{"ok":true,"date":"2027-07-19","dateKey":"07-19","liturgicalDay":"St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"Luke 16:9, Douay-Rheims"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor - 2027-07-19","previewText":"St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor. Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church. Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Vincent de Paul, Confessor\n2027-07-19 - Time after Pentecost - Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nClergy or cleric: the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.\nConfessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.\nApostolic: belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nOn the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Our Lord rebukes spiritual negligence through the shrewd steward. Time, money, possessions, and influence are temporary trusts; use them deliberately for mercy and salvation before death removes them from your hands. Ask Our Lady to make Jesus Christ known in you as He ought to be known: believed, adored, obeyed, and loved. Profess faith in Jesus Christ as true God and true man, and ask His Mother to lead you into complete obedience to Him.\n\n\"Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 13\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort's grief is not that Our Lady receives too little attention as though she sought a kingdom apart from Christ. He grieves because ignorance of Mary's place accompanies an impoverished knowledge of Jesus. The Son is treated as an idea, a moral teacher, or a source of comfort rather than as the Incarnate King who came through her and demands the whole man.\n\nAsk whether you know Christ only in the truths you prefer. To know Him as He ought to be known is to receive His divinity, His Cross, His Church, His commandments, His sacraments, His judgment, and His mercy without division. Let Mary uncover every partial or comfortable image of Jesus that must give way to the Catholic whole.\n\nPRACTICE\nUse a definite amount of time, money, or influence today in a work of mercy performed for God.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 16:9, Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - July 19\nT. VINCENT DE PAUL, confessor, who slept in the Lord on the 27th of September. Leo XIII. declared him heavenly patron before the throne of God of all charitable organizations throughout the Catholic world owing in any manner their origin to him. — The same day, the birthday of St. Epaphras, whom the apostle St. Paul calls his fellow-prisoner. By the same apostle he was consecrated bishop of Colossse, where becoming renowned for his virtues, he received the palm of martyrdom for defending courageously the flock committed to his charge. His body lies at Rome in the basilica of St. Mary the Greater. — At Seville, in Spain, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Justa and Kufina. Arrested by the governor Diogenian, they were stretched on the rack and lacerated with iron claws, then imprisoned, and subjected to starvation and various tortures. Lastly Justa breathed her last in prison, and Kufina had her neck broken while confessing Christ. — At Cordova, St. Aurea, virgin, who repented of a fault she had committed, and in a second combat overcame the enemy by the shedding of her blood. — At Treves, St. Martin, bishop and martyr. — At Rome, pope St. Symmachus, who for a long time had much to bear from a faction of schismatics. At last, distinguished by holiness, he went to God. — At Verona, St. Felix, bishop. — At Scete, a mountain in Egypt, St. Arsenius, a deacon of the Koman church. In the time of Theodosius, he retired into a wilderness, where, endowed with every virtue and shedding continual tears, he yielded his soul to God. — In Cappadocia, the holy virgin Marcina, sister of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Vincent de Paul\nConfessor and father of ordered charity.\nSt. Vincent de Paul served Christ in the poor, the sick, abandoned children, prisoners, and country souls needing instruction. His charity was practical, priestly, and organized.\nHe founded works that joined mercy to doctrine, including missions for souls and stable service for the needy. His witness teaches that love of the poor is not sentiment detached from truth, but service under Christ.\nLet charity become concrete today. St. Vincent teaches that love of neighbor should take form in real works governed by Catholic truth.\nFROM MATINS\nApostolic charity ordered for the poor and the clergy.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor\nRoman Breviary\n\"There was no kind of misery which he did not strive with fatherly tenderness to relieve.\"\n- The Breviary honors St. Vincent de Paul as a French priest whose early charity toward the poor ripened into missions, clerical reform, and organized works of mercy.\n- After captivity among Mohammedan pirates, he converted his apostate owner, escaped under Our Lady's protection, served parishes, cared for galley convicts, and governed the Visitation nuns with wisdom praised by St. Francis de Sales.\n- His labors for seminaries, missions, retreats, worthy appointments, obedience to the Apostolic See, relief of captives, foundlings, the sick, the poor, and devastated provinces show charity as ordered, priestly, and doctrinally guarded.\nLet charity become stable, Catholic, and practical. St. Vincent teaches that mercy for bodies and souls must be fatherly, organized, obedient to truth, and free from self-display.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson\nVincent de Paul was a Frenchman by nation, and was born at Pouy, not far from Dax in Gascony. From a little child he showed remarkable charity towards the poor. His father removed him from keeping his cattle, in order to give him a school education, and he learnt earthly things at Dax, and theology both at Toulouse and at Saragossa. He took Priest's orders, and a degree in Divinity.\nHe was taken prisoner by Mahommedan pirates, who carried him off, and sold him for a slave in Africa. In his slavery he converted his owner, who was an apostate, back to Christ. Under the protection of the Mother of God, Vincent escaped from Barbary. He first visited the thresholds of the Apostles, and afterwards returned to France.\nHe was the saintly Rector first of the Parish of Clichi, and afterwards of that of Chatillon. He was appointed by the King, Chaplain-General for the galleys of France, and worked with extraordinary zeal for the health of the souls both of those who commanded and of the convicts who rowed. He was made Superior of the Nuns of the Visitation by St. Francis de Sales, and discharged this duty for about forty years, with a wisdom which so approved itself to the judgment of their holy Founder, that he was used to say he knew no worthier Priest than Vincent.\nFifth Lesson\nThe preaching of the Gospel to the poor, especially peasants, was the work at which he toiled unweariedly, till he was disabled by age. To this special work he bound himself and the members of the Congregation which he founded under the missionary Congregation of Secular Priests, by a perpetual vow approved by the Holy See.\nHow great were his labours for bettering the discipline of the clergy, is attested by the building of Seminaries for the final education of young clerks, the number of meetings of Priests to discuss holy things, and the religious exercises preparatory to Ordination, for which, as well as for godly retreats by laymen, he wished that the houses belonging to his Institute should be always freely open.