Calendar Class of November 3, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Capere pulchritudinem in morte! Seize beauty in death! Yesterday evening's Papal Mass for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed was held at the hauntingly lovely Campo Verano. Somehow, we managed to sit right up front, just four rows from the altar, and participate in what was a most unique open air, yet intimate, Mass. It was my first visit to this graceful land of the dead, which was built only yesterday, by Rome standards, in the early 19th century. Fortunately, this happened to be the time of a neoclassical and romantic revival in art and architecture, resulting in lots of shrouded, winged beauties frozen in time atop tombs, mourning the dead for all eternity (or at least as long as the statue stays intact). Have a look at some of these melancholic mourners of stone in Campo Verano here.

Liturgical: Monday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Romans 11:29-36

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Sanctoral: St. Martin de Porres (1569-1639) was born in Lima, Peru. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed slave woman from Panama, of either African or Native American descent. His parents never married. For the first eight years of his life his father did not acknowledge him, and abandoned the family after Martin's sister was born. St. Martin de Porres was raised in poverty with the societal stigma of being mix-raced. As a young man he served as an assistant to a barber-surgeon where he learned medicine and the care of the sick. When he was 15 he joined the Dominican friars as a helper, eventually becoming a Lay Brother which at the time was forbidden for the children of slaves by Peruvian law. He took on the work of nursing the sick in the Dominican infirmary as well as the sick among the townspeople, even giving a sick man his own bed. He was also made almoner, and begged money to assist his work with the poor and sick. He founded an orphanage, tended to slaves brought from Africa, and dispensed alms to the needy. His prayers and penances were so great that he soon demonstrated miraculous powers. In addition to healing the sick, his other miracles were bi-location, levitation, hidden knowledge, and the ability to communicate with animals. Word of his sanctity spread and people from all walks of life came to him for spiritual direction. St. Martin de Porres is the patron saint of social justice, bi-racial people, African-Americans, hairdressers, barbers, public education, public health, and the poor.

Human: 361 AD – in the town of Mobsucrene, near the Asian city of Tarsus, Constantius II died a natural death. Ammianus Marcellinus reports that death was to occur after three days of illness, probably fever. On his deathbed, he appointed his opponent, Julian the Apostate, to be his successor. Constantius II was the son of Constantine the Great and his second wife, Fausta.

1534 English Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII and all subsequent monarchs the Head of the Church of England

Natural: Why are cypress trees so planted in cemeteries and along ancient roadways? Here are 13 reasons, both practical and symbolic, and one very important reason I learned in the Gardens of Ninfa-- their roots grow straight down, not branching out, which means they won't creep into tombs or upset roadways!

Italian: Sale (salt)

• Sale grosso (coarse salt – you’ll need it for cooking pasta!) 

• Sale fino (table salt) 

And these are some common kitchen expressions with sale:

• Un pizzico di sale (a pinch of salt)

• Condire con olio, sale e pepe (season with oil, salt, and pepper)

• Aggiustare di sale (literally “to adjust the salt” – meaning to add some salt)

• Essere giusto/a di sale (to have the right amount of salt)

• Essere indietro di sale (to be lacking salt)

• Essere senza sale (to be bland or tasteless)

• Essere insipido/a (to be bland – we also use sciapo/a to describe food lacking salt)

• Essere salato/a (to be salty)

• Sotto sale (salted, preserved in salt)

Quote: "This hope for the future brings to life our remembrance and prayer today. This is not an illusion for soothing the pain of our separation from loved ones, nor is it mere human optimism. Instead, it is the hope founded on the Resurrection of Jesus who has conquered death and opened for us the path to the fullness of life. As I said in a recent catechesis, the Lord is “the destination of our journey. Without his love, the voyage of life would become a wandering without a goal, a tragic mistake with a missed destination… The Risen One guarantees our arrival, leading us home, where we are awaited, loved and saved” (General Audience, 15 October 2025).

This final destination, this banquet around which the Lord will gather us, will be an encounter of love. For it was out of love that God created us, through the love of his Son that he saves us from death, and in the joy of that same love, he desires that we live forever with him and with our loved ones. For this reason, whenever we dwell in love and show charity to others, especially the weakest and most needy, then we can journey towards our goal, and even now anticipate it through an unbreakable bond with those who have gone before us. Moroever, Jesus encourages us in these words: “… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:35-36).

Love conquers death. In love, God will gather us together with our loved ones.  And, if we journey together in charity, our very lives become a prayer rising up to God, uniting us with the departed, drawing us closer to them as we await to meet them again in the joy of eternal life."

--Pope Leo XIV, in his homily at Verano cemetery on November 2, 2025