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Today is the 3,333rd day of the marriage of me and my lovely bride.

It is has been 3,333 days of uncheckered happiness (or, at least 3,331 days thus). And it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 3,000 days. How the time flies!

As many of you know, 3+3+3+3=12, and 12 is the number of apostles and tribes in Israel. And, while 4 3’s makes 12, the sum of 3 and 4 is 7, which is the number of perfection. St Augustine said in the City of God that we “must not despise the science of numbers.” Medieval Christians, had, as Peter Gay reminds us, “seven virtues, seven works of mercy, seven planets, seven sacraments [I only hold to two!], seven liberal arts, seven degrees of sanctity, seven deadly sins, seven ages of man; they knew twelve prophets, twelve patriarchs, twelve apostles, twelve months, twelve sacred jewels in the vision of John.” He adds,

Seven and twelve have mystical connections: seven is three plus four while twelve is three times four; now, three is sacred because it represents the Trinity–the world of spirit; while four is the number of the elements–the world of matter. The seven virtues dramatize this relationship; there are four cardinal and three revealed virtues, combining into a perfect mathematical whole. Seven and twelve, then, stand for the holy conjunction of three and four.*

Today’s date is September 5, or 9/5, and 9 + 5 = 14, which is 7 x 2. The year is A.D. 2009, and 9+5+2+0+0+9 = 25, and 2 + 5 = 7.

To put this day in perspective, 3,333 days is 79,992 hours. 7+9+9+9+2 = 36, and 36 is 12 x 3, or (3 + 3 + 3 +3) x 3.

3,333 days is also 4,799,520 minutes (how quickly these millions of minutes have flown!). Interesting enough, 4 + 7 + 9 + 9+ 5 +2 +0 (which is seven numbers long) totals, again, 36, which is (again, I stress) 12 x 3. And, since I know you’re wondering, that’s 287,971,200 seconds (this time, it’s nine numbers long, which is 3 cubed), and 2 + 8 +7 + 9 + 7+ 1 + 2 + 0 + 0 = 36 yet again.

Try to explain that coincidence.

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*Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: The Birth of Modern Paganism (New York: Norton, 1966), 253.