Calendar Class of March 22, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Today I finally took the time to write a bit about Time and this Book of Times. I found this treasure in a bookstore in Rome at least three years ago and knew immediately that it would be a beautiful and effective way to learn about themes of Time with the children. Ironically, I never made the time to read it with the kids until today! Procrastination is the thief of Time, quite literally.

Since my dream in October in which my Dad told me that he would be teaching me about Time over the next two years, the lessons have been pouring in. In addition to this marvelous book, I would like to share another resource that recently found me-- "Protect Your Time", an interview with author Oliver Burkeman. After a week, I am still making my way through his lengthy episode bit by bit, but it's definitely been worth the time it takes to listen to it.

Why would my Dad want to teach me about Time? It didn't take long to figure this one out. Time was a running theme in the ideas he most well-known for, such as "The Permanent Things," and it is a theme that appears in nearly all his work, from his ghost stories (here's a delightful audio version of his short story Saviourgate), to his book Redeeming the Time, to his love of the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and so on and so forth.

Much, much more could be said about how the theme of Time runs like a red thread through my Dad's work (as well as my own with this blog), but, for today at least, I've run out of time.

Liturgical: Saturday of the Second Week of Lent Mass readings and Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections

"Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Sanctoral: The Roman Martyrology commemorates Blessed Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster (1933-1946). Bishop Clemens was fiercely anti-Communist, and an outspoken opponent of the Stalinist regime. A strong nationalist who loved his homeland, his was known for his opposition to the Nazis, their programs and policies. He was a key opponent in the fight to end the Nazi program of “euthanasia“, the murder of the old, the crippled, the ill. Created Cardinal–Priest of San Bernardo alle Terme on February 18, 1946.

The Church also commemorates St. Nicholas Owen (d. 1606). He is included in the Feast of the English Martyrs on May 4.

Human: Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (writer) – 1832: thanks to Goethe's love of Italy, we have some lovely descriptions of il bel paese in the 1800s

238 AD – Gordian I and his son Gordian II became Roman co-emperors. The emperor was proclaimed by the nobility mutinied against Maximinus Thrax, when he came to inspect Tysdrus. Thanks to the actions of senator Publius Licinius Valerianus (later emperor), he received the support of the Senate, but his reign lasted only 20 days, since the governor of Numidia-Cappelianus, remaining faithful to Maximinus at the head of one legion (legio III Augusta) attacked Carthage, which was the temporary residence of the emperor and defeated Gordian’s troops consisting of armed residents of the city and the militia. The emperor committed suicide after losing the battle, during which his son and co-emperor, Gordian II, died.

Natural: Louis B. Leakey announced his 1961 discovery of a 14 million-year-old hominoid in Kenya – 1962

Italian: Creating Emphasis in Italian

Quote: "Whatever can happen at any time can happen today." -Seneca