A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Today, we were tipped off by a local friend that this charity Christmas market, run by the organization Circolo di San Pietro, was on until tomorrow in a Vatican office palazzo in Trastevere. What an unusual environment for shopping, with huge portraits of all the popes smiling down on us. Without Thanksgiving as a buffer in November, Italians head straight into Christmas shopping and decorations as soon as the temperatures plummet. Our Christmas elf flitted about the tables, finding baubles for her siblings (which she promptly gave them upon arrival at home; No curbing her enthusiasm!).
[Chosen Lady:]
I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth
just as we were commanded by the Father.
But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Today the Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280), son of a German nobleman. While studying at Padua when the Master General of the Dominicans, Jordan of Saxony, succeeded in attracting him to that Order. He was to become one of its greatest glories. After taking his degrees at the University of Paris he taught philosophy and theology at Paris and then in Cologne. St. Thomas Aquinas was among his pupils. His knowledge was encyclopedic. In 1260 he was named Bishop of Ratisbon and devoted himself zealously to the duties of his office. But soon resigned in order to continue his teaching and research. St. Albert died in Cologne on November 15, 1280.
The Roman Martyrology also commemorates St. Leopold of Austria (1073-1136). He was born at Melk in Austria, a grandson of Emperor Henry III. In 1096 he succeeded his father as fourth Margrave of Austria. He married Agnes, daughter of Henry IV, by whom he had eighteen children. He ruled firmly and successfully for forty years, and was especially interested in the spread of religious institutions. He was the founder of Mariazell (Benedictine), Heiligenkreuz (Cistercian) and Klosternenburg (Augustinian). He was buried at Klosternenburg.
It was on this day in 1940 that 75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under the first peacetime conscription in American history.
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Natural: Look up tonight at November's full moon. It's the last supermoon you'll see for a long time!
Birthday of Sir William Herschel (astronomer) – 1738; Death day of Johannes Kepler (astronomer) – 1630. Timeline of famous astronomers and their discoveries.
Italian: Sfinito (exhausted)
Quote: "God gives us His gifts in no half-hearted manner, nor with anger, nor in the mercenary hope of receiving something in return." --St. Albert the Great
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