Calendar Class of November 26, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe Crustulum! Seize the Pie! Of all the traditional dishes associated with Thanksgiving, pie tops the charts in my book. With over 50 dinner guests this year, the pie preparations began yesterday with many hands on deck. We are making the classics, apple and pumpkin, but there are other worthy options. Drool over this list here.

Liturgical: Wednesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Luke 21:12-19

Sanctoral: St. John Berchmans (1599-1621) was born in Flanders, Belgium, the eldest of five children of a shoemaker. He was a virtuous and well-liked child who would often rise early to serve at two or three Masses a day before he reached the age of seven. On Friday evenings he had a custom of making the Stations of the Cross outdoors while barefoot. When he was nine years old his mother suffered from a long and terrible illness, and John faithfully attended her bedside until she died. As a pious young person devoted to the things of God, he enrolled in a Jesuit college where he was known for being an energetic and outgoing student with great academic potential and leadership qualities. He also joined the Society of the Blessed Virgin and prayed her Office daily. He discerned a vocation to the religious life and began priestly formation as a Jesuit. His way of holiness was to perform his ordinary duties with extraordinary fidelity and perfection even in the smallest details, believing that, "If I do not become a saint when I am young, I shall never become one." He died tragically of a fever at the age of twenty-two while studying for the seminary in Rome. Many miracles were attributed to him after his death. St. John Berchmans is the patron saint of altar servers and young people.

“Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be.”-St. John Berchmans

Human: 8 BC – Horace, a Roman poet, died. Horace’s work is considered to be the crowning achievement of the Augustan Age and has had a significant impact on European poetry. Horace is given credit for the expression "CARPE DIEM," the motto of Calendar Class.

43 BC Second Triumvirate alliance of Roman leaders formed by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony

176 AD – Marcus Aurelius appointed his son, Commodus, a co-emperor, thus breaking the system of adopting future successors. After Commodus took over power, his madness came forward. His reign was one of the most cruel in the history of Rome. He used the services of the secret police and thus did not give the Senate any possibility of manifesting any opposition.

1789 First national Thanksgiving in the US

Natural: Why Turkey Became the Thanksgiving Centerpiece: History and Recipes

Italian: Aiuola (flowerbed)

There is another word, which is easier to pronounce for learners, and that is aiola (you basically drop the “u”). They’re perfect synonyms, but aiuola is considered more literary so it’s not uncommon to hear Italians say aiola instead.

Quote: “Life has an extraordinary specific character: it is offered to us, we cannot give it to ourselves, but it must be constantly nourished. It needs care that sustains it, enlivens it, safeguards it and relaunches it.”

--Pope Leo XIV at today's General Audience

Note: Today's General Audience with Pope Leo was very special, so I will take a bit of time to research and reflect on it then post about it tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a summary.