{"ok":true,"date":"2028-02-01","dateKey":"02-01","liturgicalDay":"St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr","rank":"Double","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"But Mary kept all these words, conferring them in her heart.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Luke 2:19, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#pondering-with-our-lady","category":"Under Our Lady's Rule"},"season":"Time after Epiphany","novenas":[{"title":"Novena to Our Lady of Good Success","feast":"Our Lady of Good Success","day":9,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2028-01-24","feastIsoDate":"2028-02-02","intention":"Ask Our Lady for fidelity in crisis, protection against corruption of faith and morals, and hope beneath the trials of the Church.","prayer":null,"practice":"Pray for Catholic homes, mothers, children, vocations, and souls confused by the errors of the age.","sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr - 2028-02-01","previewText":"St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr. 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. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr\n2028-02-01 - Time after Epiphany - Double - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nEucharist: the sacrament in which, after the consecration at Mass, Jesus Christ is truly present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—under the appearances of bread and wine.\nEcclesiastical or ecclesial: belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.\nFeria: a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe mystery of the coming of Christ teaches the pilgrim to wait without surrender, to recognize divine humility, and to adore the King where He truly appears. Sacred time trains hope, but hope must remain disciplined by doctrine and worship. Ask for the childlike faith that receives Catholic truth humbly while remaining ready to learn its foundations in Scripture and Tradition. Ask for a docile mind that loves Catholic truth, learns it faithfully, and never uses complexity to evade obedience.\n\n\"But as I speak particularly to the poor and simple, who being of good-will, and having more faith than the common run of scholars, believe more simply and so more meritoriously, I content myself with putting out the truth quite simply, without stopping to quote the original passages, which they would not understand.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 26\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort is not praising ignorance, credulity, or contempt for sacred learning. In this very paragraph he explains that his teaching can be confirmed from Holy Scripture and the Fathers. He adapts the manner of instruction so that souls of good will may receive substantial truth without an academic obstacle.\n\nSimplicity of faith is the opposite of self-sufficient cleverness, but it must never become indifference to doctrine. Receive what the Church teaches, seek sound reasons according to your capacity and duties, refuse novelty and private invention, and submit every conclusion to the revealed Faith handed down by the Church.\n\nPRACTICE\nRead the day's observance slowly, then ask what virtue it requires of you.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"But Mary kept all these words, conferring them in her heart.\"\nHoly Scripture, Luke 2:19, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena to Our Lady of Good Success - Day 9 of 9\nPreparing for Our Lady of Good Success on 2028-02-02.\nAsk Our Lady for fidelity in crisis, protection against corruption of faith and morals, and hope beneath the trials of the Church.\n\nPray for Catholic homes, mothers, children, vocations, and souls confused by the errors of the age.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - February 1\nThe birthday of St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr, who governed the church of Antioch, the third after the apostle St. Peter. Being condemned to the beasts in the persecution of Trajan, he was by that emperor sent to Rome in chains, where in the presence of the Senate he was subjected to the most frightful torments, and delivered to the lions, which lacerated him with their teeth, and made of him a sacrifice to Christ. — At Smyrna, St. Pionius, priest and martyr. After writing in defense of the Catholic faith, after suffering imprisonment in a loathsome dungeon, where by his exhortations he encouraged even to martyrdom many of his brethren, after enduring excruciating pains from being pierced with nails and laid on a hot fire, he ended his life happily for Christ. With him suffered fifteen others. — At Ravenna, the holy bishop Severus, whose great virtues deserved that he should be raised to the episcopate by the sign of a dove. — At Trois-Chateaux, in France, St. Paul, bishop, whose life was eminent for virtues, and whose death was made precious by miracles. — The same day, St. Ephrem, deacon of the church of Edessa, in the time of the emperor Valens. After suffering many trials for the faith of Christ and gaining great renown for holiness and learning, he went to rest in the Lord. — In Ireland, St. Bridget, virgin. One day, at her touch, the wood of an altar immediately sprouted into life, in testimony of her virginity. — At Castel-Florentino, in Tuscany, the blessed virgin Verdiana, a recluse of the Order of Vallumbrosa.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Ignatius of Antioch\nApostolic bishop and martyr of unity around the true altar.\nSt. Ignatius of Antioch was a bishop from the apostolic age, led in chains to Rome and crowned with martyrdom for Christ.\nOn the road to death he taught the faithful to remain with the true bishop, the true Eucharist, and the visible Church. For him, unity was not vague kindness. It meant belonging to Christ in the Church He founded, around the altar where the true faith is confessed.\nAsk St. Ignatius for a Catholic sense of the altar. A soul is not safe because a place feels reverent; it is safe only where the true faith, true worship, and true authority belong together.\nFROM MATINS\nThe bishop who became Christ's wheat on the road to Rome.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr\nSt. Jerome, Priest\n\"I am Christ's wheat, and so let the beasts' teeth be my mill.\"\n- St. Jerome remembers St. Ignatius as the third bishop of Antioch after St. Peter, condemned under Trajan and carried toward Rome in chains.\n- His journey became an apostolic visitation by letter: he taught churches, guarded the mystery of Christ, and commended Antioch to St. Polycarp while soldiers treated him with increasing cruelty.\n- St. Ignatius of Antioch desired neither suffering for its own sake nor self-destruction, but complete discipleship: to lose temporal life rather than lose Christ and to become bread through martyr fidelity.\nAsk St. Ignatius for visible Catholic unity and fearless love of Christ. Chains need not silence a bishop when doctrine, letters, altar, and martyr witness remain joined.\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 Apostolic unity joined to martyr courage, 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 teachability by receiving sound correction, studying what your duties require, and refusing both intellectual pride and careless credulity.\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 apostolic unity joined to martyr courage 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 labor of learning, the humility of admitting ignorance, and the duty of abandoning opinions contrary to the Faith. Read, speak, and judge according to sound Catholic sources, explaining truth plainly without weakening or disguising it.\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: Read the day's observance slowly, then ask what virtue it requires of you.\nCarry this word: The Church's memory teaches the soul how to live in time.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"A meek knowing of ourself is a surer way to God than is the searching for highness of cunning.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 3, p. 12\nLearning serves holiness only when it makes the soul humbler before God. Receive truth as a disciple of Christ, not as material for self-display.\n\nDo not measure profit by how much you can repeat. Ask whether what you have learned has made prayer more reverent, judgment more Catholic, speech more restrained, and duty more exact. Knowledge that never kneels easily becomes another possession of pride.\nToday's Practice: Keep good insights hidden when charity does not require speech, and turn them into prayer and amendment.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nExamine whether pride rejected simple truth or laziness refused the study needed to understand and defend it.\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 the faithful in the Church's holy memory, and let this day's feast, feria, or witness draw my soul 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\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=2028-02-01&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-02-01&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. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr - 2028-02-01\n \n \n
\n St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr. 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. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

