Traditional Catholic Daily Devotional

• "The Fruits of Humility" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord celebrates one of the most breathtaking moments in the Gospel. For just a few moments on a mountaintop, the veil was pulled back, and three of the Apostles were allowed to glimpse the glory that had always belonged to Christ.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, traditionally identified as Mount Tabor. There, while they prayed, His appearance was suddenly transformed. His face shone like the sun, His garments became dazzling white, and Moses and Elijah appeared beside Him, speaking with Him about the Passion that was soon to take place in Jerusalem.

Imagine being Peter.

One moment you're climbing a dusty hillside with your teacher.

The next, you're standing in the presence of the glory of heaven.

Peter was so overwhelmed that he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Then he suggested building three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. The Gospel almost lets us smile at Peter's reaction. He didn't fully understand what he was seeing. He just knew he never wanted the moment to end.

Then came the cloud.

Throughout the Old Testament, the cloud was the visible sign of God's presence, leading Israel through the desert and filling the Temple. Now it overshadowed the mountain, and from it came the voice of the Father: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him."

The Transfiguration was more than a miracle.

It was preparation.

Only a short time later, these same Apostles would watch Jesus arrested, beaten, and crucified. Before they saw His suffering, Christ allowed them to see His glory. The Church has always understood the Transfiguration as a reminder that the Cross is never the end of the story.

The feast itself has an interesting history. Christians in the East had celebrated the Transfiguration for centuries before it became a universal feast in the West. Then, in 1456, news reached Rome that Christian forces had won the decisive Siege of Belgrade against the advancing Ottoman Empire. The victory arrived on August 6, and in thanksgiving, Pope Callixtus III extended the Feast of the Transfiguration to the entire Latin Church. It's a fascinating connection: the Church chose to celebrate Christ's glory on the very day Christians believed He had dramatically intervened to preserve Europe.

Today, pilgrims still climb both Mount Tabor and Mount Hermon, each traditionally associated with the Transfiguration. At the summit of Mount Tabor stands the beautiful Basilica of the Transfiguration, where Christians from around the world gather to remember the moment heaven briefly broke through into ordinary time.

The Transfiguration reminds us that God sometimes gives us glimpses of His glory, not so we can stay on the mountaintop forever, but so we'll have the strength to keep following Him when the road leads back down into the valley.

Lord Jesus Christ, transfigured in glory before Your Apostles, transform our hearts and lead us to the light of Your eternal kingdom.

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• "Humility and Magnanimity" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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Saint Oswald of Northumbria was a king who carried a sword in one hand and a cross in the other. He lived during the seventh century, when Christianity was slowly taking root in England, and his greatest victories were not the ones he won on the battlefield, but the ones that helped bring the faith to his people.

Oswald was born into the royal family of Northumbria, but his childhood was anything but peaceful. After his father was killed in battle, the young prince was forced into exile. He found refuge on the Scottish island of Iona, where the famous monastery founded by Columba became his home.

That exile changed his life.

Instead of growing up in a royal court, Oswald was formed by monks. There he learned the Catholic faith, was baptized, and developed the habits of prayer that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

Years later, Oswald returned to reclaim his kingdom. Before one decisive battle, tradition says he raised a large wooden cross and helped his soldiers hold it upright while it was planted into the ground. Then he knelt before it and prayed, asking God not simply for victory, but for justice. His army won the battle, and Oswald became king of Northumbria.

What he did next is what makes him a saint.

Rather than using his new authority simply to strengthen his kingdom, he set about strengthening the Church. Wanting his people to know Christ as he had come to know Him at Iona, Oswald invited missionaries to Northumbria. The first struggled, but a monk named Aidan of Lindisfarne accepted the challenge.

There's a wonderful detail that tells you everything about Oswald's character.

Aidan spoke little English when he first arrived.

So who translated his sermons?

The king himself.

Imagine that. After winning battles and ruling a kingdom, Oswald spent his time standing beside a missionary, translating the Gospel for his own people. It's hard to think of many kings who would have considered that one of their royal duties.

Oswald was also known for his generosity. One Easter, while dining with Saint Aidan, he learned that a crowd of poor people had gathered outside the palace. He immediately ordered the meal prepared for the royal table to be given away and even had the silver serving dishes broken into pieces so they could be distributed among the poor.

Oswald's reign lasted only eight years. In 642, he was killed in battle while defending his kingdom. Almost immediately, stories of miracles began to spread, and his reputation for holiness reached far beyond England. His relics were honored in several great churches, and for centuries he was one of the most beloved royal saints in Europe.

