Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Christ has revealed that “the Holy Face Devotion emanates from that of His Sacred Heart, the one complementing the other.” It is through the Sacred Heart that man is to praise the Holy Name and Majesty of God and to make reparation for modern affronts against the first three commandments.6 According to Christ, “these offenses wound His Heart more than all others” and “renew the injuries to His Face,”8 “which is the emblem of the Godhead Itself.” Moreover, Christ revealed this devotion as the sole means of appeasing His Father10 as well as “the greatest consolation to the Sacred and [Immaculate] Hearts.” Daniel Carney III, Fr. Lawrence. The Secret of the Holy Face: The Devotion Destined to Save Society (p. 11). TAN Books. Kindle Edition.
FEAST OF ST. BENEDICT-POPULATION DAY
Proverbs, Chapter 2, Verse 1-12
1
My son, if you receive my words and treasure my
commands 2
Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you call for
intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice; 4 If you seek her like
silver, and like hidden treasures search her out, 5 Then will you
understand the FEAR of the LORD; the
knowledge of God you will find; 6
For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 He has success in
store for the upright, is the shield of those who walk honestly, 8 Guarding the paths
of justice, protecting the way of his faithful ones, 9 Then you will
understand what is right and just, what is fair, every good path; 10 For
wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will be at home in your soul, 11 Discretion will
watch over you, understanding will guard you; 12 Saving you from the
way of the wicked, from those whose speech is perverse.
Wherever your treasure is that is where your heart is and our hearts are made for the Lord. Fear of the Lord means that we have a father/son relationship of care, respect and love. Our God does not want to be objectified as some obtainable good. Nor does our God want to be appeased with our prayers and obedience. God is not a insurance agent that guarantees us against losses if we pay our premiums in prayers. If God is our treasure, he is our star, our life, our everything.
I
am reminded of the love of Don Quixote in the play “Man from La Mancha”.
If God is our treasure he should be our Impossible Dream because we are
His.
Feast of Saint Benedict[1]
Saint Benedict was born in Nursia in central Italy around the year 480. He was born to a noble family, and after being homeschooled, he was sent to Rome to complete his education. The teenaged Benedict was already turning toward the Lord, and when he went to Rome, he was disappointed and dismayed by the lazy, extravagant ways of the other young students. Benedict was born into a time of immense social upheaval. The once grand Roman Empire was on its last legs. The ancient city of Rome was crumbling due to decadence from within and attacks from without. Seventy years before Benedict’s birth the city fell to the invasions of the barbarians. The civil authority was in tatters, the city had been stripped of its grandeur, and the Church herself was beset with corruption and theological arguments. Benedict left the chaos of the city and sought a quiet place to study in the mountains north of Rome. Near the town of Subiaco, he found a community of holy men, and settled near them to pursue a life of prayer. Eventually Benedict was asked to be the leader of the community. When that went wrong, he left to start his own monastic community. One community soon grew to twelve, and to establish these new communities on a sound foundation Benedict, wrote his simple Rule. We mustn’t think of Benedict’s communities as the great monasteries that existed in the Middle Ages. In the sixth century, Benedict’s small communities consisted of perhaps twenty people. They scratched their living from the land just like the other peasants with whom they lived. The only difference is that Benedict’s monks observed celibacy, lived together and followed a disciplined life of prayer, work and study. This simple, serious life was to prove a powerful antidote to the decadent chaos of the crumbling Roman Empire. Saint Benedict died on March 21, 547. After receiving Communion, he died with his arms outstretched, surrounded by his brothers. He left behind a legacy that would change the world. The monasteries became centers of learning, agriculture, art, and every useful craft. In this way, without directly intending it, the monasteries deeply affected the social, economic, and political life of the emergent Christian Europe. The monastic schools formed the pattern for the later urban cathedral schools, which in turn led to the founding of universities. In this way, monasticism preserved and handed on the wisdom of both Athens and Jerusalem, the foundations of Western civilization. It is for this reason that Saint Benedict is named the patron of Europe. Benedict is a great figure in the history of Western Europe, but his life and writings also give us a sure guide for a practical spiritual life today. His practical Rule for monks in the sixth century provides principles for Christian living that are as relevant and applicable today as they have been for the last 1,500 years.
