{"ok":true,"date":"2027-02-28","dateKey":"02-28","liturgicalDay":"Third Sunday of Lent","rank":"Sunday of the First Class","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?","author":"St. Paul","source":"Acts 9:6, Douay-Rheims","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Lent","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Third Sunday of Lent - 2027-02-28","previewText":"Third Sunday of Lent. Unity Without Truth Is Not Catholic Unity. Resist false ecumenism and every peace that asks doctrine to step aside.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nThird Sunday of Lent\n2027-02-28 - Lent - Sunday of the First Class - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nPenance: repentance expressed through prayer, self-denial, reparation, and a real turning away from sin.\nRedemption: Christ's saving work by which He paid the price of sin through His obedient suffering and death and frees sinners for life with God.\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. Approach the Mother by contemplating the Divine Son whose glory explains every grace in her. Ponder the mysteries of the Rosary and ask Mary to teach you the mind and dispositions of Jesus within them.\n\n\"If you wish to comprehend the Mother … comprehend the Son; for she is the worthy Mother of God.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 12\n\nOur Lady cannot be understood as an isolated religious figure. Her dignity comes from the mystery of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, whom she conceived, bore, nourished, and followed to the Cross. Every title rightly given to Mary protects or illuminates some truth about her Divine Son and His work of redemption.\n\nLet today's Rosary become Christological contemplation. In its mysteries, look with Mary at Jesus. Notice what He does, what He suffers, what He commands, and what response He asks from you. The Mother is best honored when the soul receives the Son more faithfully.\n\nPRACTICE\nAfter rejecting sinful habits, fill their former place with definite prayer, duty, and works of mercy so that the soul is not left spiritually empty.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?\"\nSt. Paul, Acts 9:6, Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - February 28\nAt Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Maca rius, Rufinus, Justus, and Theophilus. — At Alex andria, the passion of the Saints Cserealis, Pupulus, Caius, and Serapion. — In the same city, in the reign of the emperor Valerian, the commemoration of the holy priests, deacons, and other Christians in great number, who encountered death most willingly by nursing the victims of a most deadly pestilence then raging. They have been generally revered as martyrs by the pious faithful. — In the territory of Lyons, on Mount Jura, the demise of St. Romanus, abbot, who was the first to lead the eremitical life there. His reputation for virtues and miracles brought under his guidance numerous monks. — At Pavia, the translation, from the island of Sardinia, of the bod of St. Augustine, bishop, by Luitprand, king of the Lombards.\n\nGOSPEL OF THE DAY\nBlessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.\nThird Sunday of Lent - Luke 11:14-28\n\"He that is not with me, is against me.\"\nDo not fear the combat, but do not fight it empty. Let prayer, confession, work, and holy reading occupy the house of the soul.\n\nTHE CHURCH'S READING OF THE GOSPEL\nWhat This Gospel Teaches\nChrist exposes the kingdom of Satan and refuses neutral ground in the spiritual combat.\nThe soul must not be swept clean only to be left empty; it must be possessed by obedience to God.\nError corrected: The neutrality that wants Christ without taking sides against sin.\n- Where does this error tempt me in practice?\n- What act does this Gospel require of me today?\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nThird Sunday of Lent\nNo neutrality before Christ and the unclean spirit.\nThe Third Sunday of Lent shows Christ casting out a devil and warning that he who is not with Him is against Him.\nThe day teaches spiritual combat plainly: the cleansed soul must not remain empty, and deliverance must be guarded by obedience, prayer, and fidelity to the word of God.\nDo not leave the house swept and empty. In exile, the soul survives by belonging actively and entirely to Christ.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nThe stronger One casts out the enemy.\nMatins - Third Sunday of Lent\n- The office of the Third Sunday of Lent places before the Church Christ's victory over the evil spirit and His warning against divided allegiance.\n- Its witness teaches that deliverance must be guarded: a cleansed soul may not remain empty, and no neutrality is possible before Christ.\nChoose your side plainly. After grace has swept the house, fill it with prayer, doctrine, penance, and obedience.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for Third Sunday of Lent 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 The stronger One casts out the enemy.. Its first point is this: The office of the Third Sunday of Lent places before the Church Christ's victory over the evil spirit and His warning against divided allegiance. Its next point develops the lesson: Its witness teaches that deliverance must be guarded: a cleansed soul may not remain empty, and no neutrality is possible before Christ.\nThe practical instruction is: Choose your side plainly. After grace has swept the house, fill it with prayer, doctrine, penance, and obedience. 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\nFROM MATINS\nThe devil cast out and the tongue restored to praise.\nMatins - Third Nocturn - Third Sunday of Lent\nSt. Bede the Venerable, Priest\n\"The lips, that before were dumb, are opened that their mouth may show forth the praise of God.\"\n- The Breviary reads the dumb demoniac as both a bodily miracle and a spiritual image of conversion.\n- St. Bede teaches that when the devil is cast out, the eyes see the light of faith and the lips are opened to praise God.\n- Christ knows the hidden thoughts of His accusers and exposes the folly of attributing divine deliverance to the kingdom of Satan.\nAsk Christ to cast out whatever makes the soul mute before God. True deliverance restores sight, speech, praise, and allegiance.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nUnity Without Truth Is Not Catholic Unity\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Catholic unity is unity in the faith, sacraments, worship, and lawful order of the Church. It is not agreement to ignore contradiction. 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 Church unites by truth and grace; she cannot found unity on silence about error.\nThe grace to be practiced is Vigilant purity and decisive allegiance, 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 faith by receiving the mystery as revealed truth before seeking consolation from it.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false ecumenism and every peace that asks doctrine to step aside. 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 vigilant purity and decisive allegiance 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 the mystery exceeds understanding, remain obedient to what God has revealed instead of making private judgment the measure of truth. Return once during work to the chosen mystery and unite the duty to an action of Our Lord within it.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is Pope Pius XI.\nYour resolution before God: After rejecting sinful habits, fill their former place with definite prayer, duty, and works of mercy so that the soul is not left spiritually empty.\nCarry this word: The day must end beneath truth.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Ask not who said this, but take heed what is said.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 5, p. 14\nTruth does not become true through fashion, applause, or a celebrated name. Test what you hear by revelation and the perennial teaching of the Church.\n\nYet à Kempis also rebukes the curiosity that collects authorities without receiving their doctrine. Listen for the truth God is giving through a trustworthy witness, and then permit that truth to correct you. The name of a saint should not become decoration around an unchanged life.\nToday's Practice: Reject claims based on novelty or popularity and ask what the Church has always taught.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether today's devotion left you more attentive to Christ's word, sacrifice, and commandments.\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, bring this day to judgment before Thy mercy. Show me where I obeyed, where I resisted, where I loved, and where I must begin again.\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\nUnity Without Obedience and Indifferentism: https://cityofgodinexile.com/authority-and-revolt/unity-without-obedience-the-condemned-religion-of-indifferentism?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-02-28&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-02-28&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: Third Sunday of Lent - 2027-02-28\n \n \n
\n Third Sunday of Lent. Unity Without Truth Is Not Catholic Unity. Resist false ecumenism and every peace that asks doctrine to step aside.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Third Sunday of Lent

