{"ok":true,"date":"2028-09-26","dateKey":"09-26","liturgicalDay":"Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs","rank":"Simple","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Matthew 7:7, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#ask-seek-and-knock","category":"Prayer and the Interior Life"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs - 2028-09-26","previewText":"Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs. 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\nSs. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs\n2028-09-26 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nOccult practices: attempts to seek hidden knowledge or spiritual power through magic, divination, spirits, or other means forbidden by the First Commandment.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nChastity: the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\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. With Mary, receive the silence in which God prepares His deepest works. Consecrate speech to Jesus through Mary and ask that no word be spent merely to serve vanity or irritation.\n\n\"God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 4\n\nOur Lady's silence is not emptiness, timidity, or ignorance. Wisdom dwells within her, and therefore speech is not used to prove that she possesses it. She speaks when charity and God's will require speech; otherwise she keeps the mystery entrusted to her and allows the Word Himself to be heard.\n\nA soul beginning the interior life must learn this custody. Much grace is dissipated through unnecessary explanation, argument, and self-defense. Before speaking today, ask whether the words protect truth, fulfill duty, or help a soul. If they merely relieve the pressure of self-love, remain with Mary in silence.\n\nPRACTICE\nBegin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.\"\nHoly Scripture, Matthew 7:7, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - September 26\nAt Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian, and Justina, virgin. Under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, endeavored to bring her under the influence of his magical practices. She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him. Their bodies being exposed to the beasts, were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome. They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and deposited near the baptistery. — At Rome, the holy martyr Callistratus, and forty-nine other soldiers, who endured martyrdorn together, in the persecution of Diocletian. The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ on seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, where he had been thrown sewed up in a bag. — Also, at Rome, pope St. Eusebius. — At Bologna, St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor. — At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop. — At Albano, St. Senator. — In the territory of Frascati, the blessed abbot Mlus, founder of the monastery of CryptaFerrata, a man of eminent sanctity. — At Citta-diCastello, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSs. Cyprian and Justina\nMartyrs of conversion, chastity, and deliverance from evil.\nThe Martyrology records that St. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted St. Cyprian, who had tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.\nThey afterwards suffered martyrdom together under Diocletian. Their feast teaches the victory of grace over occult bondage—the search for hidden spiritual power apart from God—impurity, and the attempt to dominate another soul.\nAsk Saints Cyprian and Justina for clean freedom. Christ breaks the pride that tries to possess, manipulate, or corrupt another soul.\nFROM MATINS\nTrue worship breaks the power of sorcery.\nMatins - One Nocturn - Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs\nRoman Breviary\n\"No art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ.\"\n- The Breviary presents St. Justina's chastity and true worship of Christ as unconquered by spells, sorcery, and an attempted demonic coercion of her will.\n- St. Cyprian's conversion requires more than fear of occult power: he grieves over his former life, abandons the magical arts, and gives himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord.\n- Their shared martyrdom completes the lesson. Conversion and purity are preserved through steadfast confession of the Christian religion, even under imprisonment, torture, and death.\nReject spells, divination, charms, mediums, occult curiosity, and every attempt to obtain hidden power apart from God. If you have taken part in such things, renounce them completely and bring them honestly to sacramental Confession. Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for repentance, chastity, true worship, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nThird Lesson - From Sorcery to the Faith of Christ\nCyprian, at first a magician and afterwards a martyr, was attempting by spells and sorceries to entice the Christian virgin Justina, whom a certain young man ardently loved, to consent to that young man's lust. He consulted a demon as to how he might accomplish this. The demon answered him that no art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ. Moved by this answer, Cyprian began bitterly to grieve over his former way of life. And so, abandoning the magical arts, he converted himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord. For this reason he was arrested together with the virgin Justina, and both were beaten with fists and scourges; they were soon cast into prison, in case they might perhaps change their resolve. But when they were afterwards brought out and found most steadfast in the Christian religion, they were cast into a pan filled with boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally, they were beheaded at Nicomedia. After their cast-off bodies had lain unburied for six days, certain sailors secretly placed them aboard a ship by night and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of Rufina, a noblewoman; afterwards, having been translated into the City, they were laid in the Constantinian Basilica near the baptistery.\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 Chaste courage and 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 recollected silence: not refusal of necessary truth, but restraint governed by charity 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 chaste courage and 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. When tempted to defend yourself unnecessarily, remain peaceful beneath God's knowledge. Give full attention to the person or duty before you instead of preparing the next thing you wish to say.\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: Begin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.\nCarry this word: The faithful soul receives the day before it spends it.\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\nReview your conversations. Ask whether your words made Christ better known or merely made self more visible.\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, place this day beneath Thy Providence. Keep my mind in truth, my heart in charity, and my work in obedience until evening.\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=2028-09-26&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-09-26&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: Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs - 2028-09-26\n \n \n
\n Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs. 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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Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs

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2028-09-26 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - red

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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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Occult practices
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attempts to seek hidden knowledge or spiritual power through magic, divination, spirits, or other means forbidden by the First Commandment.
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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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Chastity
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the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.

