Calendar Class of September 30, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Can you guess by this snapshot taken today that we are Romeward bound? This industrious sister was working away on her computer in the Detroit airport, awaiting her flight to Rome just like us. I was going to post a photo of the girls and I looking longingly at huge posters in the airport advertising Michigan's rural beauty, specifically one of a woman holding a paddleboard at the edge of a lake. Then I spotted the sister and thought she would be a better representative of the world we will enter at the end of this flight that we are now on, rather than the one we are leaving behind. Both are beautiful, in their own unique and very different ways. Roma Alma Mater mia, here we come!

Liturgical: Tuesday of the 26th week of Ordinary Time

Zechariah 8:20-23

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.”

Sanctoral: Jerome (345 – 420)

Saint Jerome was a strong, outspoken man. He had the virtues and the unpleasant fruits of being a fearless critic and all the usual moral problems of a man. He was, as someone has said, no admirer of moderation whether in virtue or against evil. He was swift to anger, but also swift to feel remorse, even more severe on his own shortcomings than on those of others. A pope is said to have remarked, on seeing a picture of Jerome striking his breast with a stone, “You do well to carry that stone, for without it the Church would never have canonized you” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints).

Human: Birthday of Elie Wiesel (author) – 1928

Yesterday in Roman history (I missed this and it's too important not to include as the figure of Pompey demonstrates how different history could have been if Caesar’s great rival had survived):

106 BC – Pompey was born, a Roman politician, military commander, creator of the triumvirate. He received his nickname “Great” from the contemporaries because of his great political and military successes and his services to Rome. Son of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo. The rival of Julius Caesar.

61 BC – Pompey celebrated his 45 birthday in triumph on the occasion of defeating the pirates and Mithridates VI. Piracy had been a plague in the Mediterranean for centuries. Pirates kidnapped free inhabitants of coastal lands and sold them into captivity, especially young women and children. Pompey put an end to their practice. The Senate in 67 BC granted Pompey exceptionally extensive powers, including full freedom in disposing of the state treasury and very wide choices throughout the Mediterranean. Defeating Mithridates, who happened to be one of the most dangerous opponents of Rome in the east, allowed Rome to expand its influence in the east. Mithridates was close to creating a power uniting the lands in the Black Sea area. Pompey’s victory finally ended the threat of the King of Pontus.

Natural: So long, sweet September!!

Every Shadow

The Dance of Light and Form, As Old as Creation Itself

Italian: Aquila (eagle)

The Italian word for eagle is aquila. Both the Italian and English terms share the same origin, which is the Latin aquila.

Quote: "Nevertheless I saw splendid monuments; I studied the countless wonders of art and religion; and better than all, I trod the very ground the Holy Apostles had trodden—the ground watered by the blood of martyrs—and my soul grew by contact with these holy things."

- Saint Thérèse of Lisieux