Saint Hildegard of Bingen is one of those medieval figures who can cause a lot of confusion to people not paying close attention. She (or, […]
Supporting the Eucharistic Revival
General Instruction of the Roman Missal
Processions in the Rubrics of Lent
It’s a little hard to believe, but Ash Wednesday is less than a week away. How can Lent be so close already? The modern Roman […]
Exhortations
Saint Benedict and the Work of God
Today is the feast of Saint Benedict of Nursia, who can safely be said to be the father of western monasticism. His monastic Holy Rule, […]
Resources and Reviews
resources
Chant on the Vigil: Vespers for the Feast of Saint James
The Cathedral of Santiago has published a booklet (available in PDF) for first Vespers of the feast of Saint James the Apostle. First Vespers only […]
Review
A Digression on the Star Wars
Sometime in early June 1977, in a small theater in Hegewisch Illinois, I saw Star Wars for the first time. My grandfather took my sister […]
Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church
Saint Hildegard of Bingen is one of those medieval figures who can cause a lot of confusion to people not paying close attention. She (or, rather, a version of her with her Christianity stripped out) has been adopted by some of the New Agers as one of their own. Of course, if you strip the Christianity out of the life […]
» Read moreThe Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Whither is thy Beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women? Whither is thy Beloved turned aside, and we will seek Him with thee? We begin with the first antiphon of Lauds for today’s feast of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Monastic Diurnal. It has always affected me, but perhaps these days it’s affecting me […]
» Read moreAnniversary of the Last Day
Today marks the anniversary of the final Mass of the parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Tacoma. These years have been filled with heartbreaking, almost unfathomable loss. This is an annual post, updated only slightly. Much of the language reflects my thoughts and feelings of the day, taken from my journaled notes. Over the past few years, […]
» Read moreNon Nobis: Some Thoughts on Forming Altar Servers
Today, I spent the morning and early afternoon on Vashon Island training altar servers at our sister parish of Saint John Vianney. This past Wednesday evening, I trained new altar servers at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish in Lakewood. Tomorrow, at my own parish, I will lead a training/retraining session for the Saint Patrick altar servers. Bear in mind that I […]
» Read moreOblation Day
Twenty years ago today, I made my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey. For twenty years now, I have been an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict, an amateur monk living in the world. As best as I can, I live according the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict, adapted to my life in the world. At my oblation, I […]
» Read moreThe Nativity of the Virgin
Nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December, today we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast so ancient that it is celebrated on the same day in both East and West. Scripture tells us very little about the early life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Tradition tells us that she was […]
» Read morePope Saint Gregory the Great: Apostle of the Sacred Liturgy
“We make Idols of our concepts, but Wisdom is born of wonder.” (Pope St. Gregory the Great) Only a handful of Popes ever get named “Great”. Today in the Ordinary Roman calendar is the feast of one of them, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 – 604). His feast, originally celebrated on the day […]
» Read moreThe Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Today is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking […]
» Read moreSaint Augustine: Kingdoms and Empires have Passed Away
In this very volatile moment in our history, both of the United States and of the world, where things seem to be unravelling and so much anger rises to the surface so quickly, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the meaning of our times. This anger and factionalism and the accompanying doom-saying are hardly unique to our age. […]
» Read moreSaint Monica
Today is the memorial of Saint Monica, beleaguered mother of Saint Augustine, whose feast is tomorrow. I’ve had many occasions to pray for her intercession, but since last year, this day has hit a little differently for me. In the modern Roman calendar, her memorial is listed simply as that of “Saint Monica”, but before the calendar reform of the […]
» Read moreOur Lady, Queen of Heaven
Today, the Octave day of the Assumption, is the Memorial of Our Lady Queen of Heaven. May you have all the joy of the feast! The Queenship of Mary has been depicted in art in various forms and guises since the early centuries of the Church. I’m always amazed at how different these depictions can be, even in the same […]
» Read moreWe Could Use a Man Like Saint Bernard Again
Today is the feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. And at this moment in the history of the Church, we could very much use another like him. Born in 1090 to a noble Burgundian family near Dijon, he entered the monastery at age 23. In less than three years, he was sent by his abbot to found a new monastery […]
» Read moreThe Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,fair as the moon, bright as the sun,terrible as an army set in array? (Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that holds a […]
» Read moreSaint Maximilian, the Vigil of the Assumption, and Entrustment
On today’s Vigil of the Assumption, we celebrate also the memory of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan Friar and priest who spent much of his life as a missionary. He returned to his native Poland, where he helped lead a publishing house that produced religious tracts and anti-Nazi literature. The friary itself provided shelter to refugees, including some 2,000 Jews […]
» Read moreRequiescat in Pace — Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J.
A Requiem Mass will be offered for Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J. tomorrow morning, Friday, August 14, at 8:00 AM at Saint Joseph Church in Tacoma. For a few brief months in 2011, he was our interim pastor at Saint Rita Parish. When he celebrated his first Mass with us on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, he began his […]
» Read morePromises
Every day, I read a chapter (or part of a chapter) from the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. This is done on a specific cadence, so that in a year I read through the entirety of the Rule three times. Today’s reading discusses the three promises a new monk makes upon entering the monastery. These are not, as you would […]
» Read moreNudges of Grace
This morning just before I started my 5K walk, I reflexively checked the email on my phone. What I saw absolutely stopped me in my tracks, and I had to take a couple of minutes to regroup. The first two emails were little nudges to respond or follow up to older messages. The top one was something I had written […]
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