{"ok":true,"date":"2028-07-15","dateKey":"07-15","liturgicalDay":"St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor","rank":"Semi-Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#god-loved-us-first","category":"The Love of God"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor - 2028-07-15","previewText":"St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Henry, Emperor and Confessor\n2028-07-15 - Time after Pentecost - Semi-Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nConfessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.\nChastity: the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nSt. Henry's imperial dignity remained beneath prayer, chastity, service to the Church, and judgment before God. His feast teaches that authority is stewardship rather than possession: rank, money, household influence, and public office must serve worship, order, and souls. Ask Our Lady to form the likeness of her Son throughout His members and to make your whole life subject to Him. Offer your whole person to Jesus through Mary and ask that His mind, virtues, commandments, and Cross govern you today.\n\n\"God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself, every day by His dear Mother in His members, and He has said to her, In Israel hæreditare—‘Take Israel for your inheritance.’\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 31\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort says ‘so to speak’: he does not teach a new Incarnation or identify the Christian substantially with Christ. The eternal Son became man once in Mary's womb. He now forms His supernatural likeness by grace in the members of His Mystical Body.\n\nMary's maternal formation must therefore yield recognizable conformity to Jesus: His faith, humility, purity, obedience, charity, prayer, sacrifice, and zeal for the Father's glory. Submit every part of life to this work through Catholic doctrine, sacramental grace, daily prayer, mortification, and complete fidelity to duty.\n\nPRACTICE\nPerform acts of authority and obedience with prayer, clarity, humility, and concern for souls.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.\"\nHoly Scripture, 1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - July 15\nAt Bamberg, St. Henry 1., emperor, who kept perpetual chastity with his wife Cunegunde, and induced St. Stephen, king of Hungary, with nearly all his kingdom, to receive the faith of Christ. — At Porto, the birthday of the holy martyrs Eutropius, and the sisters Zosima and Bonosa. — At Carthage, blessed Catulinus, deacon, whose glories were proclaimed by St. Augustine in a sermon to his people, and the Saints Januarius, Florentius, Julia and Justa, martyrs, who were entombed in the church of St. Faustus. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Philip, Zeno, Narseus, and ten children. — In the island of Tenedos, St. Abudemius, a martyr, who suffered under Diocletian. — At Sebaste, St. Antiochus, a physician, who was decapitated under the governor Adrian. On seeing milk flowing from his wounds instead of blood, Cyriaeus, his executioner, was converted to Christ and endured martyrdom. — At Pavia, St. Felix, bishop and martyr. — At Msibis, the birthday of St. James, bishop of that city, a man celebrated for great holiness, miracles and erudition. He was one of those who confessed the faith during the persecution of Galerius Maximian, and afterwards, in the Council of Nicsea, condemned the perverse heresy of Arius, by opposing to it the doctrine of consubstantiality. It was also owing to his prayers, and those of bishop Alexander, that Arius received at Constantinople the condign punishment of his iniquity, the extravasation of his intestines. — At Naples, in Campania, St. Athanasius, bishop of that city, who suffered much from his wicked nephew Sergius, by whom he was driven from his see. Consumed with afflictions, he departed for heaven at Veroli, in the time of Charles the Bald. — At Palermo, the finding of the body of St. Kosalia, virgin of Palermo. Being miraculously discovered in the time of the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban VIII., it delivered Sicily from the plague in the year of the Jubilee.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Henry\nEmperor and confessor, ruler under God.\nSt. Henry governed as emperor while seeking to place public authority beneath the law of Christ. The Martyrology remembers his chastity with St. Cunegunde and his work in helping bring the faith to Hungary.\nHe supported churches, order, and Christian worship rather than treating power as self-display. His feast teaches that authority, rank, and public responsibility must be placed under God and judged by eternity.\nWhatever authority you possess, govern it under Christ. St. Henry reminds families, fathers, rulers, and workers that rank is judged by fidelity.\nFROM MATINS\nAn earthly crown governed beneath the Eternal King.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor\nRoman Breviary\n\"His hope soared beyond the short enjoyment of a fleeting kingdom.\"\n- The Breviary measures imperial dignity by service to the Eternal King, prayer before action, and concrete support of churches and monasteries.\n- St. Henry's fidelity to the Roman See, chastity with St. Cunegunda, and wise government place public authority beneath divine law.\n- The lesson deliberately makes holiness outshine the splendour of the crown.\nPlace every lesser authority beneath Christ. St. Henry teaches rulers, fathers, employers, and householders to pray before acting and to use temporal goods for worship, order, and souls.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson\nHenry II, surnamed the Pious, became successively Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany, and Emperor of the Romans. His hope soared beyond the short enjoyment of a fleeting kingdom, and he aimed at an unfading crown by living as the loyal servant of the Eternal King.\nHe restored churches, enriched and endowed monasteries and other holy places, founded the Bishopric of Bamberg from his inheritance, and made it tributary to blessed Peter and the Bishop of Rome. When Benedict VIII was in exile, Henry received him and afterward restored him to his See.\nFifth Lesson\nWhen grievously sick at Monte Cassino, Henry was healed through the intercession of St. Benedict. He was a princely benefactor to the Church of Rome and never undertook anything until he had made it a subject of prayer.\nWith God's help he prevailed more by prayer than by arms. His marriage with St. Cunegunda was a union of two virgins, and when death drew near he gave her back inviolate to her kindred.\nSixth Lesson\nHe managed with great wisdom whatever tended to the honour and usefulness of the Empire. The perfume of his saintly life spread far and wide, and the glory of his holiness outshone the splendour of his crown.\nWhen his earthly work was finished, he was called to the eternal kingdom. He was buried in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg, and, after miracles at his grave were duly proved, Eugenius III numbered him among the Saints.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nJustification Requires True Conversion\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The sinner is not healed by excuse or affirmation, but by grace, repentance, faith, hope, charity, and the turning of the soul toward God. 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. Catholic mercy restores the sinner to truth; it never names sin as holiness or treats amendment as optional.\nThe grace to be practiced is Chaste stewardship of authority, 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 conformity to Christ across all virtues and duties, refusing to confine devotion to words, feelings, or isolated exercises.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed. 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 chaste stewardship of authority 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 cutting and shaping by which self-love is removed and the image of the crucified Jesus becomes clearer. Let Our Lady form Christ's likeness in every prayer, decision, conversation, duty, sacrifice, and act of charity.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent.\nYour resolution before God: Perform acts of authority and obedience with prayer, clarity, humility, and concern for souls.\nCarry this word: Every lesser authority is healed by submission to Christ the King.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"It behoveth thee to break thine own will in many things, if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 17, p. 27\nConcord bought by surrendering truth is false, but many quarrels arise from preference rather than principle. Yield what belongs to self-will while holding fast what belongs to God.\n\nLearn to distinguish the two before the moment of conflict. Doctrine, purity, justice, and necessary duty may require firmness. Your preferred method, timing, recognition, or last word usually does not. The soul becomes strong when it stops spending zeal upon the defense of self.\nToday's Practice: Yield harmless preferences cheerfully whenever truth and duty do not require firmness.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nCompare the day's conduct with Jesus Christ rather than with your preferences, and repent wherever His likeness was obscured.\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, through St. Henry, govern every authority I exercise or receive and keep it obedient to Thy law.\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\nGrace, Conversion, and Final Perseverance: https://cityofgodinexile.com/mercy-and-salvation/grace-conversion-and-final-perseverance?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-07-15&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-07-15&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. Henry, Emperor and Confessor - 2028-07-15\n \n \n
\n St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor

