Author: Jimmy Akin

Today is the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany.

In the Extraordinary Form, it is the 4th Sunday after Epiphany.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 29, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, confessor and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 1622. It is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Francis de Sales, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

39. In conformity with the dispositions of the Council, synods were held in many of the ecclesiatical provinces. These often demonstarted a concern to bring the faithful to an active participation in the celebration of the divine mysteries. Simultaneously, the Roman Pontiffs began a vast programme of liturgical reform. The Roman Calendar and the liturgical books of the Roman Rite were revised in the relatively short space of time between 1568 and 1614. In 1588 the Sacred Congregation of Rites was established to promote and correctly order the liturgical celebrations of the Roman Church. The Catechismus ad Parochosfulfilled the provision of pastoral and liturgical formation.

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Today is Saturday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 28, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church. It is a memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Peter Nolasco, confessor, who died in A.D. 1256. It is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St. Agnes, virgin and martyr. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Thomas Aquinas, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Peter Nolasco, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Agnes, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

38. Shortly after the close of the fifth Lateran Council (6 March 1517), which had made provisions for the instruction of youth in the Liturgy, the crisis leading to the rise of Protestantism arose. Its supporters raised many objections to the Catholic doctrine on the sacraments, to the Church’s worship, and to popular piety.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563), convoked to resolve the situation facing the People of God as a result of the spread of protestantism, addressed questions relating to the Liturgy and popular piety from the doctrinal and [ritual] perspective, at all three of its phases. Becasue of the historical context and the doctrinal nature of the matters dealt with by the Council, the liturgical and sacramental questions placed before the Council were answered predominantly from a doctrinal perspective. Errors were denounced and abuses condemned. The Church’s faith and liturgical tradition were defended. The decree De reformatione generali proposed a pastoral programme, whose activation was entrusted to the Holy See and to the Bishops, which demonstrated concern for the problems arising form the liturgical instruction of the people.

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Today is Friday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany, and the liturgical color for today is white.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 27, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Angela Merici, virgin and founder of the Ursulines. It is an optional memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. John Chrysostom, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 407. It is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Angel Merici, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. John Chrysostom, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

37. Among those most concerned for the reform of the Church at beginning of the sixteenth century, mention must be of two Camoldelesi monks, Paolo Giustiniani and Pietro Querini, authors of the famous Libellus ad Leonem X which set out important principles for the revitalization of the Liturgy so as to open its treasures to the entire People of God. They advocated biblical instruction for the clergy and religious, the adoption of the vernacular in the celebration of the divine mysteries and the reform of the liturgical books. They also advocated the elimination of spurious elements deriving from erroneous popular piety, and the promotion of catechesis so as to make the faithful aware of the importance of the Liturgy.

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Today is Thursday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany, and the liturgical color for today is red.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 26, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St.s Timothy and Titus, bishops. It is a memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, martyr, who died in A.D. 169. It is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St.s Timothy and Titus, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Polycarp, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

36. From the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, the discovery of Africa, America and the Far East caused the question of the relationship between Liturgy and popular piety to be posed in new terms.

While the work of evangelizing and catechising countries distant from the cultural and [ritual] centre of the Roman Rite was certainly accomplished through preaching the Word and celebrating the sacraments (cf. Mt 28, 19), it also came about through the pious exercises popularized by the missionaries.

Pious exercises became a means of transmitting the Gospel message and, following conversion, of preserving the Christian faith. By virtue of the norms designed to preserve the Roman Rite, there were few reciprocal influences bewteen the Liturgy and the autochthonous cultures. In Paraguay, the Reductiones are a rare example of this. The encounter with these cultures, however, was easily facilitated in the field of popular piety.

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Today is Wednesday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 25, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate the Conversion of St. Paul the apostle. In the Ordinary Form, it is a feast, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St. Peter, apostle. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about the Conversion of St. Paul the apostle, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Peter, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

35. The De Imitatione Christi is regarded as a tyical expression of the devotio moderna. It has exercised an extraordinary and beneficial influence on many of the Lord’s disciples in their quest for Christian perfection. The De Imitatione Christi orients the faithful towards a certain type of individual piety which accentuates detachment from the world and the invitation to hear the Master’s voice interiorly. Less attention is devoted to the communitarian and ecclesial aspects of prayer and to liturgical spirituality.

Many excellent pious exercises are to be found among those who cultivated the devotio moderna, as well as [ritual] expressions deriving from sincerely devout persons. A full appreciation of the celebration of the Liturgy is not, however, always to be found in such circles.

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Today is Tuesday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany, and the liturgical color for today is red.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 24, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church. It is a memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Timothy, bishop of Ephesus, martyr, who died in A.D. 97. It is a Class III day.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Francis de Sales, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Timothy, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

The Modern Period

34. At the dawn of the modern period, a balanced relationship between Liturgy and popular piety did not seem any more likely. The devotio moderna of the late fifteenth century was popular with many great spiritual masters and was widespread among clerics and cultivated laymen. It promoted the development of meditative and affective pious exercises based principally on the humanity of Christ – the myteries of his infancy, his hidden life, his Passion and death. However, the primacy accorded to contemplation, the importance attributed to subjectivity and a certain ascetical pragmatism exalting human endeavour ensured that Liturgy no longer appeared as the primary source of the Christian life in the eyes of men and women advanced in the spiritual life.

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Today is Monday of the 3rd week in Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Epiphany, and the liturgical color for today is white.

In the Ordinary Form, this is the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of the Unborn in the Dioceses of the United States.

Saints & Celebrations:

On January 23, in the Ordinary Form in the United States, we celebrate St. Vincent, deacon and martyr. It is an optional memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Raymond of Penafort, OP, confessor, who died in A.D. 1275. It is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Emerentiana, virgin and martyr, who died in A.D. 304. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Vincent, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Raymond of Penafort, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Emerentiana, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

33. In the middle ages, the relationship between Liturgy and popular piety is constant and complex, but a dual movement can be detected in that same relationship: the Liturgy inspired and nourished various expressions of popular piety; and several forms of popular piety were assumed by, and integrated into the Liturgy. This is especially true with regard to the rites of consecration of persons, the assumption of personal obligations, the dedication of places, the institution of feasts and to the various blessings.

A dualism, however, prevailed between Liturgy and popular piety. Towards the end of the middles ages, both, however, went through a period of crisis. Because of the collapse of [ritual] unity, secondary elements in the Liturgy acquired an excessive relevance to the detriment of its central elements. In popular piety, because of the lack of adequate catechesis, deviations and exaggerations threatened the correct expressions of Christian worship.

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