January 13, 2023
🙏🏼 VERSE OF THE WEEK
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
–Psalm 19:14
👋🏼 GREETINGS
Hey there! It’s Friday, which means a new issue of The Sheepish. A big hello to everyone who’s new this week. Thank you for giving me space in your inbox!
With this being the month to focus on the name of Jesus, I decided to do some further digging into the common abbreviation IHS.
The Christogram IHS is a monogram of the name of Jesus written in Greek: ΙΗΣΟUΣ. In the early centuries of the church, writers would abbreviate the Holy Name by using the first two letters. Around the fourth century, the “sigla” began being included; leading to ΙΗΣ. During the Middle Ages, Greek was translated into Latin giving us the IHS we know today.
The real popularity of the sign can be contributed to St. Bernardine of Siena, a Franciscan priest during the 15th century. St. Bernardine had the symbol placed on his banner, surrounded by twelve rays of the sun and surmounted by a cross. By his persuasive preaching, St. Bernardine persuaded many priests to place the letters on altars and interior and exterior walls of their churches, leading to the spread throughout Siena and eventually the world.
Here’s an article with more details as well as other monograms for the Holy Name.
Pax et Bonum,
Krista
PS. 💵 I thought this was an interesting article about the annual salary of the pope.
PPS. 👽 A rare green comet is expected to pass by this week. It will be visible for nearly a month for the first time in 50,000 years.
🌎 NEWS
🌧️ California
A slew of winter storms has been causing mass destruction across California. President Biden declared a state of emergency Wednesday as yet another storm was heading toward the state. At least 17 have died, along with widespread power outages and large-scale flooding. As of yesterday, about 34 million Californians, or ~10% of the US population, were under a flood watch and the city of Montecito was ordered to evacuate. 160,000 people state-wide are still without power.
✈️ Domestic Flights
On Wednesday, the entire airline industry was briefly grounded after the NOTAM system experienced an outage. NOTAM, or the Notice to Air Missions system, alerts pilots to hazards and changes to airport facilities and procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited every domestic flight in the US from taking off between 7:20 am ET and 8:50 am ET. After the system was back online, the FAA was forced to implement a ground delay program in order to address the large backlog of flights that were affected. Officials have yet to determine the cause of the outage, but they have stated there is no evidence pointing to a cyberattack.
🗓️ UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
January 13 - Memorial of St. Hilary
January 14 - Feast of the Ass Day
January 16 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 17 - Memorial of St. Anthony
January 18 - Start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
📱 FUN FACTS
Elon Musk has been officially awarded the Guinness World Record for the biggest loss of personal fortune. He has sustained an estimated loss of $182 billion since November 2021.
While typing on an Apple/Android phone, you can press and slide on the spacebar to move the cursor.
📦 QUOTE
“Possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents.”
Yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former US attorney Robert Hur as the special counsel to investigate classified documents discovered recently in Biden’s possession. In November, 10 classified documents including US intelligence memorandums and briefing materials were found in the DC office used by Biden during his vice presidency. A further investigation has now turned up more documents in the garage of his home in Delaware.
🍻 THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
January 13, 1128
Pope Honoruis II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.
January 14, 1784
The Continental Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, effectively ending the American Revolution.
January 15, 1919
Hot molasses floods the streets of Boston when a 58-foot-high tank filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses suddenly explodes killing 21 people and injuring several others.
January 16, 1919
Prohibition is ratified by the states. The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution is passed, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.
January 17, 1950
11 men successfully steal more than $2 million from the Brink’s Armored Car depot in Boston. Today valued at $29 million; the culprits won’t be captured until January of 1956, just days before the statute of limitation was set to expire.
January 18, 1778
The English explorer Captain James Cook becomes the first European to travel to the Hawaiian Islands.
January 19, 1809
Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, MA.
🛋️ CURRENTLY:
🎨 MAKING
I found this really awesome way to study the book of Proverbs. Added to my list of goals for the year.
📚 READING
A Christian mothers’ New Year’s Resolution
📻 LISTENING
Good Catholic podcast. One of my favorite podcasts.
📺 WATCHING
"Resurrection," the much-anticipated sequel to "The Passion of the Christ," is set to begin filming this spring. The movie will depict the days between Christ's crucifixion and His resurrection. Jim Caviezel will reprise his role of Jesus, and Maia Morgenstern as Mary, Christo Jivkov as John, and Francesco De Vito as Peter.
⛏️ A BIT OF HISTORY
Some amazing discoveries were made regarding the process of making Roman concrete. The special mixing process called “hot mixing” allows buildings made with the material to actually repair themselves. Although we have known about the ultra-durable material, researchers have had no idea how exactly it was created until scientists from MIT and Harvard were able to uncover a recent explanation involving previously overlooked calcium deposits. After performing an analysis, the scientists discovered these calcium deposits were the result of an advanced technique they dubbed “hot mixing.” When water enters cracks in the concrete, the chunks of calcium are dissolved and later recrystallize, filling the cracks and strengthening the structure.
🐄 OFF-TOPIC
Draw a perfect circle. My best score was 91.8%
Interactive history maps. Cool one of the History of Christianity.
👋🏼 CLOSING
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed today’s issue.
What would you like to see in the next publication? Any suggestions on how to improve? What did you love? Hit reply and let me know!
Feel free to forward this to any friends you think would like this as well.
Thank you!
Krista