{"ok":true,"date":"2028-10-22","dateKey":"10-22","liturgicalDay":"20th Sunday after Pentecost","rank":"Semi-Double Sunday","color":"green","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Now ‘he who raised him’ from the dead ‘will also raise us up’ if we do his will, and walk in his commandments […].","author":"St. Polycarp of Smyrna","source":"Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 2, §2","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#raised-if-we-do-his-will","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: 20th Sunday after Pentecost - 2028-10-22","previewText":"20th Sunday after Pentecost. Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church. Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\n20th Sunday after Pentecost\n2028-10-22 - Time after Pentecost - Semi-Double Sunday - green\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nSpiritual consolation: encouragement, peace, light, or strength permitted by God in prayer; it is a help toward fidelity, not the purpose of the spiritual life.\nReal Presence: the Catholic teaching that Jesus Christ Himself is truly and substantially present in the consecrated Eucharist, not merely represented by a symbol.\nHoly Sacrifice: the Mass, in which Christ's one sacrifice on Calvary is made sacramentally present and offered to the Father.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe manner in which a Catholic approaches the altar teaches what he believes about God, sacrifice, sin, grace, and the Real Presence. Reverence is therefore not decoration, and invented worship is never spiritually neutral. Renew one act of faith in the Holy Sacrifice and pray for souls whose belief has been weakened by irreverence. Ask for a love of Our Lady that grows deeper rather than merely more talkative. Tell Our Lady simply that you desire to serve her Divine Son under her direction, not merely to feel devotion.\n\n\"Of Mary there is never enough.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 10\n\nThis famous saying must not be understood as permission for exaggeration, invention, or devotion separated from doctrine. St. Louis de Montfort immediately speaks of praising, honoring, loving, and serving Mary as we ought. The little word serving protects the whole sentence from sentimentality.\n\nThere is never enough true devotion because there is never enough surrender to Jesus Christ. The soul can always receive His Mother more faithfully, imitate her more exactly, pray with greater recollection, and surrender another reserve of self-will. Ask not for more emotion today, but for more faithful service.\n\nPRACTICE\nName the graces God has preserved for you in exile and thank Him for them plainly.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Now ‘he who raised him’ from the dead ‘will also raise us up’ if we do his will, and walk in his commandments […].\"\nSt. Polycarp of Smyrna, Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 2, §2\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - October 22\nAt Jerusalem, the blessed bishop Mark, a celebrated and learned man, who was the first Gentile that governed the chuch of Jerusalem. His brief episcopate was rewarded by the palm of martyrdom, under the emperor Antoninus. — At Adrianople, in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Philip, bishop, Severus, priest, Eusebius, and Hermes, who, after being imprisoned and scourged, were burned alive, in the time of Julian the Apostate. — Also, the holy martyrs Alexander, bishop, Heracilus, soldier, and their companions. — At Fermo, in the Marches, St. Philip, bishop and martyr. — At Huesca, in Spain, the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia, sisters, who endured martyrdom by being condemned to capital punishment by the Saracens for the confession of the faith. — At Cologne, St. Cordula, one of the companions of St. Ursula, who, being terrified at the torments and slaughter of the other virgins, hid herself, but soon repenting, came forward the next day, and last of all received the crown of martyrdom. — At Hierapolis, in Phrygia, St. Abercius, bishop, who flourished under the emperor Marcus Antoninus. — At Rouen, St. Melanius, bishop, who was ordained by pope St. Stephen, and sent thither to preach the Gospel. — In Tuscany, St. Donatus, of Scotland, bishop of Fiesoli. — At Verona, St. Verecundus, bishop and confessor. — At Jerusalem, St. Mary Salome, who, as we read in the Gospel, piously attended to the burial of our Lord.\n\nGOSPEL OF THE DAY\nThy son liveth.\n20th Sunday after Pentecost - John 4:46-53\n\"Go thy way, thy son liveth.\"\nWalk home on the promise. The grace may already be at work before your feelings have caught up with faith.\n\nTHE CHURCH'S READING OF THE GOSPEL\nWhat This Gospel Teaches\nChrist asks faith in His word before visible proof is received.\nThe ruler believes and walks home under the strength of a promise.\nError corrected: The faith that refuses to move until it sees signs.\n- Where does this error tempt me in practice?\n- What act does this Gospel require of me today?\n\nFROM MATINS\nFaith strengthened beyond bodily sight.\nMatins - Third Nocturn - 20th Sunday after Pentecost\nPope St. Gregory the Great\n\"Had his faith been perfect, he would doubtless have known that God is everywhere.\"\n- The Breviary uses the nobleman's prayer to distinguish imperfect faith from fuller confidence in Christ's divine power.\n- St. Gregory teaches that the nobleman believed truly, yet still imagined Christ's bodily presence necessary for healing.\n- Our Lord heals by command, showing that divine mercy is not limited by distance.\nAsk for faith that does not collapse when Christ is not felt nearby. His command reaches farther than your sight.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nRevelation Was Entrusted to the Church\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are received within the Church, whose divinely assisted teaching office guards the deposit of faith. 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. Private reading must remain subject to the faith once delivered, because the Scriptures belong to the Church that received, preserved, and interprets them.\nThe grace to be practiced is Trust Christ's word before consolation arrives, drawn from today's Gospel. 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 constancy by keeping your Marian prayers with attention when novelty and feeling are absent.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine. 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 trust Christ's word before consolation arrives 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. Let dryness purify devotion from the demand to be consoled; remain faithful because God is worthy. Perform all your duties faithfully, correcting with special care the duty you habitually perform carelessly, as a servant of Jesus and Mary.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of apostolic; the witness placed beside it is St. Irenaeus.\nYour resolution before God: Name the graces God has preserved for you in exile and thank Him for them plainly.\nCarry this word: The soul in exile is not abandoned.\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\nMeasure devotion by obedience, purity, prayer, and charity rather than by the feelings the day provided.\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, when confusion, scarcity, or loneliness presses upon me, keep me from despair. Thou hast not abandoned the faithful who cling to truth.\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\nSt. Irenaeus and Apostolic Tradition: https://cityofgodinexile.com/champions-of-orthodoxy/st-irenaeus-and-apostolic-tradition-against-the-innovators?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-10-22&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-10-22&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: 20th Sunday after Pentecost - 2028-10-22\n \n \n
\n 20th Sunday after Pentecost. Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church. Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine.\n
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\n \"City\n
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City of God in Exile

