In terms of the calendar, October is packed with important and interesting stuff. The feast day of St. Francis on the 4th. The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto on the 7th. Sts. John Henry Newman on the 9th, Ignatius of Antioch on the 17th, and John Paul II on the 22nd. The anniversary of the miracle of Fatima on the 13th. And this Saturday, the 28th, MILVIAN BRIDGE DAY!!
Yay - I know you are all frantically getting ready for your Milvian Bridge Day parties, but in case anyone missed this lecture in Church History class, the battle of the Milvian Bridge is the one where Constantine defeated his rival to become emperor of the western empire. It's also the one where he had a dream or vision of the sign of Christ, and heard the heavenly Voice say, "In this sign, (you will) conquer!" This victory led to the legalization of Christianity in the next year.
Now, the "sign" may have been the cross (and in some versions of the story, it is), but it was probably the monogram of Christ, perhaps superimposed on a cross. The monogram is the first two letters of Christos in Greek, that is, the letter Chi (looks like an X and includes both the C and the H from the English "Christ" ), and the letter Rho (looks like a P). So the monogram (not Jesus' initials, exactly, but more like an abbreviation), would look like the photo here.
So how will you celebrate Milvian Bridge Day? I checked online and I can't find where the parades are. None of my neighbors invited me over for a costume party (Tammy and I were going to go as Constantine's horse). But that's OK because we will be celebrating the baptism of our grandson, Zachary James, and Tammy and I will be the godparents. So, just a reminder, we won't have The Journey this Saturday, but we will have The Piazza on Sunday evening. So I won't see you on Saturday this week, but I hope you have a very merry Milvian Bridge Day, and a happy All Hallows Eve.
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
As I'm going through all my belongings as part of our move, I have come across some audio CDs of my old music, from when I had my band, Remember Rome - if any of you still have a CD player, and you would like me to send you some of what I have, send me the address to send them to at this email address: [email protected]
Some of these CDs are in their original cases, and some were demo samples, but either way, it's all original music written by me, and performed by me and my band back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
I'll be happy to find a good home for these CDs in case you might enjoy them, and because you all have been supporting me (and I haven't produced much content in the last month or so) I'll send you one or more CDs for free. Just give me an address.
Thanks!
Here's the link to the new edition of my Rome book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Second-Pilgrims-Guide-Eternal/dp/B0F8TGTWZX
