{"ok":true,"date":"2028-05-31","dateKey":"05-31","liturgicalDay":"St. Angela Merici, Virgin","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds.","author":"St. Clement of Rome","source":"First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 38","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#wisdom-through-good-deeds","category":"Wisdom and Holy Fear"},"season":"Eastertide","novenas":[{"title":"Novena to the Holy Ghost","feast":"Pentecost","day":6,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2028-05-26","feastIsoDate":"2028-06-04","intention":"Ask the Holy Ghost for truth, fortitude, docility, and zeal without novelty or disorder.","prayer":null,"practice":"Pray for light to obey the truth already known and for courage to confess the Faith publicly.","sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[{"liturgicalDay":"Within the Privileged Octave of the Ascension","rank":"Privileged Octave of the Third Order","color":"white","sourceNotes":["St. Andrew Daily Missal, Division of the Ecclesiastical Year, p. ix."]}],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Angela Merici, Virgin - 2028-05-31","previewText":"St. Angela Merici, Virgin. 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. Angela Merici, Virgin\n2028-05-31 - Eastertide - Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCommemoration: a shorter liturgical remembrance of another saint or observance occurring on the same day.\nFeria: a weekday without a higher feast of its own; its prayers usually follow the current liturgical season.\nVirgin: in a saint's title, a woman honored for consecrating her chastity and whole life to Christ.\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. 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\nOCTAVE CONTEXT\nWithin the Privileged Octave of the Ascension - Privileged Octave of the Third Order\n\nPRACTICE\nRead the day's observance slowly, then ask what virtue it requires of you.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds.\"\nSt. Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 38\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena to the Holy Ghost - Day 6 of 9\nPreparing for Pentecost on 2028-06-04.\nAsk the Holy Ghost for truth, fortitude, docility, and zeal without novelty or disorder.\n\nPray for light to obey the truth already known and for courage to confess the Faith publicly.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - May 31\nAt Brescia, St. Angela Merici, virgin, foundress of - the nuns of St. Ursula. She is mentioned on the 27th of January. — At Rome, St. Petronilla, virgin, daughter of the blessed apostle Peter, who refused to marry the nobleman Flaccus. Being granted three days to deliberate, she gave herself up to fasting and prayer, and on the third day, after having received the sacrament of the body of Christ, she yielded up her soul. — At Aquileia, the holy martyrs Cantius, Cantian, and Cantianilla. For their attachment to the Christian faith, they were condemned to capital punishment with their tutor Protus, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. — At Torres, in Sardinia, St. Crescentian, martyr. — At Comana, in Pontus, in the time of the emperor Antoninus, St. Hermias, a soldier. Being miraculously delivered from many horrible torments, he converted his executioner to Christ, and made him partaker of the crown which he himself obtained first by having his head struck off with the sword. — At Verona, St. Lupicinus, bishop. — At Rome, St. Paschasius, deacon and confessor, who is mentioned by the blessed pope Gregory.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Angela Merici\nVirgin and mother of Catholic formation.\nSt. Angela Merici is honored as a virgin and foundress, remembered for forming women and girls in Christian life.\nHer feast teaches that Catholic formation is a work of motherhood in the order of grace: patient instruction, modesty, prayer, discipline, and protection of souls.\nAsk St. Angela for patient courage in formation. Souls are not protected by vague hopes; they are helped by truth, example, prayer, and steady care.\nFROM MATINS\nVirginal formation guarded by discernment, discipline, Eucharistic life, and works of mercy.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Angela Merici, Virgin, with St. Petronilla, Virgin\nRoman Breviary and Roman Martyrology\n\"She established a new society of virgins under definite discipline and holy rules of life.\"\n- The Breviary presents St. Angela Merici guarding perpetual virginity from childhood through modesty, prayer, fasting, penance, evangelical poverty, and membership in the Third Order of St. Francis.\n- Her discernment was doctrinal and spiritual: she immediately recognized and drove away the devil when he attempted deception under the appearance of an angel of light.\n- Frequent Holy Communion nourished charity expressed in alms, care of the sick, consolation of the afflicted, reconciliation of enemies, conversion of sinners, pilgrimage, and reverence for the Roman Church.\n- Obeying a heavenly command, she founded at Brescia the Company of St. Ursula under definite discipline and holy rules. The commemorated St. Petronilla likewise guarded virginity through fasting, prayer, and reception of the Body of Christ rather than consent to an unwanted marriage.\nForm girls and women for holiness through doctrine, modesty, prayer, Eucharistic life, discipline, mercy, and tested discernment. Reject deceptive spirituality even when it appears luminous, and protect consecrated fidelity from coercion and worldly pressure.\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 Maternal formation in grace, 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 maternal formation in grace 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\"Regard not much who is with thee, nor who is against thee, but be this thy greatest study, that God may be with thee.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 2, p. 55\nHuman approval is a poor compass. With Mary, seek first to be faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church, whether praise follows or not.\n\nThe desire to be supported can subtly alter judgment before you notice it. It softens a necessary word, delays a duty, or makes loneliness appear to be proof that fidelity was mistaken. Examine the act by Catholic truth and your real obligations; then leave the company or opposition of men in God's hands.\nToday's Practice: Perform right acts without checking whether anyone noticed.\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=2028-05-31&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-05-31&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. Angela Merici, Virgin - 2028-05-31\n \n \n
\n St. Angela Merici, Virgin. 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. Angela Merici, Virgin

