A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
It's Monday after Epiphany and we're back to the books! It's a relief, for parents, at least, to return to somewhat of a schedule after the break. As my mother never tires of reminding us, "Order is the first need of all."
Liturgical: Monday after Epiphany
"Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Today in the USA the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint André Bessette (1845-1937) was born near Quebec, and entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross as a Brother. He performed humble tasks for over forty years and entrusted all of the poor and sick who flocked to his cell to the care of St. Joseph. During his life he was able to have a chapel built to the spouse of the Virgin Mary. After his death, the shrine grew into the great basilica known as St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal.
Human: Handsel Monday
According to Scottish custom, the first Monday of the new year was the time to give children and servants a small gift, or handsel. Literally something given into the hands of someone else, the gift itself was less important than the good luck it signified. The handsel was popular as a new year’s gift from the 14th to 19th centuries, but it also had a broader application to mark any new situation. It continues today in the form of a housewarming gift to someone moving into a new home.
It's the birthday of two Lebanese men born in the mountains-- my husband, Tony Assaf, and Khalil Gibran, the poet!
Kahlil Gibran was born in the mountain village in Bsharri, Lebanon (1883). He lived in Boston, and that was where Alfred A. Knopf met him, who published Gibran's book The Prophet in 1923. It didn't sell well at first, but gradually gained a readership, becoming especially popular in the 1960s; it was eventually translated into more than 30 languages. Gibran is now the third-best-selling poet in history, after William Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu.
The Prophet is often quoted at weddings ("Love one another, but make not a bond of love: / Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls"), and baptisms ("Your children are not your children. / They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. / They come through you but not from you, / And though they are with you they belong not to you"), and funerals ("When you are sorrowful look again in / your heart, and you shall see that in truth / you are weeping for that which has been / your delight").
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Natural: Temperatures in Miami, Florida, dropped to 35°F, causing iguanas to enter a state of hibernation and fall out of trees. – 2010
Italian: Pupazzo (puppet / stuffed toy)
Quote: It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly. —Anatole France
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