"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil." St. Dominic de Guzman

Today's Meditation

“The first element to be purified [by Jesus] was water, transformed through Christ’s baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. Through this, water was redeemed and made new for all the world to be baptized. That scouring of water and that baptism on the banks of the Jordan opened fresh to every man and woman the right relationship to God, which had been squandered and separated by our first parents. While the pagans had deep and complicated rituals that involved animal sacrifice and the offerings of food, wine, and goods, our ritual or recipe for return couldn’t be simpler: water and prayer. Paired with the sacred words of sacramental rite, one drop of water gives a soul the capacity to enter into the ocean of God’s grace and to discover the depths of eternal life in ways completely unknown in the ancient world”.
–Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering, p.69

Daily Mass Readings

Mass Readings Homily ≻ Watch Fr. Kirby

Daily Verse

"So turn from youthful desires and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord with purity of heart." 2 Timothy 2:22

St. Dominic de Guzman

Saint of the Day

St. Dominic (1170–1221) was born in Spain to a family of noble lineage. His mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, prayed at the church of St. Dominic Silos to conceive a male child, her first two sons being given to the priesthood. In answer to her prayer, she dreamed that a dog leaped from her womb carrying a torch in its mouth which set the world ablaze. At his baptism, his godmother beheld a star shining from his forehead. As a child Dominic showed signs of great sanctity and intelligence, and he was also given to the Church for the priesthood. When famine struck Dominic sold his rare and expensive theology books to feed the poor. As a priest he traveled with his bishop into southern France and discovered that it had been overrun with a heretical movement which led many away from the Church. This inflamed his desire to devote his life to apostolic preaching for the salvation of souls, at the time an office reserved to bishops. With the Pope's approval he founded the Order of Preachers, or the Dominicans, committed to defend the truth of the Catholic faith. St. Dominic's Order was novel in that it combined the active and contemplative religious life with the labor of scholarly study and itinerate preaching. St. Dominic was innovative in meeting the needs of his time to defend the Church against her enemies. To aid his mission, Our Lady appeared to him and gave him a new devotion—the Holy Rosary. St. Dominic is the patron saint of scientists and astronomers. His feast day is August 8th.

Find a Devotional for this Saint

Listen to The Saint of the Day Podcast

Month of the the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Devotion of the Month

The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the foreseen and infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and