Things to do:
o
Practice the Liturgy of the Hours
Ora and Labora (Work
and Prayer)[2]
THE BENEDICTINE MONASTIC OFFICE
The Divine Office is at
the center of the Benedictine life. Through it the monk lifts heart and mind to
Almighty God, and uniting himself to his confreres, the Church and the entire
world in offering God praise and thanks, in confessing his sins, and in calling
on God for the needs of all people. The office punctuates the day of the monk;
like a leaven awakening his soul to make the entire day, indeed the whole of
life, a gift of the self to God. Praying the hours puts the monk into the real
world, sanctifying his whole life and assisting him toward his goal of
unceasing prayer –
Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Deus.
The Benedictine Office is
a rich collection of prayer that is based on the Rule of St. Benedict.
Historically it is distinct from the Roman Office – also recently called the Liturgy
of the Hours –
which, after the Second Vatican Council, was reshaped to simplify and make more
practical the prayer of the hours for the secular clergy, as well as the
religious who use it, and the laity who make it a part of their life of prayer.
In 1966 the Breviarium
Monasticum was the universal order of Divine Office for Benedictines. In that
year the monks were given a period of time for liturgical experimentation,
allowing each congregation of monasteries to adapt the tradition for its
particular use, under certain guidelines. To this day the Breviarium Monasticum
remains “official” and the time of experimentation is
still in effect. In that circumstance, communities are using various forms of
the Divine Office, and a few communities have even elected to take the new Roman
Office (Liturgy of the Hours) as a convenient guideline because of its
universal use among the secular clergy.
The following is a brief,
general description of the centuries old Benedictine tradition of prayer in
word and action. Reference is made occasionally to the Roman Office as another
point of reference. The structure of the Office described below and outlined is
according to the use at St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama.
Traditional
Monastic Hours |
New Roman
Office (Liturgy of the Hours) |
Matins (Vigils) |
Matins (Office of Readings) – any time of day |
Lauds |
Lauds (Morning Prayer) |
Prime |
Prime omitted in New Roman Office |
Terce |
Terce (Mid-Morning Prayer) |
Sext |
Sext (Mid-Day Prayer) |
None |
None (Mid-Afternoon Prayer) |
Vespers |
Vespers (Evening Prayer) |
Compline |
Compline (Night Prayer) |
World Population Day[3]
World
Population Day seeks to draw attention to issues related to a growing global
population. The world's population as of April 2016, is over 7.4 billion.
The world's population is rapidly surging with birth rates on the rise
and life expectancy increases. Over the last century, between 1916 and
2012, global life expectancy more than doubled from 34 to 70 years while world
population has quintupled from 1.5 billion to 7.3 billion between 1900 and
2016.
In 1989, the United Nations designated July 11th as World
Population Day in an effort to garner attention for population issues and
crises such as displaced people, rights and needs of women and girls and population safety on a global
level. With an ever-growing world population, World Population Day serves to
highlight the challenges and opportunities of this growth and its impact on
planet sustainability, heavy urbanization, availability of health care and youth empowerment.
Agenda 2030's Goal
#12 Will Exterminate Six Billion People[4]
Move over, Mao, Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot, there is a new extermination king in town. It is called Agenda 2030. The Agenda 2030 conference in Paris is being guided by 17 goals which contains targets that will forever alter humanity and change the planet forever. Of particular concern is goal #12, as it is the conduit from which the globalist depopulation agenda will be ushered in.
- Agenda 2030 Goal #12: Ensure sustainable
consumption and production patterns Following the
planned economic collapse, Agenda 2030 will enforce the most brutal
austerity programs ever conceived of, or ever enforced. Just as it
was in the Hunger Games
movie, all food, water and medicine will be rationed. Inhabitants
will be forced to take the Mark of the Beast, the dreaded but largely
unknown RFID chip. We are already witnessing the birth of a cashless
society. Soon, cash will be banned. Automation will bring promises of
unlimited food production. The public will be sold on the widespread use
of robots to achieve this goal. It will be a ruse. The goal is to replace
human workers with robots. The globalists will horde the food in
order to help wipe out the ‘useless eaters’ through starvation. Then the
population will be forced into a devastating World War III.
Subsequently, Ted Turner and the other globalists will be able to
achieve their goals of reducing the world's population to a low of 500,000,000.
Catholic
Population Principles[5]
In order to provide a
moral perspective, we affirm the following principles derived from the social
teaching of the Church.
1. Within the limits of
their own competence, government officials have rights and duties with regard
to the population problems of their own nations—for instance, in the matter of
social legislation as it affects families, of migration to cities, of
information relative to the conditions and needs of the nation. Government's
positive role is to help bring about those conditions in which married couples,
without undue material, physical or psychological pressure, may exercise
responsible freedom in determining family size.
