Somewhere East of Eden

We are all busy, but everyone has time for this simple yet effective prayer, here’s why:

Say 3 Hail Marys each morning and before bed.

This simple yet powerful devotion was encouraged by many great saints, including St. Anthony of Padua, St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, and St. Alphonsus Liguori.

The point of the devotion is to ask Our Lady for the graces to live a holy life each and every day. Each Hail Mary is in honor of a Person of the Holy Trinity and asks for a specific grace.

In a vision given to St. Mechtilde, the Blessed Mother described the devotion in these terms:

By the first Hail Mary, you will ask me in virtue of the supreme power which God the Father has given me to strengthen you in all your combats and to defend you against the power of the malignant enemy.

By the second Hail Mary, you will beseech me, through the admirable wisdom which I have received from my Son, to let the truth shine upon your soul and to banish from it the darkness of ignorance and error.

Happy Feast Day Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton 1774-1821 Feast day: January 4 Patronage: Catholic Schools

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. She established the first Catholic school in the nation, at Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the first American congregation of Religious Sisters, the Sisters of Charity.

This is primarily a regional tradition in the south. In fact, you cannot say you're a true southerner if you never heard of this before.

On the first day of the new year, people in the south will have a specific meal. Black eyed peas and stewed tomatoes with greens and cornbread as a side. This is to bring in good luck, prosperity, and wealth for the new year. Black eyed peas for the luck, greens for prosperity, and cornbread for wealth.

All this is to say that the fact that this octopus appears to be dreaming means one of two things. Either

a) dreaming is a very, very old thing indeed, going directly back to the Urbilaterian. This would mean that almost every animal, from insects to starfish to sea slugs to newts, is likely to have the ability to dream in some capacity or another (unless they have specifically lost it by evolutionary simplification).

or

b) dreaming evolved entirely independently in cephalopods when they developed greater intelligence. This would suggest, at least, that there’s something very fundamental about dreaming related to intelligence itself, which causes it to emerge independently when sufficient intelligence arises.

This sure is a real pickle. It’s not like we have the example of Jesus Christ Himself in His treatment of the woman at the well who had 5 husbands and was with a sixth man who wasn’t her husband. It’s not like we have the example of Jesus Christ Himself notably not condemning the woman caught in adultery before telling her to sin no more. 

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen.

The madonna of the lilies, 1899

The virgin, jesus and saint john baptist, 1875

The madonna of the roses, 1903

Pieta, 1876