{"ok":true,"date":"2028-08-31","dateKey":"08-31","liturgicalDay":"St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor","rank":"Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.","author":"St. Paul","source":"Galatians 6:14, Douay-Rheims","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[{"title":"Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady","feast":"Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary","day":2,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2028-08-30","feastIsoDate":"2028-09-08","intention":"Ask for childlike purity, Marian trust, and renewal of Catholic homes beneath Our Lady's care.","prayer":null,"practice":"Pray for children, mothers, and households wounded by modern errors.","sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor - 2028-08-31","previewText":"St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor. Grace Heals and Elevates Nature. Resist naturalism, which treats human improvement as though it could take the place of supernatural life.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor\n2028-08-31 - Time after Pentecost - 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.\nConfessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr.\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\nThe Time after Pentecost is the long school of the Holy Ghost. The fire given at Pentecost must become doctrine believed, worship guarded, commandments kept, homes ordered, tongues governed, and charity practiced without novelty or disorder. Ask to remember and fulfill every engagement of holy Baptism as the necessary remedy for corruption of morals. Ask Our Lady to dispel ignorance and forgetfulness of Baptism and to restore every engagement throughout personal, family, and public life.\n\n\"The Council of Sens, convoked by order of Louis the Débonnaire to remedy the disorders of Christians, which were then so great, judged that the principal cause of that corruption of morals arose from the oblivion and ignorance in which men lived of the engagements of holy Baptism; and it could think of no better means for remedying so great an evil than to persuade Christians to renew the vows and promises of Baptism.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 128\n\nMoral collapse is not cured by vague inspiration. The Council cited by St. Louis de Montfort traced corruption to ignorance and forgetfulness of baptismal engagements and urged their renewal. When Christians forget whom they have renounced and to whom they belong, doctrine, worship, commandments, and conduct fragment.\n\nApply the remedy completely. Study the Catholic Faith received at Baptism, renew its promises, confess failures, repair scandal, avoid occasions, order the home, fulfill Sunday and sacramental duties, practice prayer and penance, and form dependents in the same allegiance. Renewal restores a whole rule of life under Christ.\n\nPRACTICE\nPause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"\nSt. Paul, Galatians 6:14, Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena for the Nativity of Our Lady - Day 2 of 9\nPreparing for Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2028-09-08.\nAsk for childlike purity, Marian trust, and renewal of Catholic homes beneath Our Lady's care.\n\nPray for children, mothers, and households wounded by modern errors.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - August 31\nAt Cardona, in Spain, St. Raymond Nonnatus, cardinal and confessor, of the Order of Mercedarians, renowned for holiness of life and miracles. — At Treves, the birthday of St. Paulimis, a bishop, who was exiled for the Catholic faith by the Arian emperor Constantius, in the time of the Arian persecution. By having to change the place of his exile, which was beyond the limits of Christendom, he became wearied unto death, and finally, dying in Phrygia, received a crown from the Lord for his blessed martyrdom. — Also, the holy martyrs Robustian and Mark. — At Transaqua, among the Marsi, near lake Celano, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cresidius, priest, and his companions, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Maximinus. — At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, the Saints Theodotus, Rufina, and Ammia. The first two were the parents of the martyr St. Mamas, who was born in prison, and whom Ammia brought up. — At Athens, St. Aristides, most celebrated for his faith and wisdom, who presented to the emperor Adrian a treatise on the Christian religion, containing the exposition of our doctrine. In the presence of the emperor, he also delivered a discourse in which he clearly demonstrated that Jesus Christ is the only God. — At Auxerre, St. Optatus, bishop and confessor. — In England, St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne. When St. Cuthbert, then a shepherd, saw his soul going up to heaven, he left his sheep and became a monk. — At Nusco, St. Amatus, bishop. — On Mount Senario, near Florence, blessed Bonajuncta, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave up his soul into the hands of the Lord whilst discoursing to his brethren on the Passion of our Saviour.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Raymund Nonnatus\nConfessor of mercy toward captives and endangered souls.\nSt. Raymund Nonnatus is honored as a confessor of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, remembered for holiness, miracles, and mercy toward captives.\nHis feast keeps before the Church the ransom of captives and the protection of souls in danger. Mercy is not a soft feeling, but a Catholic work that seeks deliverance for those bound by force, sin, fear, or error.\nAsk St. Raymund for courageous mercy. The Church in exile must remember prisoners, the unborn, the tempted, the confused, and all souls who need real deliverance.\nFROM MATINS\nMercy that entered captivity to ransom captives.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor\nRoman Breviary\n\"He pawned himself.\"\n- The proper lessons honor St. Raymund as a son of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom who spent himself and finally pledged his own person for Christian captives.\n- His padlocked lips make visible the cost of preaching Christ among persecutors, while his endurance shows mercy willing to suffer for another's freedom.\n- The account of angels bringing his final Viaticum—the Holy Eucharist received as food for a dying Catholic's last journey—joins the ransom of captives to the greater deliverance given by Christ.\nLet mercy become costly. St. Raymund teaches prayer, material sacrifice, personal risk for the endangered, fearless confession, and confidence in Christ at the hour of death.