A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
The motley crew of Carnevale 2025 at the Villa Magnolia! And now, buon quaresima!
Liturgical: Ash Wednesday of Lent Mass readings and Bishop Barron's reflections
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?
Joel 2:12-18
Sanctoral: John Joseph of the Cross(1458 – 1483)
Self-denial is never an end in itself but is only a help toward greater charity—as the life of Saint John Joseph shows.
Human: Ash Wednesday
The Christian season of Lent begins today, 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays). Many Christians attend church services on Ash Wednesday to receive ashes on their foreheads in the sign of the cross. (Ashes are a symbol of penance in the Old Testament and in pagan antiquity.) In the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting. In the sixth century, Christians who had committed grave faults were obliged to do public penance. On Ash Wednesday, they donned a hair shirt (which they wore for 40 days), and the local bishop blessed them and sprinkled them with ashes. Then, while others recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, the penitents were turned out of the holy place. They could not enter the church again until Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), when they received absolution.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the burning of our ancestral house on Ash Wednesday. Everything material was lost but the family was spared. Here is a short essay my Dad wrote on his natural habitat in 1987.
Natural: The origin of the tradition of marking ourselves with ashes today
Italian: Senno di poi (hindsight)
Quote: "Remember man that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shall return."
Genesis 3:19
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