Today is quite a big day for Calendar Class. It's the top of the year- the "capodanno"- the day that we look at the year past and the year ahead, as the old Roman god Janus is fated to do for eternity. We review our accomplishments and failures over these past four seasons and twelve months, then turn our eyes towards the future, and speculate about what that time will bring to our lives. We go to Mass on this holy day of obligation (at the station Mass church of Santa Maria in Trastevere) and thank Mary for her guidance on this, her feast day of divine motherhood. We consume twelve grapes for good luck, we go for a stroll and observe how this year's New Year's Day weather differs from the last, and we continue celebrating in a festive mood with yesterday's leftovers and spumante.
Liturgical Cycle: Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Nm 6: 22-27; PS 67; Gal 4: 4-7; Heb 1: 1-2; LK 2: 16-21
Sanctoral Cycle: All about Mary; Rome station church- Santa Maria in Trastevere
Human Cycle: World Day of Peace; New Year's Day traditions: Handsel Monday (Scotland); Aesculapius temple dedicated on Tiber Island 291 BC; The JULIAN CALENDAR was introduced 45 BC; Julius Caesar posthumously received the title of Divus Julius by Senate decree 42 BC (the first officially deified Roman in history); death of Emperor Commodus 138 AD; the final gladiatorial battle took place in the Colosseum 404 AD
Natural Cycle: Leap Day! Humidity in Rome prevents fires from fireworks!
Rome sunrise 7:38, sunset 16:49
Quote: "It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known." -Carson McCullers
A snapshot of today's adventures: this morning I had no trouble finding motivation to see the sunrise (despite the lateness of yesterday's revelries) as it was the first day of my New Year's resolution. My first stop at dawn was Piazza Garibaldi, the "terrace of Rome" and the scene of last night's fireworks free-for-all, during which time my forehead became the landing spot of an errant missile, fortunately minute. My respect and appreciation for Rome's clean-up crews grew considerably as I surveyed the scene of half-empty champagne bottles and countless fireworks strewn about.
The next stop on the Janiculum tour was the "fontanone," and then the chiesa of San Pietro in Montorio, where Mass was just about to begin, and so I stayed on and joined the handful of foreign worshipers, led in prayer by a Spanish Franciscan priest who has spent decades shepherding the hodge podge parish of this historic church. His homily concerned the role of Mary as the mother of God and our own mother and guide and intercessor during this earthly life. And, as it is also the World Day of Peace, he led us in reciting the "prayer of St. Francis," which implores God to make us instruments of his peace so that we may in turn bring it to the world.
Carpe Diem!
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