Saint Oswald reminds us that leadership is measured not by power, but by service. The greatest king is the one who leads his people closer to Christ.

Saint Oswald of Northumbria, holy king and servant of the Gospel, pray for us.

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• "The Humility of the Publican" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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Saint Dominic is often remembered as the founder of the Dominican Order, but if you had asked him to describe himself, he probably would have answered much more simply.

He was a preacher.

Born in 1170 in Caleruega, Spain, Dominic grew up in a deeply Catholic family. As a young man, he studied theology and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma. He loved learning, but he never viewed study as an end in itself. For Dominic, the purpose of knowing the truth was to share it with others.

One story from his youth says a great deal about the man he would become. During a severe famine, books were among his most valuable possessions. In the Middle Ages, a library represented years of work and enormous expense. Yet Dominic sold his books to feed the hungry, reportedly saying, "I could not bear to prize dead skins while living souls were starving."

That balance never left him.

He loved books.

He loved study.

But he loved people even more.

Everything changed during a journey through southern France. There, Dominic encountered the Albigensian heresy, which had drawn many people away from the Catholic faith. He noticed something important. Many Catholic preachers traveled with large entourages and impressive displays of wealth, while the heretical teachers lived simply among the people.

Dominic realized that if the Church hoped to win hearts, it needed preachers whose lives matched their message.

So he began walking from town to town on foot.

He preached in marketplaces, in homes, and wherever people would listen. He debated patiently, answered questions, and spent long hours speaking with those who had left the Church. His goal was never to win an argument. It was to win a soul.

Out of that mission grew the Order of Preachers, known today as the Dominicans. Dominic wanted his friars to be men of prayer, study, and preaching, believing that good preaching begins on one's knees and is strengthened in the library before it is proclaimed from the pulpit.

One of the oldest traditions connected with Saint Dominic is his deep love for the Rosary. Although historians continue to discuss exactly how the devotion developed, for centuries Catholics have associated Dominic with spreading the Rosary as a powerful way of meditating on the life of Christ through the eyes of His Blessed Mother. Whether preaching in a village square or praying quietly in a chapel, Dominic understood that truth and prayer always belonged together.

Today, pilgrims can visit the Basilica of Saint Dominic, where his tomb has drawn visitors for more than eight hundred years. Many of the Church's greatest theologians, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, walked in Dominic's footsteps, carrying forward the mission he began.

Saint Dominic reminds us that the truth is never something to keep to ourselves. It is a gift meant to be shared with charity, humility, and joy.

Saint Dominic, preacher of the Gospel and father of the Order of Preachers, pray for us.

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Saint Nicodemus is one of the most intriguing figures in the Gospel because we watch his faith grow slowly. He doesn't appear as a bold disciple from the very beginning. Instead, we see a man searching, questioning, and gradually finding the courage to follow Christ.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest religious council in Jerusalem. He was also one of the most respected teachers in Israel. Humanly speaking, he had everything to lose by associating himself with Jesus.

That's probably why his first visit happened at night.

The Gospel of Saint John tells us that Nicodemus came quietly to speak with Jesus, asking questions that had likely been stirring in his heart for some time. It was during that unforgettable conversation that Christ spoke the words every Christian has heard: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

For years I imagined Nicodemus walking away that night completely confused.

Maybe he was.

But he also kept thinking about what he had heard.

The next time Nicodemus appears in Scripture, the religious leaders are attacking Jesus and looking for ways to arrest Him. Nicodemus doesn't suddenly become fearless, but he does something important. He speaks up. Quietly, cautiously, he reminds the council that Jewish law requires a man to be heard before being condemned.

It's a small step.

But sometimes that's how faith grows.

Then comes the moment that reveals just how far Nicodemus has come.

After the Crucifixion, when nearly everyone else has disappeared, Nicodemus walks openly to Calvary with Joseph of Arimathea. Together they ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Nicodemus brings an astonishing amount of myrrh and aloes, nearly one hundred Roman pounds, enough to prepare the burial of a king.

The man who first came to Jesus under cover of darkness is now publicly honoring Him in broad daylight.

Ancient Christian tradition says that Nicodemus was eventually baptized by the Apostles and suffered greatly for his faith. Some accounts say he was driven from Jerusalem and lost his position because of his conversion. Whether every detail can be historically confirmed or not, Christians have long remembered him as a disciple whose quiet search for truth eventually became courageous faith.

