{"ok":true,"date":"2028-04-07","dateKey":"04-07","liturgicalDay":"Feria of Passiontide","rank":"Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Have confidence in our Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thine own prudence. In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Proverbs 3:5–6, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#confidence-in-god","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Passiontide","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Feria of Passiontide - 2028-04-07","previewText":"Feria of Passiontide. Doctrine Develops Without Becoming Another Doctrine. Resist the modernist notion that dogma may change its meaning according to the religious needs of an age.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nFeria of Passiontide\n2028-04-07 - Passiontide - Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCompunction: sorrow for sin that pierces the heart and moves a person toward repentance rather than despair.\nPassion of Christ: the sufferings and death Jesus freely accepted for our salvation, from His agony in Gethsemane through His Crucifixion.\nFeria: a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nHumiliation, opposition, and penance do not mean that God has ceased to govern. Our Lord redeemed the world through His obedient suffering on the Cross. When Catholics accept unavoidable trials without sin, perform penance, and continue obeying the truth, those sufferings can humble pride and deepen fidelity rather than lead to despair. Approach the Mother by contemplating the Divine Son whose glory explains every grace in her. Ponder the mysteries of the Rosary and ask Mary to teach you the mind and dispositions of Jesus within them.\n\n\"If you wish to comprehend the Mother … comprehend the Son; for she is the worthy Mother of God.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 12\n\nOur Lady cannot be understood as an isolated religious figure. Her dignity comes from the mystery of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, whom she conceived, bore, nourished, and followed to the Cross. Every title rightly given to Mary protects or illuminates some truth about her Divine Son and His work of redemption.\n\nLet today's Rosary become Christological contemplation. In its mysteries, look with Mary at Jesus. Notice what He does, what He suffers, what He commands, and what response He asks from you. The Mother is best honored when the soul receives the Son more faithfully.\n\nPRACTICE\nObey God's commandments, fulfill your known duties, and receive just correction today as a direct answer to the temptation to say, 'I will not serve.'\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Have confidence in our Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thine own prudence. In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.\"\nHoly Scripture, Proverbs 3:5–6, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - April 7\nIn Africa, the birthday of the holy martyrs Epiphanius, bishop, Donatus, Rufinus, and thirteen others. — At Sinope, in Pontus, two hundred holy martyrs. — In Cilicia, under the prefect Maximian, St. Calliopius, martyr. After undergoing other torments, he was fastened to a cross with his head downward, and gained the noble crown of martyrdom. — At Nicomedia, St. Cyriacus and ten other martyrs. — At Alexandria, St. Peleusius, priest and martyr. — At Rome, St. Hegesippus, who lived near the time of the Apostles. He came to Rome whilst Anicetus was Sovereign Pontiff, and remained till the accession of Eleutherius. He wrote the history of the Church in a simple style, from the Passion of our Lord to his own time, and delineated in his narrative the character of those whose lives he imitated. — At Verona, St. Saturninus, bishop and confessor. — In Syria, in the time of Yalens, St. Aphraates, an anchoret, who defended the Catholic faith against the Arians by the power of miracles.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nThe Passiontide Feria\nThe veiled days near the Passion of Our Lord.\nThe ferias of Passiontide draw the faithful nearer to the sufferings of Christ, when the Church's prayer grows more grave and the Cross comes into sharper view.\nThese days teach that the Passion is not only remembered on Good Friday. The soul is led step by step into compunction, reparation, silence, and fidelity to the rejected Messias.\nWalk more quietly now. Passiontide teaches the exile to stay near Christ when His glory is veiled and His enemies gather.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nNearer to the rejected Christ.\nMatins - Feria of Passiontide\n- The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord.\n- Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.\nDo not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for Feria of Passiontide is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.\nToday's witness is gathered under Nearer to the rejected Christ.. Its first point is this: The Passiontide ferias draw the faithful more directly toward the sufferings and rejection of Our Lord. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness teaches silence, compunction, reparation, and steadfastness before the mystery of Christ opposed by sinners.\nThe practical instruction is: Do not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.\n- What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?\n- What virtue does the Church place before me through it?\n- What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nDoctrine Develops Without Becoming Another Doctrine\nThe Church places this truth before you today: True growth in Catholic doctrine preserves the same meaning and the same judgment; it unfolds what was received, without changing the faith into a novelty. 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. Unity of faith is protected when later expression remains identical in substance with what the Church has always taught.\nThe grace to be practiced is Compunction and reparation, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Practice faith by receiving the mystery as revealed truth before seeking consolation from it.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the modernist notion that dogma may change its meaning according to the religious needs of an age. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing compunction and reparation when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.\nDo the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. When the mystery exceeds understanding, remain obedient to what God has revealed instead of making private judgment the measure of truth. Return once during work to the chosen mystery and unite the duty to an action of Our Lord within it.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is St. Vincent of Lerins.\nYour resolution before God: Obey God's commandments, fulfill your known duties, and receive just correction today as a direct answer to the temptation to say, 'I will not serve.'\nCarry this word: The root of revolt is refusal to hear God.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45\nFervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.\n\nRecall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.\nToday's Practice: Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether today's devotion left you more attentive to Christ's word, sacrifice, and commandments.\n- For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?\n- What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?\n- What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?\nPRAYER\nO Lord, keep me from Pharaoh's pride. When Moses delivered Thy command, Pharaoh asked, 'Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice?' Do not let me answer Thy known will with the same refusal.\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. Vincent of Lerins and Catholic Continuity: https://cityofgodinexile.com/champions-of-orthodoxy/st-vincent-of-lerins-and-the-rule-of-catholic-continuity?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-04-07&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-04-07&entered=1\nBrowse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1","html":"\n\n \n \n \n City of God in Exile: Feria of Passiontide - 2028-04-07\n \n \n
\n Feria of Passiontide. Doctrine Develops Without Becoming Another Doctrine. Resist the modernist notion that dogma may change its meaning according to the religious needs of an age.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Feria of Passiontide

