Today is the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Alleluia!) and the Optional Memorial of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Deacon and Doctor (died 373). And today is the birthday of Richard’s nephew Steve (the older son of Richard’s sister Susan in Iowa).
Starting this year with today, the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Alleluia!), all of the Sundays (except for special Sundays) will be on an ordinal basis, continuing until the First Sunday of Advent (December 1st). Our Gospel Reading (Year B) comes to us from Mark 3:20-35: “Jesus came home with his disciples. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you.” But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”” Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Deacon and Doctor (died 373) was born c. 306 at Nisibis, Mesopotamia (in modern Syria) and may have been the son of a pagan priest. Ephrem was brought to the faith by Saint James of Nisibis and baptized at age 18. He then helped to evangelize Nisibis, Mesopotamia, and may have attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. Becoming a deacon and preacher, he had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 363 Nisibis was ceded to Persia; a great persecution of Christians began, and Ephrem led an exodus of the faithful to Edessa, where he founded a theological school in Edessa. He wrote homilies, hymns and poetry, helped introduce the use of hymns in public worship, and fought Gnosticism and Arianism by his writings, including his poems and hymns. So popular were his works, that, for centuries after his death, Christian authors wrote hundreds of pseudepigraphal works in his name. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church (the first and only Doctor of the Church from Syria) in 1920, he is the Patron Saint of spiritual directors and spiritual leaders. Today is also the birthday of Richard’s nephew Stephen, the elder of the two sons of his sister Susan in Iowa.
Last night I finished reading Monk’s Hood by Ellis Peters.
Richard fed the cats and went to drink coffee, and I woke up at 8:45 am. Richard came home, and I did my Book Devotional Reading. I set up my medications for the week starting next Sunday, then I did my Book Review for this weblog and for my Goodreads account for Monk’s Hood by Ellis Peters. I then renewed two prescriptions with the Walmart Pharmacy app, and I have one OTC to get at Walmart as well. I put my new car insurance card in the visor of my car, watered and showered my bellwether catnip, and refilled the tabletop fountains. I then ate my Breakfast Toast and read the Sunday papers inside. After I did my Internet Devotional Reading I finished reading The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper and did my Book Review for the book for this weblog and for my Goodreads account. I read the June 2024 issue of National Geographic, and started reading Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast by Mike Tidwell (Ebook). For dinner we had the rest of the pork and sausage jambalaya, and watched The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Story. And I will now finish this Daily Update, do some reading, and go to bed.
Tomorrow is the Optional Memorial of Saint Landry, Bishop (died about 661), and the Remembrance of Servant of God Antoni Gaudí (died 1926). I will wake up early to work on my plants; I will then pay bills, address and mail Father’s Day Cards to Matthew and to Blake, and I will pick up a prescription at Walmart and get groceries, as I plan to make meat loaves tomorrow.
Our Parting Quote on this evening of the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Alleluia!) comes to us from Adam West, American actor (died 2017). Born as William West Anderson in 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington, his father was a farmer, and his mother was an opera singer and concert pianist who had left her Hollywood dreams to care for her family. Following her example, West told his father as a young man that he intended to go to Hollywood after completing school. He moved to Seattle with his mother when he was fifteen, following his parents’ divorce. He attended Whitman College but studied at the University of Puget Sound during the fall semester of 1949. His first marriage was to his college girlfriend in 1950. The couple divorced six years later. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in literature and a minor in psychology from Whitman College, where he participated on the speech and debate team. Drafted into the United States Army, he served as an announcer on American Forces Network television. After his discharge, he worked as a milkman before moving to Hawaii to pursue a career in television. While in Hawaii, West was picked for a role as the sidekick on a local TV program, The Kini Popo Show, which also featured a chimp named Peaches. West later took over as host of the show. He divorced his first wife in 1956; the next year he married Cook Island dancer Ngatokorua Frisbie Dawson, part of the Puka Puka Otea in Hawaii. In 1959 he moved with his wife and two children to Hollywood, where he took the stage name Adam West. That year he appeared in the film The Young Philadelphians which starred Paul Newman. He had guest-star roles in a number of television Westerns. On January 10th, 1961, West appeared as a young, ambitious deputy who foolishly confronts a gunfighter named Clay Jackson, portrayed by Jock Mahoney, in the episode “The Man from Kansas” of the NBC Western series Laramie. West made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1961 and 1962. He and his second wife divorced in 1962, He made a brief appearance in the 1963 film Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen, and starred as Major Dan McCready, the ill-fated mission commander of Mars Gravity Probe 1 in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars. That same year he was cast alongside William Shatner in the pilot for the proposed series Alexander the Great, playing Cleander to Shatner’s Alexander. The series was not picked up and the pilot was not