{"ok":true,"date":"2027-07-14","dateKey":"07-14","liturgicalDay":"St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"And you shall know the truth: and the truth shall make you free.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"John 8:32, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#the-truth-shall-make-you-free","category":"Truth: Christ and His Church"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor - 2027-07-14","previewText":"St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. 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\nSt. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor\n2027-07-14 - Time after Pentecost - Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCardinal: a senior cleric of the Roman Church who advises the pope and, under the Church's law, ordinarily helps elect a successor.\nConfessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.\nDoctor of the Church: a saint formally recognized for teaching the Catholic Faith with exceptional depth and lasting value.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nSt. Bonaventure joined theology, Franciscan poverty, prayer, humility, and service to the Church. He teaches that sacred study has not reached its end when the mind can argue; doctrine must lead the soul toward contemplation, obedience, charity, and love for Christ crucified. Join the praise of Heaven and earth, but ask that your praise of Mary become obedience to her Son. Offer the first Hail Mary slowly, praising God's work in Our Lady and asking to live beneath her standard.\n\n\"Every day, from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary!\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 8\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort allows the soul to hear a vast chorus of praise, but he does not invite it to remain among beautiful words. Heaven praises Our Lady because God has crowned His own work in her. The devils acknowledge her unwillingly because they cannot erase the victory of the Woman whom God has set against the serpent.\n\nYour praise must therefore take sides. To honor Mary is to reject the spirit that contradicts her: pride instead of humility, impurity instead of her spotless heart, revolt instead of her fiat, and doctrinal compromise instead of her unwavering faith. Let every praise of her today become a refusal of sin.\n\nPRACTICE\nStudy Catholic truth slowly, then turn what you learn into prayer and humble obedience.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"And you shall know the truth: and the truth shall make you free.\"\nHoly Scripture, John 8:32, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - July 14\nAt Lyons, the demise of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal and bishop of Albano, confessor and doctor of the Order of Minorites, most celebrated for his learning and holiness of life. — At Rome, St. Justus, soldier under the tribune Claudius. A miraculous cross appearing to him, he believed in Christ, was baptized, and bestowed his goods on the poor. Arrested afterwards by the prefect Magnetius, he was scourged, had a heated helmet put on his head, and was thrown into the fire, but without injury even to a hair of his head, Finally, he yielded up his soul in the confession of the Lord. — At Sinope, in Pontus, the martyrs St. Phocas, bishop of that city. Under the emperor Trajan, after having been imprisoned, bound, struck with the sword and exposed to the fire for Christ, he took his flight to heaven. His remains were brought to Vienne, in France, and deposited in the church of the holy apostles. — At Alexandria, St. Heraclas, bishop, whose fame was so great that the historian Africanus repaired to Alexandria to see him, as he himself testifies. — At Carthage, St. Cyrus, bishop, on whose festival St. Augustine spoke of him to his people. — At Como, St. Felix, first bishop of that city. — At Brescia, St. Optatian, bishop. — At Daventry, in Belgium, St. Marcellin, priest and confessor. — At Rome, St. Camillus de Lellis, confessor, founder of the Clerks Regular who minister to the sick. Renowned for virtues and miracles, he was numbered among the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Bonaventure\nBishop, confessor, Doctor, and contemplative theologian.\nSt. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, was a Franciscan theologian, Minister General of his Order, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church at the Council of Lyons.\nHis learning was joined to humility, prayer, and love for Christ crucified. Sacred doctrine in him did not inflate the mind; it became wisdom, contemplation, and service to the Church.\nRead and reason beneath the gaze of God. St. Bonaventure teaches that doctrine should warm the heart, not merely sharpen the tongue.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nThe Seraphic Doctor and the wisdom of holy love.\nMatins - St. Bonaventure\n- The Breviary honors St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor: Franciscan theologian, Minister General, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church.\n- His learning was joined to humility and prayer, teaching that sacred study must ascend toward God, not become a display of cleverness detached from charity.\nStudy the faith on your knees. Knowledge that does not make the soul more humble, obedient, and loving has not yet become wisdom.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for St. Bonaventure 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 Seraphic Doctor and the wisdom of holy love.. Its first point is this: The Breviary honors St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor: Franciscan theologian, Minister General, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church. Its next point develops the lesson: His learning was joined to humility and prayer, teaching that sacred study must ascend toward God, not become a display of cleverness detached from charity.\nThe practical instruction is: Study the faith on your knees. Knowledge that does not make the soul more humble, obedient, and loving has not yet become wisdom. 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 Seraphic Doctor whose learning burned with godliness.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor\nRoman Breviary\n\"The depth of his learning and the earnestness of his godliness affect the reader and teach him at the same time.\"\n- The Breviary presents St. Bonaventure as the Franciscan child vowed by his mother to Blessed Francis, later formed in learning under Alexander of Hales.\n- His public teaching at Paris, commentary on the Sentences, and governance as Minister General joined doctrine to holiness rather than ambition.\n- The office remembers his creation as Cardinal Bishop of Albano, the reverence of St. Thomas Aquinas for his sanctity, his death at the Council of Lyons, and the miracles that followed.\nLet study become prayerful and obedient. St. Bonaventure teaches that doctrine should illumine the mind, warm the heart, and serve the Church without vanity.\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 Contemplative wisdom, 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. Let praise become imitation. Honor Mary's humility by refusing the contrary movement of pride when it first appears.\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 contemplative wisdom 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 fidelity separates you from the world's approval, remember that Heaven's judgment is the one that endures. Let your acts visibly reflect Mary's purity, obedience, recollection, and courageous faith.\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: Study Catholic truth slowly, then turn what you learn into prayer and humble obedience.\nCarry this word: Knowledge becomes wisdom when it makes the soul humbler and more loving before God.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"As long as we live in this world we may not be fully without temptation.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 13, p. 21\nThe presence of temptation does not itself prove that you have consented or that prayer has failed. The Christian remains in warfare. Temptation humbles presumption, reveals the need for grace, and gives the will an occasion to prefer God in deed rather than merely in desire.\n\nDo not converse needlessly with the temptation. Call upon Jesus and Mary, leave the occasion when you can, turn the imagination toward something lawful, and perform the nearest duty. If you fall, repent promptly; do not let wounded pride delay your return to mercy.\nToday's Practice: Prepare a firm response for today's habitual temptation: an aspiration, departure from the occasion, and prompt return to duty.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether your Marian words produced Marian conduct, and entrust the distance between them to her maternal correction.\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 God, through St. Bonaventure, purify my study from vanity and let every truth I learn draw me nearer to Thee.\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=2027-07-14&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-07-14&entered=1\nBrowse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1","html":"\n\n \n \n \n City of God in Exile: St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor - 2027-07-14\n \n \n
\n St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. 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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St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor

