Calendar Class of July 12, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe Salmon! The Big Lake means big fish, as our friend Tim's catch yesterday demonstrates. This particular specimen was 18 lbs. These fish are usually tagged by the state's fish stocking program so they can be tracked from their original drop location. Once Tim caught a fish, just like this one, that had been dropped 250 miles away!

Liturgical: Saturday of the 14th Week of Ordinary Time

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:24-33

From Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections:

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells hisdisciples not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Through the power of his being, he has linked us to the creative source of all existence. And in that “place,” loved in the Spirit by the Father and the Son, we are safe—even from those who would kill the body.

But this means that our perspective can and must change. Most of us spend most of our lives defending ourselves against assaults on the “body”—keen, almost every waking moment, to protect our psyches, our emotions, our fortunes, our health, our reputations.

When we do that, we warp ourselves, turning our lives defensively inward, living in a very small spiritual space. But when we live out of the divine center, we breathe the air of real spiritual freedom. No longer cramped fearfully around the “body,” we can move into the wide expanse of the divine will, following God however he prompts us. And this state of affairs, this great soul, is simultaneously alluring in its beauty and terrifying in its demand.

Sanctoral: Saints John Jones and John Wall, England +1598 and +1689

Every martyr knows how to save his/her life and yet refuses to do so. A public repudiation of the faith would save any of them. But some things are more precious than life itself. These martyrs prove that their 20th-century countryman, C. S. Lewis, was correct in saying that courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, that is, at the point of highest reality.

—Sts. Louis (1823-1894) and Zélie (1831-1877) Martin, best remembered as the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (the Little Flower), but they are models of holiness in their own right. They are only the second married couple to be canonized.

--St. Veronica of the Veil (Hist). Buon onomastico to Cordelia Anne-Marie Veronica Leonora Assaf!

Human: Death of Erasmus of Rotterdam (writer & philosopher) – 1536, Alexander Hamilton (statesman and founding father) – 1804

Natural: Fish stocking in Michigan dates back to 1874, with the initial focus on Atlantic salmon.

Here's some info on Michigan's Fish Stocking program by the DNR, and salmon management in the Great Lakes (Great Lakes trout and salmon provide a world-class sport fishery valued at more than $7 billion). Here's an interesting video on the news about the marriage of Chinook Salmon and Alewife fish.

Italian: 11 Expressions with “Grazie” in Italian

Quote: "Lake Michigan’s definitely moody. It’s not just bi-polar, but beyond schizophrenic. It’s dozens of surrounding lakes and waterways never know what to expect on a day to day basis. She is awesome at calm and awesome at dangerous." --Yasmina Haque