{"ok":true,"date":"2030-09-26","dateKey":"09-26","liturgicalDay":"Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs","rank":"Simple","color":"red","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":"Time after Pentecost","novenas":[],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs - 2030-09-26","previewText":"Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nSs. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs\n2030-09-26 - Time after Pentecost - Simple - red\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nOccult practices: attempts to seek hidden knowledge or spiritual power through magic, divination, spirits, or other means forbidden by the First Commandment.\nMartyr: a Christian who was killed rather than deny Christ or abandon the Faith.\nChastity: the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.\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\nThe Time after Pentecost teaches perseverance after the great feasts. Many souls receive light and then return to forgetfulness. The pilgrim must instead turn light into rule: morning prayer, the Angelus, Rosary, examination, custody of speech, and fidelity to the duty before him. Beside Our Lady, learn to persevere beneath the Cross without surrendering truth or hope. Ask Mary, Queen of Martyrs, for constancy. Offer in advance the contradiction, delay, or sorrow that divine Providence may permit.\n\n\"The more often we do so, the sooner we shall be sanctified, and attain to union with Jesus Christ, which always follows necessarily on our union with Mary, because the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 259\n\nUnion with Our Lady is not a resting place apart from Christ. Her whole interior life belongs to Him. She believes His word, receives His will, keeps His mysteries, shares His sacrifice, and desires His glory. A soul formed in her spirit therefore becomes less occupied with itself and more ready for the reign of Jesus.\n\nWhen a cross arrives, resist the habit of watching yourself suffer. Turn instead toward Christ with Mary. Ask not first whether the burden feels bearable, but how it may be carried faithfully, without sin, complaint, or surrender of hope.\n\nPRACTICE\nEnd the day with thanksgiving, examination, contrition, and a firm purpose for tomorrow.\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\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - September 26\nAt Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian, and Justina, virgin. Under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, endeavored to bring her under the influence of his magical practices. She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him. Their bodies being exposed to the beasts, were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome. They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and deposited near the baptistery. — At Rome, the holy martyr Callistratus, and forty-nine other soldiers, who endured martyrdorn together, in the persecution of Diocletian. The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ on seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, where he had been thrown sewed up in a bag. — Also, at Rome, pope St. Eusebius. — At Bologna, St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor. — At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop. — At Albano, St. Senator. — In the territory of Frascati, the blessed abbot Mlus, founder of the monastery of CryptaFerrata, a man of eminent sanctity. — At Citta-diCastello, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\nSs. Cyprian and Justina\nMartyrs of conversion, chastity, and deliverance from evil.\nThe Martyrology records that St. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted St. Cyprian, who had tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.\nThey afterwards suffered martyrdom together under Diocletian. Their feast teaches the victory of grace over occult bondage—the search for hidden spiritual power apart from God—impurity, and the attempt to dominate another soul.\nAsk Saints Cyprian and Justina for clean freedom. Christ breaks the pride that tries to possess, manipulate, or corrupt another soul.\nFROM MATINS\nTrue worship breaks the power of sorcery.\nMatins - One Nocturn - Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs\nRoman Breviary\n\"No art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ.\"\n- The Breviary presents St. Justina's chastity and true worship of Christ as unconquered by spells, sorcery, and an attempted demonic coercion of her will.\n- St. Cyprian's conversion requires more than fear of occult power: he grieves over his former life, abandons the magical arts, and gives himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord.\n- Their shared martyrdom completes the lesson. Conversion and purity are preserved through steadfast confession of the Christian religion, even under imprisonment, torture, and death.\nReject spells, divination, charms, mediums, occult curiosity, and every attempt to obtain hidden power apart from God. If you have taken part in such things, renounce them completely and bring them honestly to sacramental Confession. Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for repentance, chastity, true worship, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nThird Lesson - From Sorcery to the Faith of Christ\nCyprian, at first a magician and afterwards a martyr, was attempting by spells and sorceries to entice the Christian virgin Justina, whom a certain young man ardently loved, to consent to that young man's lust. He consulted a demon as to how he might accomplish this. The demon answered him that no art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ. Moved by this answer, Cyprian began bitterly to grieve over his former way of life. And so, abandoning the magical arts, he converted himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord. For this reason he was arrested together with the virgin Justina, and both were beaten with fists and scourges; they were soon cast into prison, in case they might perhaps change their resolve. But when they were afterwards brought out and found most steadfast in the Christian religion, they were cast into a pan filled with boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally, they were beheaded at Nicomedia. After their cast-off bodies had lain unburied for six days, certain sailors secretly placed them aboard a ship by night and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of Rufina, a noblewoman; afterwards, having been translated into the City, they were laid in the Constantinian Basilica near the baptistery.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nJustification Requires True Conversion\nThe Church places this truth before you today: The sinner is not healed by excuse or affirmation, but by grace, repentance, faith, hope, charity, and the turning of the soul toward God. 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. Catholic mercy restores the sinner to truth; it never names sin as holiness or treats amendment as optional.\nThe grace to be practiced is Chaste courage and conversion, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Imitate Mary's fortitude: quiet, steadfast, and wholly joined to the sacrifice of her Son.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed. 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 chaste courage and conversion 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. Do not seek suffering, but do not flee the cross attached to duty. Unite it to Christ through the Sorrowful Mother. Perform today's difficult act without dramatizing the cost. Let love, not self-observation, measure the offering.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent.\nYour resolution before God: End the day with thanksgiving, examination, contrition, and a firm purpose for tomorrow.\nCarry this word: The day must end beneath truth.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"Trust not in thine own cunning, neither in the cunning or policy of any creature living, but rather in the grace of God, which helpeth meek persons.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 7, p. 16\nNatural ability cannot sanctify a soul. Work diligently, but place confidence in grace and entrust the outcome into Our Lady's hands for her Divine Son.\n\nSelf-reliance often disguises itself as responsibility. The difference appears when plans fail: responsibility continues the duty peacefully, while self-reliance becomes anxious, harsh, or defeated because it secretly believed everything depended upon itself. Ask for help before beginning, and surrender the fruit when you have done what you can.\nToday's Practice: Begin a difficult duty with a Hail Mary and finish it without self-congratulation.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nPlace every wound and disappointment under Our Lady's mantle. Forgive injuries and ask for grace to remain at the Cross.\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, bring this day to judgment before Thy mercy. Show me where I obeyed, where I resisted, where I loved, and where I must begin again.\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\nGrace, Conversion, and Final Perseverance: https://cityofgodinexile.com/mercy-and-salvation/grace-conversion-and-final-perseverance?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2030-09-26&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2030-09-26&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: Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs - 2030-09-26\n \n \n
\n Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs

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2030-09-26 - 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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Occult practices
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attempts to seek hidden knowledge or spiritual power through magic, divination, spirits, or other means forbidden by the First Commandment.
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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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Chastity
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the virtue that orders sexuality according to one's state of life and treats the body as belonging to God.

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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The Time after Pentecost teaches perseverance after the great feasts. Many souls receive light and then return to forgetfulness. The pilgrim must instead turn light into rule: morning prayer, the Angelus, Rosary, examination, custody of speech, and fidelity to the duty before him.

Beside Our Lady, learn to persevere beneath the Cross without surrendering truth or hope.

Ask Mary, Queen of Martyrs, for constancy. Offer in advance the contradiction, delay, or sorrow that divine Providence may permit.

“The more often we do so, the sooner we shall be sanctified, and attain to union with Jesus Christ, which always follows necessarily on our union with Mary, because the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 259

Union with Our Lady is not a resting place apart from Christ. Her whole interior life belongs to Him. She believes His word, receives His will, keeps His mysteries, shares His sacrifice, and desires His glory. A soul formed in her spirit therefore becomes less occupied with itself and more ready for the reign of Jesus.

When a cross arrives, resist the habit of watching yourself suffer. Turn instead toward Christ with Mary. Ask not first whether the burden feels bearable, but how it may be carried faithfully, without sin, complaint, or surrender of hope.

End the day with thanksgiving, examination, contrition, and a firm purpose for tomorrow.

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Quote of the Day

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“The beginning of wisdom, the fear of our Lord: and the knowledge of the holy, prudence.”
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Holy Scripture, Proverbs 9:10, Original Douay-Rheims

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Roman Martyrology - September 26

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At Nicomedia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian, and Justina, virgin. Under the emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholmius. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted Cyprian, who, while a magician, endeavored to bring her under the influence of his magical practices. She afterwards suffered martyrdom with him. Their bodies being exposed to the beasts, were taken away in the night by some Christian sailors, and carried to Rome. They were subsequently taken into the Constantinian basilica, and deposited near the baptistery. — At Rome, the holy martyr Callistratus, and forty-nine other soldiers, who endured martyrdorn together, in the persecution of Diocletian. The companions of Callistratus were converted to Christ on seeing him miraculously delivered from drowning in the sea, where he had been thrown sewed up in a bag. — Also, at Rome, pope St. Eusebius. — At Bologna, St. Eusebius, bishop and confessor. — At Brescia, St. Vigilius, bishop. — At Albano, St. Senator. — In the territory of Frascati, the blessed abbot Mlus, founder of the monastery of CryptaFerrata, a man of eminent sanctity. — At Citta-diCastello, St. Amantius, a priest distinguished for the gift of miracles.