\nTo spread wider the growth of faith and godliness, he sent his Gospel labourers not only into the several provinces of France, but also into Italy, Poland, Scotland, and Ireland, and also to Barbary and India. He assisted Lewis XIII. on his death-bed, and the Queen Anne of Austria, mother of Lewis XIV., put him upon the young King's Council of Conscience during the Regency, in which position it was his unceasing effort that none but the most worthy should be named to churches and monasteries, that civil contests, duels, and creeping false doctrines, from which himself shrank as soon as he met them, should be put down, and that all men should yield the obedience which was due to the decisions of the Apostolic See.\nSixth Lesson\nThere was no kind of misery which he did not strive with fatherly tenderness to relieve. Christians groaning in Mahommedan slavery, foundlings, deformed children, young maidens exposed to danger, houseless nuns, fallen women, convicts sent to the galleys, sick foreigners, disabled workmen, lunatics, and beggars without number, all these he relieved, and devoutly housed in divers charitable institutions which remain to this day.\nWhen Lorraine, Champagne, Picardy, and other districts were desolated by plague, famine, and war, he made immense efforts for their relief. He founded many charitable societies, to find out and succour the unfortunate. Among these are remarkable that of Matrons, and that of \"Sisters of Charity\" which hath been so widely spread. By those \"of the Cross,\" \"of Providence,\" and \"of St Guinevere\" he aimed at bringing up young girls as school-mistresses.\nAmid all these and other most anxious business-matters, he remained always looking simply to God, kind to all, true to himself, plain, upright, and lowly. From all honours, riches, and pleasures, he ever shrank, and was heard to say, that nothing gave him any pleasure, except in Christ JESUS, Whom it was his wish in all things to follow.\nWith a body worn out with hardships, work, and old age, he gently fell asleep in the house of St Lazarus at Paris, the chief house of the Congregation of the Missions, upon the 27th day of September, in the year of salvation 1660, and of his own age the 85th. He was famous on account of his life, his works, and his miracles, and Clement XII. inscribed his name among those of the saints, appointing for his Feast-day the 19th day of the month of July.\nFinally, at the earnest prayer of many prelates, Leo XIII. proclaimed and established this hero of charity, illustrious for his services to all classes of men, as the patron before God in heaven of all charitable societies throughout the whole Catholic world which derive their origin in any way from his institution.\nSeventh Lesson, St. Gregory on Luke 10\nDearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Saviour doth sometimes admonish us by words, and sometimes by works. Yea, His very works do themselves teach us: for that which He doth silently His example still moveth us to copy.\nBehold how He sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two: since there are two commandments to love, that is, a commandment to love God, and a commandment to love our neighbour: and where there are not two, the one, being alone, hath not whereon to do the Lord's commandment. And no man can properly be said to love himself: for love tendeth outward toward our neighbour, if it be the love whereto the Gospel doth oblige us.\nEighth Lesson\nBehold, the Lord sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two: and thus doing, He doth silently teach us that whosoever loveth not his neighbour, such an one it behoveth not to take upon him the office of a preacher.\nWell also is it said that He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Himself would come. The Lord followeth His preachers: first cometh preaching, and then the Lord Himself cometh to the house of our mind, whither the word of exhortation hath come before: and so cometh the truth into our mind.\nNinth Lesson\nTherefore to preachers saith Isaiah: \"Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight an highway for our God.\" And again the Psalmist saith: \"Spread a path before Him That rideth upon the West.\"\nThe Lord rideth upon the West; above that from which in death He veiled His glory hath He royally exalted that glory that excelleth, even the glory of His rising again. He rideth upon the West, Who, being risen again from the dead, is throned high above the death to which He bowed.\nBefore Him, therefore, That rideth upon the West, we spread a path, when we set forth His glory before the eyes of your mind, to the end that He Himself may come after, and Himself enlighten the same your minds by His presence and His love.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nRevelation Was Entrusted to the Church\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are received within the Church, whose divinely assisted teaching office guards the deposit of faith. 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. Private reading must remain subject to the faith once delivered, because the Scriptures belong to the Church that received, preserved, and interprets them.\nThe grace to be practiced is Ordered charity, 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 integrity of faith: receive Christ whole rather than selecting only what consoles or agrees with the age.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received 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 ordered charity 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. Accept the cost of belonging to the real Christ when the world offers a gentler counterfeit. Obey Christ's commandments today, beginning where feeling or human respect has encouraged delay.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Irenaeus.\nYour resolution before God: Use a definite amount of time, money, or influence today in a work of mercy performed for God.\nCarry this word: Temporal goods become useful when they are spent with eternity in view.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Learn now to die to the world, that thou mayest then live with Christ.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 23, p. 41\nChristian death to self is not despair but preparation for life with Christ. Refuse the command of every attachment that draws you from God's will, beginning with the strongest.\n\nThe world tells you to preserve every comfort and construct an identity from passing things. Christ teaches you to travel lightly toward eternity. You need not despise God's gifts; receive them gratefully, but practice being able to surrender them when His will, charity, or duty requires it.\nToday's Practice: Accept unnoticed sacrifices without seeking relief or recognition.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nExamine where you sought Christ's comfort while resisting His kingship, and ask pardon through the Sorrowful Mother.\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, free me from careless stewardship and teach me to use every possession for Thy glory and the good of souls.\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\nSt. Irenaeus and Apostolic Tradition: https://cityofgodinexile.com/champions-of-orthodoxy/st-irenaeus-and-apostolic-tradition-against-the-innovators?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2027-07-19&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2027-07-19&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. Vincent de Paul, Confessor - 2027-07-19\n \n \n
\n St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor. Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church. Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor

