{"ok":true,"date":"2028-09-05","dateKey":"09-05","liturgicalDay":"St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor","rank":"Semi-Double","color":"white","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"It is a great error of this age that all religions are alike.","author":"Pope Leo XIII","source":"Humanum Genus, n. 16","category":"Truth: Christ and His Church"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[{"title":"Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady","feast":"Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary","day":7,"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. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor - 2028-09-05","previewText":"St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor. Hold the Traditions. Resist innovation that claims continuity while contradicting what was handed down.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor\n2028-09-05 - Time after Pentecost - Semi-Double - white\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nEcclesiastical or ecclesial: belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.\nClergy or cleric: the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.\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\nAfter Pentecost the Church teaches the soul how grace matures. Consolation is not enough. The Spirit of truth forms endurance, obedience, hatred of heresy, reverence for true worship, and courage to confess Christ when the world calls fidelity narrow. Reject self-interested anxiety about Purgatory and trust the unsurpassed generosity of Jesus and His holy Mother. Entrust every good work to Our Lady, offer generous reparation for the holy souls, and ask for complete purification from sin and self-love.\n\n\"Some one, perhaps, may say, If I give our Blessed Lady all the value of my actions to apply it to whom she wills, I shall have to suffer, perhaps, a long time in purgatory. This objection, which comes from self-love, and ignorance of the generosity of God and His holy Mother, demolishes itself.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 133\n\nFear of Purgatory should produce contrition, penance, reparation, indulgenced works, charity, and faithful use of grace. It becomes disordered when self-love uses that fear to withhold spiritual goods from Our Lady's disposal or to imagine that generous surrender will be punished as though God were less liberal than His servants.\n\nPray and make reparation for the holy souls who died in grace yet still owe satisfaction for sin. At the same time, prepare your own soul by avoiding every sin, confessing, repairing harm, accepting penance, fulfilling duty, and offering all through Mary. Trust does not abolish justice; it removes possessive calculation from generous obedience.\n\nPRACTICE\nExamine religious claims by asking whether they agree with the Catholic Church identified by her four marks, rather than judging by impression or preference.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"It is a great error of this age that all religions are alike.\"\nPope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus, n. 16\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nNovena for the Nativity of Our Lady - Day 7 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 - September 5\nThe feast of St. Lawrence Justinian, first Patri- - arch of Venice, who, by glorious miracles and virtues, illustrated the episcopal dignity which he received against his will on this day. His birthday is the 8th of January. — In the suburbs of Rome, blessed Victorinus, bishop and martyr, in the time of Nerva Trajan. Being renowned for sanctity and miracles, he was elected bishop of Amiterno by the whole people, but afterwards he was banished, with other servants of God, to Contigliano, where spring forth fetid sulphurous waters, and was suspended with his head downward by order of the judge Aurelian. Having for the name of Christ endured this torment for three days, he was gloriously crowned, and went victoriously to our Lord. His body was taken away by the Christians, and buried with due honors at Araiterno. — Also, at Porto, the birthday of St. Her cul anus, martyr. — At Capua, the holy martyrs Quinctius, Arcontius, and Donatus. — The same day, St. Romulus, prefect of Trajan's court. For reproving the cruelty of the emperor towards Christians, he was scourged with rods, and beheaded. — At Melitine, in Armenia, the martyrdom of the holy soldiers Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius, and their companions to the number of eleven hundred and four, who threw away their military belts, and were put to death for the confession of Christ, in the persecution of Diocletian. — At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Urbanus, Theodore, Menedemus, and their ecclesiastical companions, seventy-seven in number, who were put in a ship by the command of the emperor Valens, and burned on the sea for the Catholic faith. — In the neighborhood of Terouanne, in the monastery of Sithiu, St. Bertin, abbot. — At Toledo, St. Obdulia, virgin.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Laurence Justinian\nBishop and confessor raised to dignity against his will.\nThe Martyrology honors St. Laurence Justinian, first Patriarch of Venice, for virtues and miracles, noting the episcopal dignity he received against his will.\nHis witness teaches that true authority is received as burden before it is worn as honor. The shepherd who does not seek self-exaltation is safer for the flock.\nLet St. Laurence Justinian correct the appetite for recognition. In the Church, dignity is most Catholic when it is carried as a cross.\nFROM MATINS\nThe reluctant shepherd whose hidden prayer governed Venice.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor\nRoman Breviary\n\"He accepted the burden of the Bishoprick.\"\n- The Breviary honors St. Laurence as a canon regular formed by austerity, contemplation, humility, and mercy before receiving episcopal office against his inclination.\n- As shepherd he joined reform of clergy, care of the poor, preaching, and disciplined government to a life rooted in prayer.\n- His reluctance before honor teaches that sacred authority is safest when received as a burden for souls rather than pursued as advancement.\nReceive duty without feeding ambition. St. Laurence shows authority made fruitful by prayer, simplicity, reform of life, practical mercy, and willingness to carry an unwanted cross.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson - The New Warfare Against Self\nThis Lawrence was born at Venice, [in the year 1380,] of the noble family of the Giustiniani, and was an exceedingly sober lad even from his childhood. He passed a godly boyhood, and feeling the Divine Wisdom calling him to a pure marriage between his own soul and the Word [of God,] he began to think of becoming a monk. He therefore tried in private some of the exercises of this new warfare, and, among other afflictions of his body, used to sleep upon the bare boards. As he thus sat weighing on the one hand the pleasures of the world, and a marriage which his mother wished to bring about for him, and, on the other, the hardness of the cloister, he turned his eyes upon the Cross of the suffering Christ, and said: \"Thou, O LORD, art my trust; there hast Thou made my surest refuge.