{"ok":true,"date":"2028-10-14","dateKey":"10-14","liturgicalDay":"St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr","rank":"Double","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"John 17:17, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#sanctified-in-truth","category":"Truth: Christ and His Church"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr - 2028-10-14","previewText":"St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr. The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ. Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr\n2028-10-14 - Time after Pentecost - Double - red\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.\nIlluminative way: the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nThe full Breviary lessons preserve an older English translation. Read the modern explanation first; it identifies the people, event, and doctrine before the historical wording appears.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nSt. Callistus carried the burden of governing the Roman Church through humiliation and death. The papal office is not worldly immunity, and ecclesiastical dignity is not permission to alter the Faith received from the Apostles. Pray for shepherds to spend themselves for souls and examine whether you accept correction as readily as you demand courage from others. With Mary, enter Advent by choosing the hidden approval of God before the notice of the world. Ask Our Lady for a hidden beginning. Offer the whole day to God through her, including the parts that no one else will see or praise.\n\n\"Mary was singularly hidden during her life.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 2\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort begins by placing Our Lady where the world does not know how to look. Her life is not built around display. The greatest creature God made is content to be known by Him, to receive His will without constructing an audience, and to let the mystery of Christ occupy the place that self-love continually seeks for itself.\n\nA new formation in true devotion must therefore begin with hiddenness. Do not ask first how devotion will make you feel or how it will appear. Ask which faithful act can be performed today for God alone. Our Lady will teach you that a soul loses nothing by disappearing from human notice when Jesus Christ is being formed within it.\n\nPRACTICE\nAsk what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.\"\nHoly Scripture, John 17:17, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - October 14\nAt Rome, on the Aurelian road, the birthday of blessed Callistus, pope and martyr. By order of the emperor Alexander, after being a long time kept in prison without food, and daily scourged with rods, he was finally hurled from the window of the house in which he had been shut up, and cast into a well, and thus merited the triumph awarded to conquerors. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, St. Fortunata, virgin and martyr, during the persecution of Diocletian. After having been subjected to the rack, to fire, to the teeth of beasts and other torments, she gave up her soul to God. Her body was afterwards conveyed to Naples, in Campania. — Also, the Saints Carponius, Evaristus, and Priscian, brothers of the said blessed Fortunata, who having their throats cut, obtained likewise the crown of martyrdom. — Also, the Saints Saturninus and Lupus. — At Rimini, St. Gaudentius, bishop and martyr. — At Todi, St. Fortunatus, bishop, who, as is mentioned by blessed Gregory, was endowed with an extraordinary gift for casting out unclean spirits. — At Wurtzburg, St. Burchard, first bishop of that city. — At Bruges, in Belgium, St. Donatian, bishop of Kheims. — At Treves, St. Rusticus, bishop. — The same day, the departure out of this world of St. Dominic Loricatus. In Italy, St. Bernard, confessor.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Callistus I\nPope and martyr cast into the well.\nThe Martyrology honors St. Callistus, pope and martyr, who after imprisonment and scourging was cast into a well and gained the triumph of martyrdom.\nHis feast teaches that the Roman shepherd's office is not worldly security. The successor of Peter may be humiliated and slain, yet the office remains ordered to Christ's flock.\nLet St. Callistus steady the heart. Apostolic office is not disproved by suffering; often it is revealed beneath suffering.\nFROM MATINS\nThe Roman shepherd who descended into the well and rose by martyrdom.\nMatins - Second Nocturn - St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr\nRoman Breviary\n\"He was pitched head-foremost down a well, and so crowned with martyrdom.\"\n- The Breviary remembers St. Callistus ordering the Roman Church, honoring the bodies of martyrs, and receiving converts from high and low rank.\n- Even in prison his pastoral office remained fruitful when he healed the soldier Privatus and gained him to Christ.\n- Starvation, scourging, and an ignominious death did not empty the papal office of dignity; they revealed its final measure beneath the Cross.\nJudge sacred office by fidelity, not worldly security. A shepherd may be cast down before men and yet be crowned because he continues to gather, heal, baptize, and confess Christ.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nFourth Lesson - The Roman Church Ordered and the Martyrs Honored\nKallistus was a Roman, and ruled the Church in the time of the Emperor Antoninus Heliogabalus. He confirmed the institution of the Ember Fasts, the observance of which hath been received by tradition from the Apostles. He built the Church of St Mary-beyond-the-Tiber, and enlarged the old burying-place on the Appian Way, wherein are buried so many holy Priests and Martyrs, and which hath since been called, on account of this enlargement, the Cemetery of Kallistus.\nFifth Lesson - Pastoral Fruitfulness in Prison\nIt was by his reverence that the body of the blessed Priest and Martyr Calepodius, which had been cast into the Tiber, was carefully looked for, and, when it had been found, honourably buried. He baptized Palmatius, of Consular, and Simplicius, of Senatorial rank, and likewise Felix and Blanda, all of whom in the end underwent martyrdom. On this account he was thrown into prison, where he wonderfully healed a soldier named Privatus, who was full of sores, and so gained him to Christ; and this Privatus had hardly received the faith, before he was lashed to death with scourges loaded with lead.\nSixth Lesson - Crowned with Martyrdom\nKallistus sat as Pope five years, one month, and twelve days. He held five Ordinations in the month of December, wherein he ordained sixteen Priests, four Deacons, and eight Bishops. After being long starved, and repeatedly flogged, he was pitched head-foremost down a well, and so crowned with martyrdom, under the Emperor Alexander. His body was carried to the Cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, at the third mile-stone from the city, upon the 14th day of October, but was afterwards taken to the Church of St Mary-beyond-the-Tiber, which had been built by himself. There it lieth beneath the High Altar, and is held in great reverence of all men.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The true Church is not an invisible collection of private opinions, but the society founded by Our Lord, teaching, sanctifying, and governing in His name. 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. Apostolicity guards continuity of doctrine, worship, mission, and authority. The faithful do not invent the Church; they receive her from Christ through the Apostles.\nThe grace to be practiced is Roman fidelity under humiliation, 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. Imitate Mary's humility by allowing God, rather than human notice, to be the sufficient witness of a good act.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded. 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 roman fidelity under humiliation 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. Receive obscurity without treating it as rejection. Hidden fidelity is precious before God. Perform the least noticed duty with the same care you would give it under the eyes of the whole household.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Robert Bellarmine.\nYour resolution before God: Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.\nCarry this word: The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"All that is in this world is vanity, but to love God and only to serve Him.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 1, p. 9\nCreated things are good when they lead the soul to God and become dangerous when they claim the heart. Put the day's lesser goods beneath the one necessary end.\n\nVanity does not always announce itself through great ambition. It often appears as a small comfort you believe you cannot surrender, an opinion you must defend, or praise you continue to replay. Ask God to show you the attachment that is quietly asking to be treated as necessary.\nToday's Practice: Renounce needless comforts whenever they compete with prayer, duty, or charity, and offer the sacrifices to God through Mary.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether you sought to be seen, thanked, or vindicated. Place that hunger quietly into Mary's hands.\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, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.\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\nThe Visibility of the Church: https://cityofgodinexile.com/how-the-true-church-is-known/chapter-10-the-visibility-of-the-church-the-light-that-cannot-be-hidden?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-10-14&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-10-14&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. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr - 2028-10-14\n \n \n
\n St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr. The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ. Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

