A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Today's Carpe Diem moment didn't disappoint. We arrived to rain in Rome this morning but ended the day with a rainbow (at the Terazzo di Roma at Piazza Garibaldi on the Janiculum). My sister-in-law and I celebrated her birthday with Italian cocktails a few days early as tomorrow she is flying home to Beirut. Yes, Beirut. She's going there because it's home, and wherever home is, is where we always return to, despite the circumstances. Tanti Auguri, Hala, and "in bocca al lupo"!
Brothers and sisters:
I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Sanctoral: Saint Faustina was born in the 20th century, and canonized in the year 2000. Jesus chose her to deliver to the modern world a message as old as eternity. It is the message of his love for all people, especially sinners. Jesus said to Faustina, "Today I am sending you with my mercy to the people of the whole world." It is his desire to heal the aching world, to draw all people into his merciful heart of love.
On February 22, 1931, Jesus appeared to Faustina as the King of Divine Mercy. He asked her to have a picture painted of him as she saw him — clothed in white, with red and white rays of light streaming from his heart. The rays represent the blood and water that flowed from the side of Jesus on the cross. Under the image are the words, "Jesus, I trust in you."
Many people did not believe Faustina at first. The sisters in her own convent thought that Jesus could not possibly have selected her for this great favor. After all, she was an uneducated peasant girl. Her superiors often refused to give her permission to carry out Jesus' requests. Church theologians, too, doubted her word. Jesus told Faustina that he loved her obedience and that his will would be done in the end.
In June 1934 an artist completed the painting of the Divine Mercy according to her instructions; and it soon became a focus for devotion. Faustina continued to record in her diary the appearances of Jesus. The diary was translated into English and published in 1987 with the title Divine Mercy in My Soul.
An audio on her life here.
Human: It's the birthday of one of the few writers ever to become the leader of a country, Czech dramatist and president Václav Havel, born in Prague (1936). He was born into an affluent family, and as a teenager, he watched as his family's property was seized by the government when Communists took control of the country.
He was prevented from attending college, so he took a job in a chemical company and joined a literary underground society, passing around books that had been banned by the government. In the 1960s, he wrote a series of absurdist plays — including The Garden Party (1964) and The Memorandum (1965) — that attacked the Communist Party, describing the way in which the Communists were ruining the language by introducing all kinds of euphemisms and clichés.
More on the Writer's Almanac edition today.
During the first televised presidential address, President Truman asked Americans to not eating meat on Tuesdays or poultry on Thursdays in order to help stockpile grain for starving people outside of the U.S.– 1947
Natural: Laura Ingalls made the first transcontinental airplane flight by a woman. Traveling from New York to California in 4 days, she stopped 9 times and logged 30 hours and 27 minutes of flying time– 1930
Pumpkin Flood on Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers in Pennsylvania– 1786
Italian: 7 Amazing Train Rides in Italy
Quote: " [Jesus said,] The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is — trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive." (St.Faustina)
Comments