\" He entered among the Canons of St-George's-in-the-sea-weed, where he devised new tortures and declared war against himself as his own worst enemy. He allowed himself no enjoyment, so that he would not even go into the private garden of the house, neither did he ever go thenceforth into the house of his own father, except when his mother was dying, and he went there with dry eyes to pay her the last offices of a son's duty and affection. His obedience, gentleness, and especially his lowliness were very great. He went out of his way to take the meanest pieces of work about the house. He used to go to the most public places of the city, seeking, not so much for food as for mockery, and bore unmoved and in silence the insults and slanders which were cast upon him. He found his ever-present help in prayer, wherein he became often beside himself and rapt in God, and such was the warmth that burned in his heart, that he stirred up failing comrades to hold bravely on and to love JESUS Christ.\nFifth Lesson - Episcopal Poverty and Fatherly Mercy\n[In the year 1433] Eugenius IV. named him Bishop of Venice, an office which he very earnestly struggled to avoid, and which he discharged with great honour. He changed in no wise his way of living, but kept always to his beloved poverty in his table, his furniture, and his bed. He kept but a small household, saying that he had another very large one, in Christ's poor. At what hour soever any one came to see him, he was always ready to receive them, he helped all with the tenderness of a father, not refusing to charge himself with debts, that he might have wherewith to relieve misery. When he was asked with what hope he incurred these liabilities, he answered: \"With hope in my Master, Who can easily meet them for me.\" And the Providence of God put not his hope to shame, but helped him amply with unexpected funds. He built several Convents of nuns, for whom his watchful care ordered a more perfect way of living. He laboured much to wean married women from worldly folly and display, and to reform the discipline of the Church and the lives of all. He was indeed worthy that Eugenius should call him in the presence of the Cardinals \"the glory and ornament of the Episcopate,\" and that his successor Nicolas V. should transfer the title of Patriarch from Grado, and create him, [in 1451,] the first Patriarch of Venice.\nSixth Lesson - The Shepherd Who Chose the Hardness of the Cross\nHe was eminent for the gift of tears, in which he offered up to God every day the Sacrifice of atonement. When he was so doing one Christmas Midnight, he won to see Christ JESUS in the form of a little Child exceeding fair to look upon. Such was his care of the flock committed to his charge, that it was sometime revealed from heaven that the Commonwealth had been saved by the prayers of her Bishop. He was inspired with the spirit of prophecy, and fore-told many things which no wit of man could have perceived. By his prayers he often put diseases and devils to flight. Though very ignorant of letters, he wrote books which breathe heavenly teaching and godliness. When he fell into his last deadly sickness, his servants got ready a more comfortable bed for the suffering old man, but he turned away from such ease as so different from the hardness of the Cross upon which his Master had died. He ordered himself to be laid upon the planks to which he was accustomed, and when he knew that the end of his life was come, he looked up to heaven and said: \"O good JESUS, I am coming to Thee,\" and so fell asleep in the Lord on the 8th day of January, [in the year 1455.] How precious was his death was attested by this, that some Charterhouse monks heard Angels singing; and that the hallowed corpse, remaining unburied for two months, was whole and uncorrupted, always yielding a sweet smell, and rosy in the face. New miracles took place after his death, whereby Pope Alexander VIII. was moved to enroll his name among those of the Saints. Innocent XII. appointed for his Feast the 5th day of September, being that upon which he had first been enthroned in his Cathedral Church.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nHold the Traditions\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Apostolic tradition is not nostalgia. It is the handing down of what the Church received from Christ and the Apostles. 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. Tradition protects the faithful from the tyranny of the present moment and from teachers who mistake novelty for life.\nThe grace to be practiced is Humble acceptance of ecclesiastical duty, 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 disinterested generosity through prayer, penance, alms, indulgenced works, reparation, and faithful surrender of their fruits.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist innovation that claims continuity while contradicting what was handed down. 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 humble acceptance of ecclesiastical duty 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 uncertainty about personal spiritual accounting without withholding charity, neglecting penance, presuming, or becoming discouraged. Offer the day's Rosary, mortification, suffering, duty, and works of mercy for souls in Purgatory according to Our Lady's wisdom.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Paul.\nYour resolution before God: Examine religious claims by asking whether they agree with the Catholic Church identified by her four marks, rather than judging by impression or preference.\nCarry this word: Christ's true Church is known by four identifying marks: she is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. These marks protect the pilgrim from counterfeit religion.\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\nExamine self-love, presumption, fear, neglected reparation, and possessiveness, then entrust both justice and mercy to Jesus through Mary.\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 my mind beneath the Church that is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. Do not let feeling, family custom, fear, or numbers replace Thy marks.\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\nHold the Traditions and Refuse the Innovators: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/2-thessalonians-2-14-15-hold-the-traditions-and-refuse-the-innovators?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-09-05&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-09-05&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. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor - 2028-09-05\n \n \n
\n St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor. Hold the Traditions. Resist innovation that claims continuity while contradicting what was handed down.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor

