{"ok":true,"date":"2027-02-20","dateKey":"02-20","liturgicalDay":"Lenten Ember Day","rank":"Non-privileged Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Prayer places our mind in the brightness and light of God, and exposes our will to the heat of heavenly love.","author":"St. Francis de Sales","source":"An Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, chapter 1, p. 46","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#prayer-places-the-mind-in-gods-light","category":"Prayer and the Interior Life"},"season":"Lent","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Lenten Ember Day - 2027-02-20","previewText":"Lenten Ember Day. Dogma Binds the Mind Because God Has Spoken. Resist the modernist habit of treating dogma as a symbol whose meaning may be revised by later experience.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nLenten Ember Day\n2027-02-20 - Lent - Non-privileged Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nMystical Body of Christ: the Church understood as a living body whose head is Christ and whose baptized members are united to Him and to one another by grace.\nEcclesiastical or ecclesial: belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.\nClergy or cleric: the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nHumiliation, opposition, and penance do not mean that God has ceased to govern. Our Lord redeemed the world through His obedient suffering on the Cross. When Catholics accept unavoidable trials without sin, perform penance, and continue obeying the truth, those sufferings can humble pride and deepen fidelity rather than lead to despair. With Mary, receive the silence in which God prepares His deepest works. Consecrate speech to Jesus through Mary and ask that no word be spent merely to serve vanity or irritation.\n\n\"God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 4\n\nOur Lady's silence is not emptiness, timidity, or ignorance. Wisdom dwells within her, and therefore speech is not used to prove that she possesses it. She speaks when charity and God's will require speech; otherwise she keeps the mystery entrusted to her and allows the Word Himself to be heard.\n\nA soul beginning the interior life must learn this custody. Much grace is dissipated through unnecessary explanation, argument, and self-defense. Before speaking today, ask whether the words protect truth, fulfill duty, or help a soul. If they merely relieve the pressure of self-love, remain with Mary in silence.\n\nPRACTICE\nGive thanks for the Precious Blood and guard every known occasion where grace could be wasted.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Prayer places our mind in the brightness and light of God, and exposes our will to the heat of heavenly love.\"\nSt. Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, chapter 1, p. 46\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - February 20\nAt Tyre, in Phoenicia, the commemoration of many blessed martyrs, whose number is known to God alone. Under the emperor Diocletian, they were put to death after a long and varied series of torments by the military commander Veturius. They were first lacerated with whips, and then delivered to several kinds of beasts. But, through the interposition of Providence, remaining unhurt, they consummated their martyrdom by the torment of fire and by the sword. This glorious multitude were incited to victory by the bishops Tyrannic, Silvanus, Peleus, and Nilus, and the priest Zenobius, who, together with them, won the palm of martyrdom by a successful combat. — In the island of Cyprus, the holy martyrs Pothamius and Nemesius. — At Constantinople, St. Eleutherius, bishop and martyr. — In Persia, in the time of king Sapor, the birthday of St. Sadoth, bishop, and one hundred and twentyeight others, who refused to adore the sun, and by a cruel death purchased for themselves bright crowns. — At Catania, in Sicily, St. Leo, bishop, illustrious for virtues and miracles. — The same day, St. Eucherius, bishop of Orleans, whose miracles increased in proportion to the slanders of the envious. — At Tournai, in Belgium, St. Eleutherius, bishop and confessor.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nThe Lenten Ember Day\nThe season sanctified by fasting, prayer, and ordination.\nThe Lenten Ember Days belong to the Church's quarterly sanctification of the seasons, joining fasting and prayer to the needs of the clergy and the whole Christian people.\nIn Lent the Ember discipline presses more deeply: the faithful ask God to purify the Church, strengthen sacred ministers, and make penance fruitful rather than theatrical.\nLet the Ember day widen your Lent. Your penance is not merely personal improvement; it is prayer with the Church for the Church.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nFasting with the Church for the Church.\nMatins - Lenten Ember Day\n- The Lenten Ember Days join the penitential season to the Church's prayer for sacred ministers and the sanctification of the Christian people.\n- Their witness teaches that fasting is ecclesial. The faithful do penance not as isolated souls, but as members of the Mystical Body pleading for purity and holy order.\nOffer penance for the Church, her ministers, and those who hunger for valid sacraments.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for Lenten Ember Day is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.\nToday's witness is gathered under Fasting with the Church for the Church.. Its first point is this: The Lenten Ember Days join the penitential season to the Church's prayer for sacred ministers and the sanctification of the Christian people. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness teaches that fasting is ecclesial. The faithful do penance not as isolated souls, but as members of the Mystical Body pleading for purity and holy order.\nThe practical instruction is: Offer penance for the Church, her ministers, and those who hunger for valid sacraments. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.\n- What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?\n- What virtue does the Church place before me through it?\n- What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nDogma Binds the Mind Because God Has Spoken\nThe Church places this truth before you today: A Catholic dogma is not something the Church says for a while and later replaces. It is a truth revealed by God and taught by the Church. Because God cannot lie, the Church cannot later teach the opposite. 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 binding force of dogma protects souls from private invention and keeps charity rooted in truth rather than mood.\nThe grace to be practiced is Ecclesial penance and prayer for sacred ministers, 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 recollected silence: not refusal of necessary truth, but restraint governed by charity and duty.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the modernist habit of treating dogma as a symbol whose meaning may be revised by later experience. 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 ecclesial penance and prayer for sacred ministers 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. When tempted to defend yourself unnecessarily, remain peaceful beneath God's knowledge. Give full attention to the person or duty before you instead of preparing the next thing you wish to say.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is Pope St. Pius X.\nYour resolution before God: Give thanks for the Precious Blood and guard every known occasion where grace could be wasted.\nCarry this word: The Precious Blood teaches the price of grace.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"I had liefer be poor with Thee, than rich without Thee.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book III, chapter 59, p. 173\nOlder English: “liefer” means “rather.”\nNo created success compensates for separation from Christ. Prefer His friendship, His truth, and His Cross to every advantage gained by compromise.\n\nTemptation often presents the price first and hides the loss. It tells you what obedience may cost in comfort, reputation, companionship, or opportunity, while concealing the poverty of possessing these things without peace with God. Look beyond the immediate bargain and choose with eternity in view.\nToday's Practice: Refuse every compromise made for comfort, gain, or human respect.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nReview your conversations. Ask whether your words made Christ better known or merely made self more visible.\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 Jesus Christ, by Thy Precious Blood cleanse my conscience, strengthen my will, and teach me never to treat grace as cheap.\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\nDogma and the Modernist War Against Binding Truth: https://cityofgodinexile.com/how-the-true-church-is-known/chapter-dogma-the-modernist-war-against-the-binding-truth?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-02-20&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-02-20&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: Lenten Ember Day - 2027-02-20\n \n \n
\n Lenten Ember Day. Dogma Binds the Mind Because God Has Spoken. Resist the modernist habit of treating dogma as a symbol whose meaning may be revised by later experience.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Lenten Ember Day

