Calendar Class of July 25, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

"Love is the highest of all virtues" and "Your potential self is infinite" were the two pieces of tea bag wisdom provided by Providence yesterday. It reminded me of a brief exchange I had with my Mom while watching an online interview of author David Hein (Teaching the Virtues) with the University Bookman's editor, Luke Sheahan. The word "charity" and "love" are interchangeable in the context of a discussion of the classical virtues, because they come from the Latin word "Caritas." As C.S. Lewis explains in The Four Loves, there are many forms of "love" but we tend to confuse them all in English, due in part to our overuse of the one word "love." All this pondering led me this morning to this lovely article on 1 Corinthians 13 from Catholicism Coffee. And now, time for morning coffee, which brings a more lively kind of spiritual enlightenment compared to the calm musings elicited by afternoon tea.

Liturgical: Feast of Saint James, Apostle

For we who live are constantly being given up to death

for the sake of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

2 Corinthians 4:7-15

Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.

Sanctoral: The Feast of St. James, the Apostle, known as the Greater, is celebrated today. The designation "the Greater" is in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, and it indicates he was chosen first before the other James. James the Greater was our Lord's cousin, and was St. John's brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in the year 42 or 43 A.D. on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful. The pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, Spain (known as Camino de Santiago, "the Way of St. James") in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims' hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

An audio.

Human: The first documented test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in England – 1978

Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, became the first woman to walk in space – 1984

Germany’s Kuno the Killer catfish’s carcass washed up on shore. The 5-foot-long, 77 pound catfish sprang from the waters of Volksgarden Park Lake in 2001 to swallow a dachshund puppy whole – 2003

Natural: Catmint vs. Catnip: Key Differences You Need to Know

Italian: Finocchio (fennel)

Quote: “Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up: Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away, whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:4–8, Douay Rheims Version