Calendar Class of June 20, 2025
- Andrea Kirk Assaf
- Jun 20
- 4 min read
A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Liturgical: Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Matthew 6:19-23
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Sanctoral:
The Roman Martyrology commemorates on this date St. John Matera (also known as John Pulsano) (1070-1139). St. John was a native of Matera, Italy and in his childhood longed to become a hermit. As a young man, he worked for a time as a shepherd in the service of a monastery. His exceptional austerity, however, was so irksome to the less fervent monks that he soon had to leave. Thereafter he journeyed from place to place as he strove to carry out God's will for him. At one point, acting upon a vision of Saint Peter he had experienced, John rebuilt a dilapidated church dedicated to the saint. Later, he traveled to Bari, where he preached with great efficacy. Certain individuals, motivated perhaps by jealousy, attacked the popular preacher with false charges of heresy, but he was in the end totally cleared of their accusations. Eventually John founded a Benedictine monastery at Pulsano and became its first abbot.
Blessed Margareta Ebner (1291-1351) is also commemorated today. She was a Dominican nun at the Maria Medingen monastery near Dillingen, is one of the most important representatives of 14th century German female mysticism. She fell seriously ill in 1312 and was sick and bedridden all her life. She formed a deep spiritual friendship with the mystic Heinrich von Nördlingen (ca. 1310-1387), whom she met in 1332, with the long correspondence between them constituting the first preserved German-language collection of letters.
Human: Yesterday I missed an important date in history so I'm making up for it now-- "May 20 marked the 1700th anniversary of the beginning of the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. June 19 marks the date of the drawing up of the “Symbol” or “Nicene Creed,” the first draft of what would later become a part of the Eucharistic liturgy for the universal Church. August 19 is generally accepted as the close of the council." Here's the source. And here's what Pope Leo has said about the council and Christian unity recently. And here's the Vatican document on the council's 1,700th anniversary this year.
Charles I was sentenced to death in 1649 for what the High Court of Justice described as his tyrannical rule as King of England. The monarch’s head was chopped off in a public execution that gratified the anti-royalists but appalled large sections of the population who held steadfastly to a belief in the “divine right of kings.”
278 BC – the statue of Jupiter Summanus, standing on top of the Capitoline Temple, lost his head after a lightning struck him. A separate temple was built and dedicated near the Circus Maximus.
404 AD – John Chrysostom was sentenced to exile and went to Armenia. Pope Innocent chose his side.
451 AD – in the battle of the Catalaunian Plains, the Romans and Visigoths won the victory over the Huns and stopped their invasion in Western Europe. Despite the victory, the Romans allowed the Huns to withdraw and eventually they did not destroy them. However, they managed to prevent Attila’s march to Rome.
Natural: It is "officially" summer--today is the Summer Solstice of 2025! Here's some info on that from the Royal Museums in Greenwich, England, from which "Greenwich Mean Time" is measured at the Royal Observatory.
Italian: Sosia (lookalike / doppelgänger)
Quote: The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
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