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2027-02-20 - Lent - Non-privileged Feria - violet

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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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Mystical Body of Christ
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the Church understood as a living body whose head is Christ and whose baptized members are united to Him and to one another by grace.
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Ecclesiastical or ecclesial
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belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.
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Clergy or cleric
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the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.
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Today in the Roman Year

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Humiliation, opposition, and penance do not mean that God has ceased to govern. Our Lord redeemed the world through His obedient suffering on the Cross. When Catholics accept unavoidable trials without sin, perform penance, and continue obeying the truth, those sufferings can humble pride and deepen fidelity rather than lead to despair.

With Mary, receive the silence in which God prepares His deepest works.

Consecrate speech to Jesus through Mary and ask that no word be spent merely to serve vanity or irritation.

“God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 4

Our Lady's silence is not emptiness, timidity, or ignorance. Wisdom dwells within her, and therefore speech is not used to prove that she possesses it. She speaks when charity and God's will require speech; otherwise she keeps the mystery entrusted to her and allows the Word Himself to be heard.

A soul beginning the interior life must learn this custody. Much grace is dissipated through unnecessary explanation, argument, and self-defense. Before speaking today, ask whether the words protect truth, fulfill duty, or help a soul. If they merely relieve the pressure of self-love, remain with Mary in silence.

Give thanks for the Precious Blood and guard every known occasion where grace could be wasted.

