The Daily Pilgrimage

Good Morning, Pilgrim

Receive this day from God.

Pentecost does not end when the octave passes. Its fruit must remain in the soul: public confession of truth, docility to apostolic doctrine, courage before false authority, and charity strong enough to resist error without bitterness.

Ask Our Lady to unite every exterior practice with interior truth and to lead your Rosary through all Christ's mysteries toward complete fidelity.

Formation in True Devotion - Day 266: Review and Deepening: Interior and Exterior Practices of True Devotion

“True devotion to our Lady has also several exterior practices, of which the following are the chief: (1) to enrol ourselves in her confraternities, and enter her congregations; (2) to join the religious orders instituted in her honour; (3) to publish her praises; (4) to give alms, to fast, and to undergo outward and inward mortifications in her honour; (5) to wear her liveries, such as the rosary, the scapular, or the little chain; (6) to recite with attention, devotion, and modesty, the holy Rosary, composed of fifteen decades of Hail Marys in honour of the fifteen principal mysteries of Jesus Christ, or five decades, which is the third of the Rosary.”
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 116

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, keep me near Thy Cross when comfort, acceptance, and ease invite me elsewhere. Let fidelity be stronger than the desire to belong.

Quote of the Day

“O God, who didst wonderfully inflame blessed John Thy confessor to promote the public worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, and through him didst will to found new religious families in the Church; grant, we beseech thee, that we who venerate his merits may also be taught by the example of his virtues.”
The Roman Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., The Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1953), Proper of the Saints, August 19, printed p. 845.

Today's Full Breviary Sermon or Proper Lesson

The Mother of the living God remembered during the feast of St. John Eudes.

Matins - Second Nocturn - Commemoration of the Octave of the Assumption on the feast of St. John Eudes

The verified Breviary witness for this observance is identified below. A complete English transcription has not yet been admitted, so no excerpt or summary is presented as though it were the full appointed text.

St. John Damascene, Second sermon on the Falling-asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“As the Mother of the living God, she was worthily taken by Him unto Himself.”

• The Octave of the Assumption is commemorated in today's Mass of St. John Eudes, so Our Lady's heavenly glory remains present without displacing the principal feast.
• St. John Damascene contemplates Mary as the Mother of the living God worthily taken by her Son unto Himself.
• The commemoration fittingly accompanies a saint who promoted public worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary: every true Marian devotion magnifies Christ and forms souls for His service.

Ask Our Lady to lead you more deeply into the Heart of her Son, and ask St. John Eudes for zeal to make that devotion fruitful in Catholic life and labor for souls.

Walk with the Church

The Church has already begun praying. Enter her prayer.

Today the Roman year keeps St. John Eudes, Confessor. Receive the observance as the Church gives it: first understand what is commemorated, then let its doctrine and worship shape the day.

Roman Martyrology

August 19

At Rome, St. Julius, senator and martyr, who was delivered up to the judge Vitellius, and by him thrown into prison. By order of the emperor Commodus, he was beaten with rods until he expired. His body was buried in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian road. — In Cilicia, the birthday of St. Andrew, tribune, and his military companions, who were converted to Christianity through a miraculous victory they had gained over the Persians. Being accused on this account, they were massacred in the defiles of Mount Taurus by the army of the governor Seleueus, under the emperor Maximian. — In Palestine, St. Timothy, a martyr, in the persecution of Diocletian, under the governor Urbanus. After overcoming many torments, he was consumed with a slow fire. — In the same country suffered also Thecla and Agapius. The former being exposed to the beasts, was torn to pieces by their teeth, and went to her spouse; but Agapius, after enduring many torments, was reserved for greater combats. — At Anagni, St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who was put to death in the persecution of Decius. — At the castle of Brignoles, in Provence, the demise of St. Louis, bishop of Toulouse, of the Order of Minorites, renowned for holiness of life and miracles. His body was taken thence to Marseilles, and buried with due honors in the church of the Friars Minor. — In the neighborhood of Sisteron, in France, blessed Donatus, priest and confessor. Being from his very infancy endowed with the grace of God in an extraordinary manner, he lived the life of an anchoret for many years, and after having been renowned for glorious miracles, went to Christ. — In the territory of Bourges, St. Marian, confessor. — At Mantua, St. Rufinus, confessor. — At Rome, blessed Urban II., pope, who followed in the footsteps of St. Gregory VII., in his zeal for learning and religion, and fired the crusaders with enthusiasm for the recovery of the holy places in Palestine from the power of the infidels. The veneration paid to him from time immemorial Pope Leo XIII. approved and confirmed.

Gospel of the Day

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord shall find watching.

St. John Eudes, Confessor - Luke 12:35-40

“Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.”

Ask St. John Eudes to help you keep the lamp of faith burning. Offer today's prayers and duties for priests, and make an act of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Holy Heart of Mary.

Learn from Today's Saint or Feast

St. John Eudes

Confessor, missionary, founder, and apostle of the Sacred Hearts.

St. John Eudes was born in France in 1601. He became renowned as a preacher and ascetical writer, founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, and promoted the public worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

He died at Caen on August 19, 1680, and was canonized in 1925. His feast is kept as a Double in white vestments, with a commemoration of the Octave of the Assumption.

Ask St. John Eudes to obtain a heart consumed with love for Jesus and Mary, faithful to Catholic truth, and willing to labor for the sanctification of priests and the salvation of souls.

Breviary Witness for the Day

The Assumption octave commemorated with St. John Eudes.

Matins - Commemoration of the Octave of the Assumption on the feast of St. John Eudes

• The feast of St. John Eudes is kept today while the Octave of the Assumption is commemorated, joining his promotion of devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to the Church's continued remembrance of Our Lady's heavenly glory.
• The commemoration teaches that Marian devotion does not compete with the honor of the saints. Our Lady forms apostolic souls who live and labor wholly for her divine Son.

Honor St. John Eudes without leaving the Assumption octave behind. Ask Our Lady to form in you the watchful, sacrificial zeal that serves the Heart of her Son.