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20th Sunday after Pentecost

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2028-10-22 - Time after Pentecost - Semi-Double Sunday - green

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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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Spiritual consolation
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encouragement, peace, light, or strength permitted by God in prayer; it is a help toward fidelity, not the purpose of the spiritual life.
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Real Presence
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the Catholic teaching that Jesus Christ Himself is truly and substantially present in the consecrated Eucharist, not merely represented by a symbol.
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Holy Sacrifice
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the Mass, in which Christ's one sacrifice on Calvary is made sacramentally present and offered to the Father.
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Today in the Roman Year

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The manner in which a Catholic approaches the altar teaches what he believes about God, sacrifice, sin, grace, and the Real Presence. Reverence is therefore not decoration, and invented worship is never spiritually neutral. Renew one act of faith in the Holy Sacrifice and pray for souls whose belief has been weakened by irreverence.

Ask for a love of Our Lady that grows deeper rather than merely more talkative.

Tell Our Lady simply that you desire to serve her Divine Son under her direction, not merely to feel devotion.

“Of Mary there is never enough.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 10

This famous saying must not be understood as permission for exaggeration, invention, or devotion separated from doctrine. St. Louis de Montfort immediately speaks of praising, honoring, loving, and serving Mary as we ought. The little word serving protects the whole sentence from sentimentality.

There is never enough true devotion because there is never enough surrender to Jesus Christ. The soul can always receive His Mother more faithfully, imitate her more exactly, pray with greater recollection, and surrender another reserve of self-will. Ask not for more emotion today, but for more faithful service.

Name the graces God has preserved for you in exile and thank Him for them plainly.

