Calendar Class of June 12, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Ciao from the Villa Magnolians! Featured here are the students of the first Ave Maria University summer program, NAC seminarian Kyle (soon to be Deacon Kyle), our beautiful summer staff, and our new (old) dog Thorin!

Liturgical: Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us,

we are not discouraged.

And even though our Gospel is veiled,

it is veiled for those who are perishing,

in whose case the god of this age

has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,

so that they may not see the light of the Gospel

of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,

and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.

For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness,

has shone in our hearts to bring to light

the knowledge of the glory of God

on the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:15 - 4:1, 3-6

Sanctoral: The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Basilides (d. 304), an early Roman martyr under the persecutions of Diocletian. Tradition holds he was born to the imperial Roman nobility and a soldier, possibly an officer.

St. Gaspar Bertoni (1777-1853) is also commemorated. He founded the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Stigmatines) in 1816. Their mission was to serve as “Apostolic Missionaries for the assistance of bishops”, and they were under the patronage of Mary and Joseph. For the last 40 years of his life Gaspar bore great physical suffering, particularly from fevers and a continuous infection in his right leg, but continued to be a counselor and spiritual director even from his hospital bed.

Today is also the Feast of Pope St. Leo III (+816), a Roman who is known for having crowned Charlemagne in old St. Peter's Basilica, created the Palatine School, and miraculously survived an eye-gouging and tongue cutting attack. Pope Leo III gave the land which is today the Camp Teutonico in the Vatican to Charlemagne in 799 for a hospice, called the Schola Francorum, for German pilgrims. Leo is buried in St. Peter's Basilica. More info here.

Human: 1442 King Alfonso V of Aragon occupies Naples

1458 Magdalen College, Oxford founded by William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester

1651 The newly completed Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini is unveiled in Rome

1864 Confederate forces of Jubal Early attack Fort Stevens, barely 4 miles from the White House, with Abraham Lincoln observing the battle

1898 Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain

Natural: Did you know that there are other kinds of bees that do an even better job than the famous honeybee? Here's an article on native bees!

Italian: Russare (to snore)

What We're Reading Today: The Market Square Dog by James Herriot, Miss Maple's Seeds by Eliza Wheeler

Quote: "She learns each seed by heart, all similar yet none the same. 'Take care, my little ones,' Miss Maple says, 'for the world is big and you are small.'"

--Miss Maple