4 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: The Big Dipper’s familiar shape rides high in the northeast on April evenings. The spring sky’s finest binocular double star Mizar & Alcor marks the bend of the Dipper’s handle.
Melissa Zendejas
Also now, Bella Luna forms a huge, nearly vertical line with Procyon & Sirius below it in early & mid-evening
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Marge Bing
“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” ~T.S. Eliot, “Tradition & the Individual Talent” (1919)
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
397 – Deathday of Aurelius Ambrosius, There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence & honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees & beehives often appear in the saint’s symbology.
St. Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, & Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church. Theologians compare him with Hilary. Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to serve people in worshiping God, & ought not to become a rigid entity that is invariable from place to place. His advice to Augustine of Hippo on this point was to follow local liturgical custom. “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” Thus Ambrose refused to be drawn into a false conflict over which particular local church had the “right” liturgical form where there was no substantial problem. His advice has remained in the English language as the saying, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
One interpretation of Ambrose’s writings is that he was a Christian universalist. It has been noted that Ambrose’s theology was significantly influenced by that of Origen & Didymus the Blind.
Ambrose considered the poor not a distinct group of outsiders, but a part of the united, solidary people. Giving to the poor was not to be considered an act of generosity towards the fringes of society but as a repayment of resources that God had originally bestowed on everyone equally & that the rich had usurped
560 – Death day of Zosimas of Palestine, reputed to have lived to be almost one hundred years of age is best known for his encounter with St. Mary of Egypt. It was the custom of that monastery for all of the brethren to go out into the desert for the 40 days of Great Lent, spending the time in fasting & prayer. While wandering in the desert he met Saint Mary, who told him her life story & asked him to meet her the next year on Holy Thursday on the banks of the Jordan, in order to bring her Holy Communion. He did so, & the third year came to her again in the desert, but he found that she had died & he buried her.
636 – Deathday of Saint Isidore of Seville, was one of the last of the ancient Christian philosophers; he was the last of the great Latin Church Fathers & was contemporary with Maximus the Confessor. Some consider him to be the most learned man of his age, & he exercised a far-reaching & immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary & friend, Braulio of Zaragoza, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Iberian peoples from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Hispania
1863 – Deathday of Ludwig Emil Grimm, a German painter, art professor, etcher & copper engraver. His brothers were the well-known folklorists Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1887 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the 1st female mayor in the United States
1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, &destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala
1913 – Birthday of Blues man Muddy Waters (for Fuji J
1944 – World War II: First bombardment of oil refineries in Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians
1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech in New York City’s Riverside Church
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee
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Melvin Luckkin
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I will
To call myself my own
Irradiating the night of Time & space with an inborn gleam
While nature dreams, my soul is called, to stay awake
Suffusing Sun fire into the hive…
Do you recognize me…?
~hag
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Sandy Grupa
A thought for today:
Shakespeare described bees as “singing masons building roofs of gold”
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Kari Marie Olson
The Bridging Project
Between Life and Death from Soul to Soul
April 5, 2017 – 7:15 pm CST
“This dulling of human feelings of wonder is connected with what was not taken up in the age approaching the twentieth century. If we wish to speak of the causes of our present catastrophic events, we will find that these causes are not human actions, but instead are sins of omission. This is the essential point.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Historical Necessity and Freewill, Lecture 6, “New Spiritual Impulses in History – Their Rejection by the Materialistic World Conception and the Result of the Catastrophic Events of World War I” … Our focus for the April 5 meeting
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided amongst six volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.
This collection of lectures has been republished under the title: “The Influence of the Dead on Destiny”, here is the link:
https://steiner.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=179577
The following is the link to the audio book and lectures:
http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/influencedeaddestiny1917/influencedestinydead1917.html
This will be a “go-to-meeting” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/328407941
Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 757-3117
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9373
Access Code: 328-407-941
Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer.
Please join us!
Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Verse
7:18 Welcome and Introductions
7:25 Study led by six volunteers
Alberto – beginning to page 79
Marianne D – page 79 to 81
Hazel – page 81 to page 83
Raven – page 83 to page 85
Marianne F-D – page 85 to 87
Travis – page 87 to end
8:05 Conversation
8:20 Identify volunteers for the next study call, June 14
8:25 Share initial thoughts regarding Central Region gatherings in August (time of the solar eclipse) and November (All Souls)
8:28 Close with verse
