{"ok":true,"date":"2026-07-21","dateKey":"07-21","liturgicalDay":"St. Praxedes, Virgin","rank":"Simple","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"Matthew 25:40, Douay-Rheims"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Praxedes, Virgin - 2026-07-21","previewText":"St. Praxedes, Virgin. Outside the Church There Is No Salvation. Resist indifferentism, which treats contradictory religions as though they were equally pleasing to God.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Praxedes, Virgin\n2026-07-21 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nVirgin: in a saint's title, a woman honored for consecrating her chastity and whole life to Christ.\nChastity: the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nSt. Praxedes served hunted Christians through shelter, money, labor, comfort, burial, and care for prisoners. Her hidden mercy teaches that fidelity is not always public speech; sometimes it is the costly reverence that gathers and protects what persecution tries to scatter. Before going farther, stand with St. Louis de Montfort beneath the infinite majesty and complete sufficiency of God. Adore the Blessed Trinity first, then receive with gratitude the Mother whom God freely chose to employ in His works of grace.\n\n\"I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 14\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort pauses before teaching Mary's necessity in God's freely chosen order because devotion must remain beneath theology. Mary is a creature. God alone is Being of Himself, infinitely perfect and sufficient. He did not employ Our Lady because His power lacked anything; He chose her because His wisdom and goodness willed this beautiful order.\n\nThis truth makes devotion both safer and deeper. You do not approach Mary as a rival source of grace or an easier substitute for God. You honor the creature precisely by reverencing the Creator's choice. Let every Marian prayer end where she desires it to end: in adoration of the Blessed Trinity and more perfect servitude to Jesus Christ.\n\nPRACTICE\nPerform hidden works of mercy for those who are suffering, forgotten, imprisoned, or grieving.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:40, Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - July 21\nAt Rome, the holy virgin Praxedes, who was brought up in all chastity and in the knowledge of the divine law. Assiduously attending to watching, prayer and fasting, she rested in Christ, and was buried near her sister Pudentiana, on the Salarian road. — At Babylon, the holy prophet Daniel. — At Marseilles, the birthday of St. Victor, a soldier. Because he refused to serve in the army and sacrifice to idols, he was thrust into prison, where he was visited by an angel, then subjected to various torments, and finally being crushed under a millstone, he ended his martyrdom. With him also suffered three soldiers, Alexander, Felician, and Longinus. — At Troyes, St. Julia, virgin and martyr. — In the same place, the martyrdom of the saints Claudius, Justus, Jucundinus, and five companions, in the time of the emperor Aurelian. — At Comana, in Armenia, the holy bishop and martyr Zoticus,who was crowned under Severus. — At Strasburg, St. Arbogastus, a bishop, renowned for miracles. — In Syria, the holy monk John, a companion of St. Simeon.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Praxedes\nRoman virgin remembered for charity toward martyrs.\nSt. Praxedes is remembered in Roman devotion as a holy virgin associated with the care of Christians and the reverent gathering of martyrs' blood and remains during persecution.\nHer feast teaches that not every witness is made by public speech. Some souls serve Christ by hidden reverence, works of mercy, and fidelity to the suffering members of His Body.\nAsk St. Praxedes for reverent charity. In every age, the Church needs souls who quietly gather, honor, and protect what persecution tries to scatter.\nFROM MATINS\nHidden charity among the hunted faithful.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Praxedes, Virgin\nRoman Breviary\n\"She followed them constantly with money, labour, comfort, and every helpful office of Christian charity.\"\n- The Breviary remembers St. Praxedes as a Roman virgin and sister of St. Pudentiana, learned in the divine law and given to chastity, watching, prayer, and fasting.\n- During persecution under Marcus Antoninus, she served the hunted Christians with money, labor, comfort, burial of the dead, shelter for the living, and care for those in prison and slavery.\n- Her lesson shows charity under danger: not public display, but costly fidelity to Christ's suffering members.\nLet charity become brave and hidden. St. Praxedes teaches the soul to help the faithful who suffer, bury the dead with reverence, comfort the persecuted, and remain pure in a violent age.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nNinth Lesson of St. Praxedes\nThis Praxedes was a maiden of Rome, and the sister of the maiden Pudentiana. When the Emperor Marcus Antoninus was hunting down the Christians, she followed them constantly with money, labour, comfort, and every helpful office of Christian charity.\nSome she hid in her house, some she exhorted to firmness in professing the faith, of some she buried the bodies. For them that were in prison, and them that were toiling in slavery, she supplied every need.\nAt last the sight of such butchery of Christians was more than she could bear, and she implored God that if it were expedient for her to die, He would release her from such suffering. And so upon the 21st day of July she was called away to receive the reward of her godly conversation in heaven.\nPastor the Priest laid her body in the grave of her father Pudens and her sister Pudentiana, which was in the cemetery of Priscilla, upon the Salarian Way.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nOutside the Church There Is No Salvation\nThe Church places this truth before you today: All salvation comes through Christ and His Church; no soul is saved by false religion, indifferentism, or separation loved as separation. 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. The doctrine does not deny God's mercy. It denies that error, schism, or religious indifference can be treated as paths equal to the Church founded by Christ.\nThe grace to be practiced is Hidden mercy toward Christ's suffering members, drawn from today's saintly witness. 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 theological order: worship God alone, honor Our Lady according to His will, and let every devotion serve union with Christ.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist indifferentism, which treats contradictory religions as though they were equally pleasing to God. 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 hidden mercy toward Christ's suffering members 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. Renounce both irreverent neglect of Mary and sentimental exaggeration; truth is a narrower and more beautiful road than either distortion. End your Marian prayers with deliberate adoration and obedience to Jesus Christ.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is Pope Pius IX.\nYour resolution before God: Perform hidden works of mercy for those who are suffering, forgotten, imprisoned, or grieving.\nCarry this word: Christ receives hidden mercy shown to His suffering members.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45\nFervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.\n\nRecall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.\nToday's Practice: Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether your devotion magnified God, diminished self-will, and made obedience to Christ more exact.\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, through St. Praxedes, make my charity brave, practical, pure, and willing to serve without recognition.\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\nWhy Sincerity Cannot Replace the One True Church: https://cityofgodinexile.com/how-the-true-church-is-known/why-sincerity-cannot-replace-the-one-true-church?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2026-07-21&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2026-07-21&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: St. Praxedes, Virgin - 2026-07-21\n \n \n
\n St. Praxedes, Virgin. Outside the Church There Is No Salvation. Resist indifferentism, which treats contradictory religions as though they were equally pleasing to God.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Praxedes, Virgin

