A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
So long, July! As you can see, the end of the month review resulted in quite a few amendments and eliminations. The August plan will be a bit more streamlined in keeping with reality. It reminds me of a quote I just came across by Primo Levi, whose birthday is today. “Perfection belongs to narrated events, not to those we live,” he wrote in The Periodic Table. The practice of narrating one's days is both important and helpful (hence the Calendar Class habit), though it is a humbling one, and a constant reminder that there are only 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year. So....Carpe Diem!
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). In the year 1521 a cannon ball fractured the left leg of Captain Ignatius Loyola, the future founder of the Jesuits. While he was convalescing, Ignatius read about Christ and His saints and thus turned wholly to God. He then undertook to equip himself for Christ's service by acquiring a good classical and theological education. The members of the Society of Jesus became the shock troops of the Church in the battle against the spread of Protestantism in Europe, as well as one of the greatest foreign mission organizations that the world has known. Ignatius died on July 31, 1556.
St. Ignatius is buried in the Jesuits' mother church in Rome, The Gesu.
Human: Birthday of Primo Levi (author) – 1919, J. K. Rowling (author) – 1965; 30 BC – The Battle of Alexandria took place, which led to the downfall of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
The Writer's Almanac edition for today.
Natural: George Washington signed the first United States Patent Grant to Samuel Hopkins of Pittsford, Vermont, for a new method of making Potash– 1790; NASA released the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1– 1976
Italian: Cascamorto (flirt / ladies’ man)
Quote: “...the sea's only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head...”
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