Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today is the Memorial of the dedication of one of my favourite church buildings in the world, the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, also known in English as Saint Mary Major. It is occasionally known by the title of Our Lady of the Snows. When we were in Rome back in 2005, our apartment was just a few […]
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Depending on your particular calendar, today or tomorrow is the feast of Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), a great saint and Doctor of the Church who founded the Redemptorists and wrote on the spiritual life. I particularly enjoy his Way of the Cross and a short book (pamphlet, really) called How to Converse Continually and Familiarly with God. Perhaps because of […]
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Although they are not mentioned in scripture, Tradition remembers the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents as Saints Joachim and Anne. Today is their feast. May you have all the joy of the day! The names of Saints Joachim and Anne are first recorded in the Protoevangelium of James, written probably in the second century. This is one of […]
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Today is the Feast of Saint James the Greater, known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as Santiago and in French as Saint Jacques. He was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. Saint James is the patron saint of the archdiocese of Seattle. May you have the joy of the feast! James and his brother John were natives of Galilee, sons of the […]
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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 occur for Solemnities, and they are prayed on the Vigil. For most of the world, Saint James only has a feast, but in places where he is patron saint – such as Spain or the […]
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Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Mary Magdalen. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, this is indeed a feast again, rather than merely a memorial, thanks to a change made by Pope Francis back in 2016. In the Extraordinary Form and in my Monastic Breviary, it is a Class III feast, through prior to the reform of […]
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Fifty-five years ago today, on July 20, 1969, human beings first set foot upon the Moon. My mother claims I watched the landing, at the tender age of two, hiding underneath the coffee table. If so, I don’t remember it. My lovely bride Francine, however, does. Her birthday is July 21, and she clearly remembers having a lunar module on […]
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On this, the Memorial of Saint Arnulf of Metz (c. 582 — 640), patron saint of brewers, let us hoist a tankard to his memory and say a prayer for his intercession. For some reason, the English found “Arnulf” too difficult, so in many English-language resources he is known as “Arnold”. Go figure. It was July 642 and very hot […]
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Tradition holds that on July 16, 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Simon Stock, prior general of the Carmelites. She offered him a message of hope for the Order, a message that they sorely needed. At this time, the Carmelite Order was in trouble. They had their origins as a community of hermits on the slopes of Mount […]
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Saint Bonaventure, whose memorial is today in the Ordinary Form, received his (much delayed) doctorate in theology in Paris in 1257, in the same class as Saint Thomas Aquinas. Later that same year, he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order. Bonaventure spent much of his life as a theologian at the university, living in poverty as a Franciscan […]
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One thousand years ago, the saint we celebrate today died. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that vanishingly few American churches have an image of today’s saint. But our old parish of Holy Rosary does. Let me explain. It’s a pretty rare thing when Kings become saints, or at least become canonized saints. I can only […]
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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, still followed today after almost 1,500 years, spread throughout the west as the Roman Empire collapsed. Pope Pius XII lauded him, for in the perilous times that followed Rome’s fall, it was Benedictine monks who […]
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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and […]
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Happy feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle! Today wasn’t always his feast. In fact in my Monastic Diurnal, today is the Memorial of Saints Processus and Martinian. His main feast was celebrated for centuries on 21 December, the day when tradition has it he was run though by spears, wielded by soldiers of a Greek-descended Indo-Parthian Satrap named Mazdai in […]
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Today the Church celebrates one of her most ancient feasts, commemorating the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. I prayed at the tombs of these apostles during our pilgrimage to Rome in 2005. Peter With the body of Saint John Paul II mere feet from me, I knelt near Saint Peter’s tomb at the high altar of the dark and […]
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A post-Protestant Non-Denominational Christian friend of mine has a particular fondness for that great Doctor of the Church, Saint Irenæus of Lyons, whose feast day is today. He occasionally quotes from the saint’s great work, Adversus Hæreses (Against Heresies), and he is particularly fond of the saint’s assertion that “the proper glory of God is man fully alive.” He refers […]
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Today is the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Since yesterday was Sunday, there was no opportunity to celebrate Saint John’s Eve, which is traditionally a time to light festive bonfires. The story of the Jewish people moves from Abraham through Exodus to the Judges to the Kings to the Prophets. It culminates in Christ, the culmination […]
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