2. Decisions about
family size and the frequency of births belong to the parents and cannot be
left to public authorities. Such decisions depend on a rightly formed
conscience which respects the divine law and takes into consideration the
circumstances of the places and the time. In forming their consciences, parents
should take into account their responsibilities toward God, themselves, the
children they have already brought into the world and the community to which
they belong, "following the dictates of their conscience instructed about
the divine law authentically interpreted and strengthened by confidence in
God."
3. Public
authorities can provide information and recommend policies regarding population,
provided these are in conformity with moral law and respect the rightful
freedom of married couples.
4. Men and women
should be informed of scientific advances of methods of family planning
whose safety has been well proven and which are in accord with the moral law.
5. Abortion, directly willed and procured,
even if for therapeutic reasons, is to be absolutely excluded as a licit means
of regulating births.
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION
OF FAITH
SECTION
TWO-I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER TWO
I
BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD
Article 4-"JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS
CRUCIFIED, DIED AND WAS BURIED"
Paragraph 2. JESUS DIED
CRUCIFIED
I. THE TRIAL OF JESUS
Divisions among the Jewish
authorities concerning Jesus
595 Among the religious authorities
of Jerusalem, not only were the Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of
Arimathea both secret disciples of Jesus, but there was also long-standing
dissension about him, so much so that St. John says of these authorities on the
very eve of Christ's Passion, "many.. . believed in him", though very
imperfectly. This is not surprising, if one recalls that on the day after
Pentecost "a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith"
and "some believers. . . belonged to the party of the Pharisees", to
the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many thousands there
are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all zealous for the
Law."
596 The religious authorities in
Jerusalem were not unanimous about what stance to take towards Jesus. The
Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his followers. To those who feared
that "everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy
both our holy place and our nation", the high priest Caiaphas replied by
prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people,
and that the whole nation should not perish." The Sanhedrin, having
declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having lost the right to
put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing him of political
revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas who had been
accused of sedition. The chief priests also threatened Pilate politically
so that he would condemn Jesus to death.
Jews are not collectively responsible
for Jesus' death
597 The historical complexity of
Jesus' trial is apparent in the Gospel accounts. the personal sin of the
participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we
cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole,
despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd and the global reproaches contained
in the apostles' calls to conversion after Pentecost. Jesus himself, in
forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following suit, both accept "the
ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their leaders. Still
less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places,
based merely on the crowd's cry: "His blood be on us and on our
children!", a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the
Church declared at the Second Vatican Council: . . .
Neither all Jews indiscriminately
at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during
his Passion. . . the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if
this followed from holy Scripture.
All sinners were the authors of
Christ's Passion
598 In her Magisterial teaching of
the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that
"sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the
divine Redeemer endured." Taking into account the fact that our sins
affect Christ himself, The Church does not hesitate to impute to
Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a
responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those
who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ
suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and
crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold
him up to contempt. and it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater
in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle,
"None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory." We, however, profess to know him.
and when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on
him.
Nor did demons crucify him; it is
you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your
vices and sins.
II. CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE DEATH IN
GOD'S PLAN OF SALVATION
"Jesus handed over according
to the definite plan of God"
599 Jesus' violent death was not
the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is
part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of
Jerusalem in his first sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus (was) delivered up
according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." This
Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over were merely
passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.
600 To God, all moments of time are
present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of
"predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to
his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant
Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had
predestined to take place." For the sake of accomplishing his plan of
salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.
"He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures"
601 The Scriptures had foretold
this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the
righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is,
as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin. Citing a
confession of faith that he himself had "received", St. Paul
professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures." In particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's
prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the
meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After
his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples
at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
"For our sake God made him to
be sin"
602 Consequently, St. Peter can
formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this way:
"You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers...
with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the
end of the times for your sake." Man's sins, following on original
sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a
slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him
to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God."
603 Jesus did not experience
reprobation as if he himself had sinned. But in the redeeming love that
always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness
of sin, to the point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Having thus established him
in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son but gave him
up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death
of his Son".
God takes the initiative of
universal redeeming love
604 By giving up his own Son for
our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent love, prior
to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that
he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God
"shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for
us."
