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St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor
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City of God in Exile: St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor - 2030-12-07
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St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.
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Ciudad de Dios en Exilio: St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor - 2030-12-07
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St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor. Justification Requires True Conversion. Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed.
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CITY OF GOD IN EXILE St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor 2030-12-07 - Advent - Double - white PLAIN-LANGUAGE GUIDE FOR TODAY Confessor: in the traditional calendar, a male saint who openly professed the Faith by a holy life but was not killed as a martyr. Doctor of the Church: a saint formally recognized for teaching the Catholic Faith with exceptional depth and lasting value. Apostolic: belonging to the faith, mission, teaching, or authority handed down from Christ through the apostles. 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. TODAY IN THE ROMAN YEAR St. Ambrose did not treat episcopal office as permission to accommodate the powerful. He taught, corrected, defended the Church's liberty, and called rulers themselves beneath the law of God. Pray for shepherds who speak with his fatherly courage, and examine whether fear of displeasing others has made you conceal a Catholic duty. With the saints, approach the depth of Mary's humility and ask to enter her school. Acknowledge your complete dependence upon grace and ask through Mary for the help needed in today's actual duties. "…and finally, that the depth of her humility, and of all her virtues and graces, is an abyss which never can be sounded." St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 7 The saints do not grow weary of contemplating Our Lady because every virtue in her leads them more deeply into the work of God. Yet St. Louis de Montfort places humility at the depth. Mary is not full of grace because she made herself great; she is wholly receptive to God, empty of resistance, and therefore capable of being filled beyond every other creature. Do not attempt to imitate an abyss by multiplying resolutions. Begin at the edge: consent to be a creature, dependent upon grace, unable to sanctify yourself, and yet truly called by God. Ask Mary to make this dependence peaceful rather than anxious, and let it move you to prayer before effort and thanksgiving after it. PRACTICE Perform your Catholic duties today without hiding them for fear of another's opinion. QUOTE OF THE DAY "Whatever the Roman Pontiffs have hitherto taught must be held with a firm grasp of mind." Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, n. 41 NOVENA IN PROGRESS Novena for the Immaculate Conception - Day 9 of 9 Preparing for Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 2030-12-08. Ask for purity of doctrine, purity of heart, and hatred of the sin and error that wound souls. Practice purity throughout thought, speech, dress, reading, and entertainment. ROMAN MARTYROLOGY - December 7 At Milan, the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church, who has ennobled the universal Church by his holiness and teaching. — At Alexandria, the birthday of blessed Agatho, soldier. In the persecution of Decius, as he was preventing some people from insulting the bodies of the martyrs, a sudden outcry was raised against him by all the populace, and being brought before the judge and persisting in the confession of Christ, he was condemned to capital punishment as a reward for his humanity. — At Antioch, the holy martyrs Polycarp and Theodore. — At Tuburbum, in Africa, during the persecution of the Vandals, under the Arian king Hunneric, St. Servus, martyr, who, being for a very long time beaten with rods, lifted up on high with pulleys and suddenly dropped on flint-stones with his whole weight, and rubbed over with sharp stones, obtained the palm of martyrdom. — At Teano, in Campania, St. Urban, bishop and confessor. — At Saintes, in France, St. Martin, abbot, at whose tomb God works frequent miracles. — In the diocese of Meaux, St. Fara, virgin. HIGHLIGHTED SAINT St. Ambrose Bishop, Confessor, Doctor, and teacher of the universal Church. The Martyrology honors the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and Doctor of the Church, who ennobled the universal Church by his holiness and teaching. His feast teaches episcopal doctrine joined to courage. A bishop must teach, sanctify, correct, and defend the Church even when truth confronts worldly power. Let St. Ambrose strengthen Catholic speech. Truth may have to stand before rulers, and charity must not become silence. FROM MATINS The catechumen made bishop and the ruler brought to penance. Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor Roman Breviary "As thou hast followed him in his sin, follow him also in his repentance." - The Breviary remembers the providential acclamation that called the catechumen St. Ambrose from civil office to the episcopate of Milan. - As bishop he defended Catholic doctrine and discipline, brought Arians back to the faith, and became the spiritual father of St. Augustine. - His refusal to flatter imperial sin shows episcopal charity in its proper strength: the ruler is not hated, but summoned to the public repentance required by justice. Ask St. Ambrose for shepherds who fear God more than rulers. True pastoral care neither excuses public sin nor closes the way of repentance. FULL BREVIARY LESSONS Fourth Lesson - The Catechumen Called to the Episcopate Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was the son of another Ambrose, a Roman citizen, and was born when his father was Prefect of Gaul, about the year of our Lord 340. A swarm of bees settled upon his face when he was in his cradle, which was considered an omen of his future eloquence. He received a liberal education at Rome. He was afterwards, under the Prefect Probus, made governor of Liguria and AEmilia, and so came with authority to Milan. Auxentius, an Arian, who had been intruded into the Bishopric of Milan, happening to die, the most violent disputes arose about the choice of a successor. Ambrose came to the church in his official capacity, and urged upon the contending factions, in a long and powerful speech, the necessity of keeping the public peace; whereupon a child suddenly cried out, "Ambrose, Bishop," and the whole assembly took it up, and unanimously called for his election. Fifth Lesson - Catholic Bishop and Father of St. Augustine Ambrose refused, and would not yield to their prayers, whereupon they carried their petition to the Emperor Valentinian. It was very pleasing to this Prince that those he had appointed as judges should be chosen Bishops, as also to the Prefect Probus, who had, as it were prophetically, said to him when he appointed him, "Go and govern them more like a Bishop than a Judge." When the will of the Emperor was added to the desire of the people, Ambrose yielded, and received Baptism, for hitherto he was only a Catechumen, Confirmation, and Communion, and then the several Orders on successive days, till on the eighth day, which was the 7th of December, in the year 374, the weight of the Episcopate was laid upon his shoulders. Being made Bishop, he showed himself a stout upholder of the Catholic faith, and the discipline of the Church, and turned to the truth great numbers of Arians and other heretics, and, among them, begat in Christ Jesus that burning and shining light of the Church, Austin. Sixth Lesson - Imperial Sin Rebuked and Penance Required After the murder of the Emperor Gratian, in 383, Ambrose was sent as an ambassador to Maximus, by whom he had been slain, and, as he refused to repent, the Bishop renounced his communion. After the massacre which the Emperor Theodosius had commanded at Thessalonica, in 390, he refused to permit that Prince to enter a church. The Emperor pleaded that he was no worse than David, who had been guilty of adultery and murder, to which Ambrose answered him, "As thou hast followed him in his sin, follow him also in his repentance." Then Theodosius humbly did public penance laid upon him by the Bishop. At length the Saint was worn out with his continual labour and care for the Church, for the which also he composed many excellent books, and foretold that the day of his death was at hand, though he had not then fallen into his last sickness. As he lay dying, Honoratus, Bishop of Vercelli, heard a voice from God three times crying to him that the hour of Ambrose's departure was come, whereupon he went to him quickly, and gave him the sacred Body of our Lord. When he had received It, the Saint, still praying, with his hands stretched out in the form of a cross, gave his spirit to God, upon the 4th day of April, in the year of Christ, 397. THE PILGRIM'S SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE Justification Requires True Conversion 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 Doctrinal courage in pastoral office, 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. Humility tells the truth about weakness without discouragement because it also tells the truth about God's help. 