broadcast until 1968 when it was repackaged as a TV movie to capitalize on West and Shatner’s later fame. In 1965 he was cast in the comedy Western The Outlaws Is Coming, the last feature film starring The Three Stooges. Producer William Dozier cast West as Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman, in the television series Batman, in part after seeing West perform as the James Bond-like spy Captain Q in a Nestlé Quik commercial. The popular campy show ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968; a feature-length film version directed by Leslie H. Martinson was released in 1966. That same year West released a novelty song, “Miranda”, as his Batman character. Also in character, West appeared in a public service announcement in which he encouraged schoolchildren to heed then-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s call for them to buy United States savings stamps, a children’s version of United States savings bonds, to support the Vietnam War. West’s first post-Caped Crusader role was in the film The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969). His lead performance against type as cynical tough guy Johnny Cain did not erode his Batman image; the movie was a box office disappointment. He married his third wife in 1970. For a time, West made a living from personal appearances as Batman. In 1974, when Ward and Craig reprised their Batman roles for a TV public-service announcement about equal pay for women, West did not participate; Instead, Dick Gautier appeared as Batman. West subsequently appeared in the theatrical films The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971), The Curse of the Moon Child (1972), The Specialist (1975), Hooper (as himself; 1978), The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980), One Dark Night (1983), and Young Lady Chatterley II (1985). He did television films and did get shorts on the television series Maverick, Diagnosis: Murder, Love, American Style, Bonanza, The Big Valley, Night Gallery, Alias Smith and Jones, Mannix, Emergency!, Alice, Police Woman, Operation Petticoat, The American Girls, Vega$, Big Shamus, Little Shamus, Laverne & Shirley, Bewitched, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Zorro, The King of Queens, and George Lopez. Having a distinctive voice, West built a career doing voice-over work on a number of animated series (often as himself), including appearances on The Simpsons, Futurama, Rugrats, Histeria!, Kim Possible, and Johnny Bravo. In 1979 West once again donned the Batsuit for the live-action TV special Legends of the Superheroes. West also made several guest appearances as himself on the game show Family Feud. In 1985 DC Comics named West as one of the honorees in the company’s 50th-anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great for his work on the Batman series. In 1986 he starred in the comedy police series titled The Last Precinct. West was considered to play Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s father, in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film. Originally, he wanted to play Batman. West never appeared in any of the theatrically released post-1960s Batman franchise motion pictures. During the 1990s, West’s status as a pop culture icon led to appearances as himself in the film Drop Dead Gorgeous and in several TV series, including NewsRadio, Murphy Brown, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Ben Stiller Show, and The Drew Carey Show. He notably appeared as “Dr. Wayne” in the 1990 Zorro episode “The Wizard”, even being shown Zorro’s “secret cave” headquarters. In 1991 he starred in the pilot episode of Lookwell, in which he portrayed a has-been TV action hero who falsely believes he can solve mysteries in real life. The pilot, written by Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel in their pre-Late Night period, aired on NBC that summer, but was not picked up as a series. It was later broadcast on the Trio channel, under the “Brilliant But Cancelled” block. In 1994 West played a non-comedic role as the father of Peter Weller’s character in the Michael Tolkin film The New Age. That same year West, with Jeff Rovin, wrote his autobiography, Back to the Batcave. From 2000 West made regular appearances on the animated series Family Guy, on which he played Mayor Adam West, the lunatic mayor of Quahog, Rhode Island. His role brought West a new wave of popularity post-Batman, and lead writer Seth MacFarlane claims to have gone out of his way to avoid typecasting West by deliberately not making any references to Batman. In 2001 he played the super-villain Breathtaker on the short-lived television series Black Scorpion. In 2003 West and Ward starred in the television movie Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt, alongside Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, and Lee Meriwether. In 2010 a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. West received the 2,468th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 5th, 2012. He was interviewed in 2013 on the PBS series called Pioneers of Television in the season-three episode called “Superheroes”. Also in 2013, he was the subject of the documentary Starring Adam West West was among the interview subjects in Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, a three-hour documentary narrated by Liev Schreiber that premiered on PBS in October 2013. In February 2016 West guest-starred as himself on the 200th episode of The Big Bang Theory. After his death Los Angeles projected the Bat-Signal on City Hall as a tribute to West, and Walla Walla shone the bat-signal on the Whitman Tower (died 2017): “As an actor… we all have our own methods and approaches to creating a character, whether that’s from the inside going in or vice versa. I spoke, mainly, to the executive producer Bill Dozier. We got along very well and we really shared the same ideas about [Batman], what it could and should be. We knew to play it on several levels – something that could be lasting for the children but also with funny, social satire for the adults.”
From The Recamier 