{"ok":true,"date":"2028-05-17","dateKey":"05-17","liturgicalDay":"St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee […] then shalt thou understand the fear of our Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. Because our Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth prudence and knowledge.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Proverbs 2:1, 5–6, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#treasure-the-words-of-god","category":"Wisdom and Holy Fear"},"season":"Eastertide","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor - 2028-05-17","previewText":"St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor. Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided. Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Pascal Baylon, Confessor\n2028-05-17 - Eastertide - Double - white\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.\nMortification: the deliberate restraint of a desire or comfort so that disordered habits weaken and love of God becomes freer.\nIlluminative way: the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nChrist is risen, has ascended in His glorified humanity, and reigns in Heaven. The Church and her members still suffer on earth, but their trials do not overturn His victory. Christian hope is therefore more than an encouraging feeling: it trusts Christ's promise of resurrection and eternal life and gives the faithful a reason to persevere in obedience today. 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\nAsk what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee […] then shalt thou understand the fear of our Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. Because our Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth prudence and knowledge.\"\nHoly Scripture, Proverbs 2:1, 5–6, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - May 17\nAt Villareal, in the kingdom of Valencia, St. Pascal, of the Order of Minorites, a man remarkable for innocence of life and the spirit of penance. Pope Leo XIII. declared him heavenly patron of Eucharistic Congresses and Societies formed in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament. — At Pisa, in Tuscany, the holy martyr Torpes, who filled a high office in the court of Nero, and was one of those of whom the apostle St. Paul wrote from Rome to the Philippians: \"All the saints salute you, especially those that are of the house of Caesar.\" For the faith of Christ, he was, by order of Satellicus, buffeted, cruelly scourged and delivered to the beasts to be devoured, but being uninjured, he at last terminated his martyrdom by decapitation on the 29th of April. His feast, however, is kept on this day, on account of the translation of his body. — The same day, St. Eestituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus, in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and tow, to be burnt to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who had kindled it, and the saint yielded her spirit to God in prayer. Her body was, by divine providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia, near Naples, where it was received by the Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honor in that city by Constantine the Great. — At Noyon, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two others. — At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochanus and his companions, soldiers under the emperor Maximian. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrio, Victor and Basilla. — At Wurzburg, St. Bruno, bishop and confessor.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Pascal Baylon\nConfessor of Eucharistic love and humble service.\nSt. Pascal Baylon is honored as a confessor whose life was marked by humility, poverty, prayer, and special devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament.\nHis feast teaches that Eucharistic love is not vague warmth. It becomes reverence, recollection, purity, service, and a heart that knows how to adore.\nAsk St. Pascal for a heart that knows how to adore. Reverence begins when the soul remembers Who is before it.\nFROM MATINS\nThe lowly lay brother consumed with love of the Holy Eucharist.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor\nRoman Breviary\n\"He held the lowly place of a lay brother.\"\n- The Breviary remembers St. Pascal as the son of poor and devout parents, formed in prayer, Marian devotion, mortification, and the strict Franciscan observance.\n- He accepted the hardest and lowest household work as his proper right, becoming a model even to his elders through humility and patience.\n- His intense love for the Body and Blood of Christ made Eucharistic worship the center of a hidden life that sought the mind of Jesus rather than office or recognition.\nAsk St. Pascal for Eucharistic humility. Choose the low place, do necessary work patiently, discipline the flesh, and let adoration form the mind of Christ in ordinary duty.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nTruth and Charity Cannot Be Divided\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Charity loves the real good of the soul, and therefore cannot ask truth to be hidden, softened into falsehood, or traded for comfort. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. The saints defended truth sharply when souls were endangered, yet their severity was ordered to salvation, not pride.\nThe grace to be practiced is Eucharistic reverence and humility, 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 counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger. 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 eucharistic reverence and humility 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 holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Bernard of Clairvaux.\nYour resolution before God: Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\nCarry this word: The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"By resisting of passions, then, is gotten the very true peace of heart, and not by following them.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 6, p. 15\nPeace is not surrender to every feeling. It is order beneath God, won by grace when appetite is made to obey truth and duty.\n\nA passion grows louder when it expects immediate obedience. Do not be alarmed merely because anger, fear, discouragement, or desire speaks forcefully. Place a little silence between the movement and your consent, call upon Jesus and Mary, and choose what remains right.\nToday's Practice: Delay impulsive responses and choose the calmer acts required by truth and duty.\nDAILY EXAMEN\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, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.\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\nSpeaking the Truth in Charity: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/ephesians-4-15-speaking-the-truth-in-charity-doctrinal-clarity-and-pastoral-mercy?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-05-17&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-05-17&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. Pascal Baylon, Confessor - 2028-05-17\n \n \n
\n St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor. Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided. Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor

