{"ok":true,"date":"2027-03-20","dateKey":"03-20","liturgicalDay":"Feria of Passiontide","rank":"Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"John 12:24, Douay-Rheims","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Passiontide","novenas":[{"title":"Novena for the Annunciation","feast":"Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary","day":5,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2027-03-16","feastIsoDate":"2027-03-25","intention":"Prepare to honor the Incarnation, Our Lady's fiat, and the obedience by which the Word was received.","prayer":null,"practice":"Pray the Hail Mary slowly and carry its fiat into every known call to obedience.","sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Feria of Passiontide - 2027-03-20","previewText":"Feria of Passiontide. The Sacraments Are Instruments of Christ. Resist sacramental casualness, especially the idea that good intention can repair invalid rites or invented forms.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nFeria of Passiontide\n2027-03-20 - Passiontide - Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCompunction: sorrow for sin that pierces the heart and moves a person toward repentance rather than despair.\nPassion of Christ: the sufferings and death Jesus freely accepted for our salvation, from His agony in Gethsemane through His Crucifixion.\nFeria: a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.\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. Enter more deeply into the unity of Christ the Head and His members, asking to be formed in the Mother who bore the Head. Renew your baptismal allegiance to Jesus Christ through Mary and resolve to live as a faithful member beneath the divine Head.\n\n\"If Jesus Christ the Head of men is born in her, the predestinate who are the members of that Head ought also to be born in her by a necessary consequence.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 32\n\nThe Head and members form one Mystical Body, yet Christ remains the divine Head and redeemed men remain His creatures. Mary's spiritual motherhood rests upon this supernatural union: she who bore the Head cares maternally for those who live by His grace as members of His Church.\n\nThis spiritual birth does not bypass Baptism, the Catholic Church, or the sacramental order established by Christ. Live your baptismal promises fully: renounce Satan, his works, and his pomps; profess the Faith; preserve sanctifying grace; receive the sacraments worthily; and serve the other members in truth and charity.\n\nPRACTICE\nPractice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, John 12:24, Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena for the Annunciation - Day 5 of 9\nPreparing for Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2027-03-25.\nPrepare to honor the Incarnation, Our Lady's fiat, and the obedience by which the Word was received.\n\nPray the Hail Mary slowly and carry its fiat into every known call to obedience.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - March 20\nIn Judea, St. Joachim, father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose festival is kept on the 16th of August. — In Asia, the birthday of St. Archippus, fellow-laborer of the blessed apostle Paul, who mentions him in his epistles to Philemon, and to the Colossians. — In Syria, the holy martyrs Paul, Cyril, Eugenius, and four others. — The same day, the Saints Photina, a Samaritan, and her sons Joseph and Victor; also, Sebastian, military officer, Anatolius, and Photius; Photides, Parasceves and Cyriaca, sisters, who were all martyred for confessing Christ. — At Amisus, in Paphlagonia, seven holy women, Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, and Theodosia, who were put to death for the confession of the faith. They were followed by Derphuta and her sister. — At Apollonia, the bishop St. Mcetas, who breathed his last in exile, where he had been sent for upholding the worship of holy images. — In the monastery of Fontanelle, St. Wulfran, bishop of Sens, who after having resigned his bishopric and performed miracles, departed out of this life. — In England, the demise of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who from his childhood to his death was renowned for good works and miracles. — At Siena, in Tuscany, blessed Ambrose of the Order of Preachers, celebrated for sanctity, eloquence, and miracles.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nThe Passiontide Feria\nThe veiled days near the Passion of Our Lord.\nThe ferias of Passiontide draw the faithful nearer to the sufferings of Christ, when the Church's prayer grows more grave and the Cross comes into sharper view.\nThese days teach that the Passion is not only remembered on Good Friday. The soul is led step by step into compunction, reparation, silence, and fidelity to the rejected Messias.\nWalk more quietly now. Passiontide teaches the exile to stay near Christ when His glory is veiled and His enemies gather.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nNearer to the rejected Christ.\nMatins - Feria of Passiontide\n- The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord.\n- Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.\nDo not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for Feria of Passiontide 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 Nearer to the rejected Christ.. Its first point is this: The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.\nThe practical instruction is: Do not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted. 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\nThe Sacraments Are Instruments of Christ\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace; they are not symbols invented by the community. 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. Because Christ instituted the sacraments, the Church must guard their matter, form, minister, and intention with holy fear.\nThe grace to be practiced is Compunction and reparation, 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 ecclesial charity by guarding the Faith, avoiding scandal, bearing others' burdens, and seeking the salvation of souls.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist sacramental casualness, especially the idea that good intention can repair invalid rites or invented forms. 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 compunction and reparation 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. Suffer with Christ and His members without withdrawing into isolation, bitterness, or indifference to the needs of the Church. Honor your place in the Mystical Body through faithful prayer, worthy sacramental life, complete duty, reparation, and service of souls.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Thomas Aquinas.\nYour resolution before God: Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.\nCarry this word: Virtue grows by repeated acts under grace.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Wherefore, if we will have the true understanding of Christ's Gospels, we must study to conform our life to His life as nigh as we can.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 1, p. 9\nThe Gospel is not given only to inform the mind. Grace asks that the life of Christ become visible throughout your conduct today, with particular attention to the virtue shown in the appointed mystery.\n\nIt is possible to admire Our Lord while quietly refusing His manner of life. Ask where He is inviting you to become more patient, hidden, truthful, obedient, or forgiving. Conformity begins when admiration accepts a cost.\nToday's Practice: Before today's decisions, ask: How does fidelity to Christ govern this?\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether your conduct strengthened the life of Christ in His members or wounded that unity through sin, error, scandal, or neglect.\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, make doctrine fruitful in habit. Let truth become patience, courage, purity, recollection, penance, charity, and perseverance.\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\nWhat Are the Sacraments?: https://cityofgodinexile.com/catechism-foundations/what-are-the-sacraments?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-03-20&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-03-20&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: Feria of Passiontide - 2027-03-20\n \n \n
\n Feria of Passiontide. The Sacraments Are Instruments of Christ. Resist sacramental casualness, especially the idea that good intention can repair invalid rites or invented forms.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Feria of Passiontide

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2027-03-20 - Passiontide - 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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Compunction
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sorrow for sin that pierces the heart and moves a person toward repentance rather than despair.
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Passion of Christ
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the sufferings and death Jesus freely accepted for our salvation, from His agony in Gethsemane through His Crucifixion.
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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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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.

