Welcome to the traditional Catholic daily devotional.

Today's Saturday, April 5th, 2025, first Saturday and the Saturday of the fourth week

of Lent with a commemoration of St. Vincent Ferrer, third class with the color of violet.

In this episode, The Meditation, 40 Steps to Easter.

Today's news from the church, the Archbishop of Rames Uncrowns Christ, and today's

thought from Archbishop Marcel Lefev.

But first, the call-act of today's Mass.

O God, who graciously enlightened your church, by the virtues and preaching of Blessed

Vincent, your confessor, grant that we, your servants, may be taught by his example

and delivered from all harm by his intercession.

Imagine living in a church that's really divided.

Okay, that's today, but imagine living in a church so divided

it had not one, not two, but three competing popes, all claiming to be the true successor

of Peter. That was the world of St. Vincent Ferrer, one of the most electrifying preachers of the

14th century, and a man who walked straight into the storm. Vincent was born in Valencia, Spain in

1350. Against his family's wishes, he entered the

Dominicans at 19. He was brilliant, zealous, and deeply committed to the spiritual life. But his

story really takes off with the Western schism, a split that tore the church apart for nearly four

decades. Vincent backed the Avignon line of popes, working closely with Cardinal

Peter De Luna, who would later become the anti-Pope Benedict the 13th. As papal politics spiraled,

Vincent got sick, possibly from the stress of it all, and in the depths of his illness, he had a vision.

Christ told him to go out into the world and preach repentance, warning people

...