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\n \n \n
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Quote of the Day

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“Now ‘he who raised him’ from the dead ‘will also raise us up’ if we do his will, and walk in his commandments […].”
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St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 2, §2

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Roman Martyrology - October 22

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At Jerusalem, the blessed bishop Mark, a celebrated and learned man, who was the first Gentile that governed the chuch of Jerusalem. His brief episcopate was rewarded by the palm of martyrdom, under the emperor Antoninus. — At Adrianople, in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Philip, bishop, Severus, priest, Eusebius, and Hermes, who, after being imprisoned and scourged, were burned alive, in the time of Julian the Apostate. — Also, the holy martyrs Alexander, bishop, Heracilus, soldier, and their companions. — At Fermo, in the Marches, St. Philip, bishop and martyr. — At Huesca, in Spain, the holy virgins Nunilo and Alodia, sisters, who endured martyrdom by being condemned to capital punishment by the Saracens for the confession of the faith. — At Cologne, St. Cordula, one of the companions of St. Ursula, who, being terrified at the torments and slaughter of the other virgins, hid herself, but soon repenting, came forward the next day, and last of all received the crown of martyrdom. — At Hierapolis, in Phrygia, St. Abercius, bishop, who flourished under the emperor Marcus Antoninus. — At Rouen, St. Melanius, bishop, who was ordained by pope St. Stephen, and sent thither to preach the Gospel. — In Tuscany, St. Donatus, of Scotland, bishop of Fiesoli. — At Verona, St. Verecundus, bishop and confessor. — At Jerusalem, St. Mary Salome, who, as we read in the Gospel, piously attended to the burial of our Lord.

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Gospel of the Day

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Thy son liveth.

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20th Sunday after Pentecost - John 4:46-53

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“Go thy way, thy son liveth.”
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Walk home on the promise. The grace may already be at work before your feelings have caught up with faith.

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The Church's Reading of the Gospel

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What This Gospel Teaches

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Christ asks faith in His word before visible proof is received.

The ruler believes and walks home under the strength of a promise.

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Error corrected: The faith that refuses to move until it sees signs.

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    \n
  • Where does this error tempt me in practice?
  • What act does this Gospel require of me today?
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From Matins

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Faith strengthened beyond bodily sight.

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Matins - Third Nocturn - 20th Sunday after Pentecost

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Pope St. Gregory the Great, Homily 28 on the Gospels

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“Had his faith been perfect, he would doubtless have known that God is everywhere.”
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    \n
  • The Breviary uses the nobleman's prayer to distinguish imperfect faith from fuller confidence in Christ's divine power.
  • St. Gregory teaches that the nobleman believed truly, yet still imagined Christ's bodily presence necessary for healing.
  • Our Lord heals by command, showing that divine mercy is not limited by distance.
    • \n
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Ask for faith that does not collapse when Christ is not felt nearby. His command reaches farther than your sight.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

\n

Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church

\n

The Church places this truth before you today: Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition are received within the Church, whose divinely assisted teaching office guards the deposit of faith. 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. Private reading must remain subject to the faith once delivered, because the Scriptures belong to the Church that received, preserved, and interprets them.

The grace to be practiced is Trust Christ's word before consolation arrives, drawn from today's Gospel. 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 constancy by keeping your Marian prayers with attention when novelty and feeling are absent.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist private judgment when it sets itself above the Church's received doctrine. 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 trust Christ's word before consolation arrives 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. Let dryness purify devotion from the demand to be consoled; remain faithful because God is worthy. Perform all your duties faithfully, correcting with special care the duty you habitually perform carelessly, as a servant of Jesus and Mary.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Name the graces God has preserved for you in exile and thank Him for them plainly.

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The soul in exile is not abandoned.
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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.”
\n

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 10, p. 18

\n \n

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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Measure devotion by obedience, purity, prayer, and charity rather than by the feelings the day provided.

\n \n
    \n
  • 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?
    • \n
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Prayer

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O Lord, when confusion, scarcity, or loneliness presses upon me, keep me from despair. Thou hast not abandoned the faithful who cling to truth.

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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 St. Irenaeus and Apostolic Tradition\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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\n \"The\n
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\n \n","links":{"sacredCalendar":"/sacred-calendar?date=2028-10-22","webPreview":"/daily-dispatch?date=2028-10-22","emailPreview":"/daily-dispatch/email?date=2028-10-22","formationIndex":"/daily-dispatch/formation","subscribe":"/daily-dispatch/subscribe"},"included":{"martyrology":true,"gospelReflection":true,"saintlyWitness":false,"breviaryReading":false,"patristicBreviaryLesson":true,"faithPoint":"Revelation Was Entrusted to the Church"}}