The Sunday Readings and Catholic Doctrine for October 2025

The meaning of the Sunday Mass Readings for October 2025 is made clearest by Catholic Doctrine. God speaks most clearly through Catholic Doctrine. Catholic doctrines are the essentially unchangeable clarifications of Revelation and Faith that only the pope and bishops have the God-given authority to make, that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic, and that not even the pope and bishops may contradict. I have written two columns explaining in more depth what doctrine is and why the Church needs it.

Let’s learn always-true doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we can take away from this September’s Sunday Readings.[i]

October 5, Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

We should take away from today’s Gospel:

To live, grow, and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith [as the apostles did in today’s Gospel]; it must be ‘working through charity,’ abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church (CCC 162[ii]).

And what is the faith of the Catholic Church? In thought, it is Catholic Doctrine; in action, it is the Sacraments, morality, and prayer of the Catholic Church (CCC 13).

Relatedly, the Catechism uses the last two verses of today’s Second Reading to teach that the Catholic Church is apostolic. She is so in three ways: the Church was built on “the foundation of the Apostles, the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself”; she “hands on the teaching . . . she has heard from the apostles”; and she “continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ’s return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church’s supreme pastor (CCC 857).

The Second Reading also supports the doctrine: “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination” (CCC 1577). Vir is the Latin word for a male. Ordination is “the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of bishops, [priests], or deacons . . . The laying on of hands by the bishop [mentioned in the Second Reading], with the consecratory prayer constitutes the visible sign of this ordination” (CCC 1538) in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Note that the ordained ministry is “conferred and exercised in three degrees: that of bishops, that of [priests], and that of deacons” (CCC 1593). Let us add that the ordination of males is a “choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible” (CCC 1577).

The issue of ordination gives us a good example of the difference between doctrine and discipline. Whether or not to ordain only men is a matter of doctrine. In fact, St. John Paul II declared the ordination of only men to be infallible doctrine. On the other hand, married men can be ordained as priests in the Eastern Churches which are in union with the pope (commonly called “the Byzantine Catholic Church”), while married men cannot be ordained as priests in the Latin Church (commonly called “the Roman Catholic Church”). Whether or not to ordain married men is a matter of discipline (church rules), not doctrine (CCC 1580).

Although not even the pope and the bishops have God’s permission to change the doctrine of ordaining only men, they do have God’s permission to change discipline in any new way (as long as it does not contradict doctrine). It would be perfectly within a pope’s authority to begin ordaining married men in the Roman Catholic Church. We will be less confused about change in the Church if we know the difference between doctrine and discipline.

On the other hand, doctrine and discipline are the same in that they both must be obeyed. No Catholic, not even the pope, should disobey current discipline, which should be changed as directed by Canon Law (CCC 2037).

• From the Responsorial Psalm[iii] (Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9): Ps 95:7-8 is cited in CCC 2659; and Ps 95:7 in CCC 1165.
• From the Second Reading (2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14): 2 Tm 1:6 is cited in CCC 1577 and 1590; 2 Tm 1:8 in CCC 2471 and 2506; 2 Tm 1:13-14 in CCC 857; and 2 Tm 1:14 in CCC 1202.
• From the Gospel (Luke 17:5-10): Lk 17:5 is cited in CCC 162.

October 12, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We should take away from today’s Second Reading the meaning of death. “What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already ‘died with Christ’ sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we [physically] die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this ‘dying with Christ’ [in order to live eternally]” (CCC 1010). The “Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s: ‘My desire is to depart and be with Christ.’ He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ” (CCC 1011).

How do we die in Christ’s grace? How do we die in hope instead of fear? “Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute at the end of Christian life ‘the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland’ or the sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage” (CCC 1525). See CCC 1450-1460 for making a good Confession, CCC 1514-1523 for reception of Anointing of the Sick, and CCC 1524-1525 for viaticum.

We also die in hope after striving throughout the life we have left on earth to make use of the fullness of the means, or ways, of salvation found only in the Catholic Church (CCC 830) – which give us the best possible relationship with God. The means of salvation in the Catholic Church are her doctrine, worship, morality, and prayer (CCC 13). We make use of the fullness of the means of salvation by living our lives in harmony with Catholic doctrine, worship, morality, and prayer.

