Calendar Class of April 6, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

It was a very full Passion Sunday in Rome today. Among the highlights was the annual exhibition of "Veronica's Veil." This was the first time I have attended the event and Mass that followed, and I took along little Cordelia Anne-Marie Veronica Assaf with me, as well as Valentina and several students. We arrived early and went directly to a good viewing position, where, strangely enough, several individuals I know were also gathered, including Cordelia's school principal, and Paul Badde, the author of The Holy Face of Jesus: The Veil of Manoppello. If you've been following this daily blog, you may have noticed how frequently the Holy Face theme has come up this Lent, since we first providentially stumbled upon the devotion's sanctuary in Rome on Shrove Tuesday. Here is a report on Beata Madre Pierina de Micheli, the visionary buried there.

Liturgical: Fifth Sunday of Lent

Station with San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter in the Vatican):

In the 1962 Roman Missal, this would be Passion Sunday. All Station Churches for Sundays in Lent were held at basilicas of Rome, but the major basilicas particularly for the first, fifth and sixth Sundays of Lent. The original church was erected on the site of the Roman Circus built by the Emperor Caligula around the year A.D. 40. and where St. Peter was crucified and placed upside down at his request and later buried here.

From the PNAC: "Rightly has Pope Benedict XVI spoken of this basilica as the heart of the Roman Church, as St. John Lateran is the head. It is here that the Church honors her first shepherd in this city, and here that since his martyrdom she has celebrated both his witness and the God he served. While the basilica before us is relatively modern as far as the history of Christianity goes, being completed only in 1626, Christians have been coming to this site to ask for his intercession since shortly after the death of the Prince of the Apostles, as messages left by them on the wall of his grave attest."

"Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not;

see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers."

Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon: The Conversion of St. Paul

Fr. Plant's Scripture Lesson: Neither Do I Condemn You

Sanctoral: Pope Celestine I

The founder of the papal diplomatic service, Pope St. Celestine I was born in the Campania and served as a deacon under Innocent I. Elected pope in 422, Celestine confiscated the property of Novationite churches and restored the basilica in St. Mary Travestere after it had been damaged in Alaric's sack of Rome. Although Celestine confirmed the appointment of Nestorius to the see of Constantinople, the pope opposed Nestorius' teachings and supported Cyril of Alexandria in the conflict between the two patriarchs. Celestine also combatted Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism in southern Gaul and in England. He is supposed to have sent Palladius to evangelize Ireland in 431. Celestine died in the following year and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla.

Human: Birthday (1483) and Deathday of Raphael (artist) – 1520 (buried in the Pantheon)

Ancient Roman history today:

• 46 BC – Julius Caesar won the battle of Tapsus in Tunisia. The main forces of the Pompeians commanded by Scipio Nasica followed Caesar’s army. Caesar’s troops prepared themselves for defense – for this purpose they built fortifications across the nearby lagoon. Scipio’s troops, reinforced by the forces of the king of Numidia, Juba, surrounded the enemies' building fortifications. Eventually Caesar won a definite victory and after settling affairs in Africa, in July 46 BC he returned to Rome.

• 402 AD – Alaric, the leader of the Visigoths, was defeated at Pollentia, and later at Hast and Verona by Stilicho, who came to the rescue of the emperor Honorius. Alaric finally retreated to Illyria. The Roman poet Claudius Claudianus honored these events with the poem "On the Gothic War."

Natural: Lemony Asparagus and Spring Pea Salad with Roasted Almonds

Italian: Rimanere secco (to die suddenly)

Quote: "Happiness is a by-product. You cannot pursue it by itself."

—Samuel Levenson