{"ok":true,"date":"2027-04-22","dateKey":"04-22","liturgicalDay":"Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs","rank":"Semi-Double","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"Matthew 11:29, Douay-Rheims","category":"Christ, the Wisdom of God"},"season":"Eastertide","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs - 2027-04-22","previewText":"Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs. Obedience Serves Truth. Resist both rebellion against true authority and false obedience to commands that betray doctrine.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSs. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs\n2027-04-22 - Eastertide - Semi-Double - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nOrdination: the sacrament by which a baptized man is made a deacon, priest, or bishop and receives the grace and authority needed for that ministry.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nApostolic: belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nChrist is risen, has ascended in His glorified humanity, and reigns in Heaven. The Church and her members still suffer on earth, but their trials do not overturn His victory. Christian hope is therefore more than an encouraging feeling: it trusts Christ's promise of resurrection and eternal life and gives the faithful a reason to persevere in obedience today. Adore the Holy Ghost as the giver of every heavenly gift and approach Our Lady as His wholly dependent and faithful Spouse. Invoke the Holy Ghost, ask through Our Lady for all the graces needed today, and resolve to cooperate with them faithfully.\n\n\"To Mary, His faithful Spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispensatrix of all He possesses, in such sort that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills, and when she wills, all His gifts and graces.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 25\n\nGod alone is the source and sovereign giver of grace. Every grace comes from the merits of Jesus Christ and is applied by the Holy Ghost; Mary possesses no divinity and acts with no power independent of God. Her office as dispensatrix is the office He freely communicated to His faithful creature and Mother of the Redeemer.\n\nThis truth should produce neither presumption nor passivity. Ask through Our Lady for every grace required to keep the commandments, receive the sacraments worthily, resist temptation, fulfill your state of life, make reparation, and persevere to death. Then cooperate promptly with what God gives.\n\nPRACTICE\nStand with difficult Catholic truths today even when silence would be easier.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 11:29, Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - April 22\nAt Rome, on the Appian way, the birthday of St. Soter, pope and martyr. — In the same city, pope St. Caius, who was crowned with martyrdom, under the emperor Diocletian. — At Smyrna, the Saints Apelles and Lucius, who were among the first disciples of Christ. — The same day, many holy martyrs who, the year following the death of St. Simeon, and on the anniversary of the Passion of our Lord, were put to the sword for the name of Christ throughout Persia, under king Sapor. Among those who then suffered for the faith were the eunuch Azades, a favorite of the king; Milles, a bishop renowned for sanctity and miracles; the bishop Acepsimas, with one of his priests named James; also Aithalas and Joseph, priests; Azadan and Abdiesus, deacons, and many other clerics; Mareas and Bicor, bishops, with twenty other bishops, and nearly two hundred and fifty clerics; many monks and consecrated virgins, among whom was the sister of St. Simeon, called Tarbula, with her maid-servant, who were both killed in a most cruel manner by being tied to stakes and sawed in twain. — Also in Persia, the Saints Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, priests, Lucas and Mucius, deacons, whose triumph is related in the Acts of Saints Abdon and Sennen. — At Alexandria, the birthday of the martyr St. Leonides, who suffered under Severus. — At Lyons, in the persecution of Antoninus Verus, St. Epipodius, who was arrested with Alexander, his companion, and after undergoing severe torments, consummated his martyrdom, bj decapitation. — At Sens, St. Leo, bishop and confessor. — At Anastasiopolis, St. Theodore, a bishop renowned for miracles.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSs. Soter and Caius\nPopes and martyrs of Roman fidelity.\nSs. Soter and Caius are honored together as popes and martyrs in the Roman Church.\nTheir feast teaches that apostolic succession is not an idea floating above suffering. It passes through real men, real persecution, and real blood shed for Christ.\nAsk these Roman martyrs to keep you Catholic in mind and instinct. The answer to profaned structures is not private invention, but fidelity to Christ's visible, apostolic Church.\nFROM MATINS\nTwo Roman pontiffs who ordered worship and sealed office with blood.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs\nRoman Breviary, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine\n\"Every one should receive the Body of Christ, except those who were forbidden on account of grievous sin.\"\n- The Breviary remembers Pope Soter guarding the sacred vessels and altar linens and commanding worthy reception of the Body of Christ on the anniversary of the Lord's Supper.\n- Pope Caius governed through persecution, ordained ministers for the Roman Church, and was buried among the martyrs in the cemetery of Callistus.\n- Their joint office binds hierarchy, sacramental discipline, holy orders, reverence at the altar, and martyr fidelity into one pastoral charge.\nAsk the holy pontiffs for reverence joined to government. Guard the altar, receive worthily, honor sacred order, and remember that discipline exists to keep souls faithful to Christ.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nObedience Serves Truth\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Catholic obedience is a virtue ordered to God and His truth. It is not servility before contradiction or unlawful command. 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. Authority is real because it comes from God, but it remains ministerial. It cannot command against the faith it exists to guard.\nThe grace to be practiced is Roman apostolic fidelity, 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 grateful dependence by joining generous prayer to vigilant and complete cooperation with grace.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist both rebellion against true authority and false obedience to commands that betray doctrine. 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 roman apostolic fidelity 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 sensible help is absent, continue trusting the divine Giver and using the means of grace He has established. Seek grace before prayer, duties, decisions, conversations, temptations, and sacrifices, then act with diligence rather than presumption.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Thomas Aquinas.\nYour resolution before God: Stand with difficult Catholic truths today even when silence would be easier.\nCarry this word: The faithful remain at the Cross when the multitude walks past it.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"By resisting of passions, then, is gotten the very true peace of heart, and not by following them.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 6, p. 15\nPeace is not surrender to every feeling. It is order beneath God, won by grace when appetite is made to obey truth and duty.\n\nA passion grows louder when it expects immediate obedience. Do not be alarmed merely because anger, fear, discouragement, or desire speaks forcefully. Place a little silence between the movement and your consent, call upon Jesus and Mary, and choose what remains right.\nToday's Practice: Delay impulsive responses and choose the calmer acts required by truth and duty.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nThank God for the graces given through Our Lady and repent of every grace resisted, neglected, or used carelessly.\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, keep me near Thy Cross when comfort, acceptance, and ease invite me elsewhere. Let fidelity be stronger than the desire to belong.\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\nObedience, the Virtue Modernism Must Redefine: https://cityofgodinexile.com/authority-and-revolt/obedience-the-virtue-modernism-must-redefine?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-04-22&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-04-22&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: Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs - 2027-04-22\n \n \n
\n Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs. Obedience Serves Truth. Resist both rebellion against true authority and false obedience to commands that betray doctrine.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs

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2027-04-22 - Eastertide - Semi-Double - red

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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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Ordination
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the sacrament by which a baptized man is made a deacon, priest, or bishop and receives the grace and authority needed for that ministry.
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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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Apostolic
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belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.
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Today in the Roman Year

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Christ is risen, has ascended in His glorified humanity, and reigns in Heaven. The Church and her members still suffer on earth, but their trials do not overturn His victory. Christian hope is therefore more than an encouraging feeling: it trusts Christ's promise of resurrection and eternal life and gives the faithful a reason to persevere in obedience today.

Adore the Holy Ghost as the giver of every heavenly gift and approach Our Lady as His wholly dependent and faithful Spouse.

Invoke the Holy Ghost, ask through Our Lady for all the graces needed today, and resolve to cooperate with them faithfully.

“To Mary, His faithful Spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispensatrix of all He possesses, in such sort that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills, and when she wills, all His gifts and graces.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 25

God alone is the source and sovereign giver of grace. Every grace comes from the merits of Jesus Christ and is applied by the Holy Ghost; Mary possesses no divinity and acts with no power independent of God. Her office as dispensatrix is the office He freely communicated to His faithful creature and Mother of the Redeemer.

This truth should produce neither presumption nor passivity. Ask through Our Lady for every grace required to keep the commandments, receive the sacraments worthily, resist temptation, fulfill your state of life, make reparation, and persevere to death. Then cooperate promptly with what God gives.

Stand with difficult Catholic truths today even when silence would be easier.

