{"ok":true,"date":"2028-12-23","dateKey":"12-23","liturgicalDay":"Advent Ember Day","rank":"Non-privileged Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"The beginning of wisdom, the fear of our Lord: and the knowledge of the holy, prudence.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"Proverbs 9:10, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#the-beginning-of-wisdom","category":"Wisdom and Holy Fear"},"season":"Advent","novenas":[{"title":"Christmas Novena","feast":"Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ","day":8,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2028-12-16","feastIsoDate":"2028-12-25","dayTitle":null,"meditation":null,"intention":"Prepare the soul and household to receive the King in humility, adoration, and Catholic faith.","preparatoryPrayer":null,"prayerOfTheChurch":null,"prayer":null,"practice":"Keep silence and simplicity wherever they prepare the soul and household for the Christ Child.","conclusion":null,"prayerLink":null,"sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Advent Ember Day - 2028-12-23","previewText":"Advent Ember Day. The Holy Ghost Does Not Author Contradiction. Resist invoking the Holy Ghost to justify rupture from received doctrine.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nTHE DAILY PILGRIMAGE\n\"Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways.\" - Proverbs 8:32\n\"Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. [...] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.\" - Luke 12:32-34\nAdvent Ember Day\n2028-12-23 - Advent - Non-privileged Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nIncarnation: the mystery that the eternal Son of God truly took a human nature and became man without ceasing to be God.\nClergy or cleric: the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.\nOrdination: the sacrament by which a baptized man is made a deacon, priest, or bishop and receives the grace and authority needed for that ministry.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe last O Antiphon gathers every longing into the holy Name Emmanuel: God with us. The promised Saviour is not an idea, an ethical teacher, or a symbol of human goodness, but the eternal Son made man. With Our Lady, receive Him in faith before seeking the sensible warmth of Christmas. Keep theological order while receiving the instrument God freely chose in His work of sanctification. Adore the Holy Ghost as God and ask to cooperate humbly with every grace He gives through the order He has established.\n\n\"But what we want to say is, that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, though He had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing in her and by her Jesus Christ in His members; a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 21\n\nSt. Louis de Montfort again closes the door against exaggeration: the Holy Ghost has no absolute need of Mary. Her office rests upon His sovereign choice. That truth protects both divine majesty and authentic Marian devotion from confusion.\n\nThe soul must learn the same humility. God does not need our talents, plans, consolations, or reputation, yet He truly commands our cooperation. Serve diligently without imagining yourself indispensable; depend entirely upon grace without using dependence as permission for laziness.\n\nPRACTICE\nSpend fifteen quiet minutes with the first chapter of St. John's Gospel and adore the mystery of the Incarnation.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"The beginning of wisdom, the fear of our Lord: and the knowledge of the holy, prudence.\"\nHoly Scripture, Proverbs 9:10, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nChristmas Novena - Day 8 of 9\n\nPreparing for Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ on 2028-12-25.\n\nPETITION\nPrepare the soul and household to receive the King in humility, adoration, and Catholic faith.\n\nA FAITHFUL ACT\nKeep silence and simplicity wherever they prepare the soul and household for the Christ Child.\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - December 23\nAt Rome, the holy virgin Victoria, a martyr, in the persecution of the emperor Decius. She had been promised in marriage to a pagan named Eugene, but because she refused to marry him and to offer sacrifice to idols, and because by working many miracles, she brought many virgins to the service of God, she was, at the request of her betrothed, stabbed in the heart with a sword by the executioner. — At Nicomedia, the birthday of twenty holy martyrs, whom the persecution of Diocletian made martyrs for the faith of Christ, after subjecting them to the most painful torments. — In the same place, the Saints Migdonius and Mardonius; one of whom was burned alive in the same persecution, and the other died in a pit into which he had been thrown. A deacon of St. Anthimus, bishop of Nicomedia, suffered at the same time. He was arrested by the Gentiles when carrying letters to the martyrs, and being overwhelmed with stones, went to our Lord. — In Crete, the holy martyrs Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zeticus, Cleomenes, Agathopus, Gelasius, and Evaristus, who were beheaded, after suffering cruel torments, in the persecution of Decius. — At Rome, blessed Servulus, of whom St. Gregory writes, that a paralytic from his early years to the end of his life, he remained lying in a porch near St. Clement's Church, and being invited by the chant of angels, he went to enjoy the glory of Paradise. At his tomb, frequent miracles are wrought by Almighty God.