• From the Second Reading (2 Timothy 2:8-13): 2 Tm 2:8 is cited in CCC 437; 2 Tm 2:11-13 in CCC 2641; and 2 Tm 2:11 in CCC 1010.
• From the Alleluia (1 Thessalonians 5:18): 1 Thes 5:18 is cited in CCC 2638 and 2648.
• From the Gospel (Luke 17:11-19): Lk 17:14 is cited in CCC 586.

October 19, Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s Gospel gives one of “[t]hree principal parables on prayer . . . transmitted to us by St. Luke.” This parable of the persistent widow “is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and with the patience of faith” (CCC 2613). Prayer is “a battle of faith and . . . the triumph of perseverance” (CCC 2573). In a paragraph of the Catechism that refers to today’s Gospel, we find a definition of prayer that relates it to other elements of the Catholic Faith:

The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God’s commandments (CCC 2098).

The last verse in today’s Gospel (which I find one of the most moving and even one of the most disturbing verses in the entire Bible) is referred by the Catechism when it teaches:

Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist . . . (CCC 675).

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom not by progressive triumphs through history, but only when God decisively and dramatically intervenes to end history at Christ’s Second Coming (CCC 677).

• From the First Reading (Exodus 17:8-13): Ex 17:8-13 is cited in CCC 2577.
• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8): Ps 121:2 is cited in CCC 1605.
• From the Gospel (Luke 18:1-8): Lk 18:1-8 is cited in CCC 2573 and 2613; Lk 18:1 in CCC 2098; and Lk 18:8 in CCC 675.

October 26, Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday’s Readings continue the theme of prayer in last Sunday’s Readings.

Today’s Gospel gives another of the “[t]hree principal parables on prayer . . . transmitted to us by St. Luke.” The parable of the Pharisee and tax collector “concerns the humility of the heart that prays” (CCC 2613). Humility “is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought,’ are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer” (CCC 2559). This means that we should never think that we have mastered prayer and have no need to pray better. It also means we should never stop praying out of frustration from our own inadequacy. Keep trying to pray better! (The remaining Lukan parable on prayer – the parable of the persistent friend – was in the Gospel for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.)

Petition – along with blessing and adoration, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise – are the “forms of prayer revealed in the apostolic and canonical Scriptures [that] remain normative for Christian prayer” (CCC 2625). So, back to our Gospel, the “first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable . . . A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another” (CCC 2631). “[B]y prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already turning back to him” (CCC 2629). How do we know when we have sinned? Catholic Doctrine tells us. How do we know what to turn back to? Catholic Doctrine tells us.

The Catechism connects today’s parable with the Our Father. When we pray “forgive us our trespasses,” we are “like the tax collector . . . [and we can have firm hope in God’s mercy] “because in his Son, ‘we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’ We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church” (CCC 2839).

Let us add: “Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. . . . By prayer every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom” (CCC 2632).

• From the Responsorial Psalm (Psalms 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23): Ps 34:3 2839is cited in CCC 716.
• From the Alleluia (2 Corinthians 5:19): 2 Cor 5:19 is cited in CCC 433 and 620.
• From the Gospel (Luke 18:9-14): Lk 18:9-14 is cited in CCC 2559 and 2613; Lk 8:9 in CCC 588; and Lk8:13 in CCC 2631, 2667, 2839.

[i] There are too many citations, or references, in the Catechism to the verses in a month of Sunday Mass readings to identify all the pertinent doctrines, so I will use my best judgment to select which verses and doctrines to cover in a column that may not exceed 2,000 words. The bullet points allow you to explore further the Biblical basis of Catholic Doctrine.

[ii] CCC abbreviates Catechism of the Catholic Church. Any number after it is the number of a paragraph in the Catechism. For example, “CCC 162” means paragraph 162 of the Catechism.

[iii] If a Reading is not listed, then none of its verses is cited by the CCC.