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2028-02-01 - Time after Epiphany - 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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Eucharist
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the sacrament in which, after the consecration at Mass, Jesus Christ is truly present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—under the appearances of bread and wine.
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Ecclesiastical or ecclesial
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belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.
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Feria
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a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.
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Today in the Roman Year

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The mystery of the coming of Christ teaches the pilgrim to wait without surrender, to recognize divine humility, and to adore the King where He truly appears. Sacred time trains hope, but hope must remain disciplined by doctrine and worship.

Ask for the childlike faith that receives Catholic truth humbly while remaining ready to learn its foundations in Scripture and Tradition.

Ask for a docile mind that loves Catholic truth, learns it faithfully, and never uses complexity to evade obedience.

“But as I speak particularly to the poor and simple, who being of good-will, and having more faith than the common run of scholars, believe more simply and so more meritoriously, I content myself with putting out the truth quite simply, without stopping to quote the original passages, which they would not understand.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 26

St. Louis de Montfort is not praising ignorance, credulity, or contempt for sacred learning. In this very paragraph he explains that his teaching can be confirmed from Holy Scripture and the Fathers. He adapts the manner of instruction so that souls of good will may receive substantial truth without an academic obstacle.

Simplicity of faith is the opposite of self-sufficient cleverness, but it must never become indifference to doctrine. Receive what the Church teaches, seek sound reasons according to your capacity and duties, refuse novelty and private invention, and submit every conclusion to the revealed Faith handed down by the Church.

Read the day's observance slowly, then ask what virtue it requires of you.

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Quote of the Day

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“But Mary kept all these words, conferring them in her heart.”
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Holy Scripture, Luke 2:19, Original Douay-Rheims

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Novena in Progress

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Novena to Our Lady of Good Success - Day 9 of 9

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Preparing for Our Lady of Good Success on 2028-02-02.

