Calendar Class of April 2, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Twenty years ago today, St. John Paul II died in the Papal apartments in the Vatican. I was overdue with my first child, Maya Karolina (after Karol Wojtyla). Fortunately, Maya held on long enough to allow me to attend the funeral, which I viewed from atop a building overlooking Piazza San Pietro with the BBC, for which I provided some commentary. Today's commentary on RAI, the Italian television station, describes JPII as "a giant of faith who preserved the Church and changed the world." What a legacy! Tonight, a rosary will be prayed at 21:37, the exact moment of his passage from death to eternal life.

Liturgical: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent Mass readings and Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections

John 5:17-30

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Sanctoral: Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Francis of Paola (1416-1507). Francis was born at Paola in Calabria; after living as a hermit for five years (from the age of fourteen to nineteen) he gathered around him some companions with whom he led the religious life. This was the origin of a new order, to which he gave the name of Minims, that is "the least" in the house of God. Pope Sixtus IV sent him to France to help Louis XI on his deathbed. He remained there and founded a house of his Minims at Tours.

The figure of Francis of Paula seems incongruous against the background of fifteenth-century Italy. That was the time of the Italian Renaissance, the rebirth of learning and beauty, when men glorified human knowledge and scoffed at strict morality. Through the purity of his life, Francis reminded men once again that what is good and true and beautiful is a reflection of God.

Human: 1513 Explorer Juan Ponce de León claims Florida for Spain as the first known European to reach it

1801 Battle of Copenhagen: British naval forces led by Horatio Nelson destroy the Danish fleet during the Napoleonic Wars

1917 US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany

1836 English novelist and social critic Charles Dickens (24) marries Catherine Thomson Hogarth (20)

1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen is proclaimed Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

1982 Several thousand Argentine troops invade and seize the Falkland Islands from the United Kingdom

2020 Record 6.6 million Americans file claims for unemployment in the prior week according to the US Department of Labor, 10 million in the prior two weeks

Natural: If feelings are influenced by chemicals and you want to change your feelings towards something, how do you change your brain chemistry? Is that even possible? Start here: Brain Chemicals: The Neurochemistry of Emotions Explained

Italian: Nottambulo (night owl)

Quote: "The adoration of the Cross directs us to a commitment that we cannot shirk: the mission that St Paul expressed in these words: “[I]n my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). I also offer my sufferings so that God’s plan may be completed and his Word spread among the peoples. I, in turn, am close to all who are tried by suffering at this time. I pray for each one of them.

On this memorable day of Christ’s crucifixion, I look at the Cross with you in adoration, repeating the words of the liturgy: “O crux, ave spes unica!“. Hail, O Cross, our only hope, give us patience and courage and obtain peace for the world!"

--St. John Paul II, from the Vatican, 25 March, 2005