{"ok":true,"date":"2026-02-17","dateKey":"02-17","liturgicalDay":"Feria of Septuagesima","rank":"Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"My son, the more thou canst go out of thyself, so much the more wilt thou be able to enter into Me.","author":"Thomas à Kempis","source":"Of the Imitation of Christ, Book III, chapter 56, §1, p. 214","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#go-out-of-thyself-and-enter-into-christ","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Septuagesima","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Feria of Septuagesima - 2026-02-17","previewText":"Feria of Septuagesima. The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ. Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded.","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\n2026-02-17 - 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.\nIlluminative way: the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.\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 for holy hatred of fallen self-will and for supreme love of God, who created and redeemed your person for eternal union with Him. Love God above all and ask grace to hate and oppose every sin, corrupt inclination, pride, and act of self-will within yourself.\n\n\"Nothing is worthier of love than God, and nothing is worthier of hatred than ourselves.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 80\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort uses the ascetical language of Our Lord's command to hate one's own soul. The object of hatred is not the human person as God's creature, the body as His work, or the soul Christ redeemed. It is fallen self as opposed to God: sin, pride, corrupt inclination, self-will, and the false life that must be lost to gain eternal life.\n\nThis hatred forbids self-harm, despair, contempt for creaturely dignity, and neglect of health or duty. It is active spiritual warfare within: love God above all, love yourself rightly for His sake, hate whatever in you rebels against Him, and mortify it so the restored image of Christ may flourish.\n\nPRACTICE\nAsk what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"My son, the more thou canst go out of thyself, so much the more wilt thou be able to enter into Me.\"\nThomas à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, Book III, chapter 56, §1, p. 214\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - February 17\nAt Rome, the passion of St. Faustinus, whom forty-four others followed to receive the crown of martyrdom. — In Persia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of blessed Polychronius, bishop of Babylon, who, being struck in the mouth with stones, stretched out his hands, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and expired. — At Concordia, the holy martyrs Donatus, Secundian, and Romulus, with eighty-six others, partakers of the same crown. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, St. Theodulus, an aged man, in the service of the governor Firmilian. Moved by the example of the martyrs, he confessed Christ with constancy, was fastened to a cross, and thus by a noble victory merited the palm of martyrdom. — In the same place, St. Julian, a Cappadocian, who, because he had kissed the relics of the martyrs, was denounced as a Christian, and led to the governor, who had him consumed with a slow fire. — In the territory of Terouanne, St. Silvinus, bishop of Toulouse. — In Ireland, St. Fintan, priest and confessor. At Florence, blessed Alexius Falconieri, confessor, one of the seven Founders of the Order of the Servites of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, in the one hundred and tenth year of his age, terminated his blessed career in the consoling presence of Jesus Christ and the angels.\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The true Church is not an invisible collection of private opinions, but the society founded by Our Lord, teaching, sanctifying, and governing in His name. 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. Apostolicity guards continuity of doctrine, worship, mission, and authority. The faithful do not invent the Church; they receive her from Christ through the Apostles.\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 rightly ordered self-love by seeking eternal salvation, caring for duties of body and soul, and refusing everything opposed to God.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded. 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. Consent to the death of the false self without harming the person God made, indulging despair, or abandoning prudent care and responsibility. Oppose fallen self across all temptations and duties while cultivating the contrary virtues and offering your redeemed person wholly to God.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Robert Bellarmine.\nYour resolution before God: Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\nCarry this word: The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Regard not much who is with thee, nor who is against thee, but be this thy greatest study, that God may be with thee.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 2, p. 55\nHuman approval is a poor compass. With Mary, seek first to be faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church, whether praise follows or not.\n\nThe desire to be supported can subtly alter judgment before you notice it. It softens a necessary word, delays a duty, or makes loneliness appear to be proof that fidelity was mistaken. Examine the act by Catholic truth and your real obligations; then leave the company or opposition of men in God's hands.\nToday's Practice: Perform right acts without checking whether anyone noticed.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nDistinguish what in you must be loved and healed from what must be hated and mortified, then entrust both judgment and remedy to grace.\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, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.\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\nThe Visibility of the Church: https://cityofgodinexile.com/how-the-true-church-is-known/chapter-10-the-visibility-of-the-church-the-light-that-cannot-be-hidden?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2026-02-17&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2026-02-17&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 - 2026-02-17\n \n \n
\n Feria of Septuagesima. The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ. Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded.\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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2026-02-17 - 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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Illuminative way
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the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.
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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 for holy hatred of fallen self-will and for supreme love of God, who created and redeemed your person for eternal union with Him.

