{"ok":true,"date":"2030-12-20","dateKey":"12-20","liturgicalDay":"Advent Ember Day","rank":"Non-privileged Feria","color":"violet","quoteOfTheDay":{"text":"Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.","author":"Our Lord Jesus Christ","source":"Matthew 9:9, Douay-Rheims","category":"Confidence and Daily Self-Denial"},"season":"Advent","novenas":[{"title":"Christmas Novena","feast":"Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ","day":5,"totalDays":9,"startIsoDate":"2030-12-16","feastIsoDate":"2030-12-25","intention":"Prepare the soul and household to receive the King in humility, adoration, and Catholic faith.","prayer":null,"practice":"Keep silence and simplicity wherever they prepare the soul and household for the Christ Child.","sources":[]}],"octaveContexts":[],"subject":"City of God in Exile: Advent Ember Day - 2030-12-20","previewText":"Advent Ember Day. Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided. Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger.","plainText":"CITY OF GOD IN EXILE\nAdvent Ember Day\n2030-12-20 - Advent - Non-privileged Feria - violet\nPLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY\nVigil: a day or period of prayerful preparation before a feast; it teaches the faithful to prepare instead of arriving spiritually unready.\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.\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 Fourth Sunday places St. John the Baptist before us as the voice preparing the Lord's way, while the Church calls Christ the Key of David. Only He opens the kingdom and releases souls imprisoned in darkness; no human program can replace repentance and grace. Let confession, forgiveness, or restitution straighten the path before Christmas. Ask the Holy Ghost to produce the likeness of Jesus Christ in your soul through His faithful Spouse. Invoke the Holy Ghost and ask Him to reproduce in you the dispositions He formed so perfectly in Our Lady.\n\n\"This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and indissoluble Spouse, in any soul, becomes the more active and mighty in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.\"\nSt. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 20\n\nThe Holy Ghost alone is the divine Sanctifier. Our Lady is wholly His creature and faithful Spouse. Her presence in a soul means that her faith, humility, purity, obedience, prayer, and charity are welcomed there; these dispositions make room for His work rather than resisting it through pride and self-will.\n\nDo not ask merely for Marian feelings. Ask for Marian dispositions throughout the day. The true measure is whether Christ is being formed: whether His truth governs the mind, His commandments govern the will, His charity governs conduct, and His Cross governs the use of suffering.\n\nPRACTICE\nMake or firmly arrange a good confession, and begin repairing every injury that still obstructs peace with God or neighbor.\n\nQUOTE OF THE DAY\n\"Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.\"\nOur Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 9:9, Douay-Rheims\n\nNOVENA IN PROGRESS\nChristmas Novena - Day 5 of 9\nPreparing for Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ on 2030-12-25.\nPrepare the soul and household to receive the King in humility, adoration, and Catholic faith.\n\nKeep silence and simplicity wherever they prepare the soul and household for the Christ Child.\n\nROMAN MARTYROLOGY - December 20\nThe vigil of St. Thomas, apostle. — At Rome, the holy martyrs Liberatus and Bajulus. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ingen, and Theophilus, soldiers, who, standing near the tribunals, and seeing a Christian trembling under the torture and almost on the point of apostatizing, endeavored to encourage him by their looks and by signs, and when for this reason the whole people raised an outcry against them, they rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians. By their victory, Christ, who had given to them such fortitude, triumphed most gloriously. — At Gelduba, St. Julius, martyr. — In Arabia, the holy martyrs Eugene and Macarius, priests. For reproving Julian the Apostate for his impiety, they received a most severe scourging, were banished to a vast desert, and finally were put to the sword. — At Antioch, the birthday of St. Philogonius, bishop, who was called by the will of God from the practice of law to the government of that church. With the saintly bishop Alexander and other auxiliaries, he engaged the first combat for the Catholic faith against Arius, and, being renowned for merits, rested in the Lord. His festival was commemorated by St. John Chrysostom with an excellent panegyric. — At Brescia, St. Dominic, bishop and confessor. — In Spain, the departure from this world of St. Dominic de Sylos, abbot, of the Order of St. Benedict, most renowned for the miracles he wrought for the deliverance of captives.\n\nHIGHLIGHTED SAINT\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.\nFROM MATINS\nChrist triumphs when the wavering are strengthened to confess Him.\nMartyrology - Martyrology Notice - Vigil of St. Thomas the Apostle\nRoman Martyrology\n\"They rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians.\"\n- On the vigil of St. Thomas, the Martyrology remembers five Christian soldiers who saw another Christian trembling under torture and near apostasy.\n- They first encouraged him by looks and signs; when the crowd turned against them, they openly declared themselves Christians.\n- Their fortitude shows fraternal charity under persecution: Catholics must strengthen the wavering toward confession, accepting personal cost rather than silently watching a soul surrender Christ.\nStrengthen Catholics who are frightened, isolated, or tempted to compromise. Encourage them privately when possible, confess Christ publicly when necessary, and pray that His fortitude may triumph in every wavering soul.\nFULL BREVIARY LESSONS\nRoman Martyrology Notice - December 20\nAt Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ingen, and Theophilus, soldiers, who, standing near the tribunals, and seeing a Christian trembling under the torture and almost on the point of apostatizing, endeavored to encourage him by their looks and by signs, and when for this reason the whole people raised an outcry against them, they rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians. By their victory, Christ, who had given to them such fortitude, triumphed most gloriously.\nTHE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE\nTruth and Charity Cannot Be Divided\nThe Church places this truth before you today: Charity loves the real good of the soul, and therefore cannot ask truth to be hidden, softened into falsehood, or traded for comfort. 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. The saints defended truth sharply when souls were endangered, yet their severity was ordered to salvation, not pride.\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 interior docility by promptly following grace and rejecting the resistance of pride, impurity, resentment, and self-will.\nThere is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger. 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. Allow contradiction and sacrifice to uncover what in you still resists conformity to Jesus Christ. Perform every duty with Mary's faith, recollection, obedience, purity of intention, and charity so that Christ may govern the whole day.\nThe Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is St. Bernard of Clairvaux.\nYour resolution before God: Make or firmly arrange a good confession, and begin repairing every injury that still obstructs peace with God or neighbor.\nCarry this word: Christ opens the prison, but the soul must cease loving its chains.\nTHE PILGRIM'S MIRROR\n\"My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.\"\nThomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45\nFervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.\n\nRecall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.\nToday's Practice: Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.\nDAILY EXAMEN\nExamine which dispositions resembled Mary and which resisted the Holy Ghost's work of forming Christ in you.\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 Key of David, come and lead the captive from darkness; make straight in me the road prepared for Thy coming.\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\nSpeaking the Truth in Charity: https://cityofgodinexile.com/scripture-treasury/ephesians-4-15-speaking-the-truth-in-charity-doctrinal-clarity-and-pastoral-mercy?entered=1\nOpen this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2030-12-20&entered=1\nOpen this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2030-12-20&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 - 2030-12-20\n \n \n
\n Advent Ember Day. Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided. Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger.\n
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City of God in Exile