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2027-07-14 - Time after Pentecost - Double - white

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

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Cardinal
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a senior cleric of the Roman Church who advises the pope and, under the Church's law, ordinarily helps elect a successor.
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Confessor
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in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.
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Doctor of the Church
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a saint formally recognized for teaching the Catholic Faith with exceptional depth and lasting value.
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Today in the Roman Year

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St. Bonaventure joined theology, Franciscan poverty, prayer, humility, and service to the Church. He teaches that sacred study has not reached its end when the mind can argue; doctrine must lead the soul toward contemplation, obedience, charity, and love for Christ crucified.

Join the praise of Heaven and earth, but ask that your praise of Mary become obedience to her Son.

Offer the first Hail Mary slowly, praising God's work in Our Lady and asking to live beneath her standard.

“Every day, from one end of the earth to the other, in the highest heights of the heavens and in the profoundest depths of the abysses, everything preaches, everything publishes, the admirable Mary!”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 8

St. Louis de Montfort allows the soul to hear a vast chorus of praise, but he does not invite it to remain among beautiful words. Heaven praises Our Lady because God has crowned His own work in her. The devils acknowledge her unwillingly because they cannot erase the victory of the Woman whom God has set against the serpent.

Your praise must therefore take sides. To honor Mary is to reject the spirit that contradicts her: pride instead of humility, impurity instead of her spotless heart, revolt instead of her fiat, and doctrinal compromise instead of her unwavering faith. Let every praise of her today become a refusal of sin.

Study Catholic truth slowly, then turn what you learn into prayer and humble obedience.