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Quote of the Day

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“Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 11:29, Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - April 22

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At Rome, on the Appian way, the birthday of St. Soter, pope and martyr. — In the same city, pope St. Caius, who was crowned with martyrdom, under the emperor Diocletian. — At Smyrna, the Saints Apelles and Lucius, who were among the first disciples of Christ. — The same day, many holy martyrs who, the year following the death of St. Simeon, and on the anniversary of the Passion of our Lord, were put to the sword for the name of Christ throughout Persia, under king Sapor. Among those who then suffered for the faith were the eunuch Azades, a favorite of the king; Milles, a bishop renowned for sanctity and miracles; the bishop Acepsimas, with one of his priests named James; also Aithalas and Joseph, priests; Azadan and Abdiesus, deacons, and many other clerics; Mareas and Bicor, bishops, with twenty other bishops, and nearly two hundred and fifty clerics; many monks and consecrated virgins, among whom was the sister of St. Simeon, called Tarbula, with her maid-servant, who were both killed in a most cruel manner by being tied to stakes and sawed in twain. — Also in Persia, the Saints Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, priests, Lucas and Mucius, deacons, whose triumph is related in the Acts of Saints Abdon and Sennen. — At Alexandria, the birthday of the martyr St. Leonides, who suffered under Severus. — At Lyons, in the persecution of Antoninus Verus, St. Epipodius, who was arrested with Alexander, his companion, and after undergoing severe torments, consummated his martyrdom, bj decapitation. — At Sens, St. Leo, bishop and confessor. — At Anastasiopolis, St. Theodore, a bishop renowned for miracles.

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Highlighted Saint

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Ss. Soter and Caius

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Popes and martyrs of Roman fidelity.

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Ss. Soter and Caius are honored together as popes and martyrs in the Roman Church.

Their feast teaches that apostolic succession is not an idea floating above suffering. It passes through real men, real persecution, and real blood shed for Christ.

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Ask these Roman martyrs to keep you Catholic in mind and instinct. The answer to profaned structures is not private invention, but fidelity to Christ's visible, apostolic Church.

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From Matins

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Two Roman pontiffs who ordered worship and sealed office with blood.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - Ss. Soter and Caius, Popes and Martyrs

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Roman Breviary, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine, Proper lessons for Ss. Soter and Caius and the Common of Martyrs

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“Every one should receive the Body of Christ, except those who were forbidden on account of grievous sin.”
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  • The Breviary remembers Pope Soter guarding the sacred vessels and altar linens and commanding worthy reception of the Body of Christ on the anniversary of the Lord's Supper.
  • Pope Caius governed through persecution, ordained ministers for the Roman Church, and was buried among the martyrs in the cemetery of Callistus.
  • Their joint office binds hierarchy, sacramental discipline, holy orders, reverence at the altar, and martyr fidelity into one pastoral charge.
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Ask the holy pontiffs for reverence joined to government. Guard the altar, receive worthily, honor sacred order, and remember that discipline exists to keep souls faithful to Christ.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Obedience Serves Truth

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The Church places this truth before you today: Catholic obedience is a virtue ordered to God and His truth. It is not servility before contradiction or unlawful command. 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. Authority is real because it comes from God, but it remains ministerial. It cannot command against the faith it exists to guard.

The grace to be practiced is Roman apostolic fidelity, 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 grateful dependence by joining generous prayer to vigilant and complete cooperation with grace.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist both rebellion against true authority and false obedience to commands that betray doctrine. 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 roman apostolic fidelity 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 sensible help is absent, continue trusting the divine Giver and using the means of grace He has established. Seek grace before prayer, duties, decisions, conversations, temptations, and sacrifices, then act with diligence rather than presumption.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Stand with difficult Catholic truths today even when silence would be easier.

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The faithful remain at the Cross when the multitude walks past it.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“By resisting of passions, then, is gotten the very true peace of heart, and not by following them.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 6, p. 15

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Peace is not surrender to every feeling. It is order beneath God, won by grace when appetite is made to obey truth and duty.

A passion grows louder when it expects immediate obedience. Do not be alarmed merely because anger, fear, discouragement, or desire speaks forcefully. Place a little silence between the movement and your consent, call upon Jesus and Mary, and choose what remains right.

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Today's Practice

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Delay impulsive responses and choose the calmer acts required by truth and duty.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Thank God for the graces given through Our Lady and repent of every grace resisted, neglected, or used carelessly.

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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, keep me near Thy Cross when comfort, acceptance, and ease invite me elsewhere. Let fidelity be stronger than the desire to belong.

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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 Obedience, the Virtue Modernism Must Redefine\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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