Calendar Class of October 2, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

It's a full house at Villa Magnolia this semester with 42 students from Ave Maria University! We hit the ground running yesterday, and today the students have already completed their entrance through the Holy Doors of St Peter's Basilica as Jubilee pilgrims, returning tonight for an ordination Mass of our dear friend Kyle, who has worked with us for years through the apostolate at the North American College. Photos will be posted!

Liturgical: Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

From Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections: On the Catholic reading, God delights in using secondary causes, so that his creatures can participate in his active providence of the universe. Aquinas says that each of us, due to our changeable and fallible nature, has been assigned a heavenly guide. Once we’re in heaven, we won’t require a guide anymore, and our angel will become our friend. 

Sanctoral: The Story of the Feast of the Guardian Angels

Perhaps no aspect of Catholic piety is as comforting to parents as the belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and imagined. Yet angels are not only for children. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch over them always, to aid their prayer, and to present their souls to God at death.

The concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 best support the belief: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

Devotion to the angels began to develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. Saint Benedict gave it impetus and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th-century reformer, was such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic devotion assumed its current form in his day.

A feast in honor of the guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615, Pope Paul V added it to the Roman calendar.

Human: 48 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar came to Alexandria.

Julius Caesar made one significant trip to Egypt in 48–47 BC during the Alexandrian War, arriving to pursue his rival Pompey and becoming entangled in a civil war between Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII. He intervened in the conflict, supported Cleopatra's claim to the throne, and met her, eventually forming a personal relationship and fathering a son. After a period of siege and battle in Alexandria, Caesar installed Cleopatra as queen before returning to Rome to continue his campaign against other enemies.

Natural: How Julius Caesar changed the calendar: Julius Caesar adopted the Egyptian calendar's solar-based system and its concept of a 365-day year with a leap day every four years to create the Julian calendar. He was advised by the Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, who helped him replace the Roman Republic's inaccurate, lunar-based calendar with the more accurate solar model, establishing the foundation of the Western calendar still in use today. 

Italian: Sgargiante (gaudy / showy)

Today we’ll be focusing on an advanced Italian adjective that translates in many ways including gaudy, showy, flamboyant, glitzy and flashy: sgargiante. It is thought to derive from the present participle of the Neapolitan sgargià meaning ‘to look (at someone) with a loving gaze’ with the intention of attracting their attention.

Quote: "Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.”

-St. Francis de Sales