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2026-07-21 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - white

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“Walk whilst you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not.”
John 12:35
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Plain-Language Guide for Today

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Martyr
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a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.
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Virgin
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in a saint's title, a woman honored for consecrating her chastity and whole life to Christ.
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Chastity
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the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.

The full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.

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Today in the Roman Year

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St. Praxedes served hunted Christians through shelter, money, labor, comfort, burial, and care for prisoners. Her hidden mercy teaches that fidelity is not always public speech; sometimes it is the costly reverence that gathers and protects what persecution tries to scatter.

Before going farther, stand with St. Louis de Montfort beneath the infinite majesty and complete sufficiency of God.

Adore the Blessed Trinity first, then receive with gratitude the Mother whom God freely chose to employ in His works of grace.

“I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 14

St. Louis de Montfort pauses before teaching Mary's necessity in God's freely chosen order because devotion must remain beneath theology. Mary is a creature. God alone is Being of Himself, infinitely perfect and sufficient. He did not employ Our Lady because His power lacked anything; He chose her because His wisdom and goodness willed this beautiful order.

This truth makes devotion both safer and deeper. You do not approach Mary as a rival source of grace or an easier substitute for God. You honor the creature precisely by reverencing the Creator's choice. Let every Marian prayer end where she desires it to end: in adoration of the Blessed Trinity and more perfect servitude to Jesus Christ.

Perform hidden works of mercy for those who are suffering, forgotten, imprisoned, or grieving.

