A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Children first take in the world through their senses, particularly through images- from their environment, imagination, and dreams- and exist in a rather dream-like state for several years as the brain develops its powers of reason and logic. Perhaps that is why art, both viewing it and creating it, is such a preferred and calming activity for children. We choose our storybooks for the quality of their illustrations, our favorite being the art of Trina Schart Hyman (whose book, Little Red Riding Hood, Cordelia was looking at in yesterday's photo). It is difficult to make the transition from storybook to chapter book for this very reason- so few illustrations! Valentina was complaining of this last night, and has decided to create her own fully illustrated chapter books in the future. You heard it here first!
Liturgical: Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began...
Sanctoral: Boniface, Germany, +753 Part of a family of saints, Boniface was sent to Germany to convert the tribes who practiced human sacrifice. He is known for daring to cut down their sacred oak tree and giving them the evergreen fir tree as a symbol of eternity, the origin of the Christmas tree. He was martyred during Mass on Pentecost.
Human: Global Running Day-- Not my favorite sport personally, but we will all probably have to run someday to save our lives, so it's good to practice every now and then. And, it's great for analogies about perseverance and principles, as in Chariots of Fire and 1 Corinthians 9:24-26-- "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
A little birdie named Kris tipped me off to the interesting fact that Corinth (home of the Corinthians, to whom St. Paul's letter is addressed) hosted the Isthmian games, which were held the year before and the year after the Olympic games.
US troops liberate Rome (WWII)– 1944
The Marshall plan is announced by US Secretary of State George C. Marshall in address at Harvard University– 1947
Senator Robert Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles– 1968
Deaths of Ronald Reagan (40th U.S. president) – 2004, and Ray Bradbury (science fiction author) – 2012
Natural: World Environment Day-- Beginning in 1974, the observance has been held annually on June 5, a date that commemorates the start of the landmark 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Italian Word of the Day: Benessere (well-being)
Quote: "The wind is the only thing that absolutely cannot be bridled, cannot be “bottled up” or put in a box. We seek to “bottle up” the wind or put it in a box: it’s not possible. It is free. To pretend to enclose the Holy Spirit in concepts, definitions, theses or treatises, as modern rationalism has sometimes attempted to do, is to lose it, nullify it, or reduce it to the purely human spirit, to a simple spirit. There is, however, a similar temptation in the ecclesiastical field, and it is that of wanting to enclose the Holy Spirit in canons, institutions, definitions. The Spirit creates and animates institutions, but He himself cannot be “institutionalised,” “objectified”. The wind blows “where it wills,” so the Spirit distributes its gifts “as it wills” (1 Cor 12:11).
St Paul will make this the fundamental law of Christian action. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17), he says. A free person, a free Christian, is the one who has the Spirit of the Lord. This is a very special freedom, quite different from what is commonly understood. It is not freedom to do what one wants, but the freedom to freely do what God wants! Not freedom to do good or evil, but freedom to do good and do it freely, that is, by attraction, not compulsion. In other words, the freedom of children, not slaves."
-Pope Francis quoted in today's General Audience during his on-going catechesis on the Holy Spirit. At the end of the catechesis, Pope Francis announced that he is preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be released in September. The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose feast day this year is Friday, June 7.
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