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Quote of the Day

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“And you shall know the truth: and the truth shall make you free.”
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Holy Scripture, John 8:32, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - July 14

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At Lyons, the demise of St. Bonaventure, Cardinal and bishop of Albano, confessor and doctor of the Order of Minorites, most celebrated for his learning and holiness of life. — At Rome, St. Justus, soldier under the tribune Claudius. A miraculous cross appearing to him, he believed in Christ, was baptized, and bestowed his goods on the poor. Arrested afterwards by the prefect Magnetius, he was scourged, had a heated helmet put on his head, and was thrown into the fire, but without injury even to a hair of his head, Finally, he yielded up his soul in the confession of the Lord. — At Sinope, in Pontus, the martyrs St. Phocas, bishop of that city. Under the emperor Trajan, after having been imprisoned, bound, struck with the sword and exposed to the fire for Christ, he took his flight to heaven. His remains were brought to Vienne, in France, and deposited in the church of the holy apostles. — At Alexandria, St. Heraclas, bishop, whose fame was so great that the historian Africanus repaired to Alexandria to see him, as he himself testifies. — At Carthage, St. Cyrus, bishop, on whose festival St. Augustine spoke of him to his people. — At Como, St. Felix, first bishop of that city. — At Brescia, St. Optatian, bishop. — At Daventry, in Belgium, St. Marcellin, priest and confessor. — At Rome, St. Camillus de Lellis, confessor, founder of the Clerks Regular who minister to the sick. Renowned for virtues and miracles, he was numbered among the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Bonaventure

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Bishop, confessor, Doctor, and contemplative theologian.

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St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, was a Franciscan theologian, Minister General of his Order, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church at the Council of Lyons.

His learning was joined to humility, prayer, and love for Christ crucified. Sacred doctrine in him did not inflate the mind; it became wisdom, contemplation, and service to the Church.

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Read and reason beneath the gaze of God. St. Bonaventure teaches that doctrine should warm the heart, not merely sharpen the tongue.

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Breviary Witness

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The Seraphic Doctor and the wisdom of holy love.

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Matins - St. Bonaventure

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  • The Breviary honors St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor: Franciscan theologian, Minister General, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church.
  • His learning was joined to humility and prayer, teaching that sacred study must ascend toward God, not become a display of cleverness detached from charity.
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Study the faith on your knees. Knowledge that does not make the soul more humble, obedient, and loving has not yet become wisdom.

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Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for St. Bonaventure 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 Seraphic Doctor and the wisdom of holy love.. Its first point is this: The Breviary honors St. Bonaventure as the Seraphic Doctor: Franciscan theologian, Minister General, cardinal bishop, and servant of the Church. Its next point develops the lesson: His learning was joined to humility and prayer, teaching that sacred study must ascend toward God, not become a display of cleverness detached from charity.

The practical instruction is: Study the faith on your knees. Knowledge that does not make the soul more humble, obedient, and loving has not yet become wisdom. 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 Seraphic Doctor whose learning burned with godliness.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Bonaventure, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Bonaventure

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“The depth of his learning and the earnestness of his godliness affect the reader and teach him at the same time.”
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  • The Breviary presents St. Bonaventure as the Franciscan child vowed by his mother to Blessed Francis, later formed in learning under Alexander of Hales.
  • His public teaching at Paris, commentary on the Sentences, and governance as Minister General joined doctrine to holiness rather than ambition.
  • The office remembers his creation as Cardinal Bishop of Albano, the reverence of St. Thomas Aquinas for his sanctity, his death at the Council of Lyons, and the miracles that followed.
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Let study become prayerful and obedient. St. Bonaventure teaches that doctrine should illumine the mind, warm the heart, and serve the Church without vanity.

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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 Contemplative wisdom, 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. Let praise become imitation. Honor Mary's humility by refusing the contrary movement of pride when it first appears.

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 contemplative wisdom 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 fidelity separates you from the world's approval, remember that Heaven's judgment is the one that endures. Let your acts visibly reflect Mary's purity, obedience, recollection, and courageous faith.

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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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Study Catholic truth slowly, then turn what you learn into prayer and humble obedience.

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Knowledge becomes wisdom when it makes the soul humbler and more loving before God.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“As long as we live in this world we may not be fully without temptation.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 13, p. 21

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The presence of temptation does not itself prove that you have consented or that prayer has failed. The Christian remains in warfare. Temptation humbles presumption, reveals the need for grace, and gives the will an occasion to prefer God in deed rather than merely in desire.

Do not converse needlessly with the temptation. Call upon Jesus and Mary, leave the occasion when you can, turn the imagination toward something lawful, and perform the nearest duty. If you fall, repent promptly; do not let wounded pride delay your return to mercy.

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Today's Practice

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Prepare a firm response for today's habitual temptation: an aspiration, departure from the occasion, and prompt return to duty.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether your Marian words produced Marian conduct, and entrust the distance between them to her maternal correction.

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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 God, through St. Bonaventure, purify my study from vanity and let every truth I learn draw me nearer to Thee.

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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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