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Advent Ember Day

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2030-12-20 - Advent - Non-privileged Feria - violet

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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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Vigil
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a day or period of prayerful preparation before a feast; it teaches the faithful to prepare instead of arriving spiritually unready.
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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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Ordination
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the sacrament by which a baptized man is made a deacon, priest, or bishop and receives the grace and authority needed for that ministry.

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 Fourth Sunday places St. John the Baptist before us as the voice preparing the Lord's way, while the Church calls Christ the Key of David. Only He opens the kingdom and releases souls imprisoned in darkness; no human program can replace repentance and grace. Let confession, forgiveness, or restitution straighten the path before Christmas.

Ask the Holy Ghost to produce the likeness of Jesus Christ in your soul through His faithful Spouse.

Invoke the Holy Ghost and ask Him to reproduce in you the dispositions He formed so perfectly in Our Lady.

“This is the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and indissoluble Spouse, in any soul, becomes the more active and mighty in producing Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.”

St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 20

The Holy Ghost alone is the divine Sanctifier. Our Lady is wholly His creature and faithful Spouse. Her presence in a soul means that her faith, humility, purity, obedience, prayer, and charity are welcomed there; these dispositions make room for His work rather than resisting it through pride and self-will.

Do not ask merely for Marian feelings. Ask for Marian dispositions throughout the day. The true measure is whether Christ is being formed: whether His truth governs the mind, His commandments govern the will, His charity governs conduct, and His Cross governs the use of suffering.

Make or firmly arrange a good confession, and begin repairing every injury that still obstructs peace with God or neighbor.

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Quote of the Day

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“Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.”
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Our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 9:9, Douay-Rheims

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Novena in Progress

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Christmas Novena - Day 5 of 9

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Preparing for Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ on 2030-12-25.