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2028-07-15 - Time after Pentecost - Semi-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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Confessor
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in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.
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Chastity
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the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.

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

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Today in the Roman Year

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St. Henry's imperial dignity remained beneath prayer, chastity, service to the Church, and judgment before God. His feast teaches that authority is stewardship rather than possession: rank, money, household influence, and public office must serve worship, order, and souls.

Ask Our Lady to form the likeness of her Son throughout His members and to make your whole life subject to Him.

Offer your whole person to Jesus through Mary and ask that His mind, virtues, commandments, and Cross govern you today.

“God the Son wishes to form Himself, and, so to speak, to incarnate Himself, every day by His dear Mother in His members, and He has said to her, In Israel hæreditare—‘Take Israel for your inheritance.’”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 31

St. Louis de Montfort says ‘so to speak’: he does not teach a new Incarnation or identify the Christian substantially with Christ. The eternal Son became man once in Mary's womb. He now forms His supernatural likeness by grace in the members of His Mystical Body.

Mary's maternal formation must therefore yield recognizable conformity to Jesus: His faith, humility, purity, obedience, charity, prayer, sacrifice, and zeal for the Father's glory. Submit every part of life to this work through Catholic doctrine, sacramental grace, daily prayer, mortification, and complete fidelity to duty.

Perform acts of authority and obedience with prayer, clarity, humility, and concern for souls.

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Quote of the Day

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“In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.”
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Holy Scripture, 1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - July 15

