Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Advent

Week

Week 1 of Advent

Rank

First-class feast

Advent is the Church’s penitential and hopeful season of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas and for his final coming. “Dominica 1 Adventus” (Sunday 1 of Advent) begins the liturgical year and introduces the themes of watchfulness, repentance, and expectation. There is no octave or special vigil attached beyond the normal Advent observances.

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

Willful Murder

Sins Crying to Heaven

Willful murder
Willful murder is the deliberate and unjust taking of innocent human life. Scripture describes innocent blood as crying to God because the act attacks a person made in His image and commits an injustice that the victim can no longer answer on earth.

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt not kill.
The Fifth Commandment protects human life because every person is made by God and belongs ultimately to Him. It forbids unjust killing and deliberate injury, and it also condemns hatred, revenge, and conduct that recklessly endangers oneself or another.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebrationCalendar title

Sunday 1 of Advent

A biography or feast reflection has not yet been prepared.

Commemoration

Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier, Confessor

Spanish Catholic saint and missionary (1506–1552)

Born: 1506-04-07 · Javier
Died: 1552-12-03 · Shangchuan Island

Francis Xavier, SJ, venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian mission to Japan.

Learn more about Francis Xavier

Today in Church History

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

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

In the rich tradition of Catholic prayer, each Church offers forms of prayer suited to its history, society, and culture, while the Church discerns their faithfulness to the apostolic faith and explains them in relation to Jesus Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, spoken or interior, we have access to the Father by praying in the name of Jesus. Invoking his holy name is a simple way to pray always: with a humbly attentive heart, it opens us to the Savior’s mercy and can bear fruit with patience. The Church also invites us to call upon the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and end of important actions. In this way, prayer is not merely one task among others, but loving God in a way that animates and transforms our actions in Christ.

¶ 2663

In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. the Magisterium of the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ.

¶ 2664

There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. the sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father.

Today's Mass Readings

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