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Quote of the Day

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“Prayer places our mind in the brightness and light of God, and exposes our will to the heat of heavenly love.”
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St. Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, chapter 1, p. 46

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Roman Martyrology - February 20

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At Tyre, in Phoenicia, the commemoration of many blessed martyrs, whose number is known to God alone. Under the emperor Diocletian, they were put to death after a long and varied series of torments by the military commander Veturius. They were first lacerated with whips, and then delivered to several kinds of beasts. But, through the interposition of Providence, remaining unhurt, they consummated their martyrdom by the torment of fire and by the sword. This glorious multitude were incited to victory by the bishops Tyrannic, Silvanus, Peleus, and Nilus, and the priest Zenobius, who, together with them, won the palm of martyrdom by a successful combat. — In the island of Cyprus, the holy martyrs Pothamius and Nemesius. — At Constantinople, St. Eleutherius, bishop and martyr. — In Persia, in the time of king Sapor, the birthday of St. Sadoth, bishop, and one hundred and twentyeight others, who refused to adore the sun, and by a cruel death purchased for themselves bright crowns. — At Catania, in Sicily, St. Leo, bishop, illustrious for virtues and miracles. — The same day, St. Eucherius, bishop of Orleans, whose miracles increased in proportion to the slanders of the envious. — At Tournai, in Belgium, St. Eleutherius, bishop and confessor.

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Highlighted Saint

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The Lenten Ember Day

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The season sanctified by fasting, prayer, and ordination.

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The Lenten Ember Days belong to the Church's quarterly sanctification of the seasons, joining fasting and prayer to the needs of the clergy and the whole Christian people.

In Lent the Ember discipline presses more deeply: the faithful ask God to purify the Church, strengthen sacred ministers, and make penance fruitful rather than theatrical.

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Let the Ember day widen your Lent. Your penance is not merely personal improvement; it is prayer with the Church for the Church.

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Breviary Witness

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Fasting with the Church for the Church.

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Matins - Lenten Ember Day

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  • The Lenten Ember Days join the penitential season to the Church's prayer for sacred ministers and the sanctification of the Christian people.
  • Their witness teaches that fasting is ecclesial. The faithful do penance not as isolated souls, but as members of the Mystical Body pleading for purity and holy order.
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Offer penance for the Church, her ministers, and those who hunger for valid sacraments.

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Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for Lenten Ember Day is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.

Today's witness is gathered under Fasting with the Church for the Church.. Its first point is this: The Lenten Ember Days join the penitential season to the Church's prayer for sacred ministers and the sanctification of the Christian people. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness teaches that fasting is ecclesial. The faithful do penance not as isolated souls, but as members of the Mystical Body pleading for purity and holy order.

The practical instruction is: Offer penance for the Church, her ministers, and those who hunger for valid sacraments. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.

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  • What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?
  • What virtue does the Church place before me through it?
  • What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?
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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Dogma Binds the Mind Because God Has Spoken

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The Church places this truth before you today: A Catholic dogma is not something the Church says for a while and later replaces. It is a truth revealed by God and taught by the Church. Because God cannot lie, the Church cannot later teach the opposite. 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 binding force of dogma protects souls from private invention and keeps charity rooted in truth rather than mood.

The grace to be practiced is Ecclesial penance and prayer for sacred ministers, 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 recollected silence: not refusal of necessary truth, but restraint governed by charity and duty.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the modernist habit of treating dogma as a symbol whose meaning may be revised by later experience. 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 ecclesial penance and prayer for sacred ministers 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. When tempted to defend yourself unnecessarily, remain peaceful beneath God's knowledge. Give full attention to the person or duty before you instead of preparing the next thing you wish to say.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Give thanks for the Precious Blood and guard every known occasion where grace could be wasted.

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The Precious Blood teaches the price of grace.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“I had liefer be poor with Thee, than rich without Thee.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book III, chapter 59, p. 173

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Older English: “liefer” means “rather.”

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No created success compensates for separation from Christ. Prefer His friendship, His truth, and His Cross to every advantage gained by compromise.

Temptation often presents the price first and hides the loss. It tells you what obedience may cost in comfort, reputation, companionship, or opportunity, while concealing the poverty of possessing these things without peace with God. Look beyond the immediate bargain and choose with eternity in view.

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Today's Practice

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Refuse every compromise made for comfort, gain, or human respect.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Review your conversations. Ask whether your words made Christ better known or merely made self more visible.

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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 Jesus Christ, by Thy Precious Blood cleanse my conscience, strengthen my will, and teach me never to treat grace as cheap.

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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 Dogma and the Modernist War Against Binding Truth\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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