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2027-02-28 - Lent - Sunday of the First Class - 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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Penance
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repentance expressed through prayer, self-denial, reparation, and a real turning away from sin.
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Redemption
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Christ's saving work by which He paid the price of sin through His obedient suffering and death and frees sinners for life with God.
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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.

Approach the Mother by contemplating the Divine Son whose glory explains every grace in her.

Ponder the mysteries of the Rosary and ask Mary to teach you the mind and dispositions of Jesus within them.

“If you wish to comprehend the Mother … comprehend the Son; for she is the worthy Mother of God.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 12

Our Lady cannot be understood as an isolated religious figure. Her dignity comes from the mystery of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, whom she conceived, bore, nourished, and followed to the Cross. Every title rightly given to Mary protects or illuminates some truth about her Divine Son and His work of redemption.

Let today's Rosary become Christological contemplation. In its mysteries, look with Mary at Jesus. Notice what He does, what He suffers, what He commands, and what response He asks from you. The Mother is best honored when the soul receives the Son more faithfully.

After rejecting sinful habits, fill their former place with definite prayer, duty, and works of mercy so that the soul is not left spiritually empty.

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Quote of the Day

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“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
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St. Paul, Acts 9:6, Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - February 28

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At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Maca rius, Rufinus, Justus, and Theophilus. — At Alex andria, the passion of the Saints Cserealis, Pupulus, Caius, and Serapion. — In the same city, in the reign of the emperor Valerian, the commemoration of the holy priests, deacons, and other Christians in great number, who encountered death most willingly by nursing the victims of a most deadly pestilence then raging. They have been generally revered as martyrs by the pious faithful. — In the territory of Lyons, on Mount Jura, the demise of St. Romanus, abbot, who was the first to lead the eremitical life there. His reputation for virtues and miracles brought under his guidance numerous monks. — At Pavia, the translation, from the island of Sardinia, of the bod of St. Augustine, bishop, by Luitprand, king of the Lombards.