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2027-07-19 - 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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Clergy or cleric
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the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.
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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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Apostolic
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belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles.

The full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.

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Today in the Roman Year

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On the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Our Lord rebukes spiritual negligence through the shrewd steward. Time, money, possessions, and influence are temporary trusts; use them deliberately for mercy and salvation before death removes them from your hands.

Ask Our Lady to make Jesus Christ known in you as He ought to be known: believed, adored, obeyed, and loved.

Profess faith in Jesus Christ as true God and true man, and ask His Mother to lead you into complete obedience to Him.

“Jesus Christ is not known as He ought to be.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 13

St. Louis de Montfort's grief is not that Our Lady receives too little attention as though she sought a kingdom apart from Christ. He grieves because ignorance of Mary's place accompanies an impoverished knowledge of Jesus. The Son is treated as an idea, a moral teacher, or a source of comfort rather than as the Incarnate King who came through her and demands the whole man.

Ask whether you know Christ only in the truths you prefer. To know Him as He ought to be known is to receive His divinity, His Cross, His Church, His commandments, His sacraments, His judgment, and His mercy without division. Let Mary uncover every partial or comfortable image of Jesus that must give way to the Catholic whole.

Use a definite amount of time, money, or influence today in a work of mercy performed for God.

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Quote of the Day

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“Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 16:9, Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - July 19

