A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Carpe Diem moments are by definition rather spontaneous, and so it is only natural that my attempts to capture them several times yesterday were thwarted by circumstance. First there was the bright red powered parachute that briefly flew over the lake, then there was the episode of being stranded in the lake when the pontoon's engine wouldn't start and the subsequent rescue by our neighbor who spotted us floundering from shore, then there was the Labor Day last grill-out of the summer, followed by the last ice cream of the summer at the Coffee and Cream Cafe (which closed for the season today!). But somehow, I failed to capture the scene during all of these episodes, and instead the Carpe Diem snapshot moment arrived when my friend and neighbor Rachel (sister of our boat rescuer) came over to borrow some parchment paper. While on our deck above talking to us on the level below, she looked at us through this wine glass and caught sight of the inversed view of the landscape and sky. "There's a name for that," she said. And so, I knew that this would be the subject of today's post. The "mirror image" effect is caused by refraction; but instead of diving into a science lesson here, the inversed view brought to mind the allegory of Plato's cave of appearances vs. forms, which has serious staying power for explaining the physical world vs. the spiritual world (which was also addressed in today's Mass readings- 1 COR 2:10B-16). Probably this association sprung up because I had just read the obituary of J.R.R. Tolkien from yesterday's Calendar Class to the girls, which discussed his creation of Middle Earth. Tolkien insisted that his trilogy was not written as an allegory and was not representative of particular places or things, but of course we humans must inevitably draw upon our environment and experiences when crafting fiction, even if we do so subconsciously. The image in the glass seemed to me a type of "middle earth" and a world of shadows and illusions- a land within a glass, surrounded by a much larger reality outside of it.
Liturgical: Readings for the Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
"Brothers and sisters: The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.
Now the natural man does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The one who is spiritual, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone.
For 'who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?' But we have the mind of Christ."
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: St. Gregory the Great (540-604), senator and prefect of Rome, then in succession monk, cardinal and pope, governed the Church from 590 to 604. England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarians created a new situation in Europe, he played a considerable part in the transitional stage, during which a great number of them were won for Christ. At the same time he watched over the holiness of the clergy and preserved ecclesiastical discipline, as well as attending to the temporal interests of his people of Rome and the spiritual interests of the whole of Christendom. To him the liturgy owes several of its finest prayers, and the name "Gregorian chant" recalls this great Pope's work in the development of the Church's chant. His commentaries on Holy Scripture exercised a considerable influence on Christian thought, particularly in the Middle Ages. Together with St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Jerome, he is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church.
Human: 36 BC – the victory of Octavian’s fleet over the fleet of Sextus Pompey in the naval battle of Naulochus. Sextus Pompey was the last major military opponent of the Second Triumvirate, created after the death of Caesar by Octavian, Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. He controlled Sicily and prevented his opponent from delivering grain to Rome. In 38 BC there was a temporary agreement between the Triumvirs and Pompey. The latter, however, did not give up blocking. Then, in the year 36 BC, Agrippa, at the head of his fleet, turned against him and defeated him in the naval battle of Mylae and then in the battle of Naulochus. This last victory reasserted Octavian’s power among the triumvirs. Thus Antony remained his only opponent in the fight for power.
301 AD – one of the smallest countries in the world – San Marino was founded. It is also the oldest still existing republic. San Marino was founded by St. Marinus.
The Writer's Almanac edition today.
Natural: According to the Royalists, the severe storm that struck the British Isles on this day in 1658 - also the day Oliver Cromwell died - was simple proof that the Devil had come for his soul.– 1658
Italian: Kermesse (country fair / festival)
Etc.: The September Book List from the Read-Aloud Revival
Quote: An Interruption
A boy had stopped his car
To save a turtle in the road; I was not far
Behind, and slowed,
And stopped to watch as he began
To shoo it off into the undergrowth—
This wild reminder of an ancient past,
Lumbering to some Late Triassic bog,
Till it was just a rustle in the grass,
Till it was gone.
I hope I told him with a look
As I passed by,
How I was glad he'd stopped me there,
And what I felt for both
Of them, something I took
To be a kind of love,
And of a troubled thought
I had, for man,
Of how we ought
To let life go on where
And when it can.
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