\n\nTODAY'S SAINT OR FEAST\nThe Advent Ember Day\nThe winter fast of expectation and ordination prayer.\nThe Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of expectation with fasting, prayer, and supplication for the Church's ministers.\nThey teach that preparation for Christmas must include purification. The Church asks the Lord of the harvest for holy laborers and asks that her own children be made ready for the coming King.\nLet the Ember fast make Advent serious without making it gloomy. The King is near, and the Church prepares with prayer.\nBREVIARY WITNESS\nThe fast of expectation.\nMatins - Advent Ember Day\n- The Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of waiting with fasting and prayer for the Church and her ministers.\n- Their witness joins Our Lady's expectant purity to the Church's supplication, asking that Christ find His people ready.\nPrepare for Christmas by prayer that costs something. The King is near, and the Church fasts while she waits.\nInstruction from the Breviary\nThe Breviary witness for Advent Ember Day is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.\nToday's witness is gathered under The fast of expectation.. Its first point is this: The Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of waiting with fasting and prayer for the Church and her ministers. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness joins Our Lady's expectant purity to the Church's supplication, asking that Christ find His people ready.\nThe practical instruction is: Prepare for Christmas by prayer that costs something. The King is near, and the Church fasts while she waits. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.\n- What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?\n- What virtue does the Church place before me through it?\n- What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?\n\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Holy Ghost Does Not Author Contradiction\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The Holy Ghost guides the Church into truth; He does not lead her to contradict the faith once delivered. 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. Appeals to the Spirit must be judged by apostolic doctrine, not by enthusiasm, novelty, or institutional pressure.\nThe grace to be practiced is Purified expectation and prayer for the Church, 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 humble cooperation: labor faithfully while knowing that every supernatural fruit belongs first to grace.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist invoking the Holy Ghost to justify rupture from 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 purified expectation and prayer for the Church when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.\nDo the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. Accept being an instrument rather than the owner of the work, surrendering both credit and control of results. Use all the abilities and opportunities God has entrusted to you, then return the entire fruit to Him through 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: Spend fifteen quiet minutes with the first chapter of St. John's Gospel and adore the mystery of the Incarnation.\nCarry this word: Christian consolation begins with the fact that the eternal Son truly came and remains with His Church.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Thou hast here no place of long abiding, for wheresoever thou be, thou art but a stranger and a pilgrim.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 1, p. 53\nThe citizen of Heaven uses earthly goods faithfully without building his final home in them. Receive the day's joys and sorrows as provisions for the road.\n\nExile becomes bitter when the soul demands permanence from what must pass. Let today's change, disappointment, or small loss remind you gently of your destination. Fulfill earthly duties well precisely because they are the road appointed by God, but keep the heart free for the City that does not pass away.\nToday's Practice: When something passes away today, say: My home is with God.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk where you acted as though success depended wholly upon you, or where false passivity excused neglected duty.\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 Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, come to save us, O Lord our God; make my heart a faithful dwelling for Thee.\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 Spirit of Truth and the Impossibility of a False Church: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/john-16-13-the-spirit-of-truth-guidance-and-the-impossibility-of-a-false-church?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2028-12-23&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2028-12-23&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: Advent Ember Day - 2028-12-23\n \n \n
\n Advent Ember Day. The Holy Ghost Does Not Author Contradiction. Resist invoking the Holy Ghost to justify rupture from received doctrine.\n
\n \n \n \n \n
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\n \"City\n
\n

