{"ok":true,"date":"2026-02-16","dateKey":"02-16","liturgicalDay":"Feria of Septuagesima","rank":"Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned.","author":"St. Paul","source":"2 Thessalonians 2:14, Douay-Rheims","category":"Truth: Christ and His Church"},"season":"Septuagesima","novenas":[{"title":"Novena to the Holy Face","feast":"Holy Face of Jesus","day":9,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2026-02-08","feastIsoDate":"2026-02-17","dayTitle":null,"meditation":null,"intention":"Ask for reparation, reverence, hatred of blasphemy, and love for the suffering Face of Christ before Lent begins.","preparatoryPrayer":null,"prayerOfTheChurch":null,"prayer":null,"practice":"Offer the day's prayers, sacrifices, and duties in reparation for blasphemy, irreverence, false worship, and sins against the first three commandments.","conclusion":null,"prayerLink":null,"sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Feria of Septuagesima - 2026-02-16","previewText":"Feria of Septuagesima. The Papacy Serves the Faith It Receives. Resist confusing the office Christ instituted with commands or claimants that attack the faith the office must protect.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nTHE DAILY PILGRIMAGE\n\"Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways.\" - Proverbs 8:32\n\"Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. [...] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.\" - Luke 12:32-34\nFeria of Septuagesima\n2026-02-16 - Septuagesima - Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nSeptuagesima: the first Sunday of the traditional pre-Lenten season; it begins the Church's gradual preparation for the fasting and penance of Lent.\nPurgative way: the stage of spiritual growth in which a person, helped by grace, concentrates especially on turning from serious sin and correcting disordered habits.\nFeria: a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe Church does not leave the faithful to pass through time as though days were neutral. This observance teaches the soul to receive the day under grace, to remember what God has done, and to let sacred time order study, prayer, and perseverance. Ask the Holy Ghost for truthful self-knowledge that destroys presumption and drives the soul toward grace rather than despair. Ask the Holy Ghost to show your weakness and sin truthfully while establishing complete confidence in the merits and grace of Jesus Christ.\n\n\"We must, first, thoroughly recognise, by the light of the Holy Ghost, our inward corruption, our incapacity for every good thing useful for salvation, our weakness in all things, our inconstancy at all times, our indignity of every grace, and our iniquity in every position.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 79\n\nThe knowledge must come by the light of the Holy Ghost. Morbid self-absorption, exaggeration, and despair are counterfeits because they keep attention fixed upon self and deny the power of grace. True self-knowledge sees the effects of original and actual sin accurately, confesses complete dependence, and hastens to Jesus Christ with humble confidence.\n\nWe are incapable of saving good by merely natural power, yet grace heals, elevates, strengthens, and makes supernatural merit possible. Distrust fallen self; trust God entirely. Guard against every sin, use the sacraments and prayer, avoid occasions, accept correction, and credit every victory to Christ rather than personal strength.\n\nPRACTICE\nIdentify your concrete faults, make an act of contrition, and practice the contrary virtues.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned.\"\nSt. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena to the Holy Face - Day 9 of 9\n\nPreparing for Holy Face of Jesus on 2026-02-17.\n\nPETITION\nAsk for reparation, reverence, hatred of blasphemy, and love for the suffering Face of Christ before Lent begins.\n\nA FAITHFUL ACT\nOffer the day's prayers, sacrifices, and duties in reparation for blasphemy, irreverence, false worship, and sins against the first three commandments.\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - February 16\nThe birthday of blessed Onesimus, concerning whom the apostle St. Paul wrote to Philemon. He made him bishop of Ephesus after St. Timothy, and committed to him the office of preaching. Being led a prisoner to Rome, and stoned to death for the faith of Christ, he was buried in that city; but his body was afterwards carried to the place where he had been bishop. — At Cumse, in Campania, the Translation of St. Juliana, virgin and martyr. Under the emperor Maximian, she was first severely scourged by her own father, Africanus, then made to suffer many torments by the prefect, Evilasius, whom she had refused to marry. Later being thrown into prison, she encountered the evil spirit in a visible manner. Finally, as a fiery furnace and a caldron of boiling oil could do her no injury, she terminated her martyrdom by decapitation. — In Egypt, St. Julian, martyr, with five thousand other Christians. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, the holy martyrs Elias, Jeremias, Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel, Egyptians, who of their own accord served the confessors of Christ condemned to labor in the mines of Cilicia, but were arrested on their return, and after being cruelly tortured by the governor Firmilian, under the emperor Galerius Maximian, were put to the sword. — After them, St. Porphyry, servant of the martyr Pamphilus, and St. Seleucus, a Cappadocian, who had been victorious in several combats, being again exposed to torments, won the crown of martyrdom, the one by fire, the other by the sword. — At Arezzo, in Tuscany, blessed Gregory X., a native of Piacenza, who was elected Sovereign Pontiff while he was archdeacon of Liege. He held the second Council of Lyons, received the Greeks into the unity of the Church, appeased discords among Christians, made generous efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land, and governed the Church in the most holy manner. — At Brescia, St. Faustinus, bishop and confessor.\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Papacy Serves the Faith It Receives\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The Roman Primacy exists to guard, confirm, and govern in the apostolic faith; it is not license to create another religion. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. True authority is recognized by its service to the deposit of faith, not by bare claims severed from Catholic doctrine.\nThe grace to be practiced is Faithful obedience to the grace of the present day, drawn from the daily rule of fidelity. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Practice humble vigilance by distrusting self, avoiding occasions of sin, using every Catholic means of grace, and giving God all credit.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist confusing the office Christ instituted with commands or claimants that attack the faith the office must protect. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing faithful obedience to the grace of the present day when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.\nDo the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. Bear the painful knowledge of faults without self-pity, concealment, despair, or refusal to undertake the amendment grace requires. Depend upon God through prayer before every duty, cooperate fully during it, and attribute every good result to His grace afterward.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. John Fisher.\nYour resolution before God: Identify your concrete faults, make an act of contrition, and practice the contrary virtues.\nCarry this word: The purgative way begins by refusing excuses.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Thou hast here no place of long abiding, for wheresoever thou be, thou art but a stranger and a pilgrim.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 1, p. 53\nThe citizen of Heaven uses earthly goods faithfully without building his final home in them. Receive the day's joys and sorrows as provisions for the road.\n\nExile becomes bitter when the soul demands permanence from what must pass. Let today's change, disappointment, or small loss remind you gently of your destination. Fulfill earthly duties well precisely because they are the road appointed by God, but keep the heart free for the City that does not pass away.\nToday's Practice: When something passes away today, say: My home is with God.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nName the day's weakness and sin honestly, make contrition, and rest confidently in divine mercy while resolving concrete amendment.\n- For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?\n- What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?\n- What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?\nPRAYER\nO Lord, show me the sins I excuse, the occasions I keep near, and the attachments I protect. Give me contrition without despair and amendment without delay.\nDAILY RULE FOR THE PILGRIM\nA brief rule to keep every day:\nBegin with morning prayer\nAdore the Blessed Trinity and offer the whole day to Jesus through Mary before other duties claim the mind.\nKeep the Angelus\nPause morning, noon, and evening to remember the Incarnation.\nSeek Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament\nAttend Holy Mass when duty permits; otherwise make a Spiritual Communion and renew desire for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.\nReturn to Jesus and Mary\nUse frequent holy aspirations during work, waiting, suffering, and temptation.\nPray the Rosary\nKeep the mysteries of Christ before the mind with Our Lady and learn to imitate what they contain.\nEnd with night prayer and examen\nGive thanks, confess faults, forgive injuries, make a practical amendment, and entrust the night to Our Lady.\nCONTINUE STUDY\nSt. John Fisher and the Papacy: https://cityofgodinexile.com/champions-of-orthodoxy/st-john-fisher-and-the-papacy-fidelity-to-true-authority-against-schism?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2026-02-16&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2026-02-16&entered=1\nBrowse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1","html":"\n\n \n \n \n City of God in Exile: Feria of Septuagesima - 2026-02-16\n \n \n
\n Feria of Septuagesima. The Papacy Serves the Faith It Receives. Resist confusing the office Christ instituted with commands or claimants that attack the faith the office must protect.\n
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\n \"City\n
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City of God in Exile