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 doctrinal courage in pastoral office 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. Let a limitation remind you to pray rather than tempt you either to despair or pretense. Before the most difficult duty, pause long enough to ask for grace; after it, give thanks instead of taking possession of success. The Church's witness: this truth manifests the Church's mark of holy; the witness placed beside it is Council of Trent. Your resolution before God: Perform your Catholic duties today without hiding them for fear of another's opinion. Carry this word: Authority serves souls when it first submits itself to divine truth. THE PILGRIM'S MIRROR "Ask not who said this, but take heed what is said." Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book I, chapter 5, p. 14 Truth does not become true through fashion, applause, or a celebrated name. Test what you hear by revelation and the perennial teaching of the Church. Yet à Kempis also rebukes the curiosity that collects authorities without receiving their doctrine. Listen for the truth God is giving through a trustworthy witness, and then permit that truth to correct you. The name of a saint should not become decoration around an unchanged life. Today's Practice: Reject claims based on novelty or popularity and ask what the Church has always taught. DAILY EXAMEN Return every success and failure to God through Mary, keeping neither as material for pride or discouragement. - 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? PRAYER O Lord, through St. Ambrose, strengthen bishops in apostolic courage and deliver me from the human respect that silences duty. DAILY RULE FOR THE PILGRIM A brief rule to keep every day: 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. CONTINUE STUDY Grace, Conversion, and Final Perseverance: https://cityofgodinexile.com/mercy-and-salvation/grace-conversion-and-final-perseverance?entered=1 Open this day in the Sacred Calendar: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2030-12-07&entered=1 Open this day's Daily Pilgrimage: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2030-12-07&entered=1 Browse the Formation Index: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1
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CIUDAD DE DIOS EN EXILIO St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor 2030-12-07 - Advent - Double - white Nota: las secciones fijas de formación se presentan en español; los textos diarios variables permanecen en el idioma mantenido en la fuente hasta que se agregue una traducción revisada. HOY EN EL AÑO ROMANO St. Ambrose did not treat episcopal office as permission to accommodate the powerful. He taught, corrected, defended the Church's liberty, and called rulers themselves beneath the law of God. Pray for shepherds who speak with his fatherly courage, and examine whether fear of displeasing others has made you conceal a Catholic duty. PRÁCTICA Perform your Catholic duties today without hiding them for fear of another's opinion. CITA DEL DÍA "Whatever the Roman Pontiffs have hitherto taught must be held with a firm grasp of mind." Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, n. 41 NOVENA EN CURSO Novena for the Immaculate Conception - Día 9 de 9 Preparación para Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary el 2030-12-08. Ask for purity of doctrine, purity of heart, and hatred of the sin and error that wound souls. Practice purity throughout thought, speech, dress, reading, and entertainment. MARTIROLOGIO ROMANO - December 7 At Milan, the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and doctor of the Church, who has ennobled the universal Church by his holiness and teaching. — At Alexandria, the birthday of blessed Agatho, soldier. In the persecution of Decius, as he was preventing some people from insulting the bodies of the martyrs, a sudden outcry was raised against him by all the populace, and being brought before the judge and persisting in the confession of Christ, he was condemned to capital punishment as a reward for his humanity. — At Antioch, the holy martyrs Polycarp and Theodore. — At Tuburbum, in Africa, during the persecution of the Vandals, under the Arian king Hunneric, St. Servus, martyr, who, being for a very long time beaten with rods, lifted up on high with pulleys and suddenly dropped on flint-stones with his whole weight, and rubbed