From the President's Desk - April 5, 2024
Welcome back to Legatus’ From the President’s Desk! Here are a few items which held my attention this week. I hope you enjoy it, and I always welcome your thoughts and comments.
Don’t miss Divine Mercy Sunday
Don’t let Monday’s anticipated lunar eclipse block the really important Sunday this weekend.
This Sunday, April 7, is Divine Mercy Sunday – a singular opportunity for a special plenary indulgence. Here’s how the Divine Mercy feast came about. In the 1930s, Our Lord revealed in visions to a Polish nun, Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska – now a saint – that each year on the Sunday after Easter, He would grant complete pardon to souls who go to Confession shortly beforehand and receive Holy Communion – to extend total forgiveness of their sins and punishment.
That means He would wipe away any temporal debt a person may owe for his sins – as if he were just baptized. It’s a get-out-of-Purgatory-free card!
This short video is one of the best I’ve found for understanding the Divine Mercy gift from Our Lord. I look forward to Divine Mercy Sunday more with each passing year, and hope you do as well.
And because we’re just into the magnificent Easter season, here’s a beautiful rendition of a favorite hymn – “Crown Him with Many Crowns” – played on the West Point Cadet Chapel organ, honoring the kingly majesty of Our Risen Lord.
At Home
This year, my family and I had the privilege of participating in the Easter Vigil with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, as my son served the Mass. Being surrounded by those godly sisters, singing so beautifully, made the Vigil heavenly.
Like many of you with small children, it is always difficult to get a good family picture, but here is a bit of our clan that evening.
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Meet the ‘toolbelt generation’
Remember the last time you may have needed a plumber at home, as in right now! We have water all over the place! And the dispatcher or call-center told you it might be ‘a little while … just turn off the main water valve’. What? And when calling your spouse or kids at home, it isn’t easy trying to phone-direct them to the shut-off valve.
Home fix-it emergencies – or even those at the office -- can usurp hours or days. There just aren’t enough available tradespeople on tap the moment we need them … plumbers, carpenters, electricians, welders, and others.
It turns out many of today’s young Generation Z are answering that call. A number of them are opting out of college-degree tracks and into trades with immediate-work probability. This WSJ article paints the picture on the new ‘toolbelt generation,’ and it’s an inspiring read. Perhaps you have kids or grandkids who are more suited to the trades. Right now, they can almost write their own ticket.
Real history is Key
As many of you know, I grew up in the Baltimore area. Last week’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge over Baltimore’s Patapsco River hit me hard. And now, with all the pressing decisions being made to clean up river debris, get shipping lanes reopened, and the bridge rebuilt, some want its name changed because they question the legacy of Francis Scott Key.
Though numerous historical accounts paint Mr. Key as an ostensible slave owner, other historians maintain that he – a lawyer in addition to poet and lyricist – was a staunch abolitionist who defended slaves and worked pro bono to free many of them, as noted in this piece from The Federalist.
Listen to Mr. Key’s renowned “Star Spangled Banner” in this rendition by the U.S. Army Field Band, performed right in the Baltimore area where it was written. Whether he had a conflicted view of slavery or not, Key was a noteworthy influence in American history. His eminent patriotic song was penned during the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812, though not named our national anthem until 1931. I see this as another example of the American story that shouldn’t be bleached out, but appreciated for its many colorful and authentic real-life chords.
Thank you for reading!