Today is a Friday in Lent (so no meat). Today we also honor Saint Frances of Rome, Religious (died 1440).
Born in 1384 in Rome, Italy as Francesca Bussa de’ Leoni, today’s Saint was of the aristocracy. Although she wanted to become a nun she was married at age twelve, and in a marriage that lasted forty years gave her husband six children, three of whom died of the plague. She spent her life and fortune while her husband was away at war in the service of the sick and the poor of Rome, founding the first home in the city for abandoned children. She was also a contemplative and visionary, and dictated 97 Visions, in which she saw many of the pains of Hell. On August 15, 1425, the feast of the Assumption, she founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, a confraternity of pious women, attached to the church of Santa Maria Nova in Rome, but neither cloistered nor bound by formal vows. In March 1433 she founded a convent for common life by the members of the group at Tor de’ Specchi, which remains the only house of the Order . On July 4 of that same year they received the approval of Pope Eugene IV as a religious congregation of nuns. The community thus also became known as the Oblates of Saint Frances of Rome. When her husband died in 1436, she became the group’s superior. She died in 1440 and was buried in that church. On May 9, 1608 she was canonized by Pope Paul V, and in the following decades a diligent search was made for her remains. They were found on April 2, 1638 and reburied on March 9, 1649, which since then is her feast day. Again, in 1869, her body was exhumed and has since then been exposed to the veneration of the faithful in a crystal coffin. The church of Santa Maria Nova is usually now referred to as the church of Santa Francesca Romana. In 1925 Pope Pius XI declared her the Patron Saint of automobile drivers because of a legend that an angel used to light the road in front of her with a lantern when she travelled, keeping her safe from hazards.
I slept very badly last night. I woke up this morning and reminded Richard that he needed to fast today; he then bagged up our trash, and we dumped it in the apartments dumpster on our way to work. (I also, of course, did my Devotional Reading on the way to work.) Once at work we had our WIG Huddle, then went out on the floor; Richard was the dealer on Mississippi Stud, and I was on the sit-down Blackjack table. (We have two Blackjack tables that are designed to be wheelchair-accessible; only one of these tables is open on weekdays, and I was the dealer on it.)
After work Richard got his blood drawn for lab work at the clinic, and we headed home via McDonald’s so that Richard could have a fish fillet sandwich after not eating all day. On our way home I finished reading The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. Once home, I ate my lunch salad and read the morning paper; then I took a nap (for which Richard joined me) from 1:00 pm to about 5:00 pm. When I woke up I found that our LSU Men’s Basketball team lost their game against #1 Kentucky at the SEC Tournament by the score of 51 to 60. (Our Tigers are 18 and 14 for the season; it remains to be seen whether they get an invite to the NIT, since the NCAA Tournament is out of reach this year.) I did the Book Review for this weblog and for my Goodreads and Facebook accounts of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank, and posted my reflections on Chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Thrift Store Saints: Meeting Jesus 25¢ At A Time by Jane Knuth on the Creighton Lenten Reading Weblog. Richard and I then went over to Jambalaya on the Bayou (a restaurant in the old Chatterbox location), where I got three pounds of boiled crawfish and Richard got a shrimp platter (both very good; we will have to go back). When we got home I retreated to the computer to do today’s Daily Update, which brings us to now. Once I finish today’s Daily Update I will read a bit in The Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H. G. Wells and go to bed.
Tomorrow is Saturday; on my breaks at work I will start reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which is the book we will be discussing Tuesday night at the Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club Meeting at the Lafayette Public Library – Southside Branch. In the afternoon, since it will be Saturday, I will eat my lunch salad, go to Adoration, and maybe (just maybe) go to Mass. (And yes, I realize the disconnect between being one of 25 readers on a public Lenten blog and not going to Mass since Ash Wednesday.)
This Friday afternoon brings us a Parting Quote from “Granny D”, American politician and activist. Born in 1910 in Laconia, New Hampshire as Ethel Doris Rollins, she dropped the “Ethel” part of her name and attended Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, for three years before marrying James Haddock. Emerson students were not allowed to marry at that time, so she was kicked out of college. She and her husband had two children; she worked during the Great Depression and was employed for twenty years as an executive secretary in the offices of the BeeBee Shoe factory in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1960 she began her political career when she and her husband successfully campaigned against planned hydrogen bomb nuclear testing in Alaska, saving an Inuit fishing village at Point Hope. Rollins and her husband retired to Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1972 and there she served on the Planning Board and was active in the community. Her husband later developed Alzheimer’s disease, dying after a ten-year struggle with the illness. After the first efforts of Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold to regulate campaign finances through eliminating soft money failed in 1995, Rollins became increasingly interested in campaign finance reform and spearheaded a petition movement. On January 1, 1999, at the age of 88, Granny D left the Rose Bowl Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, in an attempt to walk across the United States to raise awareness of and attract support for campaign finance reform; she wore the hat of her best friend, who had died. Granny D walked roughly ten miles each day for 14 months, traversing California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, making many speeches along the way. The trek attracted a great deal of attention in the mass media. When Granny D arrived in Washington, D.C., she was 90 years old (having had two birthdays en route), had traveled more than 3,200 miles, and was greeted in the capital by a crowd of 2,200 people. Several dozen members of Congress walked the final miles with her during the final day’s walk from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol on the National Mall. On April 21, 2000 Granny D, along with 31 others, was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in the Capitol and was charged with the offense of demonstrating in the Capitol Building. It was said to be a peaceable assembly, but the demonstrators were arrested by the Capitol Police. She entered a plea of guilty, but made a statement to the court where she explained the purpose of her actions. Rather than impose a $500 fine and six month prison term, the judge in the case sentenced Granny D to time served and a $10 administrative fee. That same year Emerson College granted her an honorary degree. and she wrote (with Dennis Burke) Granny D: Walking Across America in My Ninetieth Year. She was awarded an honorary degree by Franklin Pierce College on October 21, 2002, and in 2003, with Dennis Burke and Bill Moyers, wrote Granny D: You’re Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell. Rollins became the Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire during the 2004 election when the leading Democratic primary candidate left the race unexpectedly (days before the filing deadline), because of a campaign-finance scandal. She was, at 94, one of the oldest major-party candidates to ever run for the U.S. Senate. True to her “clean elections” ideals, Mrs. Haddock funded her late entry campaign by accepting only modest private-citizen donations. She captured approximately 34 percent of the vote (221,549), losing to incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, as he sought his third term. In 2007 HBO released a documentary, Run Granny Run, directed by Marlo Poras, about Granny D’s 2004 Senate campaign. She continued to be active in politics to the end of her life, and celebrated her 98th, 99th and 100th birthday by lobbying for campaign finance reform at the New Hampshire State House. At the time of her death she had eight grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren (died 2010): “In my 90 years, this is the first time I have been arrested. I risk my good name — for I do indeed care what my neighbors think about me. But, Your Honor, some of us do not have much power, except to put our bodies in the way of an injustice — to picket, to walk, or to just stand in the way. It will not change the world overnight, but it is all we can do.”
From The Recamier 