A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
It is finished! The final festive feast of the Fall semester took place last night, on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We bid the students Farewell and God speed as they depart Rome in these days, taking their inheritance of Roman riches with them in their new selves.
Liturgical: Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Lucy (283-304). St. Lucy (or Lucia) was born in Syracuse, Sicily, where she also died. She was of a noble Greek family, and was brought up as a Christian by her mother, who was miraculously cured at the shrine of St. Agatha in Catania. Lucy made a vow of virginity and distributed her wealth to the poor. This generosity stirred the wrath of the unworthy youth to whom she had been unwillingly betrothed and who denounced her to Paschasius, the governor of Sicily. Tradition has passed on details of her martyrdom. When it was decided to violate her virginity in a place of shame, Lucy, with the help of the Holy Spirit, stood immovable. After torture which included taking out her eyes, a fire was then built around her, but again God protected her. She was finally put to death by the sword.
Human: Santa Lucia Day traditions in Italy and Sweden. Her name is derived from the Latin lux, meaning “light,” and thus she is associated with festivals of light. Before the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582 (adopted in Great Britain and the American colonies in 1752), her feast day occurred on the shortest day of the year (hence the saying “Lucy light, Lucy light; Shortest day and longest night”). St. Lucia’s Day is celebrated especially in Italy and in Sweden, where the oldest (or sometimes youngest) daughter dons a crown of burning candles and wakes the family with coffee and St. Lucia buns (sweet rolls seasoned with saffron).
Today is the "unlucky" day of Friday the 13th! There is no year without one Friday the 13th, and no year with more than three. This day is considered the unluckiest of days in many superstitions, unless you were born on Friday the 13th, in which case it is your lucky day. “Friggatriskaidekaphobia” is the fear of Friday the 13th. Some people don’t like the number 13, whether it’s a Friday or not. The fear of the number 13 is called “triskaidekaphobia.” Quite a few skyscrapers and hotels do not have a 13th floor (or a room 13, for that matter), and many buildings substitute 12 1/2 for 13 in their addresses. Winston Churchill wouldn’t travel on Friday the 13th, considering it "too unlucky."
Natural: National Gingerbread House Day. A history of the delicious diminutive dwellings.
Italian: Pettegolare (to gossip)
Quote: "Three days after the journey to Bayeux, I started on a much longer one—to the Eternal City. This journey taught me the vanity of all that passes away. Nevertheless I saw splendid monuments; I studied the countless wonders of art and religion; and better than all, I trod the very ground the Holy Apostles had trodden—the ground watered by the blood of martyrs—and my soul grew by contact with these holy things."
--an excerpt from Chapter VI – A Pilgrimage to Rome, in A Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Liseaux
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