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“Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways.”

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Proverbs 8:32

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Feria of Septuagesima

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2026-02-16 - Septuagesima - Feria - violet

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“Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. […] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Luke 12:32–34
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Plain-Language Guide for Today

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Septuagesima
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the first Sunday of the traditional pre-Lenten season; it begins the Church's gradual preparation for the fasting and penance of Lent.
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Purgative way
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the stage of spiritual growth in which a person, helped by grace, concentrates especially on turning from serious sin and correcting disordered habits.
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Feria
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a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.
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Today in the Roman Year

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The Church does not leave the faithful to pass through time as though days were neutral. This observance teaches the soul to receive the day under grace, to remember what God has done, and to let sacred time order study, prayer, and perseverance.

Ask the Holy Ghost for truthful self-knowledge that destroys presumption and drives the soul toward grace rather than despair.

Ask the Holy Ghost to show your weakness and sin truthfully while establishing complete confidence in the merits and grace of Jesus Christ.

“We must, first, thoroughly recognise, by the light of the Holy Ghost, our inward corruption, our incapacity for every good thing useful for salvation, our weakness in all things, our inconstancy at all times, our indignity of every grace, and our iniquity in every position.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 79

The knowledge must come by the light of the Holy Ghost. Morbid self-absorption, exaggeration, and despair are counterfeits because they keep attention fixed upon self and deny the power of grace. True self-knowledge sees the effects of original and actual sin accurately, confesses complete dependence, and hastens to Jesus Christ with humble confidence.

We are incapable of saving good by merely natural power, yet grace heals, elevates, strengthens, and makes supernatural merit possible. Distrust fallen self; trust God entirely. Guard against every sin, use the sacraments and prayer, avoid occasions, accept correction, and credit every victory to Christ rather than personal strength.

