ICEMANforChrist: Monday, October 13, 2025

Monday, October 13, 2025

Shemini Atzeret[1]

Shemini Atzeret (Hebrew: שמיני עצרת), means 'The eighth day break' or 'the eighth day of assembly'. It is celebrated preceding Simchat Torah and in some regions celebrated together with it. Services for this holiday often include a Geshem, prayer for rain.

Shemini Atzeret Facts

On Shemini Atzeret there used to be a gathering of all men for a hearing of the Torah at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Reference to this is made in the Biblical book of Nehemiah (verse 8:18). Shemini Atzeret is observed in Orthodox communities with candle lighting in the evening, Kiddush (sanctification over wine) and two challah breads. This is representative of all Jewish High Festivals and an evening and morning festive meal. Two Challah breads are used to commemorate the Sabbath in the wilderness. During this time Manna (edible substance that God provided for Israelites during time in the desert) fell from Heaven in a double portion on Friday, so that on the Sabbath day, the Israelites, did not need to perform the work of gathering Manna. Often an additional service after the morning service is held in Orthodox Synagogues. Hallel (Psalms with praise) is recited. Observant Jews do not work on this day. A popular prayer on Shmini Atzeret is called Yizkor, Remembrance. It serves to honor dead relatives. Even one of the happiest Jewish Holidays of the year, dead relatives (parents, siblings, spouses and children) are remembered. This helps remind that we would not be who we are and where we are without these people.

Shemini Atzeret Top Events and Things to Do

· Pray for Rain. Shemini Azeret and Simchat Torah is often accompanied by prayers for the rain. The holidays are in the autumn, which is a critical period in Israel for harvests.

· On Shmini Atzeret, it is customary for Orthodox Jews to spend an 'extra day with God' and postpone their return to work and to mundane tasks.

[1] http://www.wincalendar.com/Shmini-Atzeret

Monday Night at the Movies

Franco Zefferelli Brother Sun Sister Moon

"Brother Sun, Sister Moon" is a poetic retelling of St. Francis of Assisi’s radical spiritual awakening, emphasizing his embrace of poverty, nature, and Christ-like humility. Its Catholic lessons center on simplicity, detachment from wealth, and living in communion with creation and the poor.

🌞 Film Summary: Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, this visually rich drama traces the transformation of Francesco Bernardone, the privileged son of a wealthy merchant in Assisi, into St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order:

Francesco returns from war physically and spiritually broken, haunted by the violence he witnessed.
During his recovery, he experiences a profound spiritual renewal, drawn to the beauty of nature and the simplicity of life.
He rejects his family's wealth and status, choosing instead to live among the poor, serve lepers, and rebuild ruined churches.
His confrontation with his father culminates in a dramatic scene where he publicly renounces his inheritance, stripping off his clothes to symbolize his total surrender to God.
Francesco’s relationship with Clare of Assisi is tender but ultimately transcended by his spiritual calling.
The film ends with Francis and his followers seeking papal approval for their new way of life, emphasizing humility and service.

✝️ Catholic Lessons and Themes

1. Radical Poverty as Imitation of Christ

Francis embraces poverty, chastity, and obedience, mirroring Jesus’ life.
He sees wealth as a barrier to spiritual freedom and communal justice.

2. Creation as a Sacred Communion

Inspired by Francis’ Canticle of the Sun, the film portrays nature as a reflection of divine love.
Animals, plants, and the elements are treated as siblings—Brother Sun, Sister Moon—inviting a theology of ecological reverence.

3. Detachment from Materialism

Francesco’s rejection of his father’s textile empire critiques the exploitation and vanity of wealth.
His descent into the dye vats symbolizes a descent into the suffering hidden beneath luxury.

4. Identification with the Poor and Marginalized

Francis’ ministry to lepers and laborers reflects the Catholic call to preferential option for the poor.
His actions challenge societal norms and ecclesial structures, yet remain rooted in deep faith.

