A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Liturgical: Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: The Roman Martyrology commemorates Blessed Pius IX (1792-1878), who reigned as pope from 1846-1878. He was the last pope to hold temporal power for the Papal States, before they were reformed. He defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8, 1854 and celebrated the First Vatican Council from 1869 to 1870, which defined the dogma of papal infallibility. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on September 3, 2000.
This is the pope that I have probably come to know the most about thanks to teaching Art and Architecture class in Rome. The longest reigning pope since St. Peter himself, "Pio Nono" left his stamp all over Rome in the buildings and renovations he commissioned, including Cordelia's school near St. Peter's Basilica. His papacy witnessed a plethora of historic developments, including the declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the U.S. civil war, and the Garibaldi revolution that resulted in Italian unification. He is buried in a mausoleum at the back of the lower level of the ancient church San Lorenzo fuori le mura. His funeral procession was attacked by anti-clerical men en-route but his body was eventually peacefully laid to rest in the church so revered by Romans. His chapel, designed as his mausoleum, is decorated with glittering 19th century neo-classical mosaics, perhaps a nod to his huge contribution to Christian archeology with the founding of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology which, under the leadership of the archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi, saved the ruins of classical and paleo-Christian Rome we can now enjoy exploring today, including the Roman Forum.
There's lots more to say about this Pope and his historic reign, but to hear about all that you will just have to join my Art and Architecture class!
Human: 457 AD – Leon I became the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Leon was the first emperor who accepted the diadem from the hands of the Patriarch of Constantinople (this custom was then continued in Byzantium). He started the Leonid dynasty.
It's the birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder, born just north of Pepin, Wisconsin (1867), author of the wildly popular children's book Little House on the Prairie (1935) and several other books about growing up in the Midwest in the late 1800s. They're all part of the Little House series, which she began writing when she was in her 60s. Since her death, about a hundred different titles have appeared in the Little House series that she created. From her books have come also a television series on NBC (1974-84), a 26-episode animated Japanese cartoon series called "Laura, The Prairie Girl," a couple of made-for-TV movies, an ABC mini-series (2005), and a musical.
It's the birthday of novelist Charles Dickens, born in Portsmouth, England (1812). When his father was thrown in debtors' prison, 12-year-old Dickens was forced to leave school and work in a factory, repetitively labeling jars of shoe polish for 10 hours a day in miserable conditions. Dickens' father inherited money and was able to leave prison, and Dickens went back to school, but he remained bitter about his childhood. Many years later, when he was famous and his father was asking for money, Dickens wrote to a friend: "I am amazed and confounded by the audacity of his ingratitude. He, and all of them, look upon me as a something to be plucked and torn to pieces for their advantage. They have no idea of, and no care for, my existence in any other light. My soul sickens at the thought of them."
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Natural: "All the lonely people": Ralph and Jim discuss the "epidemic of loneliness" that the U.S. Surgeon General is addressing in their new podcast episode today.
Italian: Chicco (grain / bean)
Quote: "Every time you repeat a new habit, you're casting a vote for the kind of person you want to become. The more votes you cast, the stronger that identity becomes-- until one day, it's just who you are." --Charles Duhigg
A few quotes by birthday boy Charles Dickens:
“A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.”
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
“Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart.”
A few quotes by birthday girl Laura Ingalls Wilder:
“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
“Suffering passes, while love is eternal. That's a gift that you have received from God. Don't waste it.”
“The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies.”
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