Theologian's Almanac for Week of Sunday, January 24, 2021

Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.

For the week of Sunday, January 24:

January 25 is the feast day commemorating the sudden conversion of St. Paul. Born “Saul” in Tarsus, he was a well-educated, tenacious persecutor of Christians, even participating in the stoning of St. Stephen. Traveling on a road to Damascus, however, he was blinded by a sudden bright light, and heard the voice of Jesus calling him to pivot from persecutor to apostle of the faith. A good day to remember that real change is possible in our lives, and so that no-one — even supposed “enemies” — should be counted out.

January 27 is the feast day of St. Paula, who lived in Rome in the fourth century. Widowed as a young mother of five children, she found support and solace with a group of women studying with St. Jerome, the biblical scholar — to whom Paula became so devoted that she followed him to the Holy Land, where she founded a monastery and a hostel for pilgrims. Remembered today for her extraordinary generosity, intelligence, and adventurous spirit, Paula is the patron saint of widows.

January 27 is also the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg, present-day Austria, in 1756. He was the son of a musician and composer, and he began performing as a young boy; after seeing him perform, Voltaire is said to have remarked that he had at last seen a miracle. Mozart died of a sudden, unidentified illness at the age of 35, with very little money to his name, and was buried in a mass, unmarked grave — having by then composed over 600 pieces of music.

When he was 13, he and his father visited the Sistine Chapel for a performance of Gregorio Allegri’s nine-part choral composition, “Miserere.” The piece had never been published, but after hearing it, the young Mozart was able to write it out from memory, with only a few minor errors.

The Swiss theologian Karl Barth once wrote that in Mozart, above all, we hear the music of creation, playful and buoyant, full of both light and shadow, both “Yes” and “No,” but with the “Yes” nevertheless taking precedence. “It may be,” Barth wrote, “that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille, they play Mozart — and that then, too, our dear Lord listens with special pleasure.”

January 28 is the Jewish holiday, Tu Bishvat, the “New Year of the Trees.” It’s one of four new years in the Jewish calendar according to the Mishnah (or oral Torah). Today in Israel, the day is honored as a time of raising ecological awareness, and celebrations often include the planting of trees.