5. Obedience and Ecclesial Dialogue

Though radical, Francis seeks approval from the Pope, showing reverence for Church authority.
His humility contrasts with institutional grandeur, offering a prophetic voice within tradition.

The evangelical counsels—poverty, chastity, and obedience—are not just monastic vows but spiritual postures that echo through the Rosary’s mysteries. When prayed with intention, the Rosary becomes a rhythm of surrender, mirroring these three counsels in the life of Christ and Mary.

🌿 Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience in the Rosary

Here’s how each counsel resonates through the Rosary’s structure:

🕊️ Poverty — Detachment and Trust

Joyful Mysteries:
- Nativity: Christ is born in a manger—God enters poverty to sanctify it.
- Presentation: Mary and Joseph offer the poor man’s sacrifice (two doves), showing humble trust.
Sorrowful Mysteries:
- Carrying the Cross: Jesus stripped of everything, even dignity, yet remains sovereign in love.
Glorious Mysteries:
- Assumption: Mary’s poverty of spirit is exalted—she is lifted into glory without grasping.

Spiritual Practice: Pray these mysteries with open hands, asking for freedom from material anxiety and a heart that trusts divine provision.

💙 Chastity — Purity and Wholehearted Love

Joyful Mysteries:
- Annunciation: Mary’s virginity is not just physical—it’s a symbol of undivided “yes.”
Luminous Mysteries:
- Wedding at Cana: Christ blesses marital love, but also transforms it—pointing to divine intimacy.
Glorious Mysteries:
- Coronation: Mary, the pure vessel, is crowned Queen—chastity leads to communion.

Spiritual Practice: Offer these decades as a renewal of your own purity—of intention, gaze, and desire. Let Mary’s “fiat” shape your own.

🙇‍♂️ Obedience — Listening and Surrender

Joyful Mysteries:
- Visitation: Mary goes in haste—obedience is active, joyful, relational.
Sorrowful Mysteries:
- Agony in the Garden: “Not my will, but yours”—Christ’s obedience is the hinge of redemption.
Luminous Mysteries:
- Transfiguration: The Father says, “Listen to Him”—obedience begins in listening.

Spiritual Practice: As you pray, pause between decades to ask: “Where am I being invited to surrender?” Let obedience be a gentle yielding, not a grim duty.

🔁 Suggested Rosary Flow for the Evangelical Counsels

You might try this weekly rhythm:

Day	Mystery Set	Counsel Focus
Monday	Joyful	Poverty
Tuesday	Sorrowful	Obedience
Wednesday	Glorious	Chastity
Thursday	Luminous	Integration of all three
Friday	Sorrowful	Poverty
Saturday	Joyful	Chastity
Sunday	Glorious	Obedience

Christopher’s Corner

· Eat waffles and Pray for the assistance of the Angels

o Spirit Hour: Raise a glass of orange wine to toast the day.

· Foodie For dinner make something for National Curry Week

· Monday: Litany of Humility

Drops of Christ’s Blood

· How to celebrate Oct 13th

o Exercise your brain with puzzles and brainteasers, nurturing your mind on National Train Your Brain Day.

o Indulge in a sweet treat or two, celebrating the colorful and delicious world of M&M’s.

§ Whip up a batch of Yorkshire pudding, savoring the warm and comforting flavors.

o Transfer a small sum to your son to show love and support, even from afar.

o Lastly, commemorate Disaster Day by learning about past mishaps and how to prepare for the unexpected. So go ahead, embrace the oddities!