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2028-09-05 - 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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Ecclesiastical or ecclesial
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belonging or relating to the Church; the words refer to her life, law, worship, ministers, or common mission.
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Clergy or cleric
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the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.
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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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After Pentecost the Church teaches the soul how grace matures. Consolation is not enough. The Spirit of truth forms endurance, obedience, hatred of heresy, reverence for true worship, and courage to confess Christ when the world calls fidelity narrow.

Reject self-interested anxiety about Purgatory and trust the unsurpassed generosity of Jesus and His holy Mother.

Entrust every good work to Our Lady, offer generous reparation for the holy souls, and ask for complete purification from sin and self-love.

“Some one, perhaps, may say, If I give our Blessed Lady all the value of my actions to apply it to whom she wills, I shall have to suffer, perhaps, a long time in purgatory. This objection, which comes from self-love, and ignorance of the generosity of God and His holy Mother, demolishes itself.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 133

Fear of Purgatory should produce contrition, penance, reparation, indulgenced works, charity, and faithful use of grace. It becomes disordered when self-love uses that fear to withhold spiritual goods from Our Lady's disposal or to imagine that generous surrender will be punished as though God were less liberal than His servants.

Pray and make reparation for the holy souls who died in grace yet still owe satisfaction for sin. At the same time, prepare your own soul by avoiding every sin, confessing, repairing harm, accepting penance, fulfilling duty, and offering all through Mary. Trust does not abolish justice; it removes possessive calculation from generous obedience.

Examine religious claims by asking whether they agree with the Catholic Church identified by her four marks, rather than judging by impression or preference.