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Gospel of the Day

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Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.

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Third Sunday of Lent - Luke 11:14-28

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“He that is not with me, is against me.”
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Do not fear the combat, but do not fight it empty. Let prayer, confession, work, and holy reading occupy the house of the soul.

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The Church's Reading of the Gospel

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What This Gospel Teaches

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Christ exposes the kingdom of Satan and refuses neutral ground in the spiritual combat.

The soul must not be swept clean only to be left empty; it must be possessed by obedience to God.

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Error corrected: The neutrality that wants Christ without taking sides against sin.

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  • Where does this error tempt me in practice?
  • What act does this Gospel require of me today?
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Highlighted Saint

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Third Sunday of Lent

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No neutrality before Christ and the unclean spirit.

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The Third Sunday of Lent shows Christ casting out a devil and warning that he who is not with Him is against Him.

The day teaches spiritual combat plainly: the cleansed soul must not remain empty, and deliverance must be guarded by obedience, prayer, and fidelity to the word of God.

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Do not leave the house swept and empty. In exile, the soul survives by belonging actively and entirely to Christ.

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Breviary Witness

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The stronger One casts out the enemy.

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Matins - Third Sunday of Lent

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  • The office of the Third Sunday of Lent places before the Church Christ's victory over the evil spirit and His warning against divided allegiance.
  • Its witness teaches that deliverance must be guarded: a cleansed soul may not remain empty, and no neutrality is possible before Christ.
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Choose your side plainly. After grace has swept the house, fill it with prayer, doctrine, penance, and obedience.

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Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for Third Sunday of Lent 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 The stronger One casts out the enemy.. Its first point is this: The office of the Third Sunday of Lent places before the Church Christ's victory over the evil spirit and His warning against divided allegiance. Its next point develops the lesson: Its witness teaches that deliverance must be guarded: a cleansed soul may not remain empty, and no neutrality is possible before Christ.

The practical instruction is: Choose your side plainly. After grace has swept the house, fill it with prayer, doctrine, penance, and obedience. 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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From Matins

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The devil cast out and the tongue restored to praise.

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Matins - Third Nocturn - Third Sunday of Lent

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St. Bede the Venerable, Priest, Commentary on St. Luke

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“The lips, that before were dumb, are opened that their mouth may show forth the praise of God.”
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  • The Breviary reads the dumb demoniac as both a bodily miracle and a spiritual image of conversion.
  • St. Bede teaches that when the devil is cast out, the eyes see the light of faith and the lips are opened to praise God.
  • Christ knows the hidden thoughts of His accusers and exposes the folly of attributing divine deliverance to the kingdom of Satan.
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Ask Christ to cast out whatever makes the soul mute before God. True deliverance restores sight, speech, praise, and allegiance.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Unity Without Truth Is Not Catholic Unity

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The Church places this truth before you today: Catholic unity is unity in the faith, sacraments, worship, and lawful order of the Church. It is not agreement to ignore contradiction. 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 Church unites by truth and grace; she cannot found unity on silence about error.

The grace to be practiced is Vigilant purity and decisive allegiance, 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 faith by receiving the mystery as revealed truth before seeking consolation from it.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false ecumenism and every peace that asks doctrine to step aside. 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 vigilant purity and decisive allegiance 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 the mystery exceeds understanding, remain obedient to what God has revealed instead of making private judgment the measure of truth. Return once during work to the chosen mystery and unite the duty to an action of Our Lord within it.

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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 XI.

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Your Resolution Before God

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After rejecting sinful habits, fill their former place with definite prayer, duty, and works of mercy so that the soul is not left spiritually empty.

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The day must end beneath truth.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Ask not who said this, but take heed what is said.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 5, p. 14

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Truth does not become true through fashion, applause, or a celebrated name. Test what you hear by revelation and the perennial teaching of the Church.

Yet à Kempis also rebukes the curiosity that collects authorities without receiving their doctrine. Listen for the truth God is giving through a trustworthy witness, and then permit that truth to correct you. The name of a saint should not become decoration around an unchanged life.

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Today's Practice

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Reject claims based on novelty or popularity and ask what the Church has always taught.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether today's devotion left you more attentive to Christ's word, sacrifice, and commandments.

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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, bring this day to judgment before Thy mercy. Show me where I obeyed, where I resisted, where I loved, and where I must begin again.

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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 Unity Without Obedience and Indifferentism\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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