The Daily Pilgrimage

Today in the Roman year

Pentecost teaches that the Holy Ghost does not create private religious enthusiasm detached from doctrine, worship, and authority. He gathers, sends, teaches, and strengthens the visible Church. The remnant must therefore seek fire without disorder and zeal without novelty.

Pause at midday for a brief act of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.

Roman Martyrology

July 5

At Cremona, in Insubria, St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, confessor, founder of the Barnabites and the Angelic Virgins.. Distinguished for all the virtues and for miracles, he was placed among the Saints by Leo XIII. His body is venerated in the church of St. Barnabas, at Milan. — At Rome, St. Zoe, martyr, wife of the blessed martyr Nicostratus. Whilst praying at the tomb of the apostle St. Peter, during the time of Diocletian, she was seized by the persecutors, and cast into a dark dungeon; then being suspended on a tree by her neck and hair, and suffocated by a loathsome smoke, she yielded up her soul in the confession of the Lord. — In Syria, the birthday of St. Domitius, martyr, who by his miracles confers many favors on the people of that country. — At Gyrene, in Lybia, St. Cyrilla, a martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian. For a long while she held on her hand burning coals with incense, lest by shaking off the coals she should seem to offer incense to the idols. She was afterwards cruelly scourged, and went to her spouse adorned with her own blood. — At Jerusalem, St. Athanasius, a deacon, who was apprehended by the heretics for defending the Council of Chalcedon, and after experiencing all kinds of torments, was put to the sword. — In Sicily, the holy martyrs Agatho and Triphina. — At Tomis, in Scythia, the holy martyrs Marinus, Theodotus, and Sedopha. — At Treves, St. Numerian, bishop and confessor. — St. Michael of the Saints, whose death is mentioned on the 10th of April. — At San Severino, in the March of Ancona, St. Philomena, virgin.

Gospel of the Day

I have compassion on the multitude.

6th Sunday after Pentecost - Mark 8:1-9

“I have compassion on the multitude, for behold they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat.”

Tell Our Lord plainly where you are hungry. He does not despise need; He receives it as a place for mercy.

Highlighted saint

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria

Confessor, founder, and preacher of reform.

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria was first trained as a physician, but gave himself to the priesthood and to the healing of souls. He founded the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, commonly called Barnabites, and also helped form religious women known as the Angelic Virgins.

His reforming zeal was not novelty. He labored for frequent preaching, confession, reverence toward the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to the Passion, and the renewal of Christian life by penance and disciplined charity.

Ask St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria for reform that begins at the altar and in the confessional. Catholic renewal is not noise; it is fidelity made serious again.

Breviary Witness

Reform beginning in sanctity.

Matins - St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria

• The Breviary remembrance of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria honors a confessor whose foundations served Catholic reform and disciplined zeal.
• His witness teaches that renewal must be ascetical, doctrinal, sacramental, and ordered to souls.

Begin reform where grace has placed you: in prayer, discipline, doctrine, and concrete duties.

From Matins

Reform beginning at the Cross and the altar.

Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Antony Mary Zaccaria, Confessor

Roman Breviary, Proper lessons for St. Antony Mary Zaccaria

“He understood from God that his call was to the healing of souls, rather than to that of bodies.”

• The Breviary honors St. Antony Mary Zaccaria as a physician turned priest, called from bodily healing to the healing of souls.
• His reforming work joined catechesis, care for the sick and poor, exhortation to amendment, priestly zeal, and religious foundations under the patronage of St. Paul.
• His love for Jesus Crucified and the Holy Eucharist made reform concrete: Friday remembrance of the Cross, frequent Communion, public exhortation, and disciplined zeal for souls.

Seek reform where saints seek it: at the Cross, before the altar, in confession, in doctrine taught clearly, and in charity that actually reaches the afflicted.

Truth of the Faith

Truth and Charity Cannot Be Divided

Charity loves the real good of the soul, and therefore cannot ask truth to be hidden, softened into falsehood, or traded for comfort.

Prayer

O Lord, recollect my scattered thoughts, govern my words, and teach me to return to Thee before the noise of the day rules my soul.