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson - A Son Formed by the Mother of God\nThis Raymond is commonly called the Unborn, because his was one of the rare cases in which the child is not brought into the world in the course of nature, but by a surgical operation after the death of the mother. He was the son of godly and noble parents, at Portel, [in the diocese of Urgel,] in Catalonia. The tokens of his holy after-life appeared even in his childhood. The things that delight children, and the attractions of the world, had no charm for him. He was so earnest in godliness that all men marvelled at his habits of premature old age. As he grew older, he gave himself to the study of letters, but, at the command of his father, turned to farming. He went often to the Chapel of St Nicolas, in the suburbs of Portel, to visit the sacred image of the Mother of God, which is still sought with great tenderness by the faithful. There he poured forth his soul in prayer, and earnestly entreated the Mother of God herself to be pleased to take him for her son, to show him the way wherein it should be safe for him to walk, and to teach him the science of the Saints.\nFifth Lesson - He Pawned Himself for Captives\nAnd the most gracious Maiden was not deaf to his prayers. From her he understood that it would please her right well, if he would join the Religious Order which had just been founded at her own inspiration, styled \"of Ransom\" or \"of Mercy,\" for buying up and freeing slaves. As soon as he had received this intimation from her, he went to Barcelona, and entered the Institute so nobly dedicated to love for our neighbour. Once enlisted in the Regular Army, he guarded unspotted for ever the virginity which he had already consecrated to the Blessed Virgin for ever. But he was a bright and shining light of all other good words and works, especially of tender compassion for Christians who were passing a life of grievous bondage in the possession of unbelieving masters. To free such he was sent into Africa, and delivered many. But his money ran short, and as there were still many in imminent danger of denying the faith, he pawned himself. He was enkindled with a most vehement longing for the salvation of souls, and by his exhortations brought divers Mohammedans to Christ. The Moors therefore threw him into close prison, and put him to divers tortures, at last making holes through his lips and locking them together with an iron padlock, which horrid cruelty he long bore.\nSixth Lesson - Viaticum and the Last Journey\nOn account of these, and other brave things that he did, he got the name of a Saint far and wide. Gregory IX. was moved thereby to make Raymond a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, but in this place of honour the man of God shrank from all outward show, and clung ever tightly to the lowliness that beseemeth a Religious man. He had started for Rome, [in obedience to the command of the Pope,] but had only got as far as Cardona, [six miles from Barcelona,] when he was seized with his last illness, and earnestly called for the strengthening Sacraments of the Church. But his position became critical, and the Priest had not arrived. Then Angels came unto him, clad in the habit of his own Order, and ministered unto him the wholesome Provision for the last journey. When he had taken It, he gave God thanks, and departed hence to be ever with the Lord. It was the last Lord's Day in August, 1240. After his death there was some dispute arose as to where his body should be buried; so they shut it up in a box, and laid it upon a blind mule, and the beast was guided by God to carry it to the chapel of St Nicolas, that he might be buried where he had laid the foundations of his nobler life. There was built there a Convent of his Order, and the faithful come together thither from all parts of Catalonia to honour him, and he is famous for divers signs and wonders.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nGrace Heals and Elevates Nature\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Man is not saved by natural goodness, sentiment, or progress. He needs sanctifying grace, the merits of Christ, and persevering conversion. 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 Church is holy because Christ is holy, because she possesses holy doctrine and sacraments, and because she forms saints by grace.\nThe grace to be practiced is Mercy ordered to deliverance, 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 informed fidelity by learning, remembering, professing, and obeying the complete obligations that flow from holy Baptism.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist naturalism, which treats human improvement as though it could take the place of supernatural life. 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 mercy ordered to deliverance 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 instruction, correction, confession, restitution, discipline, and reform wherever forgotten baptismal duties have permitted disorder. Remedy moral disorder through doctrine, worship, commandments, prayer, penance, sacramental life, family formation, and faithful example.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Thomas Aquinas.\nYour resolution before God: Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.\nCarry this word: Prayer keeps the day from becoming self-ruled.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"If it be lawful and expedient to speak, speak then of God and of such things as are to the edifying of thy soul or of thy neighbour's.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 10, p. 18\nSpeech is a stewardship. Our Lady's recollection teaches the pilgrim that silence is not emptiness but a guard placed around charity and truth.\n\nNot every true observation must be spoken, and not every fault must be exposed by you. Before speaking, ask whether the words serve God's truth, a real duty, or the good of a soul. If they serve only irritation, curiosity, or the wish to appear discerning, let silence make the sacrifice.\nToday's Practice: Omit unnecessary remarks and use the silence to make holy aspirations.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nExamine whether ignorance or forgetfulness excused any disorder, then identify and restore every neglected baptismal engagement.\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, recollect my scattered thoughts, govern my words, and teach me to return to Thee before the noise of the day rules my soul.\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 Grace?: https://cityofgodinexile.com/catechism-foundations/what-is-grace?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-08-31&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-08-31&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. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor - 2028-08-31\n \n \n
\n St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor. Grace Heals and Elevates Nature. Resist naturalism, which treats human improvement as though it could take the place of supernatural life.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor

