A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
This morning, we continued hauling everything out of the water and taking all the outdoors things to the indoors to protect it all from the harsh weather ahead. Among these things are the tiny houses, caravan, gnomes, and figurines in the girls' fairy garden. I assigned Cordelia with that task and the next time I checked on her, she was deeply immersed in a game of make-believe, caring for her miniature kingdom. When I was her age, my favorite place in my parents' house was a small loft above the kitchen, where I was free to create my own miniature kingdom, uninterrupted by bothersome adults. As I listened to Cordelia's sweet and comforting words to her subjects, I reflected how this was not a "game of thrones" kind of world that she had constructed where the battle of wills plays out in un-ending conflicts, unlike the adult world. This in turn made me reflect upon the natural virtue that children possess, particularly apparent between the ages of four and eight, when they are more aware of the world but not too aware.
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the evil days come
And the years approach of which you will say,
I have no pleasure in them;
Before the sun is darkened,
and the light, and the moon, and the stars,
while the clouds return after the rain;
When the guardians of the house tremble,
and the strong men are bent,
And the grinders are idle because they are few,
and they who look through the windows grow blind...
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral:
—St. Wenceslaus (907-929) was Duke of Bohemia, who after many trials in governing and evangelizing his people, suffered martyrdom at the hands of his brother in the year 929.
—St. Lawrence Ruiz and his companions (1633-1637) shed their blood for Christ in Nagasaki, Japan in the 17th century. These martyrs were members of the Order of St. Dominic. They were nine priests, two religious, two sisters, and three laymen. Among the latter was Lawrence Ruiz, a family man from the Philippines. They abundantly sowed the missionary seed of Christianity with the example of their life and death.
The Roman Martyrology also commemorates St. Simon de Rojas (1552-1624), a Spanish priest of the Trinitarian Order, who died in 1624. He was known as the "Apostle of the Ave Maria," for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A person of many abilities, Simon was a theologian and a spiritual writer, as well as a friend and benefactor of the poor. He was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on July 3, 1988.
Human:
On this date in 1918, a parade to sell war bonds resulted in an epidemic of the "Spanish flu" that crippled the city of Philadelphia.
The so-called Spanish flu didn't come from Spain at all; it most likely came from a Midwestern farm animal or bird. It was caused by the H1N1 virus, similar to the "bird flu" we know today. It traveled through various animal populations in the United States and eventually mutated into a strain that affected people. The first known victim was an Army private who reported to the infirmary at Fort Riley, Kansas, in March 1918. In the spring, it spread relatively slowly through the human population, and then was carried to Europe by American soldiers fighting in World War I; the first major European outbreak was in Spain, hence the name. Spain was neutral in the war, and their press wasn't censored, so they were the only country reporting on the flu epidemic.
(My father was born less than one month later and the doctor who delivered him, at home, later died of the Spanish flu).
The Writer's Almanac today.
(By WWII, penicillin was developed and saved many lives in the next flu outbreak)
Natural: It was on this day in 1928 that Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming peered into a petri dish at his basement laboratory in London and noticed a blue-green mold growing. The mold, he observed, was killing the staph bacteria he'd been cultivating in that petri dish. He called the mold "penicillin." Penicillin is now considered the world's first "miracle drug," and it sparked the modern era of antibiotic development.
More on the Writer's Almanac today.
Roman history on this day:
48 BC – Pompey was murdered by the command of Egypt’s ruler Ptolemy XIII. Ptolemy sent back Pompey’s head to Caesar. Apparently, Caesar, when he arrived in Egypt and visited the scarred remains of his rival, cried and gave honor to the deceased, then ordered a proper monument to be built for him. Pompey’s personal estate after his death was about seven hundred million sesterces.
Quote: "Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation."
--Viktor Frankl
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