Aldous Huxley (July 26, 1894) was an English writer and philosopher best known for his classic dystopian novel ‘Brave New World’.
C.S. Lewis (November 29, 1898) was a British writer and lay theologian. In the Christian world he is known for his great apologetics work Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. To the rest of the world he is best known as the creator of fictional land of Narnia. He also happen to be great friends with the creator of middle earth, J.R.R. Tolkien.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917), often referred as to just JFK, was the 35th president of the United States in 1961.
What do all these men have in common?
They all died on November 22, 1963.
Police officer J. D. Tippit (September 18, 1924 – November 22, 1963) also died having been shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. This day also claimed the death of internist Nazi physician Wilhelm Franz Josef Beiglböck (10 October 1905 – 22 November 1963).
Peter Kreeft captures this event (fictionally) in the first of his many dialog books, “Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death” in 1982. The souls of John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley all meet in Purgatory on the day that they all die. They engage in a philosophical discussion on faith, life and death. It’s a fascinating bit of trivia turned into a fascinating book about a possible fascinating meeting beyond earthly life.
Wilhelm Beiglböck, an Austrian-German physician (b. 1905) also died on this day, but doesn’t factor into this story at all.
Here is a taste…
Lewis: Why, it’s Huxley! Aldous Huxley. Aldous, welcome. How did you get here?
Huxley: Same way you did, I’m sure. I just died. Oh, I say! Kennedy and Lewis! What good company to die in—or live in, whatever we’re doing. Where is this place, anyway?
Kennedy: That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Lewis thinks it may be some sort of limbo or purgatory. I’m just hoping it’s not hell.
Huxley: Well, you’re both wrong. It’s heaven. It must be heaven. Kennedy: Why? Huxley: Because everywhere is heaven, if only you have enlightened eyes. Lewis: Even hell?
Huxley: Oh, this is going to be fun! Lewis, you’ve lost none of your cantankerous penchant for Socratic questioning, have you? I remember you made Oxford a regular hornets’ nest when you debated back on earth, and now you’ve shipped your hornets to heaven. This is a nice challenge.
Lewis: Then reply to it. If everywhere is heaven, then either hell does not exist, or hell is part of heaven. Which way will you have it, Aldous?
Kennedy: Wait, please! Before you two take off, could you give me some assurances about this sort of debate? I was a debater too, but we politicians confined ourselves to the concrete and tangible. I’m not at all convinced you can do anything more than talk through your hat about things you’ve never seen.
Lewis: So you want an assurance that there is some method of really finding the truth about things we can’t see.
The following day after all 3 men had died, the beginning of one of the most iconic and mysterious science fiction shows premiered on British TV.
Dr. Who
The show’s launch was overshadowed by the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy the previous day, resulting in a repeat of the first episode the following week. But 60 years later it is celebrating it’s special anniversary.
So Here’s What Else Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
Between Thanksgiving Week and the upcoming Christmas Day
Monday November 19, 2023
Day 324: The Name of Jesus — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 324: The Ninth Commandment — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin Genesis and Ancient Texts | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1805 – Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.
- 1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville‘s 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this incident.)
- 1900 – The French actress Sarah Bernhardt receives the press at the Savoy Hotel in New York at the outset of her first visit since 1896. She talked about her impending tour with a troupe of more than 50 performers and her plans to play the title role in Hamlet.
- 1959 – The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations.
- 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
- 2023 –Priest delivers twin babies outside cathedral in Washington state.
-
Quote of the Day
The Dan in The Mirror@ZJoyfulCatholic (November 20, 2023) Does it bother anyone else that the bananas in banana splits are never actually split; rather, they are the ingredient which does the splitting?
Tuesday November 21, 2023
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Day 325: Boldness in Faith — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 325: Battling for Purity — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube— The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin The Individual and the Canon of Scripture | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 164 BCE – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, rededicates the Temple in Jerusalem, an event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah. (25 Kislev 3597 in the Hebrew calendar.)[1]
- 235 – Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope.
- 1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.)
- 1905 – Albert Einstein‘s paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik.
- 2023 –Catholics call for opening of canonization cause for sacristan slain by jihadist in Spain.
-
Quote of the Day
Steve Skojec@TheSkojecFile (November 21, 2023)
One thing I’m grateful to Catholicism for are the ethics I learned around end of life decisions. Sometimes, as in the case we’re dealing with right now, every decision leads to more or less imminent death, some paths with more suffering, some with less. There’s no easy or even optimal decision. But an understanding of things like the principle of double effect, the importance of intent in choosing one option over another, etc., lend at least some clarity in the chaos.I don’t think anyone I’ve encountered has a better system of ethics in this regard than the Church.
Wednesday November 22, 2023
Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
Day 326: Life in the Spirit — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 326: Envy and Jealousy — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin Separation from God | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1307 – Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
- 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald, who also kills Dallas Police officer J. D. Tippit after fleeing the scene. U.S Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States afterwards.
