Sacred Calendar
The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.
Calendar standard
Pre-1955 Roman usage
The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.
The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.
Daily observance
Today in the City of God
The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.
Choose a date
Daily observance
11th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 1, 2027
Season: Time after Pentecost
The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.
Today's pilgrimage
11th Sunday after Pentecost
Rank: Semi-Double Sunday
Color: green
Impeded feast: St. Peter's Chains. The temporal observance has precedence. The precise commemoration rule remains tied to the relevant proper and rubric.
Quote for the day
Thomas à Kempis
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, except to love God, and only to serve Him.”
Of the Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 1
The pilgrim's devotional rhythm
Keeping the month and the weekday in prayer
This chosen devotional rhythm does not change the feast, rank, or obligations shown above. It gives the passing days a steady intention, helping the pilgrim honor God, intercede for souls, and carry one Catholic practice into the day. It is a household aid to devotion, not another law of the Roman Calendar.
August intention
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is wholly ordered to God: pure, recollected, obedient, and steadfast beneath the Cross. Entrust this month to Our Lady and ask her to teach you to keep the words of Christ, hate sin, and remain faithful when fidelity costs you.
Intention
In reparation for offenses against Our Lady; for the conversion of sinners; and for purity, recollection, fidelity to Catholic truth, and perseverance beneath the Cross.
A faithful act
Offer all your daily duties to God through Mary before beginning them, and guard a short period of silence in imitation of her recollection.
Prayer
Immaculate Heart of Mary, take this month's prayer, work, and suffering into thy hands and lead us faithfully to Jesus.
Sunday remembrance
The Most Holy Trinity
Sunday belongs first to the worship of God and the commemoration of the Resurrection. Adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, from Whom every grace descends and to Whom the whole Christian life must return.
Intention
For the worthy worship of God, fidelity to Sunday Mass, and the restoration of Christian observance of the Lord's Day.
A faithful act
Protect the day from unnecessary servile work and give God an unhurried period of worship, doctrine, or spiritual reading.
Prayer
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and forever.
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - August 1
At Rome, on Mount Esquiline, the dedication of the church of St. Peter in Chains. — At Antioch, the martyrdom of the seven holy brothers, the Machabees, and their mother, who suffered under king Antiochus Epiphanes. Their relics were transferred to Rome, and placed in the church of St. Peter, just mentioned. — At Eonie, the holy virgins Faith, Hope and Charity, who won the crown of martyrdom under the emperor Adrian. — Also, at Rome, on the Latin road, the holy martyrs Bonus, a priest, Faustus and Maurus, with nine others, mentioned in the Acts of pope St. Stephen. — At Philadelphia, in Arabia, the holy martyrs Cyril, Aquila, Peter, Domitian, Rufus, and Menander, crowned on the same day. — At Pergen, in Pamphylia, the holy martyrs Leontius, Attius, Alexander, and six husbandmen, who were beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Flavian. — At Gerona, in Spain, the birthday of the holy martyr Felix. After enduring various torments, by order of Dacian, he was cut with knives until he gave his undaunted soul to Christ. — At Vercelli, St. Eusebius, bishop and martyr, who for the confession of the Catholic faith, was banished to Scythopolis and thence to Cappadocia by the emperor Constantius. Afterwards returning to his church, he suffered martyrdom in the persecution of the Arians. His feast is kept on the 16th of December. — In the diocese of Paris, St. Justin, martyr. — At Vienne, St. Verus, bishop. — At Winchester, in England, St. Ethelwold, bishop. — In the territory of Liswin, St. Nemesius, confessor.
Highlighted saint
11th Sunday after Pentecost
He hath done all things well.
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost shows Our Lord healing the deaf and dumb man, opening ears and loosening the tongue.
The day teaches that grace must open the soul to hear truth before it can speak rightly; Catholic confession is born from divine healing, not self-expression.
The order matters. A Catholic must first hear, receive, and obey before he presumes to teach, correct, argue, or explain.
Virtue to practice
Receptive hearing and truthful speech.
Error to resist
The noisy religion that speaks much but will not first hear, receive, and obey the truth.
For the pilgrim in exile
Let Christ touch both ear and tongue. In exile, speech must come from a soul first opened to His word.
Imitate today
- Ask Christ to open the ear to doctrine.
- Use speech for truth and prayer.
- Keep silence where speech would serve vanity.
- Listen before giving correction.
Sources
- Mark 7:31-37, Douay-Rheims.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.
From Matins
Hezekiah, sickness, prayer, and humble confidence.
Matins - Second Nocturn - 11th Sunday after Pentecost
St. Jerome, Priest, Commentary on Isaiah
“Happy is he whose conscience in the hour of affliction can assure him of good works.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary presents Hezekiah's sickness as a humbling mercy after triumph, turning the king back toward God.
- St. Jerome teaches that God's threatened punishments may be a summons to prayer, not because God changes, but because He reveals His mercy.
- A good conscience in affliction is not self-praise, but the fruit of having destroyed idols and walked sincerely before the Lord.
