{"ok":true,"date":"2028-10-26","dateKey":"10-26","liturgicalDay":"St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr","rank":"Simple","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Wisdom is clear, and such as never fadeth, and is easily seen of them that love her, and is found of them that seek her.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Wisdom 6:13, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#seek-wisdom","category":"Wisdom and Holy Fear"},"season":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr - 2028-10-26","previewText":"St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr. Mary Is Mother of God and Mother of the Faithful. Resist every thin devotion that praises Mary while separating her from doctrine, sacrifice, and the life of grace.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSt. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr\n2028-10-26 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - 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.\nClergy or cleric: the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.\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. Evaristus recalls the early Roman shepherds who guarded apostolic faith amid persecution. Order, office, and succession serve the Church because Christ entrusted a definite doctrine and sacramental life to be handed on, not reinvented. Pray for clergy whose authority is costly, and refuse the modern habit of separating office from fidelity. Before going farther, stand with St. Louis de Montfort beneath the infinite majesty and complete sufficiency of God. Adore the Blessed Trinity first, then receive with gratitude the Mother whom God freely chose to employ in His works of grace.\n\n\"I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 14\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort pauses before teaching Mary's necessity in God's freely chosen order because devotion must remain beneath theology. Mary is a creature. God alone is Being of Himself, infinitely perfect and sufficient. He did not employ Our Lady because His power lacked anything; He chose her because His wisdom and goodness willed this beautiful order.\n\nThis truth makes devotion both safer and deeper. You do not approach Mary as a rival source of grace or an easier substitute for God. You honor the creature precisely by reverencing the Creator's choice. Let every Marian prayer end where she desires it to end: in adoration of the Blessed Trinity and more perfect servitude to Jesus Christ.\n\nPRACTICE\nBegin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Wisdom is clear, and such as never fadeth, and is easily seen of them that love her, and is found of them that seek her.\"\nHoly Scripture, Wisdom 6:13, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - October 26\nAt Rome, in the time of the emperor Adrian, St. Evaristus, pope and martyr, who enriched the Church of God with his blood. — In Africa, the holy martyrs Rogatian, priest, and Felicissimus, who received the bright crown of martyrs, in the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. They are mentioned by St. Cyprian in his epistle to the Confessors. — At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Lucian, Florius and their companions. — The same day, St. Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. By the Arian king Genseric, he and his clergy were put on board of leaking boats without oars or sails, but beyond all expectations he landed at Naples, and there in exile died a confessor. — At Narbonne, St. Rusticus, bishop and confessor, who flourished in the time of the emperors Valentinian and Leo. — At Salerno, St. Gaudiosus, bishop. — At Pavia, St. Fulk, bishop. — At Hildesheim, in Saxony, St. Bernward, bishop and confessor, who was ranked among the saints by Celestine III. — Also, St. Quadragesimus, sub-deacon, who raised a dead man to life.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSt. Evaristus\nPope and martyr who enriched the Church with his blood.\nThe 1942 Roman Breviary places St. Evaristus's pontificate under Trajan and remembers his ordering of the Roman titles, his sacramental discipline, his ordinations, and his martyrdom. The 1916 Roman Martyrology instead places the martyrdom notice in the time of Hadrian; the two pre-1955 liturgical witnesses are therefore cited without silently harmonizing their chronology.\nHis feast teaches the cost of apostolic office. The Church is not strengthened by management alone, but by shepherds who guard doctrine, worship, sacramental life, and evangelical preaching even unto blood.\nAsk St. Evaristus for reverence toward office without illusions about comfort. Christ's shepherds are safest when they know the office belongs to Him.\nFROM MATINS\nApostolic order serving public faith and sacramental fidelity.\nMatins - One Nocturn - St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr\nRoman Breviary\n\"According to apostolic tradition.\"\n- The Breviary places St. Evaristus within the visible succession and government of the Roman Church during Trajan's reign, assigning priests to the Roman titles and deacons to attend the bishop in his evangelical preaching.\n- It joins ecclesiastical order to sacramental discipline by remembering his decree that marriage be publicly celebrated with the blessing of a priest, according to apostolic tradition.\n- His ordinations and martyrdom show that the Church's offices exist to hand on doctrine, worship, sacramental life, and pastoral mission, even when that fidelity costs the shepherd his blood.\nHonor apostolic order by receiving what it exists to guard: public confession of the Faith, sacramental discipline, evangelical preaching, and fidelity unto sacrifice. Authority is not self-justifying; it serves the tradition received from the Apostles.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nThird Lesson - Order according to Apostolic Tradition\nEvaristus was a Greek, the son of a Jewish father, and exercised the pontificate during the reign of Trajan. He divided the titles of the churches of the city of Rome among the priests and ordained that seven deacons should attend the bishop while he discharged the office of preaching the Gospel. He likewise decreed, according to apostolic tradition, that marriage should be celebrated publicly and the blessing of a priest employed. He governed the Church for nine years and three months, ordaining seventeen priests, two deacons, and fifteen bishops in four ordinations held in the month of December. Crowned with martyrdom, he was buried near the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles in the Vatican on the seventh day before the Kalends of November.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nMary Is Mother of God and Mother of the Faithful\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly Mother of God, and her maternal office belongs to the order of Christ's Incarnation, Passion, and grace. 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. Marian doctrine protects the truth about Christ: one divine Person, truly God and truly man, born of the Virgin Mother.\nThe grace to be practiced is Apostolic fidelity unto blood, 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 theological order: worship God alone, honor Our Lady according to His will, and let every devotion serve union with Christ.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist every thin devotion that praises Mary while separating her from doctrine, sacrifice, and the life of grace. 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 apostolic fidelity unto blood 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. Renounce both irreverent neglect of Mary and sentimental exaggeration; truth is a narrower and more beautiful road than either distortion. End your Marian prayers with deliberate adoration and obedience to Jesus Christ.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Cyril of Alexandria.\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\"Virtue appeareth best in time of adversity. Occasions make not a man frail, but they shew openly what he is.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 16, p. 27\nThe trial does not excuse the fault; it reveals where grace must be received and nature mortified. Do not waste the revelation God permits.\n\nWhen adversity uncovers impatience or fear, do not conclude that every previous effort was false. Thank God for showing you where the wall remains weak. Humble yourself, ask pardon if another was wounded, and return to the battle with a more honest knowledge of your need for grace.\nToday's Practice: At the next contradiction, name the virtue being tested and practice it once.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether your devotion magnified God, diminished self-will, and made obedience to Christ more exact.\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\nThe Mother of My Lord: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/luke-1-43-the-mother-of-my-lord-and-the-marian-guard-of-christological-truth?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-10-26&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-10-26&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: St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr - 2028-10-26\n \n \n
\n St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr. Mary Is Mother of God and Mother of the Faithful. Resist every thin devotion that praises Mary while separating her from doctrine, sacrifice, and the life of grace.\n
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City of God in Exile

