Calendar Class of May 29, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

What a full morning in Rome! Today the Ave Maria University summer program students went on their official pilgrimage through the holy doors of St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee of Hope, and I was fortunate enough to be given the jubilee cross to carry across the piazza and up the steps to the basilica. We've resumed the dinner time Calendar Class preview with this group, and just in time, too, as I found out that today is the feast day of St. Paul VI, and so made a point to visit his tomb while in the basilica this morning. At Mass at the Altar of the Chair I happened to sit behind a parish on pilgrimage from Brazil, whose church is named... St. Paul VI! After Mass I asked them if they had timed their visit to St. Peter's on their patron saint's feast day and was amazed to hear that they didn't even know that today was his feast day, nor did they know that his tomb was in the grottoes just below their feet. Hopefully that new information enriched their pilgrimage experience at the Vatican today. It seems that nothing happens by accident, we just don't have the eyes to see it unless it's pointed out to us by a fellow pilgrim along the way.

Liturgical: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Brothers and sisters:

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,

give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation

resulting in knowledge of him.

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,

that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,

what are the riches of glory

in his inheritance among the holy ones,

and what is the surpassing greatness of his power

for us who believe,

in accord with the exercise of his great might:

which he worked in Christ,

raising him from the dead

and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,

far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,

and every name that is named

not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And he put all things beneath his feet

and gave him as head over all things to the church,

which is his body,

the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Ephesians 1:17-23

Sanctoral: Optional Memorial of Pope St. Paul VI (1897-1978). Paul VI was canonized and added to the General Roman Calendar on January 25, 2019, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Giovanni Battista Montini was born on September 26, 1897, in a village near Brescia Concesio. On May 29, 1920, he was named Archbishop of Milan. He became Pope on June 21, 1963. He presided over the completion of the Second Vatican Council. He died on August 6, 1978.

Human: 1453 Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, falls to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed the Conqueror, ending the Byzantine Empire after 1,100 years

Natural: The barely ripened plums are dropping from the tree in front of Villa Magnolia today with a little help from the squawky green parakeets that swoop in and out of the tree, helping themselves to the flowers and the fruit.

Italian: Pazzesco (crazy / incredible)

Quote: "For man cannot attain that true happiness for which he yearns with all the strength of his spirit, unless he keeps the laws which the Most High God has engraved in his very nature." –Pope St. Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 1968

Here is a collection of quotes of today's saint.