{"ok":true,"date":"2028-08-09","dateKey":"08-09","liturgicalDay":"St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well.","author":"St. John Vianney","source":""},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[{"title":"Novena for the Assumption","feast":"Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary","day":4,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2028-08-06","feastIsoDate":"2028-08-15","intention":"Ask Our Lady to detach the soul from earth and order hope toward Heaven.","prayer":"O Lord, we beseech Thee, forgive the transgressions of Thy servants, and, forasmuch as by our own deeds we cannot please Thee, may we find safety through the prayers of the Mother of Thy Son and our Lord. Through the Same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.","practice":"Renounce every earthly attachment that weakens prayer or purity, beginning with the attachment that most often draws the heart from God.","sources":["The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. III, Summer, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Prayer throughout the Office, printed p. 827."]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor - 2028-08-09","previewText":"St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor. The Sacrifice of the Mass Is the Heart of Catholic Worship. Resist every reduction of the Mass to a memorial meal, community symbol, or religious performance.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. John Mary Vianney, Confessor\n2028-08-09 - Time after Pentecost - Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nCommemoration: a shorter liturgical remembrance of another saint or observance occurring on the same day.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nConfessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe green season is not empty time. It is growth under grace. The pilgrim must ask whether the seed of doctrine is becoming virtue, whether prayer is becoming habit, whether zeal is becoming charity, and whether Catholic truth is governing ordinary choices. Ask for devotion arising from the spirit and heart, grounded in true knowledge of Our Lady's greatness and sincere love for her. Renew true esteem and love for Our Lady, asking that every outward devotion proceed from attentive faith and a sincere heart.\n\n\"True devotion to our Lady is interior; that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the heart. It flows from the esteem we have of her, the high idea we have formed of her greatness, and the love which we have for her.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 106\n\nInterior devotion is not vague emotion or private enthusiasm. Esteem must be governed by Catholic truth: Mary is a creature wholly dependent upon God, yet uniquely chosen as Mother of God, filled with grace, united to Christ's mysteries, and appointed within His order of salvation. Truth kindles reverence and love.\n\nThe interior mark does not abolish exterior worship. It gives exterior acts their soul. Rosaries, kneeling, processions, sacramentals, feasts, and hymns should proceed from attentive faith and return as deeper obedience, purity, humility, charity, and union with Jesus. Let the heart mean what the lips and body profess.\n\nPRACTICE\nRefuse every compromise with comfort when duty, prayer, or truth asks for fidelity.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well.\"\nSt. John Vianney\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena for the Assumption - Day 4 of 9\nPreparing for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2028-08-15.\nAsk Our Lady to detach the soul from earth and order hope toward Heaven.\nO Lord, we beseech Thee, forgive the transgressions of Thy servants, and, forasmuch as by our own deeds we cannot please Thee, may we find safety through the prayers of the Mother of Thy Son and our Lord. Through the Same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.\nRenounce every earthly attachment that weakens prayer or purity, beginning with the attachment that most often draws the heart from God.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - August 9\nThe vigil of St. Lawrence, martyr. — At Rome, St. Romanus, soldier, who was moved by the torments of blessed Lawrence to ask for baptism from him. He was immediately prosecuted, scourged, and finally beheaded. — In Tuscany, the birthday of the holy martyrs Secundian, Marcellian, and Verian. In the time of Decius, they were scourged by the ex-consul Promotus, then racked and torn with iron hooks. Being burned with fire applied to their sides, they merited the triumphant palm of martyrdom by having their heads struck off. — At Verona, the holy martyrs Firmus and Rusticus, in the time of the emperor Maximian. — In Africa, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, during the persecution of Valerian. Being exhorted by St. Numidicus, they obtained the palm of martyrdom by being cast into the fire, but Numidicus, although thrown into the flames with the others and overwhelmed with stones, was nevertheless taken out by his daughter. Found half dead, he was restored and deserved afterwards by his virtue to be made priest of the church of Carthage by blessed Cyprian. — At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Julian, Marcian, and eight others. For having set up the image of our Saviour on the brazen gate, they were exposed to many torments, and then beheaded by order of the impious emperor Leo. — At Chalons, in France, St. Domitian, bishop and confessor.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. John Mary Vianney\nParish priest, confessor, and father of souls.\nSt. John Mary Vianney was sent to the small parish of Ars, where he spent himself in prayer, penance, catechism, preaching, and long hours in the confessional.\nHe did not save souls by charm or novelty. He taught plainly, hated sin because it offends God, and drew sinners back to confession, Mass, prayer, and amendment of life.\nAsk St. John Vianney for hatred of sin and confidence in mercy. A soul is not helped by being left comfortable in peril; it is helped by truth, confession, prayer, and a fatherly hand toward heaven.\nFROM MATINS\nThe parish priest set before all pastors as a burning lamp.\nPapal Witness - Letters Decretal - St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor\nPope Pius XI\n\"In the new Saint they have an excellent example of a most pious and zealous pastor of souls, who exercised the parochial office with wonderful diligence, prudence, and charity.\"\n- Pope Pius XI presents St. John Mary Vianney as the Church's answer when men labor to abolish the name of Christ: a minister of God burning with divine love and zeal for the salvation of souls.\n- His pastoral work joined prayer, penance, catechetical instruction, preaching, sacramental ministry, prudence, and charity. Fatherly care did not leave sinners undisturbed in danger; it labored for conversion.\n- The canonization decree appointed his annual observance on August 9 and urged parish priests especially to imitate the Curé of Ars as a burning lamp whose virtues shed light upon the Christian people.\nPray for priests who will spend themselves for souls. St. John Vianney teaches that pastoral charity must be sacrificial, doctrinal, penitential, and patient enough to call sinners out of peril and back to Christ.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Sacrifice of the Mass Is the Heart of Catholic Worship\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Catholic worship is centered on the true Sacrifice of the altar, offered by the priest in union with Christ the eternal High Priest. 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 same sacrificial worship belongs to the Church throughout the world; it is not a local invention or a merely human assembly rite.\nThe grace to be practiced is Priestly zeal for conversion, 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 interior recollection by joining the mind, will, affections, and bodily reverence in every prayer and duty.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist every reduction of the Mass to a memorial meal, community symbol, or religious performance. 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 priestly zeal for conversion 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. Continue faithful exterior devotion when the heart feels dry, while laboring gently to restore attention and pure intention. Study, pray, worship, obey, and serve from an interior conviction that Mary's greatness is entirely God's gift and leads wholly to Jesus.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of catholic; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent.\nYour resolution before God: Refuse every compromise with comfort when duty, prayer, or truth asks for fidelity.\nCarry this word: The City of God and the city of man do not seek the same end.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Virtue appeareth best in time of adversity. Occasions make not a man frail, but they shew openly what he is.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 16, p. 27\nThe trial does not excuse the fault; it reveals where grace must be received and nature mortified. Do not waste the revelation God permits.\n\nWhen adversity uncovers impatience or fear, do not conclude that every previous effort was false. Thank God for showing you where the wall remains weak. Humble yourself, ask pardon if another was wounded, and return to the battle with a more honest knowledge of your need for grace.\nToday's Practice: At the next contradiction, name the virtue being tested and practice it once.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nExamine whether outward acts expressed inward faith and love, and whether inward devotion produced visible obedience and virtue.\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, detach my heart from the city of comfort, applause, and self-rule. Order me toward Thy City, where truth, sacrifice, grace, and holiness reign.\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\nWhat Is the Mass?: https://cityofgodinexile.com/catechism-foundations/what-is-the-mass?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-08-09&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-08-09&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. John Mary Vianney, Confessor - 2028-08-09\n \n \n
\n St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor. The Sacrifice of the Mass Is the Heart of Catholic Worship. Resist every reduction of the Mass to a memorial meal, community symbol, or religious performance.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor