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Quote of the Day

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“It is a great error of this age that all religions are alike.”
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Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus, n. 16

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Novena in Progress

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Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady - Day 7 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 - September 5

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The feast of St. Lawrence Justinian, first Patri- - arch of Venice, who, by glorious miracles and virtues, illustrated the episcopal dignity which he received against his will on this day. His birthday is the 8th of January. — In the suburbs of Rome, blessed Victorinus, bishop and martyr, in the time of Nerva Trajan. Being renowned for sanctity and miracles, he was elected bishop of Amiterno by the whole people, but afterwards he was banished, with other servants of God, to Contigliano, where spring forth fetid sulphurous waters, and was suspended with his head downward by order of the judge Aurelian. Having for the name of Christ endured this torment for three days, he was gloriously crowned, and went victoriously to our Lord. His body was taken away by the Christians, and buried with due honors at Araiterno. — Also, at Porto, the birthday of St. Her cul anus, martyr. — At Capua, the holy martyrs Quinctius, Arcontius, and Donatus. — The same day, St. Romulus, prefect of Trajan's court. For reproving the cruelty of the emperor towards Christians, he was scourged with rods, and beheaded. — At Melitine, in Armenia, the martyrdom of the holy soldiers Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius, and their companions to the number of eleven hundred and four, who threw away their military belts, and were put to death for the confession of Christ, in the persecution of Diocletian. — At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Urbanus, Theodore, Menedemus, and their ecclesiastical companions, seventy-seven in number, who were put in a ship by the command of the emperor Valens, and burned on the sea for the Catholic faith. — In the neighborhood of Terouanne, in the monastery of Sithiu, St. Bertin, abbot. — At Toledo, St. Obdulia, virgin.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Laurence Justinian

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Bishop and confessor raised to dignity against his will.

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The Martyrology honors St. Laurence Justinian, first Patriarch of Venice, for virtues and miracles, noting the episcopal dignity he received against his will.

His witness teaches that true authority is received as burden before it is worn as honor. The shepherd who does not seek self-exaltation is safer for the flock.

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Let St. Laurence Justinian correct the appetite for recognition. In the Church, dignity is most Catholic when it is carried as a cross.

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From Matins

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The reluctant shepherd whose hidden prayer governed Venice.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Laurence Justinian

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“He accepted the burden of the Bishoprick.”
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  • The Breviary honors St. Laurence as a canon regular formed by austerity, contemplation, humility, and mercy before receiving episcopal office against his inclination.
  • As shepherd he joined reform of clergy, care of the poor, preaching, and disciplined government to a life rooted in prayer.
  • His reluctance before honor teaches that sacred authority is safest when received as a burden for souls rather than pursued as advancement.
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Receive duty without feeding ambition. St. Laurence shows authority made fruitful by prayer, simplicity, reform of life, practical mercy, and willingness to carry an unwanted cross.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson - The New Warfare Against Self

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This Lawrence was born at Venice, [in the year 1380,] of the noble family of the Giustiniani, and was an exceedingly sober lad even from his childhood. He passed a godly boyhood, and feeling the Divine Wisdom calling him to a pure marriage between his own soul and the Word [of God,] he began to think of becoming a monk. He therefore tried in private some of the exercises of this new warfare, and, among other afflictions of his body, used to sleep upon the bare boards. As he thus sat weighing on the one hand the pleasures of the world, and a marriage which his mother wished to bring about for him, and, on the other, the hardness of the cloister, he turned his eyes upon the Cross of the suffering Christ, and said: "Thou, O LORD, art my trust; there hast Thou made my surest refuge." He entered among the Canons of St-George's-in-the-sea-weed, where he devised new tortures and declared war against himself as his own worst enemy. He allowed himself no enjoyment, so that he would not even go into the private garden of the house, neither did he ever go thenceforth into the house of his own father, except when his mother was dying, and he went there with dry eyes to pay her the last offices of a son's duty and affection. His obedience, gentleness, and especially his lowliness were very great. He went out of his way to take the meanest pieces of work about the house. He used to go to the most public places of the city, seeking, not so much for food as for mockery, and bore unmoved and in silence the insults and slanders which were cast upon him. He found his ever-present help in prayer, wherein he became often beside himself and rapt in God, and such was the warmth that burned in his heart, that he stirred up failing comrades to hold bravely on and to love JESUS Christ.

