Calendar Class of September 15, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

For yesterday's Sunday Feast, Providence provided us with a very special guest, our new friend Madeleine, who brought her own banjo and sang us a lovely, melancholy ballad, appropriate for this bittersweet season of warm endings and cool beginnings. I've included the poem she sang as a ballad in the Quote of the Day section below. Welcome, Madeleine!

Liturgical: Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, Monday of the 24th Week of Ordinary Time

John 19:25-27

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Sanctoral: Our Lady of Sorrows

For a while there were two feasts in honor of the Sorrowful Mother: one going back to the 15th century, the other to the 17th century. For a while both were celebrated by the universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, the other in September.

The principal biblical references to Mary’s sorrows are in Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon’s prediction about a sword piercing Mary’s soul; the Johannine passage relates Jesus’ words from the cross to Mary and to the beloved disciple.

Many early Church writers interpret the sword as Mary’s sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross. Thus, the two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfillment.

Saint Ambrose in particular sees Mary as a sorrowful yet powerful figure at the cross. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked on her Son’s wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world. As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary did not fear to be killed, but offered herself to her persecutors.

Human: Birthday of James Fenimore Cooper (author) – 1789 and Agatha Christie (Mystery writer Agatha Christie, one of the best-selling novelists of all time; born in Torquay, Devon, England) – 1890 and Robert McCloskey (author and illustrator of the children’s classics Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal) – 1914 and Tomie dePaola (children’s author, illustrator) – 1934

Natural: Water-Bath Canning Guide: How to Safely Can Fruits, Jams, and Pickles at Home

Italian: Prendere (to take)

Quote: "Crossing the Bar," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sunset and evening star,

      And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

      When I put out to sea,

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

      Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

      Turns again home.

   Twilight and evening bell,

      And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

      When I embark;

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

      The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

      When I have crost the bar.