City of God in Exile

\n

“Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways.”

\n

Proverbs 8:32

\n

Advent Ember Day

\n

2028-12-23 - Advent - Non-privileged Feria - violet

\n
\n
\n
“Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. […] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Luke 12:32–34
\n \n
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Plain-Language Guide for Today

\n
\n
Incarnation
\n
the mystery that the eternal Son of God truly took a human nature and became man without ceasing to be God.
\n
Clergy or cleric
\n
the Church's ordained ministers; a cleric is a deacon, priest, or bishop.
\n
Ordination
\n
the sacrament by which a baptized man is made a deacon, priest, or bishop and receives the grace and authority needed for that ministry.
\n
\n \n
\n

Today in the Roman Year

\n

The last O Antiphon gathers every longing into the holy Name Emmanuel: God with us. The promised Saviour is not an idea, an ethical teacher, or a symbol of human goodness, but the eternal Son made man. With Our Lady, receive Him in faith before seeking the sensible warmth of Christmas.

Keep theological order while receiving the instrument God freely chose in His work of sanctification.

Adore the Holy Ghost as God and ask to cooperate humbly with every grace He gives through the order He has established.

“But what we want to say is, that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, though He had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing in her and by her Jesus Christ in His members; a mystery of grace unknown to even the wisest and most spiritual among Christians.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 21

St. Louis de Montfort again closes the door against exaggeration: the Holy Ghost has no absolute need of Mary. Her office rests upon His sovereign choice. That truth protects both divine majesty and authentic Marian devotion from confusion.

The soul must learn the same humility. God does not need our talents, plans, consolations, or reputation, yet He truly commands our cooperation. Serve diligently without imagining yourself indispensable; depend entirely upon grace without using dependence as permission for laziness.

Spend fifteen quiet minutes with the first chapter of St. John's Gospel and adore the mystery of the Incarnation.

\n
\n \n \n
\n

Quote of the Day

\n
“The beginning of wisdom, the fear of our Lord: and the knowledge of the holy, prudence.”
\n

Holy Scripture, Proverbs 9:10, Original Douay-Rheims

\n
\n \n
\n

Novena in Progress

\n
\n

Day 8 of 9

\n

Christmas Novena

\n

Preparing for Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ on 2028-12-25.

\n \n \n \n

Petition

Prepare the soul and household to receive the King in humility, adoration, and Catholic faith.

\n \n \n

A Faithful Act

Keep silence and simplicity wherever they prepare the soul and household for the Christ Child.

\n \n \n
\n
\n \n
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Roman Martyrology - December 23

\n

At Rome, the holy virgin Victoria, a martyr, in the persecution of the emperor Decius. She had been promised in marriage to a pagan named Eugene, but because she refused to marry him and to offer sacrifice to idols, and because by working many miracles, she brought many virgins to the service of God, she was, at the request of her betrothed, stabbed in the heart with a sword by the executioner. — At Nicomedia, the birthday of twenty holy martyrs, whom the persecution of Diocletian made martyrs for the faith of Christ, after subjecting them to the most painful torments. — In the same place, the Saints Migdonius and Mardonius; one of whom was burned alive in the same persecution, and the other died in a pit into which he had been thrown. A deacon of St. Anthimus, bishop of Nicomedia, suffered at the same time. He was arrested by the Gentiles when carrying letters to the martyrs, and being overwhelmed with stones, went to our Lord. — In Crete, the holy martyrs Theodulus, Saturninus, Euporus, Gelasius, Eunician, Zeticus, Cleomenes, Agathopus, Gelasius, and Evaristus, who were beheaded, after suffering cruel torments, in the persecution of Decius. — At Rome, blessed Servulus, of whom St. Gregory writes, that a paralytic from his early years to the end of his life, he remained lying in a porch near St. Clement's Church, and being invited by the chant of angels, he went to enjoy the glory of Paradise. At his tomb, frequent miracles are wrought by Almighty God.

\n
\n \n \n \n \n
\n

Today's Saint or Feast

\n

The Advent Ember Day

\n

The winter fast of expectation and ordination prayer.

\n

The Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of expectation with fasting, prayer, and supplication for the Church's ministers.

They teach that preparation for Christmas must include purification. The Church asks the Lord of the harvest for holy laborers and asks that her own children be made ready for the coming King.

\n

Let the Ember fast make Advent serious without making it gloomy. The King is near, and the Church prepares with prayer.

\n
\n \n \n \n
\n

Breviary Witness

\n

The fast of expectation.