over with sharp stones, obtained the palm of martyrdom. — At Teano, in Campania, St. Urban, bishop and confessor. — At Saintes, in France, St. Martin, abbot, at whose tomb God works frequent miracles. — In the diocese of Meaux, St. Fara, virgin. SANTO DESTACADO St. Ambrose Bishop, Confessor, Doctor, and teacher of the universal Church. The Martyrology honors the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and Doctor of the Church, who ennobled the universal Church by his holiness and teaching. His feast teaches episcopal doctrine joined to courage. A bishop must teach, sanctify, correct, and defend the Church even when truth confronts worldly power. Let St. Ambrose strengthen Catholic speech. Truth may have to stand before rulers, and charity must not become silence. TESTIMONIO DEL BREVIARIO The bishop whose teaching ennobled the Church. Matins - St. Ambrose - The Martyrology honors the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and Doctor, whose holiness and teaching ennobled the universal Church. - His witness joins episcopal authority to doctrine, courage, sacred learning, and correction of error. Pray for shepherds who teach clearly. Charity in office must not become silence before error. Instrucción del Breviario El testimonio del Breviario para St. Ambrose forma parte de la enseñanza diaria de la Iglesia. No debe leerse como una lista de datos aislados: la Sagrada Escritura, las vidas de los santos, la doctrina y la oración de la Iglesia se unen para formar el juicio y la vida católica. El testimonio de hoy se reúne bajo The bishop whose teaching ennobled the Church.. Su primer punto es: The Martyrology honors the consecration of St. Ambrose, bishop and Doctor, whose holiness and teaching ennobled the universal Church. La instrucción práctica es: Pray for shepherds who teach clearly. Charity in office must not become silence before error. Pregunte qué verdad se custodia, qué virtud se alaba y qué peligro u olvido se corrige. - ¿Qué verdad enseña o defiende este testimonio del Breviario? - ¿Qué virtud pone la Iglesia ante mí? - ¿Qué juicio o acción debe cambiar por haber recibido esta lección? SERMÓN O LECCIÓN DEL BREVIARIO The catechumen made bishop and the ruler brought to penance. Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor Roman Breviary "As thou hast followed him in his sin, follow him also in his repentance." - The Breviary remembers the providential acclamation that called the catechumen St. Ambrose from civil office to the episcopate of Milan. - As bishop he defended Catholic doctrine and discipline, brought Arians back to the faith, and became the spiritual father of St. Augustine. - His refusal to flatter imperial sin shows episcopal charity in its proper strength: the ruler is not hated, but summoned to the public repentance required by justice. Ask St. Ambrose for shepherds who fear God more than rulers. True pastoral care neither excuses public sin nor closes the way of repentance. LECCIONES COMPLETAS DEL BREVIARIO Fourth Lesson - The Catechumen Called to the Episcopate Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was the son of another Ambrose, a Roman citizen, and was born when his father was Prefect of Gaul, about the year of our Lord 340. A swarm of bees settled upon his face when he was in his cradle, which was considered an omen of his future eloquence. He received a liberal education at Rome. He was afterwards, under the Prefect Probus, made governor of Liguria and AEmilia, and so came with authority to Milan. Auxentius, an Arian, who had been intruded into the Bishopric of Milan, happening to die, the most violent disputes arose about the choice of a successor. Ambrose came to the church in his official capacity, and urged upon the contending factions, in a long and powerful speech, the necessity of keeping the public peace; whereupon a child suddenly cried out, "Ambrose, Bishop," and the whole assembly took it up, and unanimously called for his election. Fifth Lesson - Catholic Bishop and Father of St. Augustine Ambrose refused, and would not yield to their prayers, whereupon they carried their petition to the Emperor Valentinian. It was very pleasing to this Prince that those he had appointed as judges should be chosen Bishops, as also to the Prefect Probus, who had, as it were prophetically, said to him when he appointed him, "Go and govern them more like a Bishop than a Judge." When the will of the Emperor was added to the desire of the people, Ambrose yielded, and received Baptism, for hitherto he was only a Catechumen, Confirmation, and Communion, and then the several Orders on successive days, till on the eighth