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Ask Our Lady for fidelity in crisis, protection against corruption of faith and morals, and hope beneath the trials of the Church.

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Pray for Catholic homes, mothers, children, vocations, and souls confused by the errors of the age.

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Roman Martyrology - February 1

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The birthday of St. Ignatius, bishop and martyr, who governed the church of Antioch, the third after the apostle St. Peter. Being condemned to the beasts in the persecution of Trajan, he was by that emperor sent to Rome in chains, where in the presence of the Senate he was subjected to the most frightful torments, and delivered to the lions, which lacerated him with their teeth, and made of him a sacrifice to Christ. — At Smyrna, St. Pionius, priest and martyr. After writing in defense of the Catholic faith, after suffering imprisonment in a loathsome dungeon, where by his exhortations he encouraged even to martyrdom many of his brethren, after enduring excruciating pains from being pierced with nails and laid on a hot fire, he ended his life happily for Christ. With him suffered fifteen others. — At Ravenna, the holy bishop Severus, whose great virtues deserved that he should be raised to the episcopate by the sign of a dove. — At Trois-Chateaux, in France, St. Paul, bishop, whose life was eminent for virtues, and whose death was made precious by miracles. — The same day, St. Ephrem, deacon of the church of Edessa, in the time of the emperor Valens. After suffering many trials for the faith of Christ and gaining great renown for holiness and learning, he went to rest in the Lord. — In Ireland, St. Bridget, virgin. One day, at her touch, the wood of an altar immediately sprouted into life, in testimony of her virginity. — At Castel-Florentino, in Tuscany, the blessed virgin Verdiana, a recluse of the Order of Vallumbrosa.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Ignatius of Antioch

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Apostolic bishop and martyr of unity around the true altar.

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St. Ignatius of Antioch was a bishop from the apostolic age, led in chains to Rome and crowned with martyrdom for Christ.

On the road to death he taught the faithful to remain with the true bishop, the true Eucharist, and the visible Church. For him, unity was not vague kindness. It meant belonging to Christ in the Church He founded, around the altar where the true faith is confessed.

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Ask St. Ignatius for a Catholic sense of the altar. A soul is not safe because a place feels reverent; it is safe only where the true faith, true worship, and true authority belong together.

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From Matins

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The bishop who became Christ's wheat on the road to Rome.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

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St. Jerome, Priest, On Ecclesiastical Writers

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“I am Christ's wheat, and so let the beasts' teeth be my mill.”
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  • St. Jerome remembers St. Ignatius as the third bishop of Antioch after St. Peter, condemned under Trajan and carried toward Rome in chains.
  • His journey became an apostolic visitation by letter: he taught churches, guarded the mystery of Christ, and commended Antioch to St. Polycarp while soldiers treated him with increasing cruelty.
  • St. Ignatius of Antioch desired neither suffering for its own sake nor self-destruction, but complete discipleship: to lose temporal life rather than lose Christ and to become bread through martyr fidelity.
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Ask St. Ignatius for visible Catholic unity and fearless love of Christ. Chains need not silence a bishop when doctrine, letters, altar, and martyr witness remain joined.

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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 Apostolic unity joined to martyr courage, 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 teachability by receiving sound correction, studying what your duties require, and refusing both intellectual pride and careless credulity.

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 apostolic unity joined to martyr courage 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 labor of learning, the humility of admitting ignorance, and the duty of abandoning opinions contrary to the Faith. Read, speak, and judge according to sound Catholic sources, explaining truth plainly without weakening or disguising it.

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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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Read the day's observance slowly, then ask what virtue it requires of you.

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The Church's memory teaches the soul how to live in time.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“A meek knowing of ourself is a surer way to God than is the searching for highness of cunning.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 3, p. 12

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Learning serves holiness only when it makes the soul humbler before God. Receive truth as a disciple of Christ, not as material for self-display.

Do not measure profit by how much you can repeat. Ask whether what you have learned has made prayer more reverent, judgment more Catholic, speech more restrained, and duty more exact. Knowledge that never kneels easily becomes another possession of pride.

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Today's Practice

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Keep good insights hidden when charity does not require speech, and turn them into prayer and amendment.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Examine whether pride rejected simple truth or laziness refused the study needed to understand and defend it.

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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 the faithful in the Church's holy memory, and let this day's feast, feria, or witness draw my soul 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 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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