Calendar Class of November 24, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe Claustrum! This quiet, graceful 13th c. cloister can be found at the basilica of St. John Lateran. When the ladies and I visited not so long ago, I was struck by its similarity to the more famous cloister at St. Paul-outside-the-walls. It was unsurprising, then, to discover that the same sculptor-architect (Vassalletto) created both, in addition to the cloister at San Lorenzo al Verano. What is very surprising, however, is that they all still exist today, while the basilicas that they are attached to all but fell into ruin over the ages, through fire and other calamities (the Lateran and St. Paul's). Take a look at this collection of Rome's cloisters here. The serenity that one feels upon entering a beautiful cloister is undeniable. A hush instantly falls over visitors as they begin to slowly stroll, gaze, and allow themselves to be enchanted. The Latin word for cloister, claustrum, means enclosed. It is an enclosed garden, which, in the rich religious imagination of the Middle Ages, become a literary and spiritual analogy. It doesn't require much stretch of the imagination to see why-- cultivated and well-maintained natural beauty, human-sized dimensions, religious art and memento moris adorning the walls... Every time I enter these spaces, two books and their authors come to mind that I must share: First, Vigen Guroian's book Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening; secondly, The Enclosed Garden by Fr. Peter Milward, SJ. It's my great fortune to have known both authors personally and conversed with them at length. You can read more about Guroian here and Milward here.

Liturgical: Monday of the 34th Week of Ordinary Time

Luke 21:1-4

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

...And this just in: LEO XIV's APOSTOLIC LETTER IN UNITATE FIDEI ON THE 1700^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA

Sanctoral: Andrew Dung-Lac, a Catholic convert ordained to the priesthood, was one of 117 people martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members of the companions group gave their lives for Christ in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and received beatification during four different occasions between 1900 and 1951. All were canonized during the papacy of Saint John Paul II.

Christianity came to Vietnam through the Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615. They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan.

Severe persecutions were launched at least three times in the 19th century. During the six decades after 1820, between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries martyred in the first wave included priests of the Paris Mission Society, and Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries.

In 1832, Emperor Minh-Mang banned all foreign missionaries, and tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. Like the priest-holes in Ireland during English persecution, many hiding places were offered in homes of the faithful.

Persecution broke out again in 1847, when the emperor suspected foreign missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing with a rebellion led by of one of his sons. The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed religious freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution.

By 1954, there were over a million Catholics—about seven percent of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent. Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees.

During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now reunited, the entire country is under Communist rule.

Human: Ancient Rome-- Brumalia began, a month-long festival in honor of Bacchus or Saturn (Greek god Kronos). The name of the holiday comes from the word: bruma, meaning “the shortest day”. It is believed that its celebration began with the first king of Rome – Romulus. The legendary ruler supposedly entertained the senators, army and service throughout the month. For this purpose, he invited other personalities for games, depending on the day they were assigned to. He encouraged similar actions of senators who were to care for their subordinates. During the Brumalia festival, the goddess Demeter and Kronos were offered pigs (breeders) and Dionysus goats (farmers). The goat was considered to be the enemy of wine, so a sack full of air was made from her skin and people jumped on it. The ordinary inhabitants of Rome, in turn, offered sacrifices to Ceres (wine, olive oil, honey and grain). The festival was full of joy and the celebrating people drank wine. The Romans, who focused on the army, agriculture, and hunting, considered the November short days as a period of rest from everyday tasks. During this holiday, prophecies were foretold for the rest of winter. The festival was celebrated until the 6th century AD.

62 AD – The satirist Persius died today, while studying in Rome. He was interested in poetry and philosophy, and the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus had a great influence on him. Persius' works gained popularity in the Middle Ages.

380 AD – Emperor Theodosius I triumphantly ended his war with Goths. He spent two seasons on the battlefields, and he made his entrance to the city of Constantinople a triumphant march, called adventus.

1642 Dutch explorer Abel Tasman is the first European to discover Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)

​1859 English naturalist Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species," radically changing the view of evolution and laying the foundation for evolutionary biology

​1950 UN troops begin an assault intending to end the Korean War by Christmas

​1974 The most complete early human skeleton (Lucy, Australopithecus) is discovered by Donald Johanson, Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens, and Tim White in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia's Afar Depression

Natural: Why do we fast before the feast?

"In giving us this regular hunger for food, we are also given opportunity to sacrifice for each other and for God and to discipline our appetites. Always cognizant of our nature, the liturgical year is rife with periods of both fasting and feast. In order to feast, we must also know sacrifice; in fact, it's only in sacrifice that we understand what a feast really is. Our lives can contain an ever-repeating rhythm of each in its proper time. In the same way that it would be profane to feast on Good Friday, so would it be improper to fast on Easter. This rhythm is a reminder of both a need to be filled as well as a need to strengthen our resolve so that we might long first and foremost for the feast that has no end." –Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering

Italian: Sapientone/a (know-it-all)

Non voglio fare il sapientone, ma secondo me…

Quote: "What makes you happy is always right in front of you because what makes you happy is love. Love is willing the good of the other, opening yourself to the world around you. Love is not a feeling; it’s an act of the will. It is the great act of dispossession." --Bishop Barron, from his Gospel reflection today

Extra: "O timely happy, timely wise" (to mark the last week of the liturgical year)

by John Keble, The Christian Year

O timely happy, timely wise
"It is good to praise the Lord. -Psalm 92:1-2
O timely happy, timely wise,
Hearts that with rising morn arise,
Eyes that the beam celestial view
Which evermore makes all things new!
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove,
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life, and power, and thought,
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray,-
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find.
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask,-
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
Seek we no more; content with these,
Let present rapture, comfort, cease,
As Heaven shall bid them, come and go:
The secret this of rest below
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.