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2028-05-17 - Eastertide - 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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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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Mortification
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the deliberate restraint of a desire or comfort so that disordered habits weaken and love of God becomes freer.
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Illuminative way
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the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.
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Today in the Roman Year

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

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.

Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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Quote of the Day

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“My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee […] then shalt thou understand the fear of our Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. Because our Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth prudence and knowledge.”
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Holy Scripture, Proverbs 2:1, 5–6, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - May 17

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At Villareal, in the kingdom of Valencia, St. Pascal, of the Order of Minorites, a man remarkable for innocence of life and the spirit of penance. Pope Leo XIII. declared him heavenly patron of Eucharistic Congresses and Societies formed in honor of the Most Blessed Sacrament. — At Pisa, in Tuscany, the holy martyr Torpes, who filled a high office in the court of Nero, and was one of those of whom the apostle St. Paul wrote from Rome to the Philippians: "All the saints salute you, especially those that are of the house of Caesar." For the faith of Christ, he was, by order of Satellicus, buffeted, cruelly scourged and delivered to the beasts to be devoured, but being uninjured, he at last terminated his martyrdom by decapitation on the 29th of April. His feast, however, is kept on this day, on account of the translation of his body. — The same day, St. Eestituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus, in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and tow, to be burnt to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who had kindled it, and the saint yielded her spirit to God in prayer. Her body was, by divine providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia, near Naples, where it was received by the Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honor in that city by Constantine the Great. — At Noyon, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two others. — At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochanus and his companions, soldiers under the emperor Maximian. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrio, Victor and Basilla. — At Wurzburg, St. Bruno, bishop and confessor.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Pascal Baylon

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Confessor of Eucharistic love and humble service.

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St. Pascal Baylon is honored as a confessor whose life was marked by humility, poverty, prayer, and special devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament.

His feast teaches that Eucharistic love is not vague warmth. It becomes reverence, recollection, purity, service, and a heart that knows how to adore.

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Ask St. Pascal for a heart that knows how to adore. Reverence begins when the soul remembers Who is before it.

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From Matins

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The lowly lay brother consumed with love of the Holy Eucharist.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Pascal Baylon, Confessor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Pascal Baylon

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“He held the lowly place of a lay brother.”
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  • The Breviary remembers St. Pascal as the son of poor and devout parents, formed in prayer, Marian devotion, mortification, and the strict Franciscan observance.
  • He accepted the hardest and lowest household work as his proper right, becoming a model even to his elders through humility and patience.
  • His intense love for the Body and Blood of Christ made Eucharistic worship the center of a hidden life that sought the mind of Jesus rather than office or recognition.
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Ask St. Pascal for Eucharistic humility. Choose the low place, do necessary work patiently, discipline the flesh, and let adoration form the mind of Christ in ordinary duty.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided

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The Church places this truth before you today: Charity loves the real good of the soul, and therefore cannot ask truth to be hidden, softened into falsehood, or traded for comfort. Do not hurry past it as though doctrine belonged only to books and controversies. A revealed truth is also a light by which the soul must judge its loyalties, its fears, its habits, and the duties immediately before it. The saints defended truth sharply when souls were endangered, yet their severity was ordered to salvation, not pride.

The grace to be practiced is Eucharistic reverence and humility, 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 counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger. 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 eucharistic reverence and humility 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 holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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

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

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

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Today's Practice

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

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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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, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.

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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 Speaking the Truth in Charity\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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