A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
In keeping with my birthday resolutions, I headed out to the park for a walk as early as possible this morning and was rewarded by this stunning autumnal scene at the Villa Pamphilj. It was a gardener spraying herbicide on the pebbles that caught my eye as I passed, which brought to mind all the labor that went into creating this highly cultivated space, with its topiary labyrinth. The rest of the park is notably overgrown and, in my opinion, rather romantic in its perpetual state of decay. While nature slowly reclaims most of the park, this formal garden of the villa preserves the original civilized spirit of the seventeenth century country (or suburban) estate (though today, it is surrounded on all sides by modern Rome). This vast estate, with its many ornamental features, jewel-box chapel, stream, and swan lake seems like a paradisal oasis right within the city. But this is planet earth, not paradise, and so the gardener must get to his work each and every morning, so that we passerbys may get a glimpse of ordered beauty here below.
Liturgical: Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Apostles Saints Simon and Jude. Their names occur together in the Canon of the Mass and are also celebrated on the same day. They may be paired together because they both preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia and Persia where it is said they had both been sent, but in actual fact we know nothing for certain about them beyond what is told us of their being called as Apostles in the New Testament. St. Jude is the author of a short Epistle which forms part of the New Testament.
St. Jude's Patronage: Desperate situations; forgotten causes; hospital workers; hospitals; impossible causes; lost causes; diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida.
St. Simon Patronage: Curriers; sawmen; sawyers; tanners.
Human: Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and claimed it for Spain– 1492; Harvard College founded in Massachusetts– 1636; The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in the New York Harbor– 1886
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Roman history today: 306 AD – Maxentius became a Roman emperor; 312 AD – Constantine the Great defeated Maxentius in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Maxentius, like many of his soldiers, drowned in the Tiber. After this victory, Constantine became the independent ruler of the Empire in the west.
Natural: Italy’s agriculture is the world’s most environment-friendly: Here’s why
Quote: "Neither fear to die nor refuse to live." -from Old Farmer's Almanac
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