A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
The March minor feast was rather spread out this year, finding me trying to catch community whenever the opportunity arose this weekend. The warm Spring sunshine lured us out-of-doors for lunch today to enjoy an amazing egg dish that Maya created called "shakshuka," spontaneously shared with a few students who happened to be around. The sunny Sunday also lured a lot of pilgrims to Rome today, and I was fortunate enough to wander among them this morning after Mass at Santo Spirito, exploring the new Piazza Pia at the end of Via delle Conciliazione (a vast improvement!!) and stumbling upon an Ethiopian celebration outside a small church facing the Castel Sant' Angelo. Slowly processing along the pilgrim route towards St. Peter's Basilica, group after group carrying wooden crosses cheerfully made their way forward, praying or singing or chatting. A group of altar servers in their red vestments caught my eye, not only for their vibrancy, but also because their group leader was carrying a life-size cardboard cut-out of St. Philip Neri with his hands raised in exaultation. It was the very same likeness of the "saint of humor" that I saw when the class and I toured the rooms of the saint at the Chiesa Nuova not long ago. How he would laugh to see his carboard likeness being toted around the circus of pilgrims today!
Liturgical: Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:39-45
Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon: The Revolution of the Resurrection
Fr. Plant's Homily: Hypocrite!
Sanctoral: Saint Agnes of Bohemia, +1282
Agnes was the daughter of Queen Constance and King Ottokar I of Bohemia. She was betrothed to the Duke of Silesia, who died three years later. As she grew up, she decided she wanted to enter the religious life. After declining marriages to King Henry VII of Germany and King Henry III of England, Agnes was faced with a proposal from Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. She appealed to Pope Gregory IX for help. The pope was persuasive; Frederick magnanimously said that he could not be offended if Agnes preferred the King of Heaven to him.
After Agnes built a hospital for the poor and a residence for the friars, she financed the construction of a Poor Clare monastery in Prague. In 1236, she and seven other noblewomen entered this monastery. Saint Clare sent five sisters from San Damiano to join them, and wrote Agnes four letters advising her on the beauty of her vocation and her duties as abbess.
Human: 1796 Napoléon Bonaparte is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army in Italy. A video on the 1796 military campaign.
1882 Queen Victoria narrowly escapes assassination when Roderick Maclean shoots at her while she is boarding a train in Windsor.
Natural: The ice is melting, the sap is running, and it's Maple Sugaring Time in the north! Here's how it's done.
Italian: Avere la luna storta (to be in a bad mood)
Quote: "The real difference in the world is between those who are on pilgrimage and those who have not yet found the trail."
From "Following No Other Way," a personal account of pilgrimage by Nathan Beacom. This article is definitely worth the time is takes to read it.
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