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2028-10-14 - Time after Pentecost - Double - 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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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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Illuminative way
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the stage of spiritual growth in which prayer and virtue deepen, helping a person understand God's truth more clearly and follow Christ more steadily.
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Martyr
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a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.

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

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Today in the Roman Year

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St. Callistus carried the burden of governing the Roman Church through humiliation and death. The papal office is not worldly immunity, and ecclesiastical dignity is not permission to alter the Faith received from the Apostles. Pray for shepherds to spend themselves for souls and examine whether you accept correction as readily as you demand courage from others.

With Mary, enter Advent by choosing the hidden approval of God before the notice of the world.

Ask Our Lady for a hidden beginning. Offer the whole day to God through her, including the parts that no one else will see or praise.

“Mary was singularly hidden during her life.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 2

St. Louis de Montfort begins by placing Our Lady where the world does not know how to look. Her life is not built around display. The greatest creature God made is content to be known by Him, to receive His will without constructing an audience, and to let the mystery of Christ occupy the place that self-love continually seeks for itself.

A new formation in true devotion must therefore begin with hiddenness. Do not ask first how devotion will make you feel or how it will appear. Ask which faithful act can be performed today for God alone. Our Lady will teach you that a soul loses nothing by disappearing from human notice when Jesus Christ is being formed within it.

Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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Quote of the Day

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“Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth.”
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Holy Scripture, John 17:17, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - October 14

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At Rome, on the Aurelian road, the birthday of blessed Callistus, pope and martyr. By order of the emperor Alexander, after being a long time kept in prison without food, and daily scourged with rods, he was finally hurled from the window of the house in which he had been shut up, and cast into a well, and thus merited the triumph awarded to conquerors. — At Caesarea, in Palestine, St. Fortunata, virgin and martyr, during the persecution of Diocletian. After having been subjected to the rack, to fire, to the teeth of beasts and other torments, she gave up her soul to God. Her body was afterwards conveyed to Naples, in Campania. — Also, the Saints Carponius, Evaristus, and Priscian, brothers of the said blessed Fortunata, who having their throats cut, obtained likewise the crown of martyrdom. — Also, the Saints Saturninus and Lupus. — At Rimini, St. Gaudentius, bishop and martyr. — At Todi, St. Fortunatus, bishop, who, as is mentioned by blessed Gregory, was endowed with an extraordinary gift for casting out unclean spirits. — At Wurtzburg, St. Burchard, first bishop of that city. — At Bruges, in Belgium, St. Donatian, bishop of Kheims. — At Treves, St. Rusticus, bishop. — The same day, the departure out of this world of St. Dominic Loricatus. In Italy, St. Bernard, confessor.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Callistus I

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Pope and martyr cast into the well.

