Category: Chant
Advent Vespers
This Advent, as in past years, our parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be chanting Vespers on Sunday evenings. Because of the damage to our beautiful church, this year we’re celebrating Vespers the school auditorium again. The school has an elevator, so getting to the auditorium is no problem! Please join us! There’s nothing like chanted Vespers to pull […]
» Read moreSaint Cecilia
In honour of Saint Cecilia, whose feast day it is today, I’d like to invite you to Saint Patrick Church in Tacoma this evening for an hour of Eucharistic Adoration. Music will be provided by Mrs. Victoria Solenberger and Ms. Amy Gallwas. For several of the songs, they will be accompanied by a schola, which includes my very lovely bride. […]
» Read moreDay of Wrath, O Day of Mourning!
Appropriate to today – the Feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order – we once again have the Dies Iræ, the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. Today we pray for the souls of all Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates in purgatory. Servant of God Thomas of Celano Most probably written by […]
» Read moreElements of the Mass;
or, You Might Be Doing that Wrong
Part 5 in an ongoing series of essