Alleluia! Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday, and today is also the date of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Today is the Optional Memorial of Saint Anselm, Bishop and Doctor (died 1109).
The name of Good Shepherd Sunday for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Alleluia!) derives from the gospel readings on this day (Year B), which come to us from John 10:11-18: “Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”” The World Day of Prayer for Vocations has been observed on Good Shepherd Sunday ever since Saint Pope Paul VI initiated it during the Second Vatican Council in 1963. The purpose of this day is to help all of us respond to God’s call and to support in prayer all those who are discerning how to best respond to the needs of today in the vocation God calls them to be. For 2024 the theme is “Called to sow seeds of hope and to build peace”. Saint Anselm, Bishop and Doctor (died 1109) was born to the Italian nobility in 1033 at Aosta, Piedmont. At age fifteen Anselm wanted to enter religious life, but his father prevented it; he therefore turned to other worldly pursuits. Upon the death of his mother, at the age of twenty-three he argued with his father, fled to France, and became a Benedictine monk at Bec, Normandy in 1060. He studied under and succeeded Lanfranc as prior of the house in 1063, and was made Abbot in 1078. Because of physical closeness and political connections, there was frequent travel and communication between Normandy and England, and Anselm was in repeated contact with Church officials in England. He was chosen as reluctant Archbishop of Canterbury, England in 1092; officials waited until he had fallen ill before attempting to convince him to take the post. As bishop he fought King William Rufus’s encroachment on ecclesiastical rights and the independence of the Church, refused to pay bribes to take over as bishop, and was exiled for his efforts. He travelled to Rome, Italy and spent part of his exile as an advisor to Pope Blessed Urban II, obtaining the pope’s support for returning to England and conducting Church business without the king’s interference. In 1100 King Henry I invited Anselm to return to England, but they disputed over lay investiture, and Anselm was exiled again, not returning until 1106 when Henry agreed not to interfere with the selection of Church officials. Anselm opposed slavery and obtained English legislation prohibiting the sale of men. He strongly supported celibate clergy, and approved the addition of several saints to the liturgical calendar of England. He was one of the great philosophers and theologians of the middle ages and a noted theological writer. He was far more at home in the monastery than in political circles, but still managed to improve the position of the Church in England. He was chosen as a Doctor of the Church in 1720 by Pope Clement XI.
Last night I continued reading The Cat Who Smelled a Rat by Lilian Jackson Braun (Ebook)
Richard fed the cats and went to drink coffee and came home before I woke up at 8:30 am. I did my Book Devotional Reading, and set up my medications for the week starting next Sunday (I had two OTC medications to get). I then ate my breakfast toast and read the Sunday papers out on the porch. After I did my Internet Devotional Readings, I went to Walmart and got groceries and household items. Once home again I did several Advance Daily Update Drafts for this weblog. I then went back to the porch and started reading Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel. In sports, our #7 LSU Lady Tigers lost the third game of a three-game three-day Away SEC College Softball Series with the #4 Tennessee Volunteers by the score of 0 to 3; our #7 LSU Lady Tigers (35-10, 11-10) will be playing an Away College Softball game with the #19 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin Cajuns (33-15, 17-1) on Tuesday, April 23rd. Our LSU Tigers won the third game in a three-game three-day Away SEC College Baseball Series with the Missouri Tigers by the score of 6 to 2; our LSU Tigers (25-16, 5-13) will be playing a Home College Baseball game with the Nicholls State Colonels (26-14, 9-5) on Tuesday, April 23rd. We ate the last of the chicken stir-fry and egg rolls, and watched Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). And I will now finish this Daily Update, do some reading, and go to bed. Our New Orleans Pelicans are playing the first Away NBA game with the Oklahoma City Thunder in a best of seven series at the NBA Playoffs.
Weather permitting, one can see the first day of the two-day Lyrid Meteor shower in the predawn hours. Tomorrow is Earth Day, and tomorrow is my brother Michael’s birthday (1955). Tomorrow at sunset begins the great Jewish feast of Pesach (Passover). I plan to make bread tomorrow.
Our Parting Quote on this evening of the Fourth Sunday of Easter, traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday (Alleluia!) comes to us from Verne Troyer, American actor (died 2018). Born in 1969 in Surgis, Michigan into an Amish family, he had the rare genetic disorder of Cartilage–hair hypoplasia (CHH), also known as McKusick type metaphyseal chondrodysplasia, and only reached the height of two feet eight inches. His family treated him the same as his siblings, and he did farm chores along with the rest of the family. His family left the Amish faith when he was a child, but he spent much time visiting his Amish relatives. He graduated from high school in 1987 (he and his date were voted King and Queen at their high school prom) and moved with some friends to Arlington, Texas. Troyer’s film career began when a former president of Little People of America contacted him, looking for someone of a “certain size” to serve as a stunt double for the infant character “Baby Bink” in John Hughes’ film Baby’s Day Out (1994). He gained further work as a stunt double with some minor comedic roles in several films of the 1990s, including Dunston Checks In, Jingle All the Way (both 1996), Men in Black (1997), and My Giant (1998). Troyer first met with director Jay Roach to discuss portraying Mini-Me in the Austin Powers series, starring co-creator Mike Myers, before filming for the series’ second film began. Myers was impressed with Troyer’s performance, rewriting the script for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) to give Mini-Me more screen time and remove the character’s death. Troyer reprised the role three years later in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), and collaborated again with Myers on The Love Guru (2008). He married his yoga instructor in January 2004, but the marriage was annulled in February 2004. After reaching a large audience as Mini-Me, Troyer portrayed the goblin Griphook in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), and played the role of Percy in Terry Gilliam’s fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). He also made several appearances as himself in reality television series, including The Surreal Life (2005), Welcome to Sweden (2007), and the sixth series of the British Celebrity Big Brother (2009). On June 25th, 2008, a private home video was leaked of Troyer and his former live-in girlfriend, Ranae Shrider, having sex. The video, filmed in 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, and Shrider’s hometown of Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, was leaked to the public by Shrider and TMZ. Kevin Blatt, the man responsible for brokering the deal for Paris Hilton’s sex tape in 2003, tried to sell the video. Troyer, through his long-time attorney, Ed McPherson, sued TMZ, Blatt, and online rental company SugarDVD, for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement. In May 2015, Troyer, his girlfriend Brittney Powell, and her son Tyson appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap, where she switched places with Hines Ward’s wife. His last film, in which he played himself, was Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park: USA (2017). In early April 2018 Troyer was admitted to a hospital after an incident in his home. He had previously been admitted to rehab to undergo treatment for alcoholism. When he died, the coroner found very high alcohol levels in his body, and his death was ruled a suicide by alcohol poisoning (died 2018): “I stay away from the elf roles; I stay away from playing a leprechaun. All the roles I try to do are something that an average actor would do.”
From The Recamier 