Calendar Class of April 7, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Casey captured this Carpe Diem Snapshot yesterday and created this spontaneous Sunday picnic! She reminded me of Cordelia's Springtime resolution to have a picnic in the park every Sunday, which, somehow, I had forgotten about (though not the resolution to have gelato every Sunday!). She also brought two delightful books to the picnic, one of which I am reading in this photo. It is a collection of classic fairytales, with some historical background information on each one. Apparently, I'm becoming quite forgetful these days because, as I read the introduction about the mythological echoes within fairytales, it reminded me that this is my all-time favorite genre of literature (inclusive of folk tales). They're really not children's stories, you know, they are repositories of primordial wisdom wrapped in a wonder-full package.

Liturgical: Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent Mass readings and Bishop Barron's Gospel Reflections

Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

We begin the fifth and final full week of Lent. In previous times the crosses and statues in church were veiled at this time to indicate Passion Time. Now the liturgical readings, day after day, tell of the lowering storm clouds that next week will break open. Today’s ancient Lenten readings taught the penitents (and teach us) that every sin is adultery to God—and is pardonable by Christ. —The Vatican II Weekday Missal

Sanctoral: The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719). From Rheims, France, St. John is known as the Father of Modern Pedagogy. He opened schools free of charge for underprivileged children and introduced new teaching methods, such as classroom teaching, using vernacular instead of Latin to teach, establishing trade schools, high schools and a first teacher's school. He founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He died in 1719, and is the patron of teachers of youth.

...Once convinced that this was his divinely appointed mission, John threw himself wholeheartedly into the work, left home and family, abandoned his position as canon at Rheims, gave away his fortune, and reduced himself to the level of the poor to whom he devoted his entire life.

The remainder of his life was closely entwined with the community of religious men he founded, the Brothers of the Christian School (also called Christian Brothers or De La Salle Brothers). This community grew rapidly and was successful in educating boys of poor families, using methods designed by John. It prepared teachers in the first training college for teachers and also set up homes and schools for young delinquents of wealthy families. The motivating element in all these endeavors was the desire to become a good Christian.

Yet even in his success, John did not escape experiencing many trials: heart-rending disappointment and defections among his disciples, bitter opposition from the secular schoolmasters who resented his new and fruitful methods, and persistent opposition from the Jansenists of his time, whose moral rigidity and pessimism about the human condition John resisted vehemently all his life.

Afflicted with asthma and rheumatism in his last years, he died on Good Friday at age 68, and was canonized in 1900.

Human: Birthday of William Wordsworth (poet) – 1770

Natural: How to Make a Pollinator Garden

Why does this matter? First, no insects means no food. Really! About three-fourths of all flowering plants are pollinated by insects, as well as the crops that produce more than one-third of the world’s food supply. Second, insects are the bedrock of our entire ecosystem (birds, lizards, frogs, and other wildlife). Without insects, the birds, fish, and small mammals that depend on them decline; if they decline, the entire food web and local ecosystem are affected.

Sahara Desert sand began falling in Switzerland – 2002

Italian: Al di là (on the other side / beyond)

Quote: ‘The World is too much with us’ by William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.