Visitors to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can still stand near the Stone of Anointing, where tradition remembers Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea preparing the body of Christ for burial. It's a moving reminder that one of the final acts of love shown to Our Lord came from the man who had once been too cautious to visit Him except at night.

Saint Nicodemus, seeker of truth and faithful disciple of Christ, pray for us.

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• "The Pride of the Pharisee" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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The Feast of Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula celebrates one of the smallest churches in the world, a tiny chapel that became the heart of the Franciscan movement and one of the most beloved shrines in Christian history.

The Portiuncula, whose name simply means "the little portion," stood just outside the walls of Assisi. By the time Francis of Assisi first discovered it around the year 1205, the little chapel had fallen into disrepair. Its roof leaked, its walls were crumbling, and it had been largely forgotten.

Francis loved it immediately.

At first, he simply repaired the building with his own hands, believing that was what God had asked him to do. Only later did he realize that God was calling him to rebuild something much greater: the Church herself through a life of poverty, joy, and fidelity to the Gospel.

The tiny chapel of Saint Mary of the Angels became the birthplace of the Franciscan Order. It was there that Francis welcomed his first companions. It was there that Saint Clare received her religious habit, beginning the Poor Clares. It was there that Francis gathered his friars for their annual meetings, sometimes with thousands of brothers camping in the surrounding fields because the little chapel was far too small to hold them all.

In many ways, the Portiuncula became Francis' earthly home.

It was also there that one of the Church's best-loved indulgences began. According to Franciscan tradition, while praying in the little chapel, Saint Francis received a vision of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary surrounded by angels. He asked not for wealth, influence, or privileges for himself, but for a complete remission of temporal punishment for those who would visit the chapel with sincere repentance and confession. Pope Honorius III granted the request, establishing what became known as the Portiuncula Indulgence. Today, Catholics throughout the world can receive that same indulgence on August 2 by visiting a parish church under the usual conditions, a beautiful reminder that God's mercy is never confined to one place.

Perhaps the most touching detail is how Francis wanted his own life to end.

In 1226, as death approached, he asked to be carried back to the Portiuncula. There, lying on the bare ground of the little chapel he loved so dearly, he quietly returned his soul to God.

Today, pilgrims visiting Assisi experience something remarkable. Instead of finding the tiny chapel standing alone, they discover that centuries later an enormous basilica was built around it. The little church still stands exactly where Francis knew it, protected inside the vast Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, reminding visitors that sometimes the greatest movements in history begin in the smallest places.

Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula, Mother of the Franciscan family, pray for us.

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• "Deep Contrition" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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The Holy Maccabees are unique among the saints honored by the Church because they lived before the birth of Christ. They were faithful Jews of the Old Covenant, yet the Church has venerated them from the earliest centuries as martyrs whose courage pointed forward to the coming of the Savior.

Their story takes place about 170 years before Christ, when the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to erase the Jewish faith. He outlawed the worship of the true God, desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, and ordered the Jewish people to abandon the Law of Moses. It was one of the darkest moments in Israel's history.

Among those brought before the king was an elderly man named Eleazar, whose story is remembered just before that of the Maccabees. Rather than pretend to obey the king in order to save his life, Eleazar refused, saying he would not leave a bad example for the young.

Then came the family the Church remembers today.

A mother and her seven sons were arrested and ordered to violate God's law by eating meat that had been sacrificed contrary to the Law of Moses. One after another, each son refused. One after another, each was tortured and killed before the eyes of his mother.

It's difficult even to imagine.

The king hoped that watching her children die would finally break the mother's resolve.

Instead, she encouraged them.

The Book of Second Maccabees records some of the most moving words in all of the Old Testament. She reminded her sons that God had given them life and that He was able to restore it again. Long before Christ's Resurrection, this remarkable woman expressed a profound hope in the resurrection of the dead, trusting that fidelity to God was worth more than earthly life itself.

Finally, she too accepted death rather than betray the Lord.

The Church has always seen the Holy Maccabees as foreshadowing the Christian martyrs who would later die for Christ. They did not know the name of Jesus, yet they gave everything for the God who would one day send His Son into the world. Their witness became so respected that churches were dedicated to them in the early centuries of Christianity, including shrines in Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome.

Their story also reminds us that the belief in the resurrection did not suddenly appear in the New Testament. It was already burning brightly in the hearts of faithful Jews who trusted that God would not abandon those who remained loyal to Him.

More than two thousand years later, the courage of the Holy Maccabees still speaks to every generation. They remind us that faith is most convincing when it costs us something.

