October 2024 Supermoon: Unique Celestial Beauty Invokes Spiritual Reflection, Says Vatican Observatory Director

Amedeo Lomonaco – Vatican News

October 17 was also an invitation to raise our eyes to the sky. October’s supermoon, the third of four planned this year, was the largest full moon of 2024. It appeared about 7% larger and slightly brighter than average. The good viewing time in Italy started after 6pm. This phenomenon, explains the director of the Vatican Observatory, Guy Consolmagno’s brotherrepeated every year, but the internet has made it “famous”. “The moon every month is interesting, but everyone is looking at their cell phones and no one is looking at the sky.”

Brother Consolmagno explains that in creation and in many cosmic wonders we see a wonderful beauty “made in God”. However, the surprise can be put over: as Benedict XVI said in his home at Pascal Vigil on April 7, 2012“Today we can light up our cities so brightly that the stars in the sky are no longer visible”. The director of the Vatican Observatory then invites us to look at the sky and, in particular, at the moon. Stargazing is “like a prayer habit: you can pray just once or every night.” The invitation is to “dedicate two minutes every night to look at the stars, at the moon, seeing the changes day after day”. “This”, concludes Brother Guy Consolmagno, “is interesting: if you never look at the sky, you miss the most important thing”.

The pontiffs and the moon

Many times, the Popes mentioned the moon. One of the most poignant recent pages relates to the moon landing on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, two of the three astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission, took their first steps on the surface of the moon. The 1969 tour is considered one of the most important events in the history of the 20th century. Pope Paul VI spoke these words there Angel that day:

Today is a good day, a historic day for mankind, if indeed tonight two men set foot on the Moon, like us, with the whole world shaking, under spells and in prayer, we hope it will happen happily. We would like to discuss this wonderful and amazing event; think of the cosmos, which opens before us its silent and mysterious face in an endless image of countless ages and endless places. What universe, where, how and why? We would do well to reflect on the man, his admirable invention, his daring courage, the amazing progress he made. Ruled by the cosmos as an invisible point, man is controlled by thought. And who is the man? Who are we, capable of so much? We would do well to reflect on progress.

It is another date recorded in history, not just the head of the Church October 11, 1962when the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council was opened. At that time, Pope John XXIII spoke to the faithful who took part in the candlelight procession:

Dear children, I hear your voices. I have only one voice, but it raises the voice of the whole world; the whole world is represented here. We could say that even the moon is torn, tonight – look up! – to see this show.

The moon, like the sky, is a beauty that is about to change. Pope Francis, in Angelus on November 14, 2021reminding us that the only fixed star, which will never pass away, is the Word of God:

Sayings from Jesus that leave us in awe: “The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky” (Mk 13, 24-25). But how, even the Lord begins to disaster? No, of course this is not your intention. He wants us to understand that everything in this world, sooner or later, passes. Even the sun, the moon and the stars that make up the “firmament” – a word that indicates “firmness”, “constancy” – are going to die.