day, which was the 7th of December, in the year 374, the weight of the Episcopate was laid upon his shoulders. Being made Bishop, he showed himself a stout upholder of the Catholic faith, and the discipline of the Church, and turned to the truth great numbers of Arians and other heretics, and, among them, begat in Christ Jesus that burning and shining light of the Church, Austin. Sixth Lesson - Imperial Sin Rebuked and Penance Required After the murder of the Emperor Gratian, in 383, Ambrose was sent as an ambassador to Maximus, by whom he had been slain, and, as he refused to repent, the Bishop renounced his communion. After the massacre which the Emperor Theodosius had commanded at Thessalonica, in 390, he refused to permit that Prince to enter a church. The Emperor pleaded that he was no worse than David, who had been guilty of adultery and murder, to which Ambrose answered him, "As thou hast followed him in his sin, follow him also in his repentance." Then Theodosius humbly did public penance laid upon him by the Bishop. At length the Saint was worn out with his continual labour and care for the Church, for the which also he composed many excellent books, and foretold that the day of his death was at hand, though he had not then fallen into his last sickness. As he lay dying, Honoratus, Bishop of Vercelli, heard a voice from God three times crying to him that the hour of Ambrose's departure was come, whereupon he went to him quickly, and gave him the sacred Body of our Lord. When he had received It, the Saint, still praying, with his hands stretched out in the form of a cross, gave his spirit to God, upon the 4th day of April, in the year of Christ, 397. VERDAD DE LA FE Justification Requires True Conversion The sinner is not healed by excuse or affirmation, but by grace, repentance, faith, hope, charity, and the turning of the soul toward God. Nota de la Iglesia: Holy Defensor: Council of Trent Defensa católica: Catholic mercy restores the sinner to truth; it never names sin as holiness or treats amendment as optional. Error que resistir: Resist false mercy, which comforts the sinner while leaving the wound unhealed. VIRTUD QUE PRACTICAR Doctrinal courage in pastoral office. La virtud de hoy es Doctrinal courage in pastoral office.. No debe quedar como un buen pensamiento: la gracia ha de entrar en los deberes reales del día, en la oración, la vida familiar, el trabajo, la corrección necesaria, el silencio paciente y la resistencia a la tentación. La virtud no es solamente una disposición natural o un temperamento agradable. La virtud católica ordena el alma y sus actos hacia Dios; está gobernada por la verdad, fortalecida por la gracia, purificada por el arrepentimiento y perfeccionada por la caridad. Ponga la virtud en práctica de este modo: Study Catholic doctrine with reverence. Ponga la virtud en práctica de este modo: Pray for bishops who teach clearly. Ponga la virtud en práctica de este modo: Correct error without losing charity. - ¿Dónde será probada esta virtud en mis deberes reales de hoy? - ¿Qué mera apariencia natural podría confundir con la virtud misma? - ¿Qué acto concreto realizaré antes de la noche? ORACIÓN O Lord, through St. Ambrose, strengthen bishops in apostolic courage and deliver me from the human respect that silences duty. REGLA DIARIA DEL PEREGRINO Una regla breve para guardar cada día: Comenzar con la oración de la mañana Reconozca a Dios y ofrézcale el día antes de atender otras obligaciones. Guardar el Ángelus Deténgase por la mañana, al mediodía y por la tarde para recordar la Encarnación. Hacer una comunión espiritual Renueve el deseo de Nuestro Señor en el Santísimo Sacramento sin tratar el exilio como algo normal. Rezar el Rosario Mantenga ante la mente los misterios de Cristo con Nuestra Señora. Volver a Dios con jaculatorias Use una breve aspiración santa durante el trabajo, la espera, el sufrimiento o la tentación. Terminar con oración nocturna y examen Dé gracias, confiese las faltas, perdone las ofensas y haga un propósito concreto. EXAMEN DIARIO - ¿Por qué gracia o misericordia debo dar gracias a Dios hoy? - ¿Qué pecado, falta, deber descuidado o resistencia a la gracia debo confesar? - ¿Qué propósito concreto llevaré a mañana? Continuar estudio: https://cityofgodinexile.com/mercy-and-salvation/grace-conversion-and-final-perseverance?entered=1 Abrir este día en el Calendario Sagrado: https://cityofgodinexile.com/sacred-calendar?date=2030-12-07&entered=1 Abrir vista web: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch?date=2030-12-07&entered=1 Índice de formación: https://cityofgodinexile.com/daily-dispatch/formation?entered=1