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2028-08-09 - Time after Pentecost - 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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Martyr
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a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.
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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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Today in the Roman Year

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The green season is not empty time. It is growth under grace. The pilgrim must ask whether the seed of doctrine is becoming virtue, whether prayer is becoming habit, whether zeal is becoming charity, and whether Catholic truth is governing ordinary choices.

Ask for devotion arising from the spirit and heart, grounded in true knowledge of Our Lady's greatness and sincere love for her.

Renew true esteem and love for Our Lady, asking that every outward devotion proceed from attentive faith and a sincere heart.

“True devotion to our Lady is interior; that is to say, it comes from the spirit and the heart. It flows from the esteem we have of her, the high idea we have formed of her greatness, and the love which we have for her.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 106

Interior devotion is not vague emotion or private enthusiasm. Esteem must be governed by Catholic truth: Mary is a creature wholly dependent upon God, yet uniquely chosen as Mother of God, filled with grace, united to Christ's mysteries, and appointed within His order of salvation. Truth kindles reverence and love.

The interior mark does not abolish exterior worship. It gives exterior acts their soul. Rosaries, kneeling, processions, sacramentals, feasts, and hymns should proceed from attentive faith and return as deeper obedience, purity, humility, charity, and union with Jesus. Let the heart mean what the lips and body profess.

Refuse every compromise with comfort when duty, prayer, or truth asks for fidelity.

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Quote of the Day

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“The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well.”
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St. John Vianney

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Novena in Progress

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Novena for the Assumption - Day 4 of 9

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Preparing for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2028-08-15.

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Ask Our Lady to detach the soul from earth and order hope toward Heaven.

