St Brigid, Abbess, Secondary Patron of Ireland
1 February 2026 • Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Once Brendan the Navigator stood on a cliff top watching two whales engaging in fierce combat. Suddenly, the smaller whale, in a human voice, cried out for help not to Brendan but to Brigid, who was not even present. Immediately, the combat ceased. Brendan was puzzled as to why he had been ignored. ‘Do you always think about God?’ asked Brigid, when the two met. ‘Yes,’ replied Brendan, except at times when my boat is caught in a storm at sea and I have to concentrate on keeping it afloat.’ ‘That’s the explanation,’ Brigid answered. ‘From the moment I first knew God, I have never let him out of my mind, and I never shall.’
Catholicireland.net
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
8 February 2026 • International Day of Prayer & Awareness against Human Trafficking
In a world where the poor are increasingly numerous, we paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people. This means that a culture still persists – sometimes well disguised – that discards others without even realizing it and tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings. A few years ago, the photo of a lifeless child lying on a Mediterranean beach caused an uproar; unfortunately, apart from some momentary outcry, similar events are becoming increasingly irrelevant and seen as marginal news items.
Pope Leo XIV
Dilexi Te, Love for the Poor
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
15 February 2026 • Day of Prayer for Temperance
Addressing educators, Pope Francis recalled that education has always been one of the highest expressions of Christian charity: ‘Yours is a mission full of obstacles as well as joys… A mission of love because you cannot teach without loving.’ In this sense, since ancient times, Christians have understood that knowledge liberates, gives dignity, and brings us closer to the truth. For the Church, teaching the poor was an act of justice and faith. Inspired by the example of the Master who taught people divine and human truths, she took on the mission of forming children and young people, especially the poorest, in truth and love.
Pope Leo XIV
Dilexi Te, Love for the Poor
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First Sunday of Lent
22 February 2026
Charity is not optional but a requirement of true worship. St John Chrysostom vehemently denounced excessive wealth connected with indifference for the poor. ‘It is very cold, and the poor man lies in rags, dying, freezing, shivering, with an appearance and clothing that should move you. You often adorn an unfeeling corpse, which no longer understands honor, with many varied and gilded garments. Yet you despise the one who feels pain, who is torn apart, tortured, tormented by hunger and cold.’ This profound sense of social justice leads him to affirm that ‘not giving to the poor is stealing from them, defrauding them of their lives, because what we have belongs to them.’
Pope Leo XIV
Dilexi Te, Love for the Poor
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