605 At the end of the parable of
the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is
not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a
ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the
whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over
to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died
for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never
will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
III. CHRIST OFFERED HIMSELF TO HIS
FATHER FOR OUR SINS
Christ's whole life is an offering
to the Father
606 The Son of God, who came down
"from heaven, not to do (his) own will, but the will of him who sent
(him)", said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do
your will, O God." "and by that will we have been sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." From the
first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine
salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who
sent me, and to accomplish his work." The sacrifice of Jesus
"for the sins of the whole world" expresses his loving communion
with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life",
said the Lord, "(for) I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the
world may know that I love the Father."
607 The desire to embrace his
Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, for his
redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. and so he asked,
"and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this
purpose I have come to this hour." and again, "Shall I not drink
the cup which the Father has given me?" From the cross, just before
"It is finished", he said, "I thirst."
"The Lamb who takes away the
sin of the world"
608 After agreeing to baptize him
along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as
the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". By doing
so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who
silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the
multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the
first Passover. Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus freely embraced the Father's
redeeming love
609 By embracing in his human heart
the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the end", for
"greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends." In suffering and death his humanity became the free and
perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed,
out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus
freely accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes [my life] from me,
but I lay it down of my own accord." Hence the sovereign freedom of
God's Son as he went out to his death.
At the Last Supper Jesus
anticipated the free offering of his life
610 Jesus gave the supreme
expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared with the twelve
Apostles "on the night he was betrayed". On the eve of his
Passion, while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles
into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of
men: "This is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood
of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins."
611 The Eucharist that Christ
institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice. Jesus
includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it. By
doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant:
"For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in
truth."
The agony at Gethsemani
612 The cup of the New Covenant,
which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is
afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony in the garden
at Gethsemani, making himself "obedient unto death". Jesus
prays: "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. . ." Thus
he expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours,
his human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly
exempt from sin, the cause of death. Above all, his human nature has been
assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life", the
"Living One". By accepting in his human will that the Father's
will be done, he accepts his death as redemptive, for "he himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree."
Christ's death is the unique and
definitive sacrifice
613 Christ's death is both the
Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through
"the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world", and the
sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by
reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins".
614 This sacrifice of Christ is
unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices. First, it is a
gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners
in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of
the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father
through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.
Jesus substitutes his obedience for
our disobedience
615 "For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be
made righteous." By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the
substitution of the suffering Servant, who "makes himself an offering for
sin", when "he bore the sin of many", and who "shall make
many to be accounted righteous", for "he shall bear their
iniquities". Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for
our sins to the Father.
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on
the cross
616 It is love "to the
end" that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and
reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he
offered his life. Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are
convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." No
man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men
and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. the existence in Christ of the divine
person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and
constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive
sacrifice for all.
617 The Council of Trent emphasizes
the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the source of eternal
salvation" and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood
of the cross merited justification for us." and the Church venerates
his cross as she sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."
Our participation in Christ's
sacrifice
618 The cross is the unique
sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men". But
because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to
every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God,
in the paschal mystery" is offered to all men. He calls his disciples
to "take up [their] cross and follow (him)", for "Christ
also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example so that (we) should follow in
his steps." In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming
sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved
supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than
any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering. Apart from
the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
IN BRIEF
619 "Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the scriptures" (I Cor 15:3).
620 Our salvation flows from
God's initiative of love for us, because "he loved us and sent his Son to
be the expiation for our sins" (I Jn 4:10). "God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
621 Jesus freely offered himself
for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper, he both symbolized this
offering and made it really present: "This is my body which is given for
you" (Lk 22:19).
622 The redemption won by Christ
consists in this, that he came "to give his life as a ransom for
many" (Mt 20:28), that is, he "loved [his own] to the end" (Jn
13:1), so that they might be "ransomed from the futile ways inherited from
[their] fathers" (I Pt 1:18).
623 By his loving obedience to
the Father, "unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:8), Jesus
fulfils the atoning mission (cf Is 53:10) of the suffering Servant, who will
"make many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities" (Is 53:11;
cf. Rom 5:19).
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: End
Sex Trafficking, Slavery
· Let Freedom Ring Day 5 "Freedom from Cowardice" by Fr. Rick Heilman
·
Tired of thinking of the
New World Order: Just make yourself a Mojito!
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 2 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Novena
to Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Day 5
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Practice fidelity to baptismal
vows
·
Rosary
[2] https://stbernardabbey.com/the-divine-office/
[4]https://thecommonsenseshow.com/conspiracy/agenda-2030s-goal-12-will-exterminate-six-billion-people
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