The Daily Pilgrimage

Good Morning, Pilgrim

Receive this day as a child of Holy Mother Church.

In the Time after Pentecost, the Church sends the faithful back into daily labor under the light of the Holy Ghost. The soul must not seek fire as excitement only. It must seek the fire that purifies speech, strengthens duty, exposes false peace, and keeps the Church's received worship dear.

Entrust every known need and the unforeseen course of the day to Our Lady, asking for grace to obey whatever help she obtains.

Formation in True Devotion - Day 257: Review and Deepening: Five Marks of True Devotion

“It is tender; that is to say, full of confidence in her, like a child's confidence in his loving mother. This confidence makes the soul have recourse to her in all its bodily or mental necessities, with much simplicity, trust, and tenderness.”
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 107

Ora — Begin with Prayer

Offer the day before spending it

Prayer gives the day its right beginning and its right end. Before work, conversation, news, or distraction claims the mind, adore the Blessed Trinity and offer every prayer, work, joy, suffering, and temptation to Jesus through Mary. Ask your Guardian Angel for help, and place the souls and needs entrusted to you beneath God's will.

Begin simply. Make the Morning Offering through the hands of Our Lady. Pray the Three Hail Marys for purity and final perseverance, ask your Guardian Angel to govern the senses and imagination, and name the soul or intention for which today's prayers and sacrifices will be offered. Do not rush these acts merely because they are familiar; let them place the whole day beneath God before the world begins to claim it.

O Lord, make me patient in household division, firm without cruelty, and charitable without compromise. Let peace be made beneath truth, not against it.

Quote of the Day

“Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned.”
St. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Douay-Rheims

Today's Complete Roman Martyrology Reading

The soldier and the teacher who confessed Christ publicly.

Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs

The verified Roman Martyrology notice for this date is identified below, but a complete transcription has not yet been admitted.

Roman Martyrology, Notice for August 13

“The torment suffered by the martyr was the more grievous, as the hand which inflicted it, by reason of its weakness, rendered death more tardy.”

• The Martyrology remembers St. Hippolytus confessing the Faith under Emperor Valerian and enduring death after being dragged by wild horses; St. Concordia and nineteen members of his household suffered with the same constancy.
• St. Cassian, a teacher at Imola, refused idolatry and was delivered to the pupils he had instructed. The very office by which he had formed others became the scene of his prolonged witness.
• Their martyrdoms reject the fiction of a religious faith sealed away from household, school, or public duty. Christ claims the places where souls are formed as surely as He claims private prayer.

Pray for parents, teachers, and all who form souls. Instruction is never neutral: word, silence, permission, correction, and example either serve truth or train others to live without it.

Walk with Holy Mother Church

Holy Mother Church has already begun praying. Enter her prayer.

Today the Roman year keeps Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs. Receive the observance from the Church's hands: first understand what is commemorated, then let its doctrine and worship shape the day.

Roman Martyrology

August 13

At Rome, blessed Hippolytus, martyr, who glorious- -" ly confessed the faith, under the emperor Valerian After enduring other torments, he was tied by the feet to the necks of wild horses, and being cruelly dragged through briars and brambles, and having all his body lacerated, he yielded up his spirit. On the same day, suffered also blessed Concordia, his nurse, who being scourged in his presence with leaded whips, went to our Lord; and nineteen others of his house, who were beheaded beyond the Tiburtine gate, and buried with him in the Veran field. — At Imola, the birthday of St. Cassian, martyr. As he refused to worship idols, the persecutor called the boys whom the saint taught and who hated him, giving them leave to kill him. The torment suffered by the martyr was the more grievous, as the hand which inflicted it, by reason of its weakness, rendered death more tardy. — At Todi, St. Cassian, bishop and martyr, under the emperor Diocletian. — At Burgos, in Spain, the Saints Centolla and Helena, martyrs. — At Constantinople, St. Maximus, a monk, distinguished for learning and for zeal for Catholic truth. Combating valiantly the Monothelites, he had his hands and tongue torn from him by the heretical emperor Constans, and was banished to Chersonesus, where he breathed his last. At this time, two of his disciples, both called Anastasius, and many others endured diverse torments and the hardships of exile. — In Germany, St. Wigbert, priest and confessor. — At Rome, St. John Berchinans, a scholastic of the Society of Jesus, illustrious for his innocence and for his fidelity to the rules of the religious life. He was canonized by Leo XIII. — At Poitiers, St. Radegundes, queen, whose life was renowned for miracles and virtues.

Learn from Today's Saint or Feast

Ss. Hippolytus and Cassian

Martyrs who teach public fidelity and faithful instruction.

St. Hippolytus gloriously confessed the Faith under the emperor Valerian. After other torments, he was tied to wild horses and dragged to death; St. Concordia and nineteen members of his household also suffered martyrdom.

St. Cassian was a teacher at Imola who refused to worship idols. His persecutor delivered him to the pupils he had taught, and their weak hands prolonged the torment by which he died for Christ. His witness gives a grave lesson to every instructor: teaching is never neutral when souls are being formed.

Ask these martyrs for courage in the places where others learn from you. A father, mother, teacher, employer, or older child teaches by word, silence, permission, and example. Let Christ rule there too.