Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
This coming Sunday my parish will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass. This will be the seventh year we’ve taken Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. Our outgoing parish priest, Rev. Martin Bourke, will celebrate the Noon Mass of Corpus Christi in the school auditorium, and then he and […]
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The Easter Season has ended, and we’re back in Ordinary Time. Which of course, is not so ordinary at all. For most of the Catholic world, we’ve been in Ordinary Time for a week. Unless, of course, you celebrated the Octave of Pentecost. Which I did. Because, why wouldn’t you? Full disclosure: the Octave is celebrated in my Monastic Diurnal. […]
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The church in which I was Baptized, Confirmed, and Married has all sorts of Christian symbols painted on the walls. One of them that always set my brain to thinking looked something like this: It is, of course, an ancient Trinitarian symbol, reminding us in a visual way that while the Father is God, and the Son is God, and […]
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Today is the anniversary of the death of the great G.K. Chesterton. You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.(G.K. Chesterton) He’s not been recognized as a saint yet, of course, but there are those who think he should be. As I’ve said before, I have certainly had occasion to pray for his […]
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The Lord manifests Himself to those who stop for some time in peace and humility of heart. If you look in murky and turbulent waters, you cannot see the reflection of your face.If you want to see the face of Christ, stop and collect your thoughts in silence, and close the door of your soul to the noise of external […]
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We read today in the Acts of the Apostles of this great day, which in a certain way we can celebrate as the birthday of the Church: Pentecost – Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308) When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,they were all in one place together.And suddenly there came from the skya noise like a strong driving wind,and it filled […]
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Viri Galilæi, quid admiramini aspicientes in cælum? Forty days (and more) have passed since Easter. This year, I was was fortunate enough to celebrate the Ascension twice. The first was Ascension Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, Spokane, as part of the 2019 Sacred Liturgy Conference. It was a Pontifical High Mass of the Ascension of our […]
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Today in the calendar of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and (perhaps more importantly for me) on the Benedictine Calendar is the feast of this blog’s patron, Saint Bede the Venerable. For no reason that I understand, in 1970 his feast was moved to the day before yesterday. Saint Bede the Venerable translating the Gospel of John This […]
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On this day in 1917, the Blessed Virgin began appearing to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal. She appeared on the thirteenth day of six consecutive months, culminating in the great Miracle of the Sun. Regardless of miracles, Catholics are not obliged to believe these “private revelations”. Indeed, the Church is very careful to investigate these sorts of claims with […]
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Today is the feast of four great Abbots of the Benedictine Order: Saints Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugh. They were all good and holy men, and during the course of their reigns over the Abbey of Cluny and its associated priories, they reformed western monasticism – indeed, it could be fairly said that together they saved western monasticism. My Monastic […]
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Today, the Second Sunday in the Octave of Easter, is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope John Paul II proclaimed the Sunday after Easter as the Sunday of the Divine Mercy (Dominica II Paschæ seu de divina misericordia) in accord with the visions of the Divine Mercy received by Saint Faustina. But what is the Divine Mercy? In short, […]
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Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine:et lux perpetua luceat eis.In memoria æterna erit iustus,ab auditione mala non timebit. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord:and let perpetual light shine upon her.She shall be justified in everlasting memory,and shall not fear evil reports. Absolve, Domine,animas omnium fidelium defunctorumab omni vinculo delictorumet gratia tua illis succurentemereantur evadere iudicium ultionis,et lucis æternae beatitudine perfrui. […]
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Were today not Easter Thursday, it would be the Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist. Even though Mark is eclipsed today by his Master, it’s worth spending a moment with him. John Mark was one of the original seventy disciples (Luke 10:1 ff). Tradition holds that he was one of those who left Christ when he preached on the Bread […]
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There are two kinds of time. There’s the kind you can measure. That’s the kind we live through sequentially, moment to moment. The Greek word for this is “kronos”, where we get words like “chronometer” and “chronicle”. Then, there’s the other kind. The Greeks call this “kairos”. This is the time when God acts, when eternity breaks into linear time. […]
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