Calendar Class of June 19, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

I captured this "Roman Holiday" moment through the lovely glass storefront windows of Fabindia Roma as Marie-Therese was discussing the potential purchase of this fetching frock with her brother (she took it home, of course!).

Liturgical: Thursday of the 11th Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 6:7-15

“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Sanctoral: The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Romuald (951-1027) who was born in Ravenna of a noble family. He was the founder of the Camaldolese monks—one of the Italian branches of the Benedictines—in which the eremitical life is combined with life in community. He died in 1027, after a life of prayer and rigorous penance.

The Roman Martyrology also commemorates St. Juliana of Falconieri (1270-1341), who was born in Florence in 1270. She was about fifteen when, at the end of 1284, St. Philip Benizi, General of the Servite Order, received her among the Mantellatae, the female branch of the Order. She had a great devotion to the Holy Eucharist and practiced to a rare degree the Servite devotion to the Sorrows of our Lady. She died in Florence in 1341.

It is also the commemoration of Sts. Gervase and Protase (d. 165) who were martyred at Milan in the second century. St. Ambrose discovered their bodies in 386. They rest now, with the body of St. Ambrose himself on the altar of the crypt of St. Ambrose church at Milan. They are invoked in the pre-Vatican II Litany of the Saints.

Matt Talbot (May 2, 1856 – June 7, 1925)

Matt can be considered the patron of men and women struggling with alcoholism. He was born in Dublin, where his father worked on the docks and had a difficult time supporting his family. After a few years of schooling, Matt obtained work as a messenger for some liquor merchants; there he began to drink excessively. For 15 years—until he was almost 30—Matt was an active alcoholic.

One day he decided to take “the pledge” for three months, make a general confession and begin to attend daily Mass. There is evidence that Matt’s first seven years after taking the pledge were especially difficult. Avoiding his former drinking places was hard. He began to pray as intensely as he used to drink. He also tried to pay back people from whom he had borrowed or stolen money while he was drinking.

Most of his life Matt worked as a builder’s laborer. He joined the Secular Franciscan Order and began a life of strict penance; he abstained from meat nine months a year. Matt spent hours every night avidly reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. He prayed the rosary conscientiously. Though his job did not make him rich, Matt contributed generously to the missions.

After 1923, Matt’s health failed, and he was forced to quit work. He died on his way to church on Trinity Sunday. Fifty years later, Pope Paul VI gave Matt Talbot the title venerable.

Human: In Ancient Rome today-- the Feast of Minerva was celebrated (also on March 19 and September 19) – it was time when the Romans exchanged gifts in honor of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, arts and crafts (and later, war).

1862 Slavery outlawed in US territories (the origin of the "Juneteenth" holiday since 2021)

Birthday of Blaise Pascal (mathematician and physicist) – 1623 (Do watch the excellent biography in the link)

1917 The British Royal Family, which has had strong German ties since George I, renounces its German names and titles and adopts the name of Windsor

Natural: Since the girls plan to be in the water every day they can this summer, here's something good to know about preventing swimmer's ear.

Italian: Impavido (fearless)

Book of the Day: Let's Go Home by Cynthia Rylant

Quote: Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows nothing of this.

– Blaise Pascal, Pensées, sect. 6, 347