A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
While I am not sorry to leave North Carolina after being stuck here overnight when air traffic delays caused us to miss our connecting flight to Michigan, I am sorry to say goodbye to Southern manners and friendliness. Two individuals stood out the most during this short sojourn south, both of whom could be described as "holy fools", stock characters that appear so frequently in the plays of Shakespeare. The first is pictured above and is the parish priest at Our Lady of the Seas, a community of 67 souls in the Outerbanks. We agreed that he was one of the most joyful individuals we've ever encountered, full of the Holy Spirit and seemingly touched by the divine. The second holy fool caught my eye in the Norfolk airport last night when I saw him approach an elderly veteran to pay him thanks for his service, respectfully and sincerely shaking his hand while addressing him intently. This individual was hard to miss even without that unusual display of public gratitude as he sported a ten gallon hat on top of his 5 foot frame and strode along confidently in distinctive green leather boots. As luck would have it, he was sitting in front of me on the overcrowded plane and I could hear him chatting away pleasantly with his seat mates the whole flight, as if they were life-long buddies. When we all stood, anxiously waiting to deplane to catch our connecting flights, he showered that charm on me by fetching my bag, making jokes, and then offering to host my family in Iowa for dinner should we pass through (OK, perhaps he wasn't a Southerner after all, though he did have an accent). While the ocean surf was magical and the Outerbanks enchanting, it was probably these two elderly gentlemen that made the most lasting impression on me at the end of the weekend, for they are a dying breed of gentlemen, being lost to the banality of the modern world.
"Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the LORD; wherever it pleases him, he directs it. All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves hearts. To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Haughty eyes and a proud heart–the tillage of the wicked is sin. The plans of the diligent are sure of profit, but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty. Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue is chasing a bubble over deadly snares. The soul of the wicked man desires evil; his neighbor finds no pity in his eyes. When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser; when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge. The just man appraises the house of the wicked: there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin. He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poorwill himself also call and not be heard."
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: The Memorial of Our Lady of Walsingham was reinstated to the liturgical calendar in England in 2000. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is entrusted to Mary under this title. This feast day celebrates the shrine in Norfolk, England, which was a popular medieval pilgrimage site. In 1061, the lady of the manor of Walsingham, Richeldis de Faverches, was instructed by a vision of the Virgin Mary to build in her village an exact replica of the house in Nazareth in which the Annunciation had taken place. The original house was destroyed by Henry VIII, but by 1897 the chapel was reconstructed and pilgrimage was restored both for Anglicans and for Catholics. On March 29, 2020, England was rededicated as the “Dowry of Mary” with Our Lady of Walsingham being the central Marian devotion around the rededication.
Historically today is the commemoration of Our Lady of Ransom. The Blessed Virgin appeared in 1218 in separate visions to St. Peter Nolasco, St. Raymond of Penafort and James, king of Aragon, asking them to found a religious order dedicated to freeing Christian captives from the barbarous Saracens or Moors, who at the time held a great part of Spain. On August 10, 1218, King James established the royal, military and religious Order of our Lady of Ransom (first known as the Order of St. Eulalia, now known as the Mercedarian Order), with the members granted the privilege of wearing his own arms on their breast. Most of the members were knights, and while the clerics recited the divine office in the commanderies, they guarded the coasts and delivered prisoners. This pious work spread everywhere and produced heroes of charity who collected alms for the ransom of Christians, and often gave themselves up in exchange for Christian prisoners. This feast, kept only by the Order, was extended to the whole Church by Innocent XII in the 17th century.
Human: The USS Enterprise, the first U.S. atomic-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia– 1960
1950 Operation Magic Carpet concludes after having transported 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel
15 AD – Emperor Vitellius was born, who was the ruler in the so-called the Year of Four Emperors. The reign of Vitellius was characterized by great extravagance in the area of palace life. He feasted at least three times a day: breakfasts, dinners, supper and feasts. He often vomited so he could eat more and more. One of the records was a feast with 2 000 of the finest fish and 7 000 pieces of different birds. Vitellius wanted to live like no ruler had before him. The Golden House, built by Nero, full of ornaments and splendor, he found poor. It was calculated that during his short reign about 900 000 000 sesterces was spent on the personal luxuries of the ruler.
Here is a very interesting article on Vitellius.
The Writer's Almanac today.
Natural: Since we're stuck in North Carolina, this would be a good time to learn more about the nature here-- What are the 3 biomes or major ecological regions of NC? North Carolina is divided into three major ecological regions or biomes: the Coastal, Piedmont, and Appalachian Mountains.
Italian: Capra (goat)
Quote:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...
--William Shakespeare ("All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's pastoral comedy As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII Line 139. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play and catalogues the seven stages of a man's life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man.)
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