The Daily Pilgrimage

Good Morning, Pilgrim

Receive this day from God.

The Time after Pentecost teaches perseverance after the great feasts. Many souls receive light and then return to forgetfulness. The pilgrim must instead turn light into rule: morning prayer, the Angelus, Rosary, examination, custody of speech, and fidelity to the duty before him.

Offer the whole interior life to Our Lady so every thought, desire, intention, prayer, and action may be ordered through her to Jesus.

Formation in True Devotion - Day 265: Review and Deepening: Interior and Exterior Practices of True Devotion

“There are several interior practices of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the principal of them stated compendiously. (1) To honour her as the worthy Mother of God, with the worship of hyperdulia; that is to say, to esteem her and honour her above all the other Saints, as the masterpiece of grace, and the first after Jesus Christ, true God and true Man; (2) to meditate her virtues, her privileges, and her actions; (3) to contemplate her grandeurs; (4) to make to her acts of love, of praise, of gratitude; (5) to invoke her cordially; (6) to offer ourselves to her, and unite ourselves with her; (7) to do all our actions with the view of pleasing her; (8) to begin, to continue, and to finish all our actions by her, in her, and with her, in order that we may do them by Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ our Last End.”
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 115

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, give me holy fear before Thy altar. Preserve me from casualness, invention, and every worship that weakens faith in Thy sacrifice.

Quote of the Day

“It is a work of charity to shout: 'Here is the wolf!' when it enters the flock or anywhere else.”
St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, Chapter 29

Today's Complete Roman Martyrology Reading

The Servite enlarged by humility beneath Our Lady.

Martyrology - Martyrology Notice - St. Philip Benizi, Confessor, with the Vigil of St. Bartholomew

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 23

“He contributed greatly to the growth of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was a man of the greatest humility.”

• The Martyrology joins the Vigil of St. Bartholomew to St. Philip Benizi, whose labor greatly enlarged the Servite Order and whose distinguishing mark was profound humility.
• Service beneath Our Lady is measured by obedience to Christ, sorrow for sin, hidden labor, and willingness to diminish while the work of God grows.
• The approaching apostolic feast places humility before mission. Catholic labor becomes fruitful through fidelity and grace, not through the servant's hunger to be seen.

Ask St. Philip for Marian service that reforms the will. Do the duties that advance Christ's work, accept hiddenness, and prepare for the Apostle's feast by rejecting self-display.

Walk with the Church

The Church has already begun praying. Enter her prayer.

Today the Roman year keeps St. Philip Benizi, 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 23

The vigil of St. Bartholomew, apostle. — At Todi, St. Philip Beniti of Florence, confessor. He contributed greatly to the growth of the Order of the Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was a man of the greatest humility. He was numbered among the saints by Clement X. — At Antioch, the birthday of the holy martyrs Restitutus, Donatus, Valerian, and Fructuosa, with twelve others, who were crowned after having distinguished themselves by a glorious confession. — At Ostia, the holy martyrs Quiriacus, bishop, Maximus, priest, Archelaus, deacon, and their companions, who suffered under the prefect Ulpian, in the time of Alexander. — At Egsea, in Cilicia, the holy martyrs Claudius, Asterius, and Neon, brothers, who were accused of being Christians by their step-mother, under the emperor Diocletian, and the governor Lysias, and after enduring bitter torments, were fastened to a cross, and thus conquered and triumphed with Christ. After them suffered Donvina and Theonilla. — At Rheims, in France, the birthday of the Saints Timothy and Apollinaris, who merited to enter the heavenly kingdom by consummating their martyrdom in that city. — At Lyons, the holy martyrs Minervus, and Eleazar with his eight sons. — Also, St. Luppus, martyr, who, though a slave, enjoyed the liberty of Christ, and was likewise deemed worthy of the crown of martyrdom. — At Jerusalem, St. Zaccheus, bishop, who governed the church of that city the fourth after the blessed apostle James. — At Alexandria, St. Theonas, bishop and confessor. — At Utica, in Africa, blessed Victor, bishop. — At Autun, St. Flavian, bishop. — At Clermont, in Auvergne, St. Sidonius, a bishop distinguished for learning and sanctity.

Learn from Today's Saint or Feast

St. Philip Benizi

Servite confessor and humble servant of Our Lady.

St. Philip Benizi entered the Order of the Servants of Mary and became a witness of humility, penance, preaching, and devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady.

He served without seeking honors, and the Church remembers in him a soul made strong by hidden obedience. Marian service is not sentiment. It forms the will to stand with Mary near the Cross and to serve Christ where obedience places us.

Ask St. Philip Benizi for Marian devotion that changes the will. To belong to Our Lady is to become more faithful to Christ, more patient under the Cross, and more ready to serve without display.