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St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr

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2028-10-26 - 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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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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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. Evaristus recalls the early Roman shepherds who guarded apostolic faith amid persecution. Order, office, and succession serve the Church because Christ entrusted a definite doctrine and sacramental life to be handed on, not reinvented. Pray for clergy whose authority is costly, and refuse the modern habit of separating office from fidelity.

Before going farther, stand with St. Louis de Montfort beneath the infinite majesty and complete sufficiency of God.

Adore the Blessed Trinity first, then receive with gratitude the Mother whom God freely chose to employ in His works of grace.

“I avow, with all the Church, that Mary, being a mere creature that has come from the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all, because only He is “He who is” (Exod. 3:14); consequently that grand Lord, always independent and sufficient to Himself, never had, and has not now, any absolute need of the holy Virgin for the accomplishment of His will and for the manifestation of His glory. He has but to will in order to do everything.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 14

St. Louis de Montfort pauses before teaching Mary's necessity in God's freely chosen order because devotion must remain beneath theology. Mary is a creature. God alone is Being of Himself, infinitely perfect and sufficient. He did not employ Our Lady because His power lacked anything; He chose her because His wisdom and goodness willed this beautiful order.

This truth makes devotion both safer and deeper. You do not approach Mary as a rival source of grace or an easier substitute for God. You honor the creature precisely by reverencing the Creator's choice. Let every Marian prayer end where she desires it to end: in adoration of the Blessed Trinity and more perfect servitude to Jesus Christ.