For the pilgrim in exile
When illness or fear narrows the world, turn your face toward God. Let affliction become prayer, examination, and renewed hatred of idols.
Full Breviary lessons
Fourth Lesson - St. Jerome on Hezekiah's Humbling
The Lesson is taken from the Exposition of the Prophet Isaiah written by St Jerome, Priest [at Bethlehem.] (Bk. ii. on Is. xxxviii.) Lest the heart of Hezekiah should be puffed up by his strange and unlocked for triumphs, and by his victory when he was but a prisoner, he was visited by bodily weakness, and told that he was to die; that he might betake himself to the Lord, and turn Him from carrying out the sentence. We read of a like case in the history of the Prophet Jonah (ii. 4, 10.) And in regard to the threatening made against David (2 Kings (Sam.) xxiv. 16)--when punishments were foretold which were not brought to pass. This is not because that God is a Being capable of changing His mind, but because He willeth to mankind to know Him, how that "He [is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and] repenteth Him of the evil." (Joel ii. 13.) Hezekiah turned his face unto the wall, not being able to go up to the Temple. This may either mean that he turned towards the wall of the Temple, hard by which Solomon had built a palace, or simply, that he turned his face to the wall, so as not to parade his tears before his attendants.
Fifth Lesson - A Good Conscience in Affliction
Having been told that he was about to die, he prayed not for life and many years, but left it to God to do as in His good judgment He was pleased to will. He knew how this had pleased God on the part of Solomon. (3 (1) Kings iii. 11.) So, when he betook him to the Lord, he only made mention of his works, how he had walked before Him in truth, and with a perfect heart. Happy is he whose conscience in the hour of affliction can assure him of good works. Yea, "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matth. v. 8.) It is indeed written in another place: "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (Prov. xx. 9.) How then could Hezekiah say that he had walked with a perfect heart? But the answer is, that by this is meant that he had destroyed the idols, opened the doors of the Temple, broken in pieces the brazen serpent, and done the rest of the things whereof the Scripture maketh mention.
Sixth Lesson - Hezekiah's Tears and the Promise to David
"And Hezekiah wept sore." He had then no children, and it seemed as though the promise which God had made unto David, [that "his seed should endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before" Him, (Ps. lxxxviii. 29,)] was about to fail in his own death. It is written that "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign," (xxi. 1)--whence it is evident that Hezekiah begat him not till after three years of his new lease of life. Sore therefore wept he, when all hope was torn from him that the Messiah should spring from his seed. Others again remark that he wept sore, since death terrifieth sometimes even the saints, since they know not what sentence is about to be pronounced upon them, and what place shall be allotted them in the inscrutable judgment.
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. III, Summer, Second Nocturn for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, lessons iv-vi, printed pp. 327-328.
- Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.
Breviary Witness
Ephpheta: Be thou opened.
Matins - 11th Sunday after Pentecost
Breviary witness
- The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost contemplates Christ opening the ears and loosening the tongue of the deaf and dumb man.
- Its witness teaches that the soul must first be opened by grace to hear truth before it can confess rightly with the tongue.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask Christ to heal both hearing and speech. A Catholic witness must receive truth before announcing it.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.
- Mark 7:31-37, Douay-Rheims.
Gospel of the day
He hath done all things well.
11th Sunday after Pentecost - Mark 7:31-37
“Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened.”
What Our Lord teaches
- Christ opens the ears and tongue so man may hear truth and confess it.
- The healing shows that grace restores the powers wounded by sin.
Virtue to practice
Listen before speaking, and speak truth with gratitude.
Error to resist
The closed ear that cannot be taught and the loose tongue that will not be governed.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask Our Lord to open what has grown closed. He can make the soul hear again and speak with a cleaner love.
Sources
- Mark 7:31-37, Douay-Rheims.
- Traditional Roman Gospel for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost.
Meditation
The Church Made Public
At Pentecost the Holy Ghost strengthened the apostles to preach Christ publicly and carry the Gospel to the nations. His work is not private excitement separated from doctrine, worship, and the authority Christ established. The faithful should ask Him for zeal that makes them more obedient to revealed truth, more constant in charity, and more courageous in Catholic witness.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, do not permit me to admire truth without submitting to it. Give me the courage to obey what Thou hast already made known.
Thought for the pilgrim
Truth becomes fruitful when it is obeyed.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Fulfill all known duties in their proper order, without deliberate delay or complaint.
Source notes
Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X
Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952
Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts ordinarily come from eligible Catholic sources issued no later than December 31, 1954: Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, Roman Pontiffs, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, and received liturgical texts. Legitimate additions promulgated under Pope Pius XII may be retained when identified precisely; this does not adopt the reformed Holy Week or later rubrical changes.
The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, p. xv: the third through twenty-third Sundays after Pentecost are semi-doubles; the twenty-fourth Sunday is fixed at the end of the cycle.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xiii and xv: the remaining third through sixth Sundays after the Epiphany are restored before the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost as the year requires.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition, Mass of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pp. 1520-1524.
- Luke 2:19 and 2:35, Douay-Rheims.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
- Matthew 28:19, Douay-Rheims.