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2028-05-31 - 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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Commemoration
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a shorter liturgical remembrance of another saint or observance occurring on the same day.
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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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Virgin
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in a saint's title, a woman honored for consecrating her chastity and whole life to Christ.
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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.

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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Octave Context

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  • Within the Privileged Octave of the Ascension - Privileged Octave of the Third Order
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Quote of the Day

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“Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by [mere] words, but through good deeds.”
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St. Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians, Chapter 38

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Novena in Progress

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Novena to the Holy Ghost - Day 6 of 9

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Preparing for Pentecost on 2028-06-04.

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Ask the Holy Ghost for truth, fortitude, docility, and zeal without novelty or disorder.

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Pray for light to obey the truth already known and for courage to confess the Faith publicly.

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Roman Martyrology - May 31

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At Brescia, St. Angela Merici, virgin, foundress of - the nuns of St. Ursula. She is mentioned on the 27th of January. — At Rome, St. Petronilla, virgin, daughter of the blessed apostle Peter, who refused to marry the nobleman Flaccus. Being granted three days to deliberate, she gave herself up to fasting and prayer, and on the third day, after having received the sacrament of the body of Christ, she yielded up her soul. — At Aquileia, the holy martyrs Cantius, Cantian, and Cantianilla. For their attachment to the Christian faith, they were condemned to capital punishment with their tutor Protus, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. — At Torres, in Sardinia, St. Crescentian, martyr. — At Comana, in Pontus, in the time of the emperor Antoninus, St. Hermias, a soldier. Being miraculously delivered from many horrible torments, he converted his executioner to Christ, and made him partaker of the crown which he himself obtained first by having his head struck off with the sword. — At Verona, St. Lupicinus, bishop. — At Rome, St. Paschasius, deacon and confessor, who is mentioned by the blessed pope Gregory.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Angela Merici

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Virgin and mother of Catholic formation.

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St. Angela Merici is honored as a virgin and foundress, remembered for forming women and girls in Christian life.

Her feast teaches that Catholic formation is a work of motherhood in the order of grace: patient instruction, modesty, prayer, discipline, and protection of souls.

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Ask St. Angela for patient courage in formation. Souls are not protected by vague hopes; they are helped by truth, example, prayer, and steady care.

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From Matins

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Virginal formation guarded by discernment, discipline, Eucharistic life, and works of mercy.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Angela Merici, Virgin, with St. Petronilla, Virgin

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Roman Breviary and Roman Martyrology, Proper lessons for St. Angela Merici and May 31 notice for St. Petronilla

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“She established a new society of virgins under definite discipline and holy rules of life.”
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  • The Breviary presents St. Angela Merici guarding perpetual virginity from childhood through modesty, prayer, fasting, penance, evangelical poverty, and membership in the Third Order of St. Francis.
  • Her discernment was doctrinal and spiritual: she immediately recognized and drove away the devil when he attempted deception under the appearance of an angel of light.
  • Frequent Holy Communion nourished charity expressed in alms, care of the sick, consolation of the afflicted, reconciliation of enemies, conversion of sinners, pilgrimage, and reverence for the Roman Church.
  • Obeying a heavenly command, she founded at Brescia the Company of St. Ursula under definite discipline and holy rules. The commemorated St. Petronilla likewise guarded virginity through fasting, prayer, and reception of the Body of Christ rather than consent to an unwanted marriage.
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Form girls and women for holiness through doctrine, modesty, prayer, Eucharistic life, discipline, mercy, and tested discernment. Reject deceptive spirituality even when it appears luminous, and protect consecrated fidelity from coercion and worldly pressure.

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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 Maternal formation in grace, 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 maternal formation in grace 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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“Regard not much who is with thee, nor who is against thee, but be this thy greatest study, that God may be with thee.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 2, p. 55

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Human approval is a poor compass. With Mary, seek first to be faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church, whether praise follows or not.

The desire to be supported can subtly alter judgment before you notice it. It softens a necessary word, delays a duty, or makes loneliness appear to be proof that fidelity was mistaken. Examine the act by Catholic truth and your real obligations; then leave the company or opposition of men in God's hands.

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Today's Practice

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Perform right acts without checking whether anyone noticed.

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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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