· Bucket List trip[2]: USA 70-degree year trip:

🍇 Week 42 Pilgrimage Guide

Route: Moab → Grand Junction → Palisade → Fruita
Dates: October 13–19, 2025
Theme: Clarity and Communion
Style: Vineyard pilgrimage with symbolic stops, Marian devotion, and gentle hospitality
Climate Alignment: All stops average 68–72°F—ideal for outdoor reflection and movement

🗺️ Roadmap Overview

Day	Route	Distance	Symbolic Threshold
Oct 13	Moab → Grand Junction via I-70 W	113 mi / 2 hrs	Crossing Over
Oct 14	Grand Junction → Palisade (local loop)	12 mi	Fruit of the Vine
Oct 15	Palisade → Riverbend Park (local)	5 mi	Still Waters
Oct 16	Palisade → Mary’s Vineyard / Chapel	6 mi	Marian Clarity
Oct 17	Palisade → Grand Mesa Scenic Byway loop	~60 mi	Elevated Perspective
Oct 18	Palisade → Fruita via I-70 W	25 mi	Shared Table
Oct 19	Fruita → Departure or return eastward	Flexible	Benediction

🌄 Day 1: Moab → Grand Junction (Oct 13)

Symbol: Crossing Over

Colorado National Monument – walk Otto’s Trail or Devil’s Kitchen
Sacred Heart Catholic Church – evening prayer

Ritual Prompt: “Every crossing is a call. I step forward in trust.”

🍷 Day 2: Palisade Vineyards (Oct 14)

Symbol: Fruit of the Vine

Carlson Vineyards or Maison la Belle Vie – vineyard walk and reflection
Eucharistic meditation with bread and wine

Reflection Prompt: “Communion begins in the soil—in pruning, in patience, in fruit.”

🛤️ Day 3: Riverbend Park (Oct 15)

Symbol: Still Waters

Riverbend Park – Psalm 23 walk
Sprigs & Sprouts – gentle exchange at a local orchard

Ritual Prompt: “He leads me beside still waters. I offer peace in return.”

🕊️ Day 4: Marian Devotion (Oct 16)

Symbol: Marian Clarity

Mary’s Vineyard or Immaculate Heart of Mary Church – Rosary with Luminous Mysteries
Candle prayer for discernment

Reflection Prompt: “Mary saw clearly because she listened deeply.”

🏞️ Day 5: Grand Mesa Scenic Byway (Oct 17)

Symbol: Elevated Perspective

Grand Mesa Scenic Byway – drive and pause at Land’s End Overlook
Beatitudes reflection and journaling

Ritual Prompt: “Clarity comes not from control, but from elevation and surrender.”

🌌 Day 6: Fruita + River Walk (Oct 18)

Symbol: Shared Table

Fruita Riverfront Trail – flowing mercy walk
Peach Street Distillers or Hot Tomato Café – creative hospitality

Reflection Prompt: “The table is where mystery becomes meal.”

📜 Day 7: Sending Forth (Oct 19)

Symbol: Benediction

Final walk at Riverbend Park or Immaculate Heart of Mary Grotto
Write a blog post or reflection: “What I carry forward”
Leave a symbolic offering at a trailhead or chapel

Ritual Prompt: “I was welcomed. I now welcome. I go forth in clarity and communion.”

🕯️ Leafing the World Behind: Day 14

Saint: St. Maximilian Kolbe
Theme: Compassion as Courageous Mercy
Virtue: Compassion
Virtue Connection: Understanding Heart
Symbolic Act: Offer a gesture of mercy to someone suffering—through presence, prayer, or sacrifice
Location: A prison, hospital, threshold, or quiet room—any place where pain waits for love

🕊️ Introduction: From Firm Purpose to Understanding Heart

To leave the world behind is not to abandon resolve—it is to soften it with mercy.
Today we do not cling to certainty—we offer compassion.
Firm purpose without love becomes rigidity.
But when purpose bends toward suffering, it becomes sanctuary.

This pilgrimage is not a march of will—it is a descent into mercy.
Each day, we leaf behind judgment and fear, so that what remains is a heart that understands.