Enter more deeply into the unity of Christ the Head and His members, asking to be formed in the Mother who bore the Head.

Renew your baptismal allegiance to Jesus Christ through Mary and resolve to live as a faithful member beneath the divine Head.

“If Jesus Christ the Head of men is born in her, the predestinate who are the members of that Head ought also to be born in her by a necessary consequence.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 32

The Head and members form one Mystical Body, yet Christ remains the divine Head and redeemed men remain His creatures. Mary's spiritual motherhood rests upon this supernatural union: she who bore the Head cares maternally for those who live by His grace as members of His Church.

This spiritual birth does not bypass Baptism, the Catholic Church, or the sacramental order established by Christ. Live your baptismal promises fully: renounce Satan, his works, and his pomps; profess the Faith; preserve sanctifying grace; receive the sacraments worthily; and serve the other members in truth and charity.

Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.

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Quote of the Day

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“Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, John 12:24, Douay-Rheims

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Novena in Progress

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Novena for the Annunciation - Day 5 of 9

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Preparing for Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2027-03-25.

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Prepare to honor the Incarnation, Our Lady's fiat, and the obedience by which the Word was received.

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Pray the Hail Mary slowly and carry its fiat into every known call to obedience.

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Roman Martyrology - March 20

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In Judea, St. Joachim, father of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, whose festival is kept on the 16th of August. — In Asia, the birthday of St. Archippus, fellow-laborer of the blessed apostle Paul, who mentions him in his epistles to Philemon, and to the Colossians. — In Syria, the holy martyrs Paul, Cyril, Eugenius, and four others. — The same day, the Saints Photina, a Samaritan, and her sons Joseph and Victor; also, Sebastian, military officer, Anatolius, and Photius; Photides, Parasceves and Cyriaca, sisters, who were all martyred for confessing Christ. — At Amisus, in Paphlagonia, seven holy women, Alexandra, Claudia, Euphrasia, Matrona, Juliana, Euphemia, and Theodosia, who were put to death for the confession of the faith. They were followed by Derphuta and her sister. — At Apollonia, the bishop St. Mcetas, who breathed his last in exile, where he had been sent for upholding the worship of holy images. — In the monastery of Fontanelle, St. Wulfran, bishop of Sens, who after having resigned his bishopric and performed miracles, departed out of this life. — In England, the demise of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who from his childhood to his death was renowned for good works and miracles. — At Siena, in Tuscany, blessed Ambrose of the Order of Preachers, celebrated for sanctity, eloquence, and miracles.

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Highlighted Saint

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The Passiontide Feria

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The veiled days near the Passion of Our Lord.

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The ferias of Passiontide draw the faithful nearer to the sufferings of Christ, when the Church's prayer grows more grave and the Cross comes into sharper view.

These days teach that the Passion is not only remembered on Good Friday. The soul is led step by step into compunction, reparation, silence, and fidelity to the rejected Messias.

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Walk more quietly now. Passiontide teaches the exile to stay near Christ when His glory is veiled and His enemies gather.

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Breviary Witness

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Nearer to the rejected Christ.

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Matins - Feria of Passiontide

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  • The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord.
  • Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.
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Do not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted.

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Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for Feria of Passiontide 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 Nearer to the rejected Christ.. Its first point is this: The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.

The practical instruction is: Do not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted. 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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The Sacraments Are Instruments of Christ

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The Church places this truth before you today: The sacraments are outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace; they are not symbols invented by the community. 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. Because Christ instituted the sacraments, the Church must guard their matter, form, minister, and intention with holy fear.

The grace to be practiced is Compunction and reparation, 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 ecclesial charity by guarding the Faith, avoiding scandal, bearing others' burdens, and seeking the salvation of souls.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist sacramental casualness, especially the idea that good intention can repair invalid rites or invented forms. 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 compunction and reparation 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. Suffer with Christ and His members without withdrawing into isolation, bitterness, or indifference to the needs of the Church. Honor your place in the Mystical Body through faithful prayer, worthy sacramental life, complete duty, reparation, and service of souls.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Thomas Aquinas.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.

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Virtue grows by repeated acts under grace.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Wherefore, if we will have the true understanding of Christ's Gospels, we must study to conform our life to His life as nigh as we can.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 1, p. 9

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The Gospel is not given only to inform the mind. Grace asks that the life of Christ become visible throughout your conduct today, with particular attention to the virtue shown in the appointed mystery.

It is possible to admire Our Lord while quietly refusing His manner of life. Ask where He is inviting you to become more patient, hidden, truthful, obedient, or forgiving. Conformity begins when admiration accepts a cost.

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Today's Practice

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Before today's decisions, ask: How does fidelity to Christ govern this?

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether your conduct strengthened the life of Christ in His members or wounded that unity through sin, error, scandal, or neglect.

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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, make doctrine fruitful in habit. Let truth become patience, courage, purity, recollection, penance, charity, and perseverance.

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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 What Are the Sacraments?\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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