Aurora Borealis

We were happily surprised to find that, when we unwrapped our wedding cake to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, the cake tasted quite delicious. It was a little dry, but it might have gotten that dry had we left it out on the counter for a couple of days. A year in the freezer didn’t do anything terrible to our lemon poundcake. Our celebration was that much happier as we enjoyed the reminder of just how delicious the cake was on our big day.

We suspect that having a very simple wedding cake was part of what made this happen. We’re absolutely certain that having the cake well-wrapped (and here, big thanks go to the particular bride’s maid responsible) played a big role.

103 Q. What do you mean by grace?

A. By grace I mean a supernatural gift of God bestowed on us, through the merits of Jesus Christ, for our salvation.

“Supernatural,” that is, above nature. “A gift”; something, therefore, that God does not owe us. He owes us nothing, strictly speaking. Health, talents, and such things are natural gifts, and belong to our nature as men; but grace is something above our nature, given to our soul. God gives it to us on account of the love He has for His Son, Our Lord, who merited it for us by dying for us. “Merits.” A merit is some excellence or goodness which entitles one to honor or reward. Grace is a help we get to do something that will be pleasing to God. When there is anything in our daily works that we cannot do alone, we naturally look for help; for example, to lift some heavy weight is only a natural act, not a supernatural act, and the help we need for it is only natural help. But if we are going to do something above and beyond our nature, and cannot do it alone, we must not look for natural, but for supernatural help; that is, the help must always be like the work to be done. Therefore all spiritual works need spiritual help, and spiritual help is grace.

From An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism.

We went to our church’s baptism preparation class a few weeks back on account of the child Mrs. Tldz is due to birth shortly. We wanted additional clarity after the class on some of the basic terms involved in the sacrament. When you’re looking for concise definitions of Catholic ideas, the Baltimore Catechism is often a great place to start. (When you’re looking for inspiring elaborations on those ideas using the long, varied and rich tradition of the church, then turn to the more recent Catechism, by way of contrast.)

It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils.

From Abel, Niels Henrik, Memoirs de Mathematique, Oslo University Library - Confirming admiration of the work of Simon Laplace, in a note, dated 6 August 1826, scribbled in the margin on page 79 of volume 2 of Abel’s “Paris Notebook” diary.

Abel is now considered one of those “masters,” so quoting him on the subject is fair play. (As proof of this, I need only point out that one of the top-level categories in the standard classification system of mathematical topics is named after him.) Although, I must wonder what it is about mathematicians and the margins of their books.

Being of a certain age and cultural disposition, you may recall the song
“867-5309.” Amazingly enough, the
number 8675309 is prime.