🌺 Saint of the Day: St. Maximilian Kolbe

In Auschwitz, Kolbe stepped forward.
A fellow prisoner had been chosen to die—Kolbe offered his own life in exchange.
He entered the starvation cell singing hymns, praying aloud, comforting others.
He died as he lived: a martyr of mercy.

Kolbe was a Franciscan priest, a missionary, and a founder of the Militia Immaculatae.
He loved the Virgin Mary with fierce devotion, calling her “the Immaculata.”
His compassion was not passive—it was prophetic.
He did not flee suffering—he entered it with love.

He reminds us:

Compassion is not pity—it is presence.
It is the courage to suffer with.

🛡️ Virtue Connection: Understanding Heart

An understanding heart does not fix—it listens.
It does not dominate—it dwells.

Kolbe’s compassion was not sentimental—it was sacrificial.
He saw suffering and stepped into it.
He did not ask, “What can I do?”
He asked, “Who can I be for you?”

Like Edith Stein and St. Damien of Molokai, Kolbe lived mercy as vocation.
He reminds us:

Compassion without courage becomes avoidance.
But compassion with courage becomes communion.

🍞 Symbolic Act: Offer Mercy to Someone Suffering

Find someone who is hurting—physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Offer presence, prayer, or sacrifice.
Let it be a gesture of mercy, not solution.

As you act, pray:

“Lord, let me suffer with love.
Let my heart be understanding.
Let my compassion be courage.”

If no one is nearby, imagine the act in prayer.
The gesture is the same: mercy as sacrament.

🔥 Reflection Prompt

Where have you feared suffering instead of entering it?
What act of mercy has changed your heart?
Can you name one person whose compassion gave you courage?

Write, walk, or pray with these questions.
Let St. Maximilian Kolbe’s witness remind you:

Compassion is not weakness—it is witness.
It is the courage to love in the face of suffering.

OCTOBER 13 Monday-Columbus Day Observed-No mail

Fatima Mircle of the Sun

Acts, Chapter 15, Verse 33

After they had spent some time there, they were sent off with greetings of PEACE from the brothers to those who had commissioned them.

We are all sent off with the message as are the angels that the only way to be without fear and to have true peace is by living in the truth and the truth is we were created to know, love and serve God and our neighbor. America is special in that the founders realized this when they wrote our constitution which was established to ensure that laws are enacted and enforced that support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Much of our misery in this country is caused by laws that reverse the order ensuring that wealth trumps liberty and liberty trumps life. No, it must be life first.

Copilot’s Take

Still Sailing, Still Seeking: A Columbus Day Reflection

Brother Sun, Sister Moon and Miracle of the Sun—two cinematic meditations on divine encounter—frame this Monday night not just as entertainment, but as pilgrimage. Zeffirelli’s gentle portrayal of Francis and the radiant witness of Fatima both echo Acts 15:33: “sent off with greetings of peace.” Not passive peace, but the kind that walks, speaks, and repairs.

Columbus Day, observed, becomes less about conquest and more about commission. We are all sent—like the apostles, like the children of Fatima, like Francis—to sail toward truth. And truth, as you name it, is not abstract. It is incarnational: to know, love, and serve God and neighbor.

America’s founding vision, at its best, recognized this sacred order:

· Life as the first gift

· Liberty as the space to choose the good

· Happiness as the fruit of living rightly

When this order is reversed—when wealth eclipses liberty, and liberty eclipses life—we drift. We legislate fear. We normalize isolation. But the Gospel and the Constitution both call us back to a deeper anchoring.

So on this Columbus Day, we sail again—not to claim, but to reclaim.

· Reclaim life as sacred

· Reclaim liberty as service

· Reclaim happiness as communion

Still sailing. Still seeking. Still sent with peace.

Columbus Day Observed

So, Columbus Day has come and gone, and here we are on the Monday after—the liturgical hangover of civic holidays. The parades have quieted, the flags folded, and the grocery store discounts on Italian sausage have expired.

But spiritually?