Identify your concrete faults, make an act of contrition, and practice the contrary virtues.

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Quote of the Day

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“Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned.”
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St. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Douay-Rheims

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Novena in Progress

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Day 9 of 9

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Novena to the Holy Face

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Preparing for Holy Face of Jesus on 2026-02-17.

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Petition

Ask for reparation, reverence, hatred of blasphemy, and love for the suffering Face of Christ before Lent begins.

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A Faithful Act

Offer the day's prayers, sacrifices, and duties in reparation for blasphemy, irreverence, false worship, and sins against the first three commandments.

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Roman Martyrology - February 16

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The birthday of blessed Onesimus, concerning whom the apostle St. Paul wrote to Philemon. He made him bishop of Ephesus after St. Timothy, and committed to him the office of preaching. Being led a prisoner to Rome, and stoned to death for the faith of Christ, he was buried in that city; but his body was afterwards carried to the place where he had been bishop. — At Cumse, in Campania, the Translation of St. Juliana, virgin and martyr. Under the emperor Maximian, she was first severely scourged by her own father, Africanus, then made to suffer many torments by the prefect, Evilasius, whom she had refused to marry. Later being thrown into prison, she encountered the evil spirit in a visible manner. Finally, as a fiery furnace and a caldron of boiling oil could do her no injury, she terminated her martyrdom by decapitation. — In Egypt, St. Julian, martyr, with five thousand other Christians. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, the holy martyrs Elias, Jeremias, Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel, Egyptians, who of their own accord served the confessors of Christ condemned to labor in the mines of Cilicia, but were arrested on their return, and after being cruelly tortured by the governor Firmilian, under the emperor Galerius Maximian, were put to the sword. — After them, St. Porphyry, servant of the martyr Pamphilus, and St. Seleucus, a Cappadocian, who had been victorious in several combats, being again exposed to torments, won the crown of martyrdom, the one by fire, the other by the sword. — At Arezzo, in Tuscany, blessed Gregory X., a native of Piacenza, who was elected Sovereign Pontiff while he was archdeacon of Liege. He held the second Council of Lyons, received the Greeks into the unity of the Church, appeased discords among Christians, made generous efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land, and governed the Church in the most holy manner. — At Brescia, St. Faustinus, bishop and confessor.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

\n

The Papacy Serves the Faith It Receives

\n

The Church places this truth before you today: The Roman Primacy exists to guard, confirm, and govern in the apostolic faith; it is not license to create another religion. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. True authority is recognized by its service to the deposit of faith, not by bare claims severed from Catholic doctrine.

The grace to be practiced is Faithful obedience to the grace of the present day, drawn from the daily rule of fidelity. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Practice humble vigilance by distrusting self, avoiding occasions of sin, using every Catholic means of grace, and giving God all credit.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist confusing the office Christ instituted with commands or claimants that attack the faith the office must protect. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing faithful obedience to the grace of the present day when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.

Do the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. Bear the painful knowledge of faults without self-pity, concealment, despair, or refusal to undertake the amendment grace requires. Depend upon God through prayer before every duty, cooperate fully during it, and attribute every good result to His grace afterward.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. John Fisher.

\n

Your Resolution Before God

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Identify your concrete faults, make an act of contrition, and practice the contrary virtues.

\n
The purgative way begins by refusing excuses.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Thou hast here no place of long abiding, for wheresoever thou be, thou art but a stranger and a pilgrim.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 1, p. 53

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The citizen of Heaven uses earthly goods faithfully without building his final home in them. Receive the day's joys and sorrows as provisions for the road.

Exile becomes bitter when the soul demands permanence from what must pass. Let today's change, disappointment, or small loss remind you gently of your destination. Fulfill earthly duties well precisely because they are the road appointed by God, but keep the heart free for the City that does not pass away.

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Today's Practice

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When something passes away today, say: My home is with God.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Name the day's weakness and sin honestly, make contrition, and rest confidently in divine mercy while resolving concrete amendment.

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  • For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?
  • What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?
  • What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?
    • \n
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Prayer

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O Lord, show me the sins I excuse, the occasions I keep near, and the attachments I protect. Give me contrition without despair and amendment without delay.

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Daily Rule for the Pilgrim

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A brief rule to keep every day:

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Begin with morning prayer

Adore the Blessed Trinity and offer the whole day to Jesus through Mary before other duties claim the mind.

Keep the Angelus

Pause morning, noon, and evening to remember the Incarnation.

Seek Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament

Attend Holy Mass when duty permits; otherwise make a Spiritual Communion and renew desire for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Return to Jesus and Mary

Use frequent holy aspirations during work, waiting, suffering, and temptation.

Pray the Rosary

Keep the mysteries of Christ before the mind with Our Lady and learn to imitate what they contain.

End with night prayer and examen

Give thanks, confess faults, forgive injuries, make a practical amendment, and entrust the night to Our Lady.

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Continue Study

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Carry today's lesson into a focused chapter from the library.

\n St. John Fisher and the Papacy\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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\n \"The\n
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