Holy Maccabees, steadfast witnesses to the living God, pray for us.

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• "The Grace of Remorse" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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Saint Ignatius of Loyola probably never imagined that a cannonball would become the turning point of his life.

He was born in 1491 into a noble Basque family in northern Spain and grew up dreaming of adventure. As a young man, Ignatius loved the ideals of knighthood. He enjoyed military life, courtly manners, and the pursuit of honor. If you had asked him what he wanted from life, he likely would have spoken about glory, reputation, and serving his king.

Then, in 1521, everything changed.

While defending the fortress of Pamplona against a French army, a cannonball shattered one of his legs and badly injured the other. His military career was over. During the long and painful months of recovery, Ignatius asked for books about knights and heroic adventures. None could be found. Instead, he was given a Life of Christ and a collection of stories about the saints.

At first, he read them simply to pass the time.

But something unexpected happened.

He noticed that when he imagined returning to his old life, the excitement quickly faded. When he imagined living like the saints, the joy lingered. That simple observation became the beginning of one of the most influential spiritual insights in Christian history: learning to recognize the movements of the soul and the ways God gently draws us toward Himself.

After recovering, Ignatius laid his sword before an image of the Blessed Virgin at the monastery of Montserrat and exchanged his noble clothing for the simple garments of a pilgrim. He spent nearly a year in the nearby town of Manresa, where long hours of prayer, penance, and reflection became the foundation of what would later become his famous Spiritual Exercises. More than four hundred years later, those retreats are still helping Catholics hear God's voice and discern His will.

Ignatius eventually gathered a small group of companions, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. Together they founded the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. Their mission was simple but ambitious: go wherever the Church needed them most. Within a generation, Jesuit missionaries were preaching in India, Japan, Brazil, Africa, and throughout Europe, founding schools, advising rulers, and carrying the Gospel farther than Ignatius could ever have imagined.

Visitors to Rome can still pray in the Church of the Gesù, where the body of Saint Ignatius rests beneath an ornate altar. Nearby is the small room where he lived and governed the rapidly growing Jesuit order. It's a surprisingly modest place for a man whose spiritual vision changed the course of Catholic history.

Ignatius often prayed, "Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will." It was a fitting prayer for a man who discovered that the greatest victories are won not on the battlefield, but in surrendering completely to God.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, master of discernment and soldier of Christ, pray for us.

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• "A False Peace of the Devil" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
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Saints Abdon and Sennen are among the most mysterious saints in the Church's calendar. We know very little about the details of their lives, yet Christians have honored them for well over sixteen hundred years. Sometimes that surprises people. But it also reminds us that the Church doesn't canonize biographies. She honors holiness.

Ancient tradition tells us that Abdon and Sennen were noblemen from Persia, far to the east of the Roman Empire. During one of Rome's wars against the Persians, they were taken captive and eventually brought to Rome as prisoners.

Most prisoners would have been thinking about survival.

Abdon and Sennen were thinking about the Christians.

Tradition says they quietly devoted themselves to burying fellow believers who had been martyred, giving dignity to those whose bodies had been discarded after execution. In the early Church, this was considered one of the great corporal works of mercy, but it was also dangerous. Associating yourself with condemned Christians could easily place your own life at risk.

Eventually it did.

When the two men refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, they were publicly condemned. Ancient accounts describe them first being forced into the arena before wild animals. According to the tradition, the animals would not attack them. They were then executed by the sword, receiving the martyr's crown during the reign of Emperor Decius around the middle of the third century.

Their story might have disappeared into history were it not for what happened afterward.

Christians recovered their bodies and buried them in the Catacombs of Pontian on the Via Portuensis outside Rome. Centuries later, when archaeologists explored those catacombs, they discovered frescoes depicting the two saints, confirming that devotion to Abdon and Sennen reached back to the earliest generations of Christians.

Their names eventually spread far beyond Rome. During the Middle Ages, churches dedicated to them appeared throughout France, Germany, Spain, and England. Farmers in particular developed a strong devotion to the two martyrs, asking their intercession during harvest season. In some parts of Europe, July 30 became affectionately known as the feast of the "Corn Saints," reflecting the time of year when grain was being gathered from the fields.

It's fascinating that two men who arrived in Rome as forgotten prisoners became remembered across Europe for more than a millennium.

Their lives remind us that earthly fame fades quickly, but even the smallest acts of charity offered for Christ are never forgotten by God.

Saints Abdon and Sennen, noble martyrs and faithful friends of the forgotten, pray for us.