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2028-08-31 - 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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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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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.

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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The Time after Pentecost is the long school of the Holy Ghost. The fire given at Pentecost must become doctrine believed, worship guarded, commandments kept, homes ordered, tongues governed, and charity practiced without novelty or disorder.

Ask to remember and fulfill every engagement of holy Baptism as the necessary remedy for corruption of morals.

Ask Our Lady to dispel ignorance and forgetfulness of Baptism and to restore every engagement throughout personal, family, and public life.

“The Council of Sens, convoked by order of Louis the Débonnaire to remedy the disorders of Christians, which were then so great, judged that the principal cause of that corruption of morals arose from the oblivion and ignorance in which men lived of the engagements of holy Baptism; and it could think of no better means for remedying so great an evil than to persuade Christians to renew the vows and promises of Baptism.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 128

Moral collapse is not cured by vague inspiration. The Council cited by St. Louis de Montfort traced corruption to ignorance and forgetfulness of baptismal engagements and urged their renewal. When Christians forget whom they have renounced and to whom they belong, doctrine, worship, commandments, and conduct fragment.

Apply the remedy completely. Study the Catholic Faith received at Baptism, renew its promises, confess failures, repair scandal, avoid occasions, order the home, fulfill Sunday and sacramental duties, practice prayer and penance, and form dependents in the same allegiance. Renewal restores a whole rule of life under Christ.

Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.

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Quote of the Day

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“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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St. Paul, Galatians 6:14, Douay-Rheims

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Novena in Progress

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Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady - Day 2 of 9

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Preparing for Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2028-09-08.

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Ask for childlike purity, Marian trust, and renewal of Catholic homes beneath Our Lady's care.

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Pray for children, mothers, and households wounded by modern errors.