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T. VINCENT DE PAUL, confessor, who slept in the Lord on the 27th of September. Leo XIII. declared him heavenly patron before the throne of God of all charitable organizations throughout the Catholic world owing in any manner their origin to him. — The same day, the birthday of St. Epaphras, whom the apostle St. Paul calls his fellow-prisoner. By the same apostle he was consecrated bishop of Colossse, where becoming renowned for his virtues, he received the palm of martyrdom for defending courageously the flock committed to his charge. His body lies at Rome in the basilica of St. Mary the Greater. — At Seville, in Spain, the martyrdom of the holy virgins Justa and Kufina. Arrested by the governor Diogenian, they were stretched on the rack and lacerated with iron claws, then imprisoned, and subjected to starvation and various tortures. Lastly Justa breathed her last in prison, and Kufina had her neck broken while confessing Christ. — At Cordova, St. Aurea, virgin, who repented of a fault she had committed, and in a second combat overcame the enemy by the shedding of her blood. — At Treves, St. Martin, bishop and martyr. — At Rome, pope St. Symmachus, who for a long time had much to bear from a faction of schismatics. At last, distinguished by holiness, he went to God. — At Verona, St. Felix, bishop. — At Scete, a mountain in Egypt, St. Arsenius, a deacon of the Koman church. In the time of Theodosius, he retired into a wilderness, where, endowed with every virtue and shedding continual tears, he yielded his soul to God. — In Cappadocia, the holy virgin Marcina, sister of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Vincent de Paul

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Confessor and father of ordered charity.

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St. Vincent de Paul served Christ in the poor, the sick, abandoned children, prisoners, and country souls needing instruction. His charity was practical, priestly, and organized.

He founded works that joined mercy to doctrine, including missions for souls and stable service for the needy. His witness teaches that love of the poor is not sentiment detached from truth, but service under Christ.

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Let charity become concrete today. St. Vincent teaches that love of neighbor should take form in real works governed by Catholic truth.

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From Matins

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Apostolic charity ordered for the poor and the clergy.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Vincent de Paul, Confessor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Vincent de Paul

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“There was no kind of misery which he did not strive with fatherly tenderness to relieve.”
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  • The Breviary honors St. Vincent de Paul as a French priest whose early charity toward the poor ripened into missions, clerical reform, and organized works of mercy.
  • After captivity among Mohammedan pirates, he converted his apostate owner, escaped under Our Lady's protection, served parishes, cared for galley convicts, and governed the Visitation nuns with wisdom praised by St. Francis de Sales.
  • His labors for seminaries, missions, retreats, worthy appointments, obedience to the Apostolic See, relief of captives, foundlings, the sick, the poor, and devastated provinces show charity as ordered, priestly, and doctrinally guarded.
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Let charity become stable, Catholic, and practical. St. Vincent teaches that mercy for bodies and souls must be fatherly, organized, obedient to truth, and free from self-display.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson

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Vincent de Paul was a Frenchman by nation, and was born at Pouy, not far from Dax in Gascony. From a little child he showed remarkable charity towards the poor. His father removed him from keeping his cattle, in order to give him a school education, and he learnt earthly things at Dax, and theology both at Toulouse and at Saragossa. He took Priest's orders, and a degree in Divinity.

He was taken prisoner by Mahommedan pirates, who carried him off, and sold him for a slave in Africa. In his slavery he converted his owner, who was an apostate, back to Christ. Under the protection of the Mother of God, Vincent escaped from Barbary. He first visited the thresholds of the Apostles, and afterwards returned to France.

He was the saintly Rector first of the Parish of Clichi, and afterwards of that of Chatillon. He was appointed by the King, Chaplain-General for the galleys of France, and worked with extraordinary zeal for the health of the souls both of those who commanded and of the convicts who rowed. He was made Superior of the Nuns of the Visitation by St. Francis de Sales, and discharged this duty for about forty years, with a wisdom which so approved itself to the judgment of their holy Founder, that he was used to say he knew no worthier Priest than Vincent.

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Fifth Lesson

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The preaching of the Gospel to the poor, especially peasants, was the work at which he toiled unweariedly, till he was disabled by age. To this special work he bound himself and the members of the Congregation which he founded under the missionary Congregation of Secular Priests, by a perpetual vow approved by the Holy See.

How great were his labours for bettering the discipline of the clergy, is attested by the building of Seminaries for the final education of young clerks, the number of meetings of Priests to discuss holy things, and the religious exercises preparatory to Ordination, for which, as well as for godly retreats by laymen, he wished that the houses belonging to his Institute should be always freely open.

To spread wider the growth of faith and godliness, he sent his Gospel labourers not only into the several provinces of France, but also into Italy, Poland, Scotland, and Ireland, and also to Barbary and India. He assisted Lewis XIII. on his death-bed, and the Queen Anne of Austria, mother of Lewis XIV., put him upon the young King's Council of Conscience during the Regency, in which position it was his unceasing effort that none but the most worthy should be named to churches and monasteries, that civil contests, duels, and creeping false doctrines, from which himself shrank as soon as he met them, should be put down, and that all men should yield the obedience which was due to the decisions of the Apostolic See.

