A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Today I am sharing a photo from a carpe diem moment captured a few years ago at the tomb of St. Charbel in the mountains of Lebanon. This site is one of the most visited in the whole country, though it is remote. The draw is this tomb, where many miracles have occurred and continue to occur, through the intercession of a humble monk, who did nothing extraordinary during his lifetime, and countless extraordinary things in his new life in Heaven.
Liturgical: Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself in all things, and you will find grace before God.
Bishop Barron's reflections today.
Sanctoral: Opt Mem of St. Sharbel (Charbel) Makhlūf, "the miracle worker", Priest; St. Christina "the astonishing", Bolsena, Italy, +3rd century Virgin and Martyr
St. Charbel Makhlūf (1828-1868) is celebrated today. He was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty-three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, Saint Charbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice and prayer by the way he lived his life. This optional memorial is new to the USA liturgical calendar and was inscribed on July 24, 2004.
Human: 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier claims for France the lands around Gaspé by erecting a 30-foot cross at Pointe-Penouille; 1554 Queen Maria of England marries Philip, king of Naples/Jerusalem; 1567 Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots; Hulda Crooks climbed Mt Fuji at age 91– 1987; 9-yr.-old Emma Houlston became youngest person to pilot plane across Canada (Victoria, B.C., to St. John’s, N.L.)– 1988; 1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas; 1943 Operation Gomorrah-- RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd August), creating a firestorm and killing 42,600 people
The Writer's Almanac for today.
Natural: 1696-1851 A.D.--The "Window Tax"- why windows in homes in the U.K. were bricked up (my parents' house has one for architectural interest)
Italian: 10 Popular Italian Nursery Rhymes (Lyrics & English Translations)
Quote: “The things that go on within you are more important than those that take place in your life.” --attributed to St. Charbel
Comments