A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
After the Easter feast today some of the lovely students and I presented all the guests with a "tableau vivant" performance of Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni. I played the role of narrator and described the four cycles of life in each season, and then read the sonnets that Vivaldi wrote to accompany each concerto. It was a delightful Spring scene reminiscent of the picnics and homespun entertainment organized by St. Philip Neri during breaks on the 7 church pilgrimage tradition he began, which is still a favorite Roman experience of our students today.
Liturgical: Easter Sunday! If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
Station Church: Santa Maria Maggiore
Preparing for Divine Mercy Sunday next week
Sanctoral: Balbina of Rome, +130 A.D. Her basilica is on the Aventine hill.
Human:
250 AD – Emperor Constantius Chlorus was born. He was born in a poor family in Illyria, he made a career, as many at that time, serving in the army. In 293 AD he was adopted by Maximian and received the title of Caesar. He looked after Gaul and Britain, from the capital in Trier. On 1 May 305 AD he was granted the title Augustus. He died a year later in an expedition against the Picts and Scots in Eboracum. He was a monotheist who considered the Sun Invincible (Sol Invictus) to be the only God.
307 AD – Emperor Constantine the Great married Fausta, the daughter of the former emperor, Maximian. (spoiler alert: it was a BIG MISTAKE!)
Quote: “At Easter, God finally reveals His glory: He takes away the last veil and astonishes us as never before. We discover, in fact, that God’s glory is all love: pure love, mad and unthinkable, beyond every limit and measure…True glory is the glory of love, because it is the only one that gives life to the world. Certainly this glory is the opposite of worldly glory, which comes when one is admired, praised, acclaimed. The glory of God, on the other hand, is paradoxical: no applause, no audience. At the center there is not the ego, but the other."
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