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Roman Martyrology - August 31

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At Cardona, in Spain, St. Raymond Nonnatus, cardinal and confessor, of the Order of Mercedarians, renowned for holiness of life and miracles. — At Treves, the birthday of St. Paulimis, a bishop, who was exiled for the Catholic faith by the Arian emperor Constantius, in the time of the Arian persecution. By having to change the place of his exile, which was beyond the limits of Christendom, he became wearied unto death, and finally, dying in Phrygia, received a crown from the Lord for his blessed martyrdom. — Also, the holy martyrs Robustian and Mark. — At Transaqua, among the Marsi, near lake Celano, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cresidius, priest, and his companions, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Maximinus. — At Caesarea, in Cappadocia, the Saints Theodotus, Rufina, and Ammia. The first two were the parents of the martyr St. Mamas, who was born in prison, and whom Ammia brought up. — At Athens, St. Aristides, most celebrated for his faith and wisdom, who presented to the emperor Adrian a treatise on the Christian religion, containing the exposition of our doctrine. In the presence of the emperor, he also delivered a discourse in which he clearly demonstrated that Jesus Christ is the only God. — At Auxerre, St. Optatus, bishop and confessor. — In England, St. Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne. When St. Cuthbert, then a shepherd, saw his soul going up to heaven, he left his sheep and became a monk. — At Nusco, St. Amatus, bishop. — On Mount Senario, near Florence, blessed Bonajuncta, confessor, one of the seven founders of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gave up his soul into the hands of the Lord whilst discoursing to his brethren on the Passion of our Saviour.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Raymund Nonnatus

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Confessor of mercy toward captives and endangered souls.

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St. Raymund Nonnatus is honored as a confessor of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, remembered for holiness, miracles, and mercy toward captives.

His feast keeps before the Church the ransom of captives and the protection of souls in danger. Mercy is not a soft feeling, but a Catholic work that seeks deliverance for those bound by force, sin, fear, or error.

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Ask St. Raymund for courageous mercy. The Church in exile must remember prisoners, the unborn, the tempted, the confused, and all souls who need real deliverance.

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From Matins

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Mercy that entered captivity to ransom captives.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Raymund Nonnatus, Confessor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Raymund Nonnatus

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“He pawned himself.”
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  • The proper lessons honor St. Raymund as a son of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom who spent himself and finally pledged his own person for Christian captives.
  • His padlocked lips make visible the cost of preaching Christ among persecutors, while his endurance shows mercy willing to suffer for another's freedom.
  • The account of angels bringing his final Viaticum—the Holy Eucharist received as food for a dying Catholic's last journey—joins the ransom of captives to the greater deliverance given by Christ.
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Let mercy become costly. St. Raymund teaches prayer, material sacrifice, personal risk for the endangered, fearless confession, and confidence in Christ at the hour of death.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson - A Son Formed by the Mother of God

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This Raymond is commonly called the Unborn, because his was one of the rare cases in which the child is not brought into the world in the course of nature, but by a surgical operation after the death of the mother. He was the son of godly and noble parents, at Portel, [in the diocese of Urgel,] in Catalonia. The tokens of his holy after-life appeared even in his childhood. The things that delight children, and the attractions of the world, had no charm for him. He was so earnest in godliness that all men marvelled at his habits of premature old age. As he grew older, he gave himself to the study of letters, but, at the command of his father, turned to farming. He went often to the Chapel of St Nicolas, in the suburbs of Portel, to visit the sacred image of the Mother of God, which is still sought with great tenderness by the faithful. There he poured forth his soul in prayer, and earnestly entreated the Mother of God herself to be pleased to take him for her son, to show him the way wherein it should be safe for him to walk, and to teach him the science of the Saints.

