the God who made this covenant with his people. The commandments are more than isolated instructions: in making his holy will known, God reveals himself. They are given as a gift and as part of the dialogue between God and his people. As we reflect together in our homes, we can receive the commandments with gratitude, remembering that they show us God’s will and call us to live faithfully in covenant with him.

¶ 508

From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. "Full of grace", Mary is "the most excellent fruit of redemption" (SC 103): from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.

Today's Mass Readings

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

Understanding the Day

Daily Prayer

Weekly Prayer

Weekly Formation

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Saint & Feast

Our Lady of Sorrows

Nicomedes

Customs & Fasting

Today in Church History

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Today's Mass Readings

Baltimore Catechism No. 3