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

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

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Roman Martyrology - December 20

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The vigil of St. Thomas, apostle. — At Rome, the holy martyrs Liberatus and Bajulus. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ingen, and Theophilus, soldiers, who, standing near the tribunals, and seeing a Christian trembling under the torture and almost on the point of apostatizing, endeavored to encourage him by their looks and by signs, and when for this reason the whole people raised an outcry against them, they rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians. By their victory, Christ, who had given to them such fortitude, triumphed most gloriously. — At Gelduba, St. Julius, martyr. — In Arabia, the holy martyrs Eugene and Macarius, priests. For reproving Julian the Apostate for his impiety, they received a most severe scourging, were banished to a vast desert, and finally were put to the sword. — At Antioch, the birthday of St. Philogonius, bishop, who was called by the will of God from the practice of law to the government of that church. With the saintly bishop Alexander and other auxiliaries, he engaged the first combat for the Catholic faith against Arius, and, being renowned for merits, rested in the Lord. His festival was commemorated by St. John Chrysostom with an excellent panegyric. — At Brescia, St. Dominic, bishop and confessor. — In Spain, the departure from this world of St. Dominic de Sylos, abbot, of the Order of St. Benedict, most renowned for the miracles he wrought for the deliverance of captives.

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Highlighted Saint

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The Advent Ember Day

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The winter fast of expectation and ordination prayer.

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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.

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

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From Matins

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Christ triumphs when the wavering are strengthened to confess Him.

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Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - Vigil of St. Thomas the Apostle

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Roman Martyrology, December 20 notice

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“They rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians.”
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  • On the vigil of St. Thomas, the Martyrology remembers five Christian soldiers who saw another Christian trembling under torture and near apostasy.
  • They first encouraged him by looks and signs; when the crowd turned against them, they openly declared themselves Christians.
  • Their fortitude shows fraternal charity under persecution: Catholics must strengthen the wavering toward confession, accepting personal cost rather than silently watching a soul surrender Christ.
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Strengthen Catholics who are frightened, isolated, or tempted to compromise. Encourage them privately when possible, confess Christ publicly when necessary, and pray that His fortitude may triumph in every wavering soul.

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Full Breviary Lessons

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Roman Martyrology Notice - December 20

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At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Ammon, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ingen, and Theophilus, soldiers, who, standing near the tribunals, and seeing a Christian trembling under the torture and almost on the point of apostatizing, endeavored to encourage him by their looks and by signs, and when for this reason the whole people raised an outcry against them, they rushed forward, and declared themselves Christians. By their victory, Christ, who had given to them such fortitude, triumphed most gloriously.

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The Pilgrim's Spiritual Conference

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Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided

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The Church places this truth before you today: Charity loves the real good of the soul, and therefore cannot ask truth to be hidden, softened into falsehood, or traded for comfort. 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. The saints defended truth sharply when souls were endangered, yet their severity was ordered to salvation, not pride.

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 interior docility by promptly following grace and rejecting the resistance of pride, impurity, resentment, and self-will.

There is also an enemy to recognize: Resist the counterfeit charity that calls correction unkind while leaving souls in danger. 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. Allow contradiction and sacrifice to uncover what in you still resists conformity to Jesus Christ. Perform every duty with Mary's faith, recollection, obedience, purity of intention, and charity so that Christ may govern the whole day.

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

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Your Resolution Before God

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Make or firmly arrange a good confession, and begin repairing every injury that still obstructs peace with God or neighbor.

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Christ opens the prison, but the soul must cease loving its chains.
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The Pilgrim's Mirror

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How shall I imitate Christ today?

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“My son, be waking and diligent in the service of God, and think oft wherefore thou art come, and why thou hast forsaken the world.”
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Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 25, p. 45

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Fervor is not religious excitement. It is the awakened will that remembers its end and returns to duty when nature grows sluggish. You were created to know, love, and serve God and thereby attain eternal life; every lesser purpose must remain beneath this one.

Recall why you began to seek a more faithful Catholic life. Then ask what has cooled: prayer postponed, sacrifice avoided, truth softened, or daily duty performed without love. Do not attempt to recover everything through emotion. Renew the next act, and let diligence carry the soul where feeling does not.

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Today's Practice

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Renew aloud the purpose of your life before God, then complete the duty you have most resisted.

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Daily Examen

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Three questions before night prayer

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Examine which dispositions resembled Mary and which resisted the Holy Ghost's work of forming Christ in you.

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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 Key of David, come and lead the captive from darkness; make straight in me the road prepared for Thy coming.

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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 Speaking the Truth in Charity\n
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Persevere, pilgrim.

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The gates remain open to the faithful.

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