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Fifth Lesson - He Pawned Himself for Captives

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And the most gracious Maiden was not deaf to his prayers. From her he understood that it would please her right well, if he would join the Religious Order which had just been founded at her own inspiration, styled "of Ransom" or "of Mercy," for buying up and freeing slaves. As soon as he had received this intimation from her, he went to Barcelona, and entered the Institute so nobly dedicated to love for our neighbour. Once enlisted in the Regular Army, he guarded unspotted for ever the virginity which he had already consecrated to the Blessed Virgin for ever. But he was a bright and shining light of all other good words and works, especially of tender compassion for Christians who were passing a life of grievous bondage in the possession of unbelieving masters. To free such he was sent into Africa, and delivered many. But his money ran short, and as there were still many in imminent danger of denying the faith, he pawned himself. He was enkindled with a most vehement longing for the salvation of souls, and by his exhortations brought divers Mohammedans to Christ. The Moors therefore threw him into close prison, and put him to divers tortures, at last making holes through his lips and locking them together with an iron padlock, which horrid cruelty he long bore.

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Sixth Lesson - Viaticum and the Last Journey

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On account of these, and other brave things that he did, he got the name of a Saint far and wide. Gregory IX. was moved thereby to make Raymond a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, but in this place of honour the man of God shrank from all outward show, and clung ever tightly to the lowliness that beseemeth a Religious man. He had started for Rome, [in obedience to the command of the Pope,] but had only got as far as Cardona, [six miles from Barcelona,] when he was seized with his last illness, and earnestly called for the strengthening Sacraments of the Church. But his position became critical, and the Priest had not arrived. Then Angels came unto him, clad in the habit of his own Order, and ministered unto him the wholesome Provision for the last journey. When he had taken It, he gave God thanks, and departed hence to be ever with the Lord. It was the last Lord's Day in August, 1240. After his death there was some dispute arose as to where his body should be buried; so they shut it up in a box, and laid it upon a blind mule, and the beast was guided by God to carry it to the chapel of St Nicolas, that he might be buried where he had laid the foundations of his nobler life. There was built there a Convent of his Order, and the faithful come together thither from all parts of Catalonia to honour him, and he is famous for divers signs and wonders.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Grace Heals and Elevates Nature

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The Church places this truth before you today: Man is not saved by natural goodness, sentiment, or progress. He needs sanctifying grace, the merits of Christ, and persevering conversion. 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 Church is holy because Christ is holy, because she possesses holy doctrine and sacraments, and because she forms saints by grace.

The grace to be practiced is Mercy ordered to deliverance, 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 informed fidelity by learning, remembering, professing, and obeying the complete obligations that flow from holy Baptism.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist naturalism, which treats human improvement as though it could take the place of supernatural life. 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 mercy ordered to deliverance 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 instruction, correction, confession, restitution, discipline, and reform wherever forgotten baptismal duties have permitted disorder. Remedy moral disorder through doctrine, worship, commandments, prayer, penance, sacramental life, family formation, and faithful example.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Thomas Aquinas.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.

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Prayer keeps the day from becoming self-ruled.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“If it be lawful and expedient to speak, speak then of God and of such things as are to the edifying of thy soul or of thy neighbour's.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 10, p. 18

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Speech is a stewardship. Our Lady's recollection teaches the pilgrim that silence is not emptiness but a guard placed around charity and truth.

Not every true observation must be spoken, and not every fault must be exposed by you. Before speaking, ask whether the words serve God's truth, a real duty, or the good of a soul. If they serve only irritation, curiosity, or the wish to appear discerning, let silence make the sacrifice.

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Today's Practice

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Omit unnecessary remarks and use the silence to make holy aspirations.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Examine whether ignorance or forgetfulness excused any disorder, then identify and restore every neglected baptismal engagement.

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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, recollect my scattered thoughts, govern my words, and teach me to return to Thee before the noise of the day rules my soul.

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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 Grace?\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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\n \"The\n
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\n \n","links":{"sacredCalendar":"/sacred-calendar?date=2028-08-31","webPreview":"/daily-dispatch?date=2028-08-31","emailPreview":"/daily-dispatch/email?date=2028-08-31","formationIndex":"/daily-dispatch/formation","subscribe":"/daily-dispatch/subscribe"},"included":{"martyrology":true,"gospelReflection":false,"saintlyWitness":true,"breviaryReading":true,"patristicBreviaryLesson":true,"faithPoint":"Grace Heals and Elevates Nature"}}