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

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Today in the Roman Year

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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.

With Mary, receive the silence in which God prepares His deepest works.

Consecrate speech to Jesus through Mary and ask that no word be spent merely to serve vanity or irritation.

“God the Son consented that she should hardly ever speak, though He had communicated His wisdom to her.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 4

Our Lady's silence is not emptiness, timidity, or ignorance. Wisdom dwells within her, and therefore speech is not used to prove that she possesses it. She speaks when charity and God's will require speech; otherwise she keeps the mystery entrusted to her and allows the Word Himself to be heard.

A soul beginning the interior life must learn this custody. Much grace is dissipated through unnecessary explanation, argument, and self-defense. Before speaking today, ask whether the words protect truth, fulfill duty, or help a soul. If they merely relieve the pressure of self-love, remain with Mary in silence.

Begin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.

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Quote of the Day

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“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.”
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Holy Scripture, Matthew 7:7, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - September 26

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At Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian, and Justina, virgin. Under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, endeavored to bring her under the influence of his magical practices. She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him. Their bodies being exposed to the beasts, were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome. They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and deposited near the baptistery. — At Rome, the holy martyr Callistratus, and forty-nine other soldiers, who endured martyrdorn together, in the persecution of Diocletian. The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ on seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, where he had been thrown sewed up in a bag. — Also, at Rome, pope St. Eusebius. — At Bologna, St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor. — At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop. — At Albano, St. Senator. — In the territory of Frascati, the blessed abbot Mlus, founder of the monastery of CryptaFerrata, a man of eminent sanctity. — At Citta-diCastello, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.

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Highlighted Saint

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Ss. Cyprian and Justina

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Martyrs of conversion, chastity, and deliverance from evil.

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The Martyrology records that St. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted St. Cyprian, who had tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.

They afterwards suffered martyrdom together under Diocletian. Their feast teaches the victory of grace over occult bondage—the search for hidden spiritual power apart from God—impurity, and the attempt to dominate another soul.

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Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for clean freedom. Christ breaks the pride that tries to possess, manipulate, or corrupt another soul.

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From Matins

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True worship breaks the power of sorcery.

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Matins - One Nocturn - Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs

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Roman Breviary, Proper lesson for Ss. Cyprian and Justina

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“No art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ.”
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  • The Breviary presents St. Justina's chastity and true worship of Christ as unconquered by spells, sorcery, and an attempted demonic coercion of her will.
  • St. Cyprian's conversion requires more than fear of occult power: he grieves over his former life, abandons the magical arts, and gives himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord.
  • Their shared martyrdom completes the lesson. Conversion and purity are preserved through steadfast confession of the Christian religion, even under imprisonment, torture, and death.
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Reject spells, divination, charms, mediums, occult curiosity, and every attempt to obtain hidden power apart from God. If you have taken part in such things, renounce them completely and bring them honestly to sacramental Confession. Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for repentance, chastity, true worship, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Third Lesson - From Sorcery to the Faith of Christ

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Cyprian, at first a magician and afterwards a martyr, was attempting by spells and sorceries to entice the Christian virgin Justina, whom a certain young man ardently loved, to consent to that young man's lust. He consulted a demon as to how he might accomplish this. The demon answered him that no art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ. Moved by this answer, Cyprian began bitterly to grieve over his former way of life. And so, abandoning the magical arts, he converted himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord. For this reason he was arrested together with the virgin Justina, and both were beaten with fists and scourges; they were soon cast into prison, in case they might perhaps change their resolve. But when they were afterwards brought out and found most steadfast in the Christian religion, they were cast into a pan filled with boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally, they were beheaded at Nicomedia. After their cast-off bodies had lain unburied for six days, certain sailors secretly placed them aboard a ship by night and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of Rufina, a noblewoman; afterwards, having been translated into the City, they were laid in the Constantinian Basilica near the baptistery.

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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 Chaste courage and 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 recollected silence: not refusal of necessary truth, but restraint governed by charity 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 chaste courage and 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. When tempted to defend yourself unnecessarily, remain peaceful beneath God's knowledge. Give full attention to the person or duty before you instead of preparing the next thing you wish to say.

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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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Begin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.

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The faithful soul receives the day before it spends it.
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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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Review your conversations. Ask whether your words made Christ better known or merely made self more visible.

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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, place this day beneath Thy Providence. Keep my mind in truth, my heart in charity, and my work in obedience until evening.

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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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