{"ok":true,"date":"2030-01-19","dateKey":"01-19","liturgicalDay":"Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs","rank":"Simple","color":"red","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.","author":"Holy Scripture","source":"1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims","treasuryHref":"/wisdom#god-loved-us-first","category":"The Love of God"},"season":"Time after Epiphany","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs - 2030-01-19","previewText":"Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs. The Cross Is Daily. Resist a comfortable religion that admires Christ while refusing self-denial.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSs. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs\n2030-01-19 - Time after Epiphany - Simple - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nOctave: an eight-day extension of a major feast, allowing the Church to continue praying over the same mystery.\nEpiphany: the feast of Christ being revealed to the nations, represented especially by the Magi who came to adore Him.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nTODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR\nThe mystery of the coming of Christ teaches the pilgrim to wait without surrender, to recognize divine humility, and to adore the King where He truly appears. Sacred time trains hope, but hope must remain disciplined by doctrine and worship. Receive the Catholic inheritance of love for Our Lady with gratitude and without embarrassment. Consecrate the place and persons entrusted to your duty to Jesus through Mary.\n\n\"The whole earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 9\n\nThe public honor once offered to Our Lady reminds the soul that religion is not meant to be hidden as a private preference. Christian peoples placed homes, cities, and kingdoms beneath her protection because they understood that Christ's reign concerns the whole order of life.\n\nYou may not govern a kingdom, but some portion of the City has been entrusted to you: a room, a household duty, a conversation, a child, a suffering soul, or the custody of your own senses. Place that territory under Our Lady today, then remove from it whatever is unworthy of her Divine Son.\n\nPRACTICE\nPractice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.\"\nHoly Scripture, 1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - January 19\nAt Rome, on the Cornelian road, the holy martyrs Marius and his wife Martha, with their sons Audifax and Abachum, noble Persians, who came to Rome, through devotion, in the time of the Emperor Claudius. After they had been beaten with rods, tortured on the rack and with fire, lacerated with iron hooks, and had endured the cutting off of their hands, Martha was put to death in the place called Nympha, The others were beheaded and cast into the flames. — Also, St. Canute, king and martyr, whose birthday is the 7th of this month. — At Smyrna, under Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius, the birthday of blessed Germanicus, martyr, who, in the bloom of youth, being strengthened by the grace of God, and freed from all fear, provoked the beast which, by order of the judge, was to devour him. Being ground by its teeth, he deserved to be incorporated into the true bread of life, Christ Jesus, for whom he died. — In Africa, the holy martyrs Paul, Gerontius, Januarius, Saturninus, Successus, Julius, Catus, Pia, and Germana. — At Spoleto, in the days of the emperor Antoninus, the passion of St. Pontian, martyr, who was barbarously scourged for Christ by the command of the judge Fabian, and then compelled to walk barefoot on burning coals. As he was uninjured by the tire, he was put on the rack, was torn with iron hooks, and then thrown into a dungeon, where he was comforted by the visit of an angel. He was afterwards exposed to the lions, had melted lead poured over him and finally died by the sword. — At Lodi, St. Bassian, bishop and confessor, who, in conjunction with St. Ambrose, courageously combated the heretics. — At Worcester, in England, St. Wulstan, bishop and confessor, conspicuous for merits and miracles. He was ranked among the Saints by Innocent III.\n\nGOSPEL OF THE DAY\nI must be about my Father's business.\nSunday within the Octave of the Epiphany - Luke 2:42-52\n\"Did you not know, that I must be about my father's business?\"\nIf you have lost peace, begin looking for Jesus where He is usually found: prayer, duty, obedience, and the Church's sacred things.\n\nTHE CHURCH'S READING OF THE GOSPEL\nWhat This Gospel Teaches\nChrist's hidden life is wholly ordered to the will of the Father.\nMary and Joseph seek Him faithfully, and the faithful learn to seek Christ even when He seems hidden.\nError corrected: The negligence that grows comfortable with distance from Our Lord.\n- Where does this error tempt me in practice?\n- What act does this Gospel require of me today?\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSs. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum\nA holy family crowned by martyrdom.\nThe Roman calendar honors Marius, St. Martha, Audifax, and Abachum as martyrs, a family remembered together in the Church's worship.\nTheir feast teaches that the household belongs to Christ. Parents and children are not meant merely to share earthly comfort, reputation, and survival, but to help one another reach heaven.\nAsk these martyrs to make family love supernatural. A Catholic does not love relatives less by wanting their salvation more.\nFROM MATINS\nA household united in devotion and crowned in martyrdom.\nMartyrology - Martyrology Notice - Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs\nRoman Martyrology\n\"Marius and his wife Martha, with their sons Audifax and Abachum, noble Persians, who came to Rome, through devotion.\"\n- The Martyrology remembers parents and sons together, united first by devotion and then by steadfast suffering for Christ.\n- Their witness raises family love above comfort and survival: a Catholic household helps its members remain faithful when confession becomes costly.\n- The family is strengthened not by making earthly peace its highest good, but by ordering affection, courage, and mutual help toward eternal life.\nPray that your household may help every member reach Heaven. Let shared prayer, truthful correction, and courage under trial make natural affection serve fidelity to Christ.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nThe Cross Is Daily\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The disciple of Christ must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Our Lord in obedience, penance, and perseverance. 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. Holiness is formed in ordinary fidelity before it is tested in public suffering.\nThe grace to be practiced is Family fidelity under Christ, 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 stewardship under God: receive what is entrusted, guard it from corruption, and order it toward Christ.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist a comfortable religion that admires Christ while refusing self-denial. 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 family fidelity under Christ 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 the responsibility of protection without becoming controlling; authority remains a service beneath God. Restore order to the part of the home or daily work now before you, and offer the whole of your household duties to Jesus through Mary.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Bede the Venerable.\nYour resolution before God: Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.\nCarry this word: Virtue grows by repeated acts under grace.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Then shall a good clean conscience make us more gladsome and merry than the cunning of all philosophy.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 24, p. 44\nAt judgment, appearances will fall away and the soul will stand in truth before God. Learning, reputation, and skill have their proper uses, but none can replace a conscience purified by repentance and kept faithful through obedience.\n\nDo not seek peace by avoiding examination. Ask the Holy Ghost to show you every matter that remains unsettled: sins requiring confession, injuries requiring forgiveness, restitution that can be made, or duties repeatedly postponed. A clean conscience is not sinlessness claimed by pride; it is the peace of a soul that refuses concealment and returns to grace.\nToday's Practice: Settle every matter of conscience that can rightly be settled today, and prepare definitely to bring the rest to Confession.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nAsk whether the portion entrusted to you was more peaceful, pure, truthful, and prayerful because of your presence.\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, make doctrine fruitful in habit. Let truth become patience, courage, purity, recollection, penance, charity, and perseverance.\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\nTake Up Thy Cross Daily: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/luke-9-23-deny-thyself-take-up-thy-cross-daily-and-the-standard-of-christ?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2030-01-19&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2030-01-19&entered=1\nBrowse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1","html":"\n\n \n \n \n City of God in Exile: Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs - 2030-01-19\n \n \n
\n Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs. The Cross Is Daily. Resist a comfortable religion that admires Christ while refusing self-denial.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs

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2030-01-19 - Time after Epiphany - 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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Octave
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an eight-day extension of a major feast, allowing the Church to continue praying over the same mystery.
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Epiphany
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the feast of Christ being revealed to the nations, represented especially by the Magi who came to adore Him.
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Martyr
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a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.
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Today in the Roman Year

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The mystery of the coming of Christ teaches the pilgrim to wait without surrender, to recognize divine humility, and to adore the King where He truly appears. Sacred time trains hope, but hope must remain disciplined by doctrine and worship.

Receive the Catholic inheritance of love for Our Lady with gratitude and without embarrassment.

Consecrate the place and persons entrusted to your duty to Jesus through Mary.

“The whole earth is full of her glory, especially among Christians, by whom she is taken as the protectress of many kingdoms, provinces, dioceses and cities.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 9

The public honor once offered to Our Lady reminds the soul that religion is not meant to be hidden as a private preference. Christian peoples placed homes, cities, and kingdoms beneath her protection because they understood that Christ's reign concerns the whole order of life.

You may not govern a kingdom, but some portion of the City has been entrusted to you: a room, a household duty, a conversation, a child, a suffering soul, or the custody of your own senses. Place that territory under Our Lady today, then remove from it whatever is unworthy of her Divine Son.

Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.

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Quote of the Day

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“In this is charity: not as though we have loved him, but because he hath loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins.”
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Holy Scripture, 1 John 4:10, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - January 19