- 1963 – Wilhelm Beiglböck, German Nazi physician at Dachau concentration camp (b. 1905) dies.
- 1963 – Aldous Huxley, British writer (Brave New World) (b. 1894) dies.
- 1963 – C. S. Lewis, Irish-born British critic, novelist (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Christian apologist (b. 1898) dies.
- 2023 –YouTube removes popular Catholic channel, accuses it of being a scam
- 2023 –Hallow App defends partnership with Liam Neeson, a supporter of abortion
- 2023 –Pope Francis meets with relatives of Palestinians living in Gaza
- 2023 –Alabama priest marries teen after abandoning post, leaving for Europe
-
Quote of the Day
Jimena Diaz@Exceptional05 (Nov 22, 2023) This Thanksgiving we will have sedevacantists, SSPX, Novus Ordo, a fence-sitter, and I believe a protestant all in the same house. I’m not sure if we’re going to survive. Send help.
The Dan in The Mirror@ZJoyfulCatholic (November 22, 2023) You should invite a vegan so that you can all bond together over being turkey eaters instead of fighting amongst yourselves.
Thursday November 23, 2023
[Saint Clement I, Pope and Martyr; Saint Columban, Abbot;
USA: Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Priest and Martyr; USA: Thanksgiving Day]
Was Squanto Catholic? What we know about this hero of the first Thanksgiving
Day 327: Origin of the Diaconate — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 327: Poverty of Heart — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin The Triumphal Entry | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
- 1733 – The start of the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in what was then the Danish West Indies.
- 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
- 1924 – Edwin Hubble‘s discovery, that the Andromeda “nebula” is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times.
- 1963 – The BBC broadcasts An Unearthly Child (starring William Hartnell), the first episode of the first story from the first series of Doctor Who, which is now the world’s longest running science fiction drama
- 2023 –Archbishop to invite young North Koreans to next World Youth Day in Seoul
- 2023 –Peruvian bishops hail new law that specifies the rights of the unborn child
-
Quote of the Day
HowlingMutant@Howlingmutant0 (Nov 23, 2023)
I was never a fan of rap music but trying to rap along to the radio makes it a bit more fun. Plus changing every n word into a hard r one makes for a much more cathartic experience
Friday November 24, 2023
Saint Andrew Dũng-Lạc, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
WinCalendar: Calendars, Holidays, Days and Today – EU
This Day in History – What Happened Today – HISTORY
Day 328: Stephen Is Martyred — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 328: How We Pray (Part 4 Intro w/ Sr. Miriam James Heidland) — The Catechism in a Year – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin Objections to Papal Infallibility | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Official Charts – Home of the Official UK Top 40 Charts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1877 – Anna Sewell‘s animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published.
- 1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is killed by Jack Ruby on live television. Robert H. Jackson takes a photograph of the shooting that will win the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Photography.
- 1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second crewed mission to land on the Moon.
- 1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” (after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia‘s Afar Depression.
- 2023 –‘Red Week’: Buildings and monuments across the world lit red in honor of persecuted Christians
Saturday November 25, 2023
Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
WinCalendar: Calendars, Holidays, Days and Today – EU
This Day in History – What Happened Today – HISTORY
Day 329: The Ethiopian Eunuch — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 329: The Gift of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin Why Isn’t the Bible Clearer? | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1120 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son and heir of Henry I of England.[
- 1915 – Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
- 1963 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy; after lying in state at the United States Capitol, a Requiem Mass takes place at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and the President is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
- 1981 – Pope John Paul II appoints Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
- 1999 – A five-year-old Cuban boy, Elián González, is rescued by fishermen while floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast.
- 2023 –Vatican draws line on women’s ordination and homosexuality in new letter to German bishops
-
Quote of the Day
Caterina@cathfav (November 26, 2023) I will pray for healing and strength for the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Prayers also for those who don’t have the decency to be quiet if they can’t find it in their hearts to respond to prayer requests for the sick.
Sunday November 26, 2023
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE
Day 330: Sauls’ Conversion — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 330: The Revelation of Prayer — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Daily Defense Podcast With Jimmy Akin The Father Is Greater Than I | Catholic Answers Podcasts
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
- 1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as proclaimed by President George Washington at the request of Congress.
- 1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
- 1922 – The Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor. (The Gulf Between was the first film to do so, but it was not widely distributed.)
- 1986 – The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of committing war crimes as a guard at the Nazi Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
- 2011 – The Mars Science Laboratory launches to Mars with the Curiosity Rover.
- 2023-In pictures: emotional scenes as Israel and Hamas trade hostages for prisoners Hamas freed 17 hostages and Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees. We take a look at what has happened so far.
-
Quote of the Day
Jen Dziura@jendziura (November 26, 2023)
Food $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Onions $3,600
Utility $150someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In