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Sixth Lesson

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There was no kind of misery which he did not strive with fatherly tenderness to relieve. Christians groaning in Mahommedan slavery, foundlings, deformed children, young maidens exposed to danger, houseless nuns, fallen women, convicts sent to the galleys, sick foreigners, disabled workmen, lunatics, and beggars without number, all these he relieved, and devoutly housed in divers charitable institutions which remain to this day.

When Lorraine, Champagne, Picardy, and other districts were desolated by plague, famine, and war, he made immense efforts for their relief. He founded many charitable societies, to find out and succour the unfortunate. Among these are remarkable that of Matrons, and that of "Sisters of Charity" which hath been so widely spread. By those "of the Cross," "of Providence," and "of St Guinevere" he aimed at bringing up young girls as school-mistresses.

Amid all these and other most anxious business-matters, he remained always looking simply to God, kind to all, true to himself, plain, upright, and lowly. From all honours, riches, and pleasures, he ever shrank, and was heard to say, that nothing gave him any pleasure, except in Christ JESUS, Whom it was his wish in all things to follow.

With a body worn out with hardships, work, and old age, he gently fell asleep in the house of St Lazarus at Paris, the chief house of the Congregation of the Missions, upon the 27th day of September, in the year of salvation 1660, and of his own age the 85th. He was famous on account of his life, his works, and his miracles, and Clement XII. inscribed his name among those of the saints, appointing for his Feast-day the 19th day of the month of July.

Finally, at the earnest prayer of many prelates, Leo XIII. proclaimed and established this hero of charity, illustrious for his services to all classes of men, as the patron before God in heaven of all charitable societies throughout the whole Catholic world which derive their origin in any way from his institution.

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Seventh Lesson, St. Gregory on Luke 10

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Dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Saviour doth sometimes admonish us by words, and sometimes by works. Yea, His very works do themselves teach us: for that which He doth silently His example still moveth us to copy.

Behold how He sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two: since there are two commandments to love, that is, a commandment to love God, and a commandment to love our neighbour: and where there are not two, the one, being alone, hath not whereon to do the Lord's commandment. And no man can properly be said to love himself: for love tendeth outward toward our neighbour, if it be the love whereto the Gospel doth oblige us.

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Eighth Lesson

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Behold, the Lord sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two: and thus doing, He doth silently teach us that whosoever loveth not his neighbour, such an one it behoveth not to take upon him the office of a preacher.

Well also is it said that He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Himself would come. The Lord followeth His preachers: first cometh preaching, and then the Lord Himself cometh to the house of our mind, whither the word of exhortation hath come before: and so cometh the truth into our mind.

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Ninth Lesson

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Therefore to preachers saith Isaiah: "Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight an highway for our God." And again the Psalmist saith: "Spread a path before Him That rideth upon the West."

The Lord rideth upon the West; above that from which in death He veiled His glory hath He royally exalted that glory that excelleth, even the glory of His rising again. He rideth upon the West, Who, being risen again from the dead, is throned high above the death to which He bowed.

Before Him, therefore, That rideth upon the West, we spread a path, when we set forth His glory before the eyes of your mind, to the end that He Himself may come after, and Himself enlighten the same your minds by His presence and His love.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church

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The Church places this truth before you today: Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are received within the Church, whose divinely assisted teaching office guards the deposit of faith. 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. Private reading must remain subject to the faith once delivered, because the Scriptures belong to the Church that received, preserved, and interprets them.

The grace to be practiced is Ordered charity, 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 integrity of faith: receive Christ whole rather than selecting only what consoles or agrees with the age.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received 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 ordered charity 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. Accept the cost of belonging to the real Christ when the world offers a gentler counterfeit. Obey Christ's commandments today, beginning where feeling or human respect has encouraged delay.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Use a definite amount of time, money, or influence today in a work of mercy performed for God.

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Temporal goods become useful when they are spent with eternity in view.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Learn now to die to the world, that thou mayest then live with Christ.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 23, p. 41

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Christian death to self is not despair but preparation for life with Christ. Refuse the command of every attachment that draws you from God's will, beginning with the strongest.

The world tells you to preserve every comfort and construct an identity from passing things. Christ teaches you to travel lightly toward eternity. You need not despise God's gifts; receive them gratefully, but practice being able to surrender them when His will, charity, or duty requires it.

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Today's Practice

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Accept unnoticed sacrifices without seeking relief or recognition.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Examine where you sought Christ's comfort while resisting His kingship, and ask pardon through the Sorrowful Mother.

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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, free me from careless stewardship and teach me to use every possession for Thy glory and the good of souls.

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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 St. Irenaeus and Apostolic Tradition\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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