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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“Wisdom is clear, and such as never fadeth, and is easily seen of them that love her, and is found of them that seek her.”
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Holy Scripture, Wisdom 6:13, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - October 26

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At Rome, in the time of the emperor Adrian, St. Evaristus, pope and martyr, who enriched the Church of God with his blood. — In Africa, the holy martyrs Rogatian, priest, and Felicissimus, who received the bright crown of martyrs, in the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. They are mentioned by St. Cyprian in his epistle to the Confessors. — At Nicomedia, the holy martyrs Lucian, Florius and their companions. — The same day, St. Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage. By the Arian king Genseric, he and his clergy were put on board of leaking boats without oars or sails, but beyond all expectations he landed at Naples, and there in exile died a confessor. — At Narbonne, St. Rusticus, bishop and confessor, who flourished in the time of the emperors Valentinian and Leo. — At Salerno, St. Gaudiosus, bishop. — At Pavia, St. Fulk, bishop. — At Hildesheim, in Saxony, St. Bernward, bishop and confessor, who was ranked among the saints by Celestine III. — Also, St. Quadragesimus, sub-deacon, who raised a dead man to life.

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Highlighted Saint

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St. Evaristus

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Pope and martyr who enriched the Church with his blood.

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The 1942 Roman Breviary places St. Evaristus's pontificate under Trajan and remembers his ordering of the Roman titles, his sacramental discipline, his ordinations, and his martyrdom. The 1916 Roman Martyrology instead places the martyrdom notice in the time of Hadrian; the two pre-1955 liturgical witnesses are therefore cited without silently harmonizing their chronology.

His feast teaches the cost of apostolic office. The Church is not strengthened by management alone, but by shepherds who guard doctrine, worship, sacramental life, and evangelical preaching even unto blood.

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Ask St. Evaristus for reverence toward office without illusions about comfort. Christ's shepherds are safest when they know the office belongs to Him.

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From Matins

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Apostolic order serving public faith and sacramental fidelity.

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Matins - One Nocturn - St. Evaristus, Pope and Martyr

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Roman Breviary, Proper lesson for St. Evaristus

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“According to apostolic tradition.”
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  • The Breviary places St. Evaristus within the visible succession and government of the Roman Church during Trajan's reign, assigning priests to the Roman titles and deacons to attend the bishop in his evangelical preaching.
  • It joins ecclesiastical order to sacramental discipline by remembering his decree that marriage be publicly celebrated with the blessing of a priest, according to apostolic tradition.
  • His ordinations and martyrdom show that the Church's offices exist to hand on doctrine, worship, sacramental life, and pastoral mission, even when that fidelity costs the shepherd his blood.
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Honor apostolic order by receiving what it exists to guard: public confession of the Faith, sacramental discipline, evangelical preaching, and fidelity unto sacrifice. Authority is not self-justifying; it serves the tradition received from the Apostles.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Third Lesson - Order according to Apostolic Tradition

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Evaristus was a Greek, the son of a Jewish father, and exercised the pontificate during the reign of Trajan. He divided the titles of the churches of the city of Rome among the priests and ordained that seven deacons should attend the bishop while he discharged the office of preaching the Gospel. He likewise decreed, according to apostolic tradition, that marriage should be celebrated publicly and the blessing of a priest employed. He governed the Church for nine years and three months, ordaining seventeen priests, two deacons, and fifteen bishops in four ordinations held in the month of December. Crowned with martyrdom, he was buried near the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles in the Vatican on the seventh day before the Kalends of November.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Mary Is Mother of God and Mother of the Faithful

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The Church places this truth before you today: The Blessed Virgin Mary is truly Mother of God, and her maternal office belongs to the order of Christ's Incarnation, Passion, and grace. 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. Marian doctrine protects the truth about Christ: one divine Person, truly God and truly man, born of the Virgin Mother.

The grace to be practiced is Apostolic fidelity unto blood, 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 theological order: worship God alone, honor Our Lady according to His will, and let every devotion serve union with Christ.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist every thin devotion that praises Mary while separating her from doctrine, sacrifice, and the life of grace. 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 apostolic fidelity unto blood 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. Renounce both irreverent neglect of Mary and sentimental exaggeration; truth is a narrower and more beautiful road than either distortion. End your Marian prayers with deliberate adoration and obedience to Jesus Christ.

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

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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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“Virtue appeareth best in time of adversity. Occasions make not a man frail, but they shew openly what he is.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 16, p. 27

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The trial does not excuse the fault; it reveals where grace must be received and nature mortified. Do not waste the revelation God permits.

When adversity uncovers impatience or fear, do not conclude that every previous effort was false. Thank God for showing you where the wall remains weak. Humble yourself, ask pardon if another was wounded, and return to the battle with a more honest knowledge of your need for grace.

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Today's Practice

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At the next contradiction, name the virtue being tested and practice it once.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether your devotion magnified God, diminished self-will, and made obedience to Christ more exact.

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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 The Mother of My Lord\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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