We are at your planet’s tipping point!

My Roman Curia calendar indicates that the Autumnal Equinox occurs at 2:29 GMT (I like using the retro GMT).   So, it occurs today, 23 September in some places.  Here at the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue, the Equinox takes place at 9:29 today, Monday 22 September.

We are at your planet’s tipping point.  Day and night are of equal length.  From this point onward, for us in the North, days will be increasingly short and nights longer.

From APOTD:

At equinox, the dividing line between the sunlit half of Earth and the nighttime half of Earth temporarily passes through Earth’s north and south spin poles. This dividing line is shown in clear detail in the featured video, taken by the Russian meteorological satellite Elektro-L during last year’s September equinox. The Elektro-L satellite is in geostationary orbit over one spot on Earth’s equator and always points directly toward the Earth. The featured video shows a time lapse for an entire day surrounding the equinox, with a new image taken every 30 minutes. Cloud motions are visible as well as the reflection of the Sun are visible as the equinox day progressed. The next Earth equinox is scheduled [by God] for March.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4er-S_lNRs&feature=player_embedded

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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11 Comments

  1. torch621 says:

    For us folks in the south it’ll be tomorrow, so today is out last day of summer.

  2. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    Today, too, one shifts from preferring chilled sherries, to enjoying room temperature portos.

  3. Nicholas says:

    Father Z, writing from Jupiter, informs us of our planet’s trajectory.

  4. LarryW2LJ says:

    The only good hting about the longer nights is that the 80 and 160 Meter bands may be promising for Amateur radio activity. The shorter summer nights and the normal summer thunderstorm activity leave them virtually useless during those months.

  5. KM Edwards says:

    Fr Z, I really appreciate your interest in astronomy and internet technology. Nice to have a pastor who is both spiritual and interested in science.

    I wanted to point your readership to the Oblates of Wisdom’s “Living Tradition” website – I know the name has raised eyebrows among those who consider themselves traditionalist – but Fr Harrison, Mgr McCarthy and their confreres in my view are very traditional when it comes to scriptural exegesis and particularly their emphasis on the apostolic method of interpreting scriptures according to the 4 senses. A great example of applying the neo-Patristic method to Genesis 1 is provided in http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt46.html. But I also love the study of the 42 genealogies from Adam to Christ – it is so refreshing to see Scriptural exegetes treating in a most Catholic fashion all the sense of scripture, INCLUDING the literal.

    So back to the topic at hand. September 23 – the Equinox but also Padre Pio’s feast day, and I see him as a sort of “end times”, as the Autumn ushers in the “death of winter”, or an “Autumnal Equinox” model of the priesthood, suffering and glorious all at once – but watch it, he’ll still kick you in the pants to save your soul. Its not been the first time P Pio has kicked me in the pants as the fruit of my novenas to him – sometimes it scares me to pray a novena to him.

    This is exactly 3 weeks, 21 days, or 3 x 7, which is a spiritually significant number, before October 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima’s miracle of the Sun – it will be 97 years to that day this year. I’ve always believed that Padre Pio has been a sort of “last uber example” of holy priesthood before whatever Our LAdy of Fatima intended to predict with the miracle of Sun is to occur.

    Interesting that 3 years from now, September 23, 2017, on Padre Pio’s feast day, a very unique astronomical occurrence will purportedly take place in the constellation of Virgo. The Sun will be in its ascension in Virgo, “clothing” her as it were, and the constellation of Leo the Lion along with Mercury, Venus and Mars will appear as a 12-star crown at Virgo’s head, with Jupiter close to the star Speca close to Virgo’s womb. The moon will be at Virgo’s feet.

    If one believes that at least one of the senses of this verse is the literal – and all Catholics ought to – this could be the Great Sign foretold in Apoc 12:1 “A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars”.

    Jupiter is a symbol of Jesus Christ, Jus Pater, or Father of Justice. Leo is also a sign of Christ, who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Virgin as it were will be clothed with the Son, crowned with His Crown and is the same one who is His Mother. As Catholics, we are well versed in the moral and spiritual sense of this verse as the coronation of the Heavenly Queen who is the Ark of the New Covenant in Heaven.

    The stars, and astronomy, I believe, are God’s gift to us as “signs” per Genesis 1:14 “And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, … and let them be for signs, and for seasons …”

    So, on Padre Pio’s feast day, the Autumnal Equinox, Sep 23, 2017, 3 x 7 days before the 100th anniversary of the miracle of this Sun we may end up seeing an affirmation of Our Lady’s Queenship in Heaven and Divine Motherhood in the heavens. This chapter in Apoc speaks of “the pains of birth” indicating Our Blessed Mother’s pains and sorrows in birthing the Church of Christ, perhaps a sign of even greater travail than what we see today in 2014.

    I pray that all 4 senses of sacred scripture, with an appreciation for the truth we learn from genuine scientific studies, can lead us, like it did the Magi so long ago, to a deeper love of God’s truth.

    God Bless and thank you for this post.

  6. Supertradmum says:

    Well our summer in Up State NY has been like Fall and last night it was 32. We have had a frost already last week,

    But, the trees are turning and will be lovely earlier this year.

  7. pannw says:

    Haha, Dr. Peters! Although for those of us with less refined palates, like my husband and me, it goes from nibbling chips and salsa while watching the sunset with margaritas on the patio at our favorite Mexican restaurant, to our favorite table inside the local wine bar, nibbling charcuterie and cheeses. I guess even we are a little more refined in the Autumn and Winter.

    KM Edwards, that is fascinating. Thank you.

  8. jmcj says:

    “From this point onward…days will be increasingly short and nights longer.”

    In light of the rumors coming from Rome right now (e.g. re: Burke, P. Marini, “the Pianist”), the above-quoted statement seems very accurate!

  9. The Cobbler says:

    Nicholas, I believe Fr. Z is writing from either orbit or his Fortress of Solitude, if I’ve got the story straight.

    KM Edwards, that will be… interesting, I suppose, to see; but, I thought the literal sense of John telling us he had a vision of [insert revelation here] was simply that John literally did have that vision?

  10. KM Edwards says:

    The Cobbler, yes, certainly, I did not mean to sound like I doubted that St John actually saw Our Lady in The Highest Heaven looking exactly how he described. And yes, that would be a literal sense.

    Although I am not an exegete, I know from reading Catholic exegetes that there can be more than one literal sense to a scriptural verse. And it is therefore possible that St John, besides describing what he actually saw in heaven in that moment of vision, was also describing prophetically a great sign in the lower heavens that would be seen towards the end times. And we do know that Apocalypse, especially in describing the final events of humanity (seven scrolls etc) has different literal senses, that are at once literal in the sense of the Heavenly as well as literal in the prophetic sense of what is to come.

    I believe 100% that St John described exactly what was in Heaven – Our Lady, crowned Queen of Heaven, with the moon under Her feet and clothed with the Sun of Righteousness. However, I believe that is also possible that another literal meaning could be a prophetic vision and prediction an astronomical sign of a woman clothed with Sun, with the moon under her feet and crowned with a crown of 12 stars, just before a series of tribulations are unleashed upon the earth.

    And the interesting fact that Sep 23, 2017 will showcase such an astronomical event, so close to Padre Pio’s 49 th anniversary (49 = 7 x 7) and 3 x 21 days from the 100 years of Our Lady’s Miracle of the Sun, fascinates me and compels me to pray harder and be more watchful. God bless.

  11. KM Edwards says:

    My last paragraph ought to have read: “… on Padre Pio’s 49 th anniversary (49 = 7×7) and 3 x 7 (21) days from the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s Miracle of the Sun at Fatima …”

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