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Highlighted Saint

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Ss. Cyprian and Justina

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Martyrs of conversion, chastity, and deliverance from evil.

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The Martyrology records that St. Justina suffered much for the faith of Christ and converted St. Cyprian, who had tried by magical practices to bring her under his power.

They afterwards suffered martyrdom together under Diocletian. Their feast teaches the victory of grace over occult bondage—the search for hidden spiritual power apart from God—impurity, and the attempt to dominate another soul.

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Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for clean freedom. Christ breaks the pride that tries to possess, manipulate, or corrupt another soul.

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From Matins

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True worship breaks the power of sorcery.

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Matins - One Nocturn - Ss. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs

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Roman Breviary, Proper lesson for Ss. Cyprian and Justina

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“No art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ.”
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  • The Breviary presents St. Justina's chastity and true worship of Christ as unconquered by spells, sorcery, and an attempted demonic coercion of her will.
  • St. Cyprian's conversion requires more than fear of occult power: he grieves over his former life, abandons the magical arts, and gives himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord.
  • Their shared martyrdom completes the lesson. Conversion and purity are preserved through steadfast confession of the Christian religion, even under imprisonment, torture, and death.
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Reject spells, divination, charms, mediums, occult curiosity, and every attempt to obtain hidden power apart from God. If you have taken part in such things, renounce them completely and bring them honestly to sacramental Confession. Ask Saints Cyprian and Justina for repentance, chastity, true worship, and perseverance in the Catholic Faith.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Third Lesson - From Sorcery to the Faith of Christ

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Cyprian, at first a magician and afterwards a martyr, was attempting by spells and sorceries to entice the Christian virgin Justina, whom a certain young man ardently loved, to consent to that young man's lust. He consulted a demon as to how he might accomplish this. The demon answered him that no art of his would succeed against those who truly worshipped Christ. Moved by this answer, Cyprian began bitterly to grieve over his former way of life. And so, abandoning the magical arts, he converted himself wholly to the Faith of Christ the Lord. For this reason he was arrested together with the virgin Justina, and both were beaten with fists and scourges; they were soon cast into prison, in case they might perhaps change their resolve. But when they were afterwards brought out and found most steadfast in the Christian religion, they were cast into a pan filled with boiling pitch, fat, and wax. Finally, they were beheaded at Nicomedia. After their cast-off bodies had lain unburied for six days, certain sailors secretly placed them aboard a ship by night and carried them to Rome. They were first buried on the estate of Rufina, a noblewoman; afterwards, having been translated into the City, they were laid in the Constantinian Basilica near the baptistery.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Justification Requires True Conversion

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The Church places this truth before you today: The sinner is not healed by excuse or affirmation, but by grace, repentance, faith, hope, charity, and the turning of the soul toward God. 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. Catholic mercy restores the sinner to truth; it never names sin as holiness or treats amendment as optional.

The grace to be practiced is Chaste courage and conversion, drawn from today's saintly witness. Ask God for more than the natural appearance of this virtue. Temperament may make an action seem easy for a time, but supernatural virtue remains faithful because God is worthy of obedience, even when feeling offers no assistance and no one notices the cost. Imitate Mary's fortitude: quiet, steadfast, and wholly joined to the sacrifice of her Son.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed. 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 chaste courage and conversion 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. Do not seek suffering, but do not flee the cross attached to duty. Unite it to Christ through the Sorrowful Mother. Perform today's difficult act without dramatizing the cost. Let love, not self-observation, measure the offering.

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The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent.

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Your Resolution Before God

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End the day with thanksgiving, examination, contrition, and a firm purpose for tomorrow.

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The day must end beneath truth.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“Trust not in thine own cunning, neither in the cunning or policy of any creature living, but rather in the grace of God, which helpeth meek persons.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 7, p. 16

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Natural ability cannot sanctify a soul. Work diligently, but place confidence in grace and entrust the outcome into Our Lady's hands for her Divine Son.

Self-reliance often disguises itself as responsibility. The difference appears when plans fail: responsibility continues the duty peacefully, while self-reliance becomes anxious, harsh, or defeated because it secretly believed everything depended upon itself. Ask for help before beginning, and surrender the fruit when you have done what you can.

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Today's Practice

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Begin a difficult duty with a Hail Mary and finish it without self-congratulation.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Place every wound and disappointment under Our Lady's mantle. Forgive injuries and ask for grace to remain at the Cross.

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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, bring this day to judgment before Thy mercy. Show me where I obeyed, where I resisted, where I loved, and where I must begin again.

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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 Grace, Conversion, and Final Perseverance\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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