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Fifth Lesson - Episcopal Poverty and Fatherly Mercy

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[In the year 1433] Eugenius IV. named him Bishop of Venice, an office which he very earnestly struggled to avoid, and which he discharged with great honour. He changed in no wise his way of living, but kept always to his beloved poverty in his table, his furniture, and his bed. He kept but a small household, saying that he had another very large one, in Christ's poor. At what hour soever any one came to see him, he was always ready to receive them, he helped all with the tenderness of a father, not refusing to charge himself with debts, that he might have wherewith to relieve misery. When he was asked with what hope he incurred these liabilities, he answered: "With hope in my Master, Who can easily meet them for me." And the Providence of God put not his hope to shame, but helped him amply with unexpected funds. He built several Convents of nuns, for whom his watchful care ordered a more perfect way of living. He laboured much to wean married women from worldly folly and display, and to reform the discipline of the Church and the lives of all. He was indeed worthy that Eugenius should call him in the presence of the Cardinals "the glory and ornament of the Episcopate," and that his successor Nicolas V. should transfer the title of Patriarch from Grado, and create him, [in 1451,] the first Patriarch of Venice.

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Sixth Lesson - The Shepherd Who Chose the Hardness of the Cross

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He was eminent for the gift of tears, in which he offered up to God every day the Sacrifice of atonement. When he was so doing one Christmas Midnight, he won to see Christ JESUS in the form of a little Child exceeding fair to look upon. Such was his care of the flock committed to his charge, that it was sometime revealed from heaven that the Commonwealth had been saved by the prayers of her Bishop. He was inspired with the spirit of prophecy, and fore-told many things which no wit of man could have perceived. By his prayers he often put diseases and devils to flight. Though very ignorant of letters, he wrote books which breathe heavenly teaching and godliness. When he fell into his last deadly sickness, his servants got ready a more comfortable bed for the suffering old man, but he turned away from such ease as so different from the hardness of the Cross upon which his Master had died. He ordered himself to be laid upon the planks to which he was accustomed, and when he knew that the end of his life was come, he looked up to heaven and said: "O good JESUS, I am coming to Thee," and so fell asleep in the Lord on the 8th day of January, [in the year 1455.] How precious was his death was attested by this, that some Charterhouse monks heard Angels singing; and that the hallowed corpse, remaining unburied for two months, was whole and uncorrupted, always yielding a sweet smell, and rosy in the face. New miracles took place after his death, whereby Pope Alexander VIII. was moved to enroll his name among those of the Saints. Innocent XII. appointed for his Feast the 5th day of September, being that upon which he had first been enthroned in his Cathedral Church.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Hold the Traditions

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The Church places this truth before you today: Apostolic tradition is not nostalgia. It is the handing down of what the Church received from Christ and the Apostles. 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. Tradition protects the faithful from the tyranny of the present moment and from teachers who mistake novelty for life.

The grace to be practiced is Humble acceptance of ecclesiastical duty, 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 disinterested generosity through prayer, penance, alms, indulgenced works, reparation, and faithful surrender of their fruits.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist innovation that claims continuity while contradicting what was handed down. 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 humble acceptance of ecclesiastical duty 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 uncertainty about personal spiritual accounting without withholding charity, neglecting penance, presuming, or becoming discouraged. Offer the day's Rosary, mortification, suffering, duty, and works of mercy for souls in Purgatory according to Our Lady's wisdom.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Paul.

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Your Resolution Before God

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Examine religious claims by asking whether they agree with the Catholic Church identified by her four marks, rather than judging by impression or preference.

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Christ's true Church is known by four identifying marks: she is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. These marks protect the pilgrim from counterfeit religion.
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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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Examine self-love, presumption, fear, neglected reparation, and possessiveness, then entrust both justice and mercy to Jesus through Mary.

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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 my mind beneath the Church that is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. Do not let feeling, family custom, fear, or numbers replace Thy marks.

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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 Hold the Traditions and Refuse the Innovators\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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