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Quote of the Day

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“As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:40, Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - July 21

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At Rome, the holy virgin Praxedes, who was brought up in all chastity and in the knowledge of the divine law. Assiduously attending to watching, prayer and fasting, she rested in Christ, and was buried near her sister Pudentiana, on the Salarian road. — At Babylon, the holy prophet Daniel. — At Marseilles, the birthday of St. Victor, a soldier. Because he refused to serve in the army and sacrifice to idols, he was thrust into prison, where he was visited by an angel, then subjected to various torments, and finally being crushed under a millstone, he ended his martyrdom. With him also suffered three soldiers, Alexander, Felician, and Longinus. — At Troyes, St. Julia, virgin and martyr. — In the same place, the martyrdom of the saints Claudius, Justus, Jucundinus, and five companions, in the time of the emperor Aurelian. — At Comana, in Armenia, the holy bishop and martyr Zoticus,who was crowned under Severus. — At Strasburg, St. Arbogastus, a bishop, renowned for miracles. — In Syria, the holy monk John, a companion of St. Simeon.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Praxedes

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Roman virgin remembered for charity toward martyrs.

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St. Praxedes is remembered in Roman devotion as a holy virgin associated with the care of Christians and the reverent gathering of martyrs' blood and remains during persecution.

Her feast teaches that not every witness is made by public speech. Some souls serve Christ by hidden reverence, works of mercy, and fidelity to the suffering members of His Body.

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Ask St. Praxedes for reverent charity. In every age, the Church needs souls who quietly gather, honor, and protect what persecution tries to scatter.

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From Matins

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Hidden charity among the hunted faithful.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Praxedes, Virgin

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Roman Breviary, Ninth lesson for St. Praxedes

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“She followed them constantly with money, labour, comfort, and every helpful office of Christian charity.”
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  • The Breviary remembers St. Praxedes as a Roman virgin and sister of St. Pudentiana, learned in the divine law and given to chastity, watching, prayer, and fasting.
  • During persecution under Marcus Antoninus, she served the hunted Christians with money, labor, comfort, burial of the dead, shelter for the living, and care for those in prison and slavery.
  • Her lesson shows charity under danger: not public display, but costly fidelity to Christ's suffering members.
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Let charity become brave and hidden. St. Praxedes teaches the soul to help the faithful who suffer, bury the dead with reverence, comfort the persecuted, and remain pure in a violent age.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Ninth Lesson of St. Praxedes

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This Praxedes was a maiden of Rome, and the sister of the maiden Pudentiana. When the Emperor Marcus Antoninus was hunting down the Christians, she followed them constantly with money, labour, comfort, and every helpful office of Christian charity.

Some she hid in her house, some she exhorted to firmness in professing the faith, of some she buried the bodies. For them that were in prison, and them that were toiling in slavery, she supplied every need.

At last the sight of such butchery of Christians was more than she could bear, and she implored God that if it were expedient for her to die, He would release her from such suffering. And so upon the 21st day of July she was called away to receive the reward of her godly conversation in heaven.

Pastor the Priest laid her body in the grave of her father Pudens and her sister Pudentiana, which was in the cemetery of Priscilla, upon the Salarian Way.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Outside the Church There Is No Salvation

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The Church places this truth before you today: All salvation comes through Christ and His Church; no soul is saved by false religion, indifferentism, or separation loved as separation. 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. The doctrine does not deny God's mercy. It denies that error, schism, or religious indifference can be treated as paths equal to the Church founded by Christ.

The grace to be practiced is Hidden mercy toward Christ's suffering members, drawn from today's saintly witness. 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 theological order: worship God alone, honor Our Lady according to His will, and let every devotion serve union with Christ.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist indifferentism, which treats contradictory religions as though they were equally pleasing to God. 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 hidden mercy toward Christ's suffering members 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. Renounce both irreverent neglect of Mary and sentimental exaggeration; truth is a narrower and more beautiful road than either distortion. End your Marian prayers with deliberate adoration and obedience to Jesus Christ.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is Pope Pius IX.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Perform hidden works of mercy for those who are suffering, forgotten, imprisoned, or grieving.

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Christ receives hidden mercy shown to His suffering members.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45

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Fervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.

Recall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.

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Today's Practice

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Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether your devotion magnified God, diminished self-will, and made obedience to Christ more exact.

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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, through St. Praxedes, make my charity brave, practical, pure, and willing to serve without recognition.

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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 Why Sincerity Cannot Replace the One True Church\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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