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At Bamberg, St. Henry 1., emperor, who kept perpetual chastity with his wife Cunegunde, and induced St. Stephen, king of Hungary, with nearly all his kingdom, to receive the faith of Christ. — At Porto, the birthday of the holy martyrs Eutropius, and the sisters Zosima and Bonosa. — At Carthage, blessed Catulinus, deacon, whose glories were proclaimed by St. Augustine in a sermon to his people, and the Saints Januarius, Florentius, Julia and Justa, martyrs, who were entombed in the church of St. Faustus. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Philip, Zeno, Narseus, and ten children. — In the island of Tenedos, St. Abudemius, a martyr, who suffered under Diocletian. — At Sebaste, St. Antiochus, a physician, who was decapitated under the governor Adrian. On seeing milk flowing from his wounds instead of blood, Cyriaeus, his executioner, was converted to Christ and endured martyrdom. — At Pavia, St. Felix, bishop and martyr. — At Msibis, the birthday of St. James, bishop of that city, a man celebrated for great holiness, miracles and erudition. He was one of those who confessed the faith during the persecution of Galerius Maximian, and afterwards, in the Council of Nicsea, condemned the perverse heresy of Arius, by opposing to it the doctrine of consubstantiality. It was also owing to his prayers, and those of bishop Alexander, that Arius received at Constantinople the condign punishment of his iniquity, the extravasation of his intestines. — At Naples, in Campania, St. Athanasius, bishop of that city, who suffered much from his wicked nephew Sergius, by whom he was driven from his see. Consumed with afflictions, he departed for heaven at Veroli, in the time of Charles the Bald. — At Palermo, the finding of the body of St. Kosalia, virgin of Palermo. Being miraculously discovered in the time of the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban VIII., it delivered Sicily from the plague in the year of the Jubilee.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Henry

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Emperor and confessor, ruler under God.

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St. Henry governed as emperor while seeking to place public authority beneath the law of Christ. The Martyrology remembers his chastity with St. Cunegunde and his work in helping bring the faith to Hungary.

He supported churches, order, and Christian worship rather than treating power as self-display. His feast teaches that authority, rank, and public responsibility must be placed under God and judged by eternity.

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Whatever authority you possess, govern it under Christ. St. Henry reminds families, fathers, rulers, and workers that rank is judged by fidelity.

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From Matins

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An earthly crown governed beneath the Eternal King.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Henry, Emperor and Confessor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Henry

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“His hope soared beyond the short enjoyment of a fleeting kingdom.”
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  • The Breviary measures imperial dignity by service to the Eternal King, prayer before action, and concrete support of churches and monasteries.
  • St. Henry's fidelity to the Roman See, chastity with St. Cunegunda, and wise government place public authority beneath divine law.
  • The lesson deliberately makes holiness outshine the splendour of the crown.
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Place every lesser authority beneath Christ. St. Henry teaches rulers, fathers, employers, and householders to pray before acting and to use temporal goods for worship, order, and souls.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson

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Henry II, surnamed the Pious, became successively Duke of Bavaria, King of Germany, and Emperor of the Romans. His hope soared beyond the short enjoyment of a fleeting kingdom, and he aimed at an unfading crown by living as the loyal servant of the Eternal King.

He restored churches, enriched and endowed monasteries and other holy places, founded the Bishopric of Bamberg from his inheritance, and made it tributary to blessed Peter and the Bishop of Rome. When Benedict VIII was in exile, Henry received him and afterward restored him to his See.

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Fifth Lesson

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When grievously sick at Monte Cassino, Henry was healed through the intercession of St. Benedict. He was a princely benefactor to the Church of Rome and never undertook anything until he had made it a subject of prayer.

With God's help he prevailed more by prayer than by arms. His marriage with St. Cunegunda was a union of two virgins, and when death drew near he gave her back inviolate to her kindred.

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Sixth Lesson

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He managed with great wisdom whatever tended to the honour and usefulness of the Empire. The perfume of his saintly life spread far and wide, and the glory of his holiness outshone the splendour of his crown.

When his earthly work was finished, he was called to the eternal kingdom. He was buried in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg, and, after miracles at his grave were duly proved, Eugenius III numbered him among the Saints.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Justification Requires True Conversion

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The Church places this truth before you today: The sinner is not healed by excuse or affirmation, but by grace, repentance, faith, hope, charity, and the turning of the soul toward God. 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. Catholic mercy restores the sinner to truth; it never names sin as holiness or treats amendment as optional.

The grace to be practiced is Chaste stewardship of authority, 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 conformity to Christ across all virtues and duties, refusing to confine devotion to words, feelings, or isolated exercises.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed. 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 chaste stewardship of authority 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 cutting and shaping by which self-love is removed and the image of the crucified Jesus becomes clearer. Let Our Lady form Christ's likeness in every prayer, decision, conversation, duty, sacrifice, and act of charity.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Perform acts of authority and obedience with prayer, clarity, humility, and concern for souls.

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Every lesser authority is healed by submission to Christ the King.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“It behoveth thee to break thine own will in many things, if thou wilt have peace and concord with others.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 17, p. 27

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Concord bought by surrendering truth is false, but many quarrels arise from preference rather than principle. Yield what belongs to self-will while holding fast what belongs to God.

Learn to distinguish the two before the moment of conflict. Doctrine, purity, justice, and necessary duty may require firmness. Your preferred method, timing, recognition, or last word usually does not. The soul becomes strong when it stops spending zeal upon the defense of self.

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Today's Practice

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Yield harmless preferences cheerfully whenever truth and duty do not require firmness.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Compare the day's conduct with Jesus Christ rather than with your preferences, and repent wherever His likeness was obscured.

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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, through St. Henry, govern every authority I exercise or receive and keep it obedient to Thy law.

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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 Grace, Conversion, and Final Perseverance\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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