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Novena Prayer

O Lord, we beseech Thee, forgive the transgressions of Thy servants, and, forasmuch as by our own deeds we cannot please Thee, may we find safety through the prayers of the Mother of Thy Son and our Lord. Through the Same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

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Renounce every earthly attachment that weakens prayer or purity, beginning with the attachment that most often draws the heart from God.

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Roman Martyrology - August 9

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The vigil of St. Lawrence, martyr. — At Rome, St. Romanus, soldier, who was moved by the torments of blessed Lawrence to ask for baptism from him. He was immediately prosecuted, scourged, and finally beheaded. — In Tuscany, the birthday of the holy martyrs Secundian, Marcellian, and Verian. In the time of Decius, they were scourged by the ex-consul Promotus, then racked and torn with iron hooks. Being burned with fire applied to their sides, they merited the triumphant palm of martyrdom by having their heads struck off. — At Verona, the holy martyrs Firmus and Rusticus, in the time of the emperor Maximian. — In Africa, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, during the persecution of Valerian. Being exhorted by St. Numidicus, they obtained the palm of martyrdom by being cast into the fire, but Numidicus, although thrown into the flames with the others and overwhelmed with stones, was nevertheless taken out by his daughter. Found half dead, he was restored and deserved afterwards by his virtue to be made priest of the church of Carthage by blessed Cyprian. — At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Julian, Marcian, and eight others. For having set up the image of our Saviour on the brazen gate, they were exposed to many torments, and then beheaded by order of the impious emperor Leo. — At Chalons, in France, St. Domitian, bishop and confessor.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. John Mary Vianney

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Parish priest, confessor, and father of souls.

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St. John Mary Vianney was sent to the small parish of Ars, where he spent himself in prayer, penance, catechism, preaching, and long hours in the confessional.

He did not save souls by charm or novelty. He taught plainly, hated sin because it offends God, and drew sinners back to confession, Mass, prayer, and amendment of life.

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Ask St. John Vianney for hatred of sin and confidence in mercy. A soul is not helped by being left comfortable in peril; it is helped by truth, confession, prayer, and a fatherly hand toward heaven.

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From Matins

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The parish priest set before all pastors as a burning lamp.

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Papal Witness - Letters Decretal - St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor

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Pope Pius XI, Christi nomen

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“In the new Saint they have an excellent example of a most pious and zealous pastor of souls, who exercised the parochial office with wonderful diligence, prudence, and charity.”
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  • Pope Pius XI presents St. John Mary Vianney as the Church's answer when men labor to abolish the name of Christ: a minister of God burning with divine love and zeal for the salvation of souls.
  • His pastoral work joined prayer, penance, catechetical instruction, preaching, sacramental ministry, prudence, and charity. Fatherly care did not leave sinners undisturbed in danger; it labored for conversion.
  • The canonization decree appointed his annual observance on August 9 and urged parish priests especially to imitate the Curé of Ars as a burning lamp whose virtues shed light upon the Christian people.
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Pray for priests who will spend themselves for souls. St. John Vianney teaches that pastoral charity must be sacrificial, doctrinal, penitential, and patient enough to call sinners out of peril and back to Christ.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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The Sacrifice of the Mass Is the Heart of Catholic Worship

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The Church places this truth before you today: Catholic worship is centered on the true Sacrifice of the altar, offered by the priest in union with Christ the eternal High Priest. 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 same sacrificial worship belongs to the Church throughout the world; it is not a local invention or a merely human assembly rite.

The grace to be practiced is Priestly zeal for conversion, 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 interior recollection by joining the mind, will, affections, and bodily reverence in every prayer and duty.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist every reduction of the Mass to a memorial meal, community symbol, or religious performance. 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 priestly zeal for conversion 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. Continue faithful exterior devotion when the heart feels dry, while laboring gently to restore attention and pure intention. Study, pray, worship, obey, and serve from an interior conviction that Mary's greatness is entirely God's gift and leads wholly to Jesus.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Refuse every compromise with comfort when duty, prayer, or truth asks for fidelity.

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The City of God and the city of man do not seek the same end.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Virtue appeareth best in time of adversity. Occasions make not a man frail, but they shew openly what he is.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 16, p. 27

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The trial does not excuse the fault; it reveals where grace must be received and nature mortified. Do not waste the revelation God permits.

When adversity uncovers impatience or fear, do not conclude that every previous effort was false. Thank God for showing you where the wall remains weak. Humble yourself, ask pardon if another was wounded, and return to the battle with a more honest knowledge of your need for grace.

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Today's Practice

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At the next contradiction, name the virtue being tested and practice it once.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Examine whether outward acts expressed inward faith and love, and whether inward devotion produced visible obedience and virtue.

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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, detach my heart from the city of comfort, applause, and self-rule. Order me toward Thy City, where truth, sacrifice, grace, and holiness reign.

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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 What Is the Mass?\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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