Calendar Class of May 14, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

This Carpe Diem Snapshot was sent to me from the Coffee and Cream Cafe in Mecosta, Michigan, where my Mom (flanked by our good friend, author, and naturalist Sheila Carroll) is sporting the cafe's new t-shirt for "Season Five." You might recognize the style of the artwork- it's Valentina's! Each summer for Uncle Marcos' birthday, AKA The Ice Cream Man, she paints a new portrait of his beloved cafe. Her skills are developing so quickly, however, that the progress of one year seems more like ten. Here's an example of her current skills, from a watercolor of St. Cecilia, painted this afternoon.

Liturgical: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 15:9-17

Sanctoral: Saint Matthias, the apostle who replaced Judas

What was the holiness of Matthias? Obviously, he was suited for apostleship by the experience of being with Jesus from his baptism to his ascension. He must also have been suited personally, or he would not have been nominated for so great a responsibility. Must we not remind ourselves that the fundamental holiness of Matthias was his receiving gladly the relationship with the Father offered him by Jesus and completed by the Holy Spirit? If the apostles are the foundations of our faith by their witness, they must also be reminders, if only implicitly, that holiness is entirely a matter of God’s giving, and it is offered to all, in the everyday circumstances of life. We receive, and even for this God supplies the power of freedom.

Human: Jamestown, Virginia, became the first permanent British settlement in North America – 1607

• 4-year-old Louis-Dieudonné (Louis XIV) became King of France – 1643

• Lewis and Clark’s expedition left St. Louis for the West. The Corps of Discovery, as it was later to be called, originally included approximately 45 people. – 1804

• First manned U.S. space station launched – 1973

Natural: I've been noticing some really gorgeous cumulous clouds lately and wondering how the change of seasons affects the formation of clouds. Here's something on that--Cloud Guide: Types of Clouds and Weather They Predict

Italian: Intanto (meanwhile / for now / but / anyway)

Quote: "Living life without a purpose is like having an ice cream cone in your hand [and] letting it melt and drip without eating it. It was yours to enjoy, but you lost it!"

--Unattributed