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The Martyrology honors St. Callistus, pope and martyr, who after imprisonment and scourging was cast into a well and gained the triumph of martyrdom.

His feast teaches that the Roman shepherd's office is not worldly security. The successor of Peter may be humiliated and slain, yet the office remains ordered to Christ's flock.

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Let St. Callistus steady the heart. Apostolic office is not disproved by suffering; often it is revealed beneath suffering.

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From Matins

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The Roman shepherd who descended into the well and rose by martyrdom.

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Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Callistus I, Pope and Martyr

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Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Callistus I

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“He was pitched head-foremost down a well, and so crowned with martyrdom.”
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  • The Breviary remembers St. Callistus ordering the Roman Church, honoring the bodies of martyrs, and receiving converts from high and low rank.
  • Even in prison his pastoral office remained fruitful when he healed the soldier Privatus and gained him to Christ.
  • Starvation, scourging, and an ignominious death did not empty the papal office of dignity; they revealed its final measure beneath the Cross.
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Judge sacred office by fidelity, not worldly security. A shepherd may be cast down before men and yet be crowned because he continues to gather, heal, baptize, and confess Christ.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Fourth Lesson - The Roman Church Ordered and the Martyrs Honored

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Kallistus was a Roman, and ruled the Church in the time of the Emperor Antoninus Heliogabalus. He confirmed the institution of the Ember Fasts, the observance of which hath been received by tradition from the Apostles. He built the Church of St Mary-beyond-the-Tiber, and enlarged the old burying-place on the Appian Way, wherein are buried so many holy Priests and Martyrs, and which hath since been called, on account of this enlargement, the Cemetery of Kallistus.

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Fifth Lesson - Pastoral Fruitfulness in Prison

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It was by his reverence that the body of the blessed Priest and Martyr Calepodius, which had been cast into the Tiber, was carefully looked for, and, when it had been found, honourably buried. He baptized Palmatius, of Consular, and Simplicius, of Senatorial rank, and likewise Felix and Blanda, all of whom in the end underwent martyrdom. On this account he was thrown into prison, where he wonderfully healed a soldier named Privatus, who was full of sores, and so gained him to Christ; and this Privatus had hardly received the faith, before he was lashed to death with scourges loaded with lead.

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Sixth Lesson - Crowned with Martyrdom

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Kallistus sat as Pope five years, one month, and twelve days. He held five Ordinations in the month of December, wherein he ordained sixteen Priests, four Deacons, and eight Bishops. After being long starved, and repeatedly flogged, he was pitched head-foremost down a well, and so crowned with martyrdom, under the Emperor Alexander. His body was carried to the Cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, at the third mile-stone from the city, upon the 14th day of October, but was afterwards taken to the Church of St Mary-beyond-the-Tiber, which had been built by himself. There it lieth beneath the High Altar, and is held in great reverence of all men.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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The Church Is Visible and Founded by Christ

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The Church places this truth before you today: The true Church is not an invisible collection of private opinions, but the society founded by Our Lord, teaching, sanctifying, and governing in His name. 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. Apostolicity guards continuity of doctrine, worship, mission, and authority. The faithful do not invent the Church; they receive her from Christ through the Apostles.

The grace to be practiced is Roman fidelity under humiliation, 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. Imitate Mary's humility by allowing God, rather than human notice, to be the sufficient witness of a good act.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the claim that a self-made religious fellowship can replace the Church Christ visibly founded. 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 roman fidelity under humiliation 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. Receive obscurity without treating it as rejection. Hidden fidelity is precious before God. Perform the least noticed duty with the same care you would give it under the eyes of the whole household.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Ask what light God has already given you, then obey it visibly throughout your conduct.

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The illuminative way asks whether the soul obeyed the light already given.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“All that is in this world is vanity, but to love God and only to serve Him.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 1, p. 9

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Created things are good when they lead the soul to God and become dangerous when they claim the heart. Put the day's lesser goods beneath the one necessary end.

Vanity does not always announce itself through great ambition. It often appears as a small comfort you believe you cannot surrender, an opinion you must defend, or praise you continue to replay. Ask God to show you the attachment that is quietly asking to be treated as necessary.

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Today's Practice

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Renounce needless comforts whenever they compete with prayer, duty, or charity, and offer the sacrifices to God through Mary.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether you sought to be seen, thanked, or vindicated. Place that hunger quietly into Mary's hands.

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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, do not let me seek more knowledge while neglecting known duty. Make me prompt, recollected, humble, and faithful to grace.

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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 The Visibility of the Church\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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