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2028-04-07 - Passiontide - Feria - violet

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

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Compunction
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sorrow for sin that pierces the heart and moves a person toward repentance rather than despair.
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Passion of Christ
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the sufferings and death Jesus freely accepted for our salvation, from His agony in Gethsemane through His Crucifixion.
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Feria
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a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.
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Today in the Roman Year

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Humiliation, opposition, and penance do not mean that God has ceased to govern. Our Lord redeemed the world through His obedient suffering on the Cross. When Catholics accept unavoidable trials without sin, perform penance, and continue obeying the truth, those sufferings can humble pride and deepen fidelity rather than lead to despair.

Approach the Mother by contemplating the Divine Son whose glory explains every grace in her.

Ponder the mysteries of the Rosary and ask Mary to teach you the mind and dispositions of Jesus within them.

“If you wish to comprehend the Mother … comprehend the Son; for she is the worthy Mother of God.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 12

Our Lady cannot be understood as an isolated religious figure. Her dignity comes from the mystery of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, whom she conceived, bore, nourished, and followed to the Cross. Every title rightly given to Mary protects or illuminates some truth about her Divine Son and His work of redemption.

Let today's Rosary become Christological contemplation. In its mysteries, look with Mary at Jesus. Notice what He does, what He suffers, what He commands, and what response He asks from you. The Mother is best honored when the soul receives the Son more faithfully.

Obey God's commandments, fulfill your known duties, and receive just correction today as a direct answer to the temptation to say, 'I will not serve.'

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Quote of the Day

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“Have confidence in our Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thine own prudence. In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.”
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Holy Scripture, Proverbs 3:5–6, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - April 7

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In Africa, the birthday of the holy martyrs Epiphanius, bishop, Donatus, Rufinus, and thirteen others. — At Sinope, in Pontus, two hundred holy martyrs. — In Cilicia, under the prefect Maximian, St. Calliopius, martyr. After undergoing other torments, he was fastened to a cross with his head downward, and gained the noble crown of martyrdom. — At Nicomedia, St. Cyriacus and ten other martyrs. — At Alexandria, St. Peleusius, priest and martyr. — At Rome, St. Hegesippus, who lived near the time of the Apostles. He came to Rome whilst Anicetus was Sovereign Pontiff, and remained till the accession of Eleutherius. He wrote the history of the Church in a simple style, from the Passion of our Lord to his own time, and delineated in his narrative the character of those whose lives he imitated. — At Verona, St. Saturninus, bishop and confessor. — In Syria, in the time of Yalens, St. Aphraates, an anchoret, who defended the Catholic faith against the Arians by the power of miracles.

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Highlighted Saint

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The Passiontide Feria

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The veiled days near the Passion of Our Lord.

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

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

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

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Breviary Witness

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Nearer to the rejected Christ.

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Matins - Feria of Passiontide

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

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Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for Feria of Passiontide is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.

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

The practical instruction is: Do not flee the veiled days. Nearness to the Passion teaches the soul how to remain faithful when Christ is contradicted. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.

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  • What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?
  • What virtue does the Church place before me through it?
  • What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?
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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Doctrine Develops Without Becoming Another Doctrine

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The Church places this truth before you today: True growth in Catholic doctrine preserves the same meaning and the same judgment; it unfolds what was received, without changing the faith into a novelty. 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. Unity of faith is protected when later expression remains identical in substance with what the Church has always taught.

The grace to be practiced is Compunction and reparation, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Practice faith by receiving the mystery as revealed truth before seeking consolation from it.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the modernist notion that dogma may change its meaning according to the religious needs of an age. Do not study this danger only in other people. Look quietly for the door by which it seeks entrance into your own soul - perhaps through delay, curiosity, resentment, human respect, attachment to comfort, or the desire to control the outcome. Dying to self today means choosing compunction and reparation when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.

Do the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. When the mystery exceeds understanding, remain obedient to what God has revealed instead of making private judgment the measure of truth. Return once during work to the chosen mystery and unite the duty to an action of Our Lord within it.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of one; the witness placed beside it is St. Vincent of Lerins.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Obey God's commandments, fulfill your known duties, and receive just correction today as a direct answer to the temptation to say, 'I will not serve.'

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The root of revolt is refusal to hear God.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45

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Fervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.

Recall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.

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Today's Practice

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Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether today's devotion left you more attentive to Christ's word, sacrifice, and commandments.

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  • For what grace or mercy should I thank God today?
  • What sin, fault, neglected duty, or resistance to grace must I confess?
  • What definite amendment will I carry into tomorrow?
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Prayer

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O Lord, keep me from Pharaoh's pride. When Moses delivered Thy command, Pharaoh asked, 'Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice?' Do not let me answer Thy known will with the same refusal.

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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. Vincent of Lerins and Catholic Continuity\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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