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At Rome, on the Cornelian road, the holy martyrs Marius and his wife Martha, with their sons Audifax and Abachum, noble Persians, who came to Rome, through devotion, in the time of the Emperor Claudius. After they had been beaten with rods, tortured on the rack and with fire, lacerated with iron hooks, and had endured the cutting off of their hands, Martha was put to death in the place called Nympha, The others were beheaded and cast into the flames. — Also, St. Canute, king and martyr, whose birthday is the 7th of this month. — At Smyrna, under Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius, the birthday of blessed Germanicus, martyr, who, in the bloom of youth, being strengthened by the grace of God, and freed from all fear, provoked the beast which, by order of the judge, was to devour him. Being ground by its teeth, he deserved to be incorporated into the true bread of life, Christ Jesus, for whom he died. — In Africa, the holy martyrs Paul, Gerontius, Januarius, Saturninus, Successus, Julius, Catus, Pia, and Germana. — At Spoleto, in the days of the emperor Antoninus, the passion of St. Pontian, martyr, who was barbarously scourged for Christ by the command of the judge Fabian, and then compelled to walk barefoot on burning coals. As he was uninjured by the tire, he was put on the rack, was torn with iron hooks, and then thrown into a dungeon, where he was comforted by the visit of an angel. He was afterwards exposed to the lions, had melted lead poured over him and finally died by the sword. — At Lodi, St. Bassian, bishop and confessor, who, in conjunction with St. Ambrose, courageously combated the heretics. — At Worcester, in England, St. Wulstan, bishop and confessor, conspicuous for merits and miracles. He was ranked among the Saints by Innocent III.

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Gospel of the Day

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I must be about my Father's business.

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Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany - Luke 2:42-52

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“Did you not know, that I must be about my father's business?”
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If you have lost peace, begin looking for Jesus where He is usually found: prayer, duty, obedience, and the Church's sacred things.

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The Church's Reading of the Gospel

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What This Gospel Teaches

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Christ's hidden life is wholly ordered to the will of the Father.

Mary and Joseph seek Him faithfully, and the faithful learn to seek Christ even when He seems hidden.

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Error corrected: The negligence that grows comfortable with distance from Our Lord.

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  • Where does this error tempt me in practice?
  • What act does this Gospel require of me today?
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Highlighted Saint

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Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum

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A holy family crowned by martyrdom.

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The Roman calendar honors Marius, St. Martha, Audifax, and Abachum as martyrs, a family remembered together in the Church's worship.

Their feast teaches that the household belongs to Christ. Parents and children are not meant merely to share earthly comfort, reputation, and survival, but to help one another reach heaven.

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Ask these martyrs to make family love supernatural. A Catholic does not love relatives less by wanting their salvation more.

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From Matins

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A household united in devotion and crowned in martyrdom.

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Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs

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Roman Martyrology, January 19 notice

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“Marius and his wife Martha, with their sons Audifax and Abachum, noble Persians, who came to Rome, through devotion.”
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  • The Martyrology remembers parents and sons together, united first by devotion and then by steadfast suffering for Christ.
  • Their witness raises family love above comfort and survival: a Catholic household helps its members remain faithful when confession becomes costly.
  • The family is strengthened not by making earthly peace its highest good, but by ordering affection, courage, and mutual help toward eternal life.
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Pray that your household may help every member reach Heaven. Let shared prayer, truthful correction, and courage under trial make natural affection serve fidelity to Christ.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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The Cross Is Daily

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The Church places this truth before you today: The disciple of Christ must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Our Lord in obedience, penance, and perseverance. 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. Holiness is formed in ordinary fidelity before it is tested in public suffering.

The grace to be practiced is Family fidelity under Christ, 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 stewardship under God: receive what is entrusted, guard it from corruption, and order it toward Christ.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist a comfortable religion that admires Christ while refusing self-denial. 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 family fidelity under Christ 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 the responsibility of protection without becoming controlling; authority remains a service beneath God. Restore order to the part of the home or daily work now before you, and offer the whole of your household duties to Jesus through Mary.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Practice every virtue the day requires, giving particular attention to the virtue most opposed by your habitual fault.

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Virtue grows by repeated acts under grace.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Then shall a good clean conscience make us more gladsome and merry than the cunning of all philosophy.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 24, p. 44

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At judgment, appearances will fall away and the soul will stand in truth before God. Learning, reputation, and skill have their proper uses, but none can replace a conscience purified by repentance and kept faithful through obedience.

Do not seek peace by avoiding examination. Ask the Holy Ghost to show you every matter that remains unsettled: sins requiring confession, injuries requiring forgiveness, restitution that can be made, or duties repeatedly postponed. A clean conscience is not sinlessness claimed by pride; it is the peace of a soul that refuses concealment and returns to grace.

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Today's Practice

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Settle every matter of conscience that can rightly be settled today, and prepare definitely to bring the rest to Confession.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Ask whether the portion entrusted to you was more peaceful, pure, truthful, and prayerful because of your presence.

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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?
    • \n
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Prayer

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O Lord, make doctrine fruitful in habit. Let truth become patience, courage, purity, recollection, penance, charity, and perseverance.

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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 Take Up Thy Cross Daily\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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