We’re still sailing. Because if Columbus taught us anything (besides the perils of misreading maps), it’s that the journey doesn’t end when the calendar says so. Catholic imagination is never content with arrival—it’s always asking, What’s the next port?

Who’s still waiting to be found?

Where is mercy still unmapped?

So today, let’s canonize this Monday as Our Lady of the Unfinished Voyage—patroness of half-packed suitcases, spiritual detours, and pilgrims who wake up one day late but still show up. Let’s bless our coffee with the spirit of discovery, and our inbox with the courage to chart new waters.

After all, the Church was built by people who kept sailing—Peter, Paul, Brendan, Junípero, and yes, even those who got the continent wrong but kept the cross upright.

Happy Post-Columbus Monday. The sails are still up. The Spirit still blows. Let’s go.

Fatima Mircle of the Sun[1]

During the night of 12-13

October, it had rained throughout, soaking the ground and the pilgrims who make their way to Fátima from all directions by the thousands. By foot, by cart and even by car they came, entering the bowl of the Cova from the Fátima-Leiria road, which today still passes in front of the large square of the Basilica. From there they made their way down the gently slope to the place where a trestle had been erected over the little holm oak of the apparitions. Today on the site is the modern glass and steel Capelhina (little chapel), enclosing the first chapel built there and the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima where the holm oak had stood. As for the children, they made their way to the Cova amid the adulation and skepticism which had followed them since May. When they arrived, they found critics who questioned their veracity and the punctuality of the Lady, who had promised to arrive at noon. It was well passed noon by the official time of the country. However, when the sun arrived at its zenith the Lady appeared as she had said she would.

"What do you want of me?"

I want a chapel built here in my honor. I want you to continue saying the Rosary every day. The war will end soon, and the soldiers will return to their homes.

"Yes. Yes." "Will you tell me your name?"

I am the Lady of the Rosary.

"I have many petitions from many people. Will you grant them?"

Some I shall grant, and others I must deny.

People must amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.

They must not offend our Lord anymore, for He is already too much offended!

"And is that all you have to ask?"

There is nothing more.

As the Lady of the Rosary rises toward the east, she turns the palms of her hands toward the dark sky. While the rain had stopped, dark clouds continued to obscure the sun, which suddenly bursts through them and is seen to be a soft spinning disk of silver.

"Look at the sun!"

From this point two distinct apparitions were seen, that of the phenomenon of the sun seen by the 70,000 or so spectators and that beheld by the children alone. Lucia describes the latter in her memoirs. After our Lady had disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament, we beheld St. Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady robed in white with a blue mantle, beside the sun. St. Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed to bless the world, for they traced the Sign of the Cross with their hands. When, a little later, this apparition disappeared, I saw Our Lord and Our lady; it seemed to me to that it was Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolors). Our Lord appeared to bless the world in the same manner as St. Joseph had done. This apparition also vanished, and I saw Our Lady once more, this time resembling Our Lady of Carmel. [Only Lucia would see the later, presaging her entrance into Carmel some years later.] This would be the last of the apparitions of Fátima for Jacinta and Francisco. However, for Lucia Our Lady would return a seventh time, in 1920, as she had promised the previous May. At that time Lucia would be praying in the Cova before leaving Fátima for a girl’s boarding school. The Lady would come to urge her to dedicate herself wholly to God. As the children viewed the various apparitions of Jesus, Mary and Joseph the crowd witnessed a different prodigy, the now famous miracle of the sun.

Bible in a Year Day 100 This is my body

Today we begin reading the Gospel of John! Fr. Mike emphasizes the significance of Jesus' divinity, and explains how the story of salvation culminates in Christ as the Messiah.

Daily Devotions

· Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Today's Fast: Victims of clergy sexual abuse.

· Religion in the Home for Preschool: October

· Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

· Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

· Drops of Christ’s Blood

· Universal Man Plan

· Rosary