Love God above all and ask grace to hate and oppose every sin, corrupt inclination, pride, and act of self-will within yourself.

“Nothing is worthier of love than God, and nothing is worthier of hatred than ourselves.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 80

St. Louis de Montfort uses the ascetical language of Our Lord's command to hate one's own soul. The object of hatred is not the human person as God's creature, the body as His work, or the soul Christ redeemed. It is fallen self as opposed to God: sin, pride, corrupt inclination, self-will, and the false life that must be lost to gain eternal life.

This hatred forbids self-harm, despair, contempt for creaturely dignity, and neglect of health or duty. It is active spiritual warfare within: love God above all, love yourself rightly for His sake, hate whatever in you rebels against Him, and mortify it so the restored image of Christ may flourish.

Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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Quote of the Day

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“My son, the more thou canst go out of thyself, so much the more wilt thou be able to enter into Me.”
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Thomas à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, Book III, chapter 56, §1, p. 214

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Roman Martyrology - February 17

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At Rome, the passion of St. Faustinus, whom forty-four others followed to receive the crown of martyrdom. — In Persia, during the persecution of Decius, the birthday of blessed Polychronius, bishop of Babylon, who, being struck in the mouth with stones, stretched out his hands, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and expired. — At Concordia, the holy martyrs Donatus, Secundian, and Romulus, with eighty-six others, partakers of the same crown. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, St. Theodulus, an aged man, in the service of the governor Firmilian. Moved by the example of the martyrs, he confessed Christ with constancy, was fastened to a cross, and thus by a noble victory merited the palm of martyrdom. — In the same place, St. Julian, a Cappadocian, who, because he had kissed the relics of the martyrs, was denounced as a Christian, and led to the governor, who had him consumed with a slow fire. — In the territory of Terouanne, St. Silvinus, bishop of Toulouse. — In Ireland, St. Fintan, priest and confessor. At Florence, blessed Alexius Falconieri, confessor, one of the seven Founders of the Order of the Servites of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, in the one hundred and tenth year of his age, terminated his blessed career in the consoling presence of Jesus Christ and the angels.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ

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The Church places this truth before you today: The true Church is not an invisible collection of private opinions, but the society founded by Our Lord, teaching, sanctifying, and governing in His name. 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. Apostolicity guards continuity of doctrine, worship, mission, and authority. The faithful do not invent the Church; they receive her from Christ through the Apostles.

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 rightly ordered self-love by seeking eternal salvation, caring for duties of body and soul, and refusing everything opposed to God.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded. 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. Consent to the death of the false self without harming the person God made, indulging despair, or abandoning prudent care and responsibility. Oppose fallen self across all temptations and duties while cultivating the contrary virtues and offering your redeemed person wholly to God.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Regard not much who is with thee, nor who is against thee, but be this thy greatest study, that God may be with thee.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 2, p. 55

\n \n

Human approval is a poor compass. With Mary, seek first to be faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church, whether praise follows or not.

The desire to be supported can subtly alter judgment before you notice it. It softens a necessary word, delays a duty, or makes loneliness appear to be proof that fidelity was mistaken. Examine the act by Catholic truth and your real obligations; then leave the company or opposition of men in God's hands.

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Today's Practice

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Perform right acts without checking whether anyone noticed.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Distinguish what in you must be loved and healed from what must be hated and mortified, then entrust both judgment and remedy to grace.

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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?
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Prayer

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O Lord, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.

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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 The Visibility of the Church\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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\n \n","links":{"sacredCalendar":"/sacred-calendar?date=2026-02-17","webPreview":"/daily-dispatch?date=2026-02-17","emailPreview":"/daily-dispatch/email?date=2026-02-17","formationIndex":"/daily-dispatch/formation","subscribe":"/daily-dispatch/subscribe"},"included":{"martyrology":true,"gospelReflection":false,"saintlyWitness":false,"breviaryReading":false,"patristicBreviaryLesson":false,"faithPoint":"The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ"}}