\n

Matins - Advent Ember Day

\n \n
    \n
  • The Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of waiting with fasting and prayer for the Church and her ministers.
  • Their witness joins Our Lady's expectant purity to the Church's supplication, asking that Christ find His people ready.
    • \n
\n

Prepare for Christmas by prayer that costs something. The King is near, and the Church fasts while she waits.

\n

Instruction from the Breviary

The Breviary witness for Advent Ember Day is part of the Church's daily teaching. It should not be read as a list of isolated facts. In the Divine Office, Scripture, the lives of the saints, doctrine, and the Church's prayer are placed together so that the mind learns what the Church remembers and the heart learns how a Catholic ought to judge and live.

Today's witness is gathered under The fast of expectation.. Its first point is this: The Advent Ember Days sanctify the season of waiting with fasting and prayer for the Church and her ministers. Its next point develops the lesson: Their witness joins Our Lady's expectant purity to the Church's supplication, asking that Christ find His people ready.

The practical instruction is: Prepare for Christmas by prayer that costs something. The King is near, and the Church fasts while she waits. Ask what truth is being guarded, what virtue is being praised, and what danger or forgetfulness is being corrected. In this way the Breviary becomes instruction for the present day rather than information that is quickly passed over.

\n
    \n
  • What truth does this Breviary witness teach or defend?
  • What virtue does the Church place before me through it?
  • What judgment or action should change because I have received this lesson?
    • \n
\n
\n \n \n
\n

The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

\n

The Holy Ghost Does Not Author Contradiction

\n

The Church places this truth before you today: The Holy Ghost guides the Church into truth; He does not lead her to contradict the faith once delivered. 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. Appeals to the Spirit must be judged by apostolic doctrine, not by enthusiasm, novelty, or institutional pressure.

The grace to be practiced is Purified expectation and prayer for the Church, 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 humble cooperation: labor faithfully while knowing that every supernatural fruit belongs first to grace.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist invoking the Holy Ghost to justify rupture from 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 purified expectation and prayer for the Church when pride, comfort, fear, resentment, or human respect asks for control.

Do the faithful act and entrust its fruit to divine Providence, God's wise and loving governance of all things. Place effort and outcome into Our Lady's hands so that the whole offering may be presented to her Divine Son. Confidence in God is not passivity: obey, pray, work, and accept that visible success, consolation, or immediate relief may not be given. God remains faithful when the duty is hidden and the outcome uncertain. Therefore, perform the duty that belongs to you, use the lawful means God has provided, and then surrender the fruit. Accept being an instrument rather than the owner of the work, surrendering both credit and control of results. Use all the abilities and opportunities God has entrusted to you, then return the entire fruit to Him through Mary.

\n

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

\n

Your Resolution Before God

\n

Spend fifteen quiet minutes with the first chapter of St. John's Gospel and adore the mystery of the Incarnation.

\n
Christian consolation begins with the fact that the eternal Son truly came and remains with His Church.
\n
\n \n
\n

The Pilgrim's Mirror

\n

How shall I imitate Christ today?

\n
“Thou hast here no place of long abiding, for wheresoever thou be, thou art but a stranger and a pilgrim.”
\n

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 1, p. 53

\n \n

The citizen of Heaven uses earthly goods faithfully without building his final home in them. Receive the day's joys and sorrows as provisions for the road.

Exile becomes bitter when the soul demands permanence from what must pass. Let today's change, disappointment, or small loss remind you gently of your destination. Fulfill earthly duties well precisely because they are the road appointed by God, but keep the heart free for the City that does not pass away.

\n

Today's Practice

\n

When something passes away today, say: My home is with God.

\n
\n \n
\n

Daily Examen

\n

Three questions before night prayer

\n

Ask where you acted as though success depended wholly upon you, or where false passivity excused neglected duty.

\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
\n
\n \n
\n

Prayer

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O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, come to save us, O Lord our God; make my heart a faithful dwelling for Thee.

\n
\n \n
\n

Daily Rule for the Pilgrim

\n

A brief rule to keep every day:

\n

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

\n

Carry today's lesson into a focused chapter from the library.

\n The Spirit of Truth and the Impossibility of a False Church\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

\n
\n \"The\n
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