Calendar Class of August 7, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

With the full Sturgeon moon of August rising on Saturday, last night's moonrise over the trees was a beautiful site, just as good as a full moonrise. This year we get a special two night full moon! Today's Natural Cycle lesson explains why we see the moon as so much larger as it rises. I caught this dramatic scene a few hours after it arose, surrounded by mackerel clouds and a colored Moon halo. These past few nights when a dead silence descends on the lake after the beach has long been emptied of swimmers, the girls and I have witnessed an eery phenomenon of what sounds like large fish jumping to the surface all over the lake. Presumably this is the origin of the nickname "Sturgeon" for the full moon of August, because it is the time when large fish like sturgeon are in a feeding frenzy before the onset of Fall. My friend Kris, a frequent kayaker on this very lake, who denies the onset of the tell-tale signs of the end of summer every year, will not like me to share the observations I made yesterday of little crinkled leaves floating on the water, the increased foraging activity of the bees, or the tinge of yellow at the tops of the trees. All good things must come to an end, and we must recall that each new month and each new season brings new opportunities. In the case of this new full moon, it will bring lots of sturgeon to fishermen! While there are other nicknames for this month, sturgeon are particularly important to Great Lakes dwellers, and a really fascinating, and sometimes frightening, fish (they are not aggressive but, a few weeks out of the year, such as now, they do leap from the water and have been known to kill swimmers by accidentally crashing into them). They are often called "living fossils" due to their prehistoric appearance; their existence can be traced back 136 million years. Check this out!

Liturgical: Thursday of the 18th Week of Ordinary Time

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:13-23

Sanctoral: Cajetan (October 1, 1480 – August 7, 1547)

The greatest need of the time was the reformation of a Church that was “sick in head and members.” Cajetan and three friends decided that the best road to reformation lay in reviving the spirit and zeal of the clergy. Together they founded a congregation known as the Theatines—from Teate [Chieti] where their first superior-bishop had his see. One of the friends later became Pope Paul IV.

They managed to escape to Venice after their house in Rome was wrecked when Emperor Charles V’s troops sacked Rome in 1527. The Theatines were outstanding among the Catholic reform movements that took shape before the Protestant Reformation. Cajetan founded a monte de pieta—“mountain or fund of piety”—in Naples, one of many charitable, nonprofit credit organizations that lent money on the security of pawned objects. The purpose was to help the poor and protect them against usurers. Cajetan’s little organization ultimately became the Bank of Naples, with great changes in policy.

Human: La Salle’s Le Griffon, first ship to sail upper Great Lakes, entered Lake Erie – 1679

George Washington established the Badge of Military Merit for U.S. soldiers injured in action. It later became known as the Purple Heart – 1782

The United States War Department established – 1789

Natural: The Moon Illusion: Why Does the Moon Look So Big Tonight? When the Moon is high overhead, it is dwarfed by the vast hemisphere of the heavens and appears to our eyes as a small disk in the sky. By contrast, when the Moon is low, it is viewed in relation to earthly objects, such as chimneys or trees, whose size and shape provide scale. Your brain compares the size of the Moon to the trees, buildings, or other reference points, and suddenly, the Moon looks massive! 

Yup, it’s that simple!

How does the Moon illusion differ from a “supermoon”? Read up on the supermoon so as not to confuse the two!

A “Moon dog” can also occur when the moon is low on the horizon; learn more about the phenomenon of a Moon dog.

Italian: Piantagrane (troublemaker / nitpicker)

Quote: And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, 

They danced by the light of the Moon. 

–Edward Lear (1812–1888)