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Saint Martha may be the most misunderstood woman in the Gospel.

Most people know her from a single scene. Jesus is visiting her home. Martha is busy preparing the meal, cleaning the house, making sure everyone is cared for, while her sister Mary simply sits at the Lord's feet listening to Him. Finally, Martha reaches her breaking point.

"Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?"

If we're honest...

Most of us sympathize with Martha.

After all, somebody had to make dinner.

Somebody had to welcome the guests.

Somebody had to make sure the household kept running.

Jesus' answer can almost seem unfair. "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the better part."

Was Jesus criticizing hard work?

Not at all.

In fact, Martha appears several times in the Gospel, and every time we meet her, she's serving others. That wasn't her problem. The problem wasn't that she was working. It was that her work had begun stealing her peace. She was so occupied with serving Christ that, for a moment, she stopped simply being with Him.

That's a lesson many of us still need.

The home at Bethany seems to have been one of Jesus' favorite places to visit. Whenever He traveled near Jerusalem, He often stayed with Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Imagine that. The Son of God had a place where He felt at home, where He could enjoy a meal, conversation, and the friendship of people who loved Him.

The Gospels give us a glimpse of that friendship after Lazarus dies. When Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, Martha doesn't hesitate to meet Him. She doesn't begin with small talk. She tells Him exactly what she's feeling: "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died."

It's one of the most honest conversations in Scripture.

And notice something remarkable.

It is Martha, not Mary, who makes one of the clearest professions of faith in the entire Gospel. Before Lazarus is raised from the dead, she tells Jesus: "I have believed that Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."

That confession stands alongside Peter's great profession of faith.

Ancient tradition holds that after the Resurrection, persecution forced Martha, Mary, and Lazarus to leave the Holy Land. According to the long-held tradition of southern France, they landed in Provence, where Martha eventually settled in the town now called Tarascon. There another beloved legend grew up around her. The people were being terrorized by a fierce creature known as the Tarasque. Rather than fighting it with weapons, Martha is said to have calmed it with prayer and the sign of the Cross, leading it peacefully back to the town. Whether history or legend, the story beautifully reflects the woman we meet in the Gospel: someone whose strength came not from force, but from faith.

Perhaps that's why Martha continues to speak to so many people today. She reminds us that serving Christ is a beautiful thing, but we can never become so busy working for Him that we forget to spend time with Him.

Saint Martha, faithful friend of Christ and joyful hostess of Bethany, pray for us.

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Saint Innocent I became pope at a time when the Christian world seemed to be coming apart.

He was elected Bishop of Rome in 401, just as the Western Roman Empire was beginning its long decline. For centuries, Rome had been known as the Eternal City, the center of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. But during Innocent's pontificate, that confidence was shaken in a way no one thought possible.

In the year 410, the unthinkable happened.

The Visigoths, led by Alaric, entered Rome and sacked the city. It was the first time in nearly eight hundred years that a foreign army had captured Rome. Christians and pagans alike wondered whether the world they knew was coming to an end.

Innocent wasn't even in the city when the attack began. He had traveled to Ravenna in a last attempt to persuade Emperor Honorius to negotiate peace. When those efforts failed, he returned to a city filled with fear, destruction, and thousands of people who had lost everything.

His first concern wasn't rebuilding buildings.

It was caring for people.

The pope organized relief for the hungry, comforted those who had been displaced, and helped restore order in a city struggling to recover. It's easy to forget that popes have sometimes had to act almost like emergency relief coordinators, but Innocent found himself doing exactly that.

He also spent much of his pontificate strengthening the unity of the Church. Bishops from every corner of the Christian world wrote to Rome asking for guidance on questions of doctrine, discipline, and liturgy. Innocent answered dozens of these letters, many of which still survive. They give us a fascinating glimpse into the everyday life of the early Church and show how Christians across Europe, North Africa, and the East already looked to the Bishop of Rome for direction in difficult matters.

Innocent also played an important role during the controversy surrounding Pelagianism, the teaching that minimized the necessity of God's grace. When bishops, including Augustine of Hippo, appealed to Rome for support, Innocent firmly upheld the Church's teaching that salvation is always the work of God's grace.

Although history often remembers him because Rome fell during his pontificate, that isn't really his legacy.

His legacy is that when the world around him seemed to be collapsing, he quietly continued doing what a shepherd is supposed to do: defending the faith, caring for his flock, and reminding Christians that their true citizenship was not in the Roman Empire, but in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Saint Innocent I, steadfast shepherd in troubled times, pray for us.

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