Calendar Class of March 27, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

It was a chilly, rainy morning in Rome, so the Art and Architecture class's subterranean exploration of the Basilica of San Clemente today was time well spent indoors. Here is a very informative video on this perfect example of a Roman palimpsest. After wandering through the underground labyrinth (that contains ruins of a 4th century basilica, a first century domus ecclesia, a mithraeum, and a republican era villa and warehouse), we took in the church's mosaic masterpiece, the Tree of Life. I read a reflection on the work entitled "Corpus Christi" by Pope Benedict XVI. "When the apse mosaic of San Clemente was created, there was as yet no feast of Corpus Christi. The sense of that day is, however, wonderfully represented here. For it shows, indeed, how the Eucharist spans the world and transforms it. The Eucharist belongs not only in the Church and to a closed community. The world should become Eucharistic, should live in the vine of God. But that is Corpus Christi: to celebrate the Eucharist cosmically; to carry it even to our streets and squares so that the world, from the fruit of the new vine, may receive healing and reconciliation through the tree of life of the Cross of Jesus Christ."

Liturgical: Thursday of the Third Week of Lent Mass readings and Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Luke 11:14-23

Sanctoral: Saint Gregory of Narek, +1003

"Little else is known about Gregor, other than he died in the early 11th century and was buried within the walls of the Narek monastery where he had spent his life. In 2015 as the world observed the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Pope Francis concelebrated a Mass at the Vatican with Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni and declared the monk, poet, and saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Gregory of Narek, a Doctor of the Church. His liturgical feast is celebrated on February 27."

The Roman Martyrology today honors St. Rupert (d. 718), Bishop and missionary, also listed as Robert of Hrodbert. A member of a noble Frankish family, he was appointed bishop of Worms, Germany, and then dedicated himself to spreading the faith among the Germans. With the patronage of Duke Thedo of Bavaria, he took over the deserted town of Luvavum about 697, which was renamed Salzburg, Austria. Rupert founded a church, a monastery, and a school; brought in groups of missionaries; and established a nunnery at Nonnberg with his sister, Eerentrudis, serving as the first abbess. He died at Salzburg and is venerated as the first archbishop of this major diocese in the West. Rupert is revered as the Apostle of Bavaria and Austria.

Human: Cleopatra reinstated as queen of Egypt. The legendary Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator, aided by her Roman lover Julius Caesar, was reinstated as coruler of Egypt (with her brother Ptolemy XIV) this day in 47 BC following a civil war with her brother Ptolemy XIII.

Natural: First cherry trees, a gift from Japan, planted on Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. – 1912

Mt. St. Helens erupted after 123-year dormancy, starting a series of events that led to a cataclysmic eruption on May 18. – 1980

Italian: Intramontabile (timeless / everlasting)

Quote: "The Dream of the Rood" by Unknown

Listen! I will speak of the sweetest dream,

what came to me in the middle of the night,

when speech-bearers slept in their rest. 

It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree

raised on high, wound round with light,

the brightest of beams. All that beacon was

covered in gold; gems stood

fair at the earth’s corners, and there were five

up on the cross-beam. All the angels of the Lord looked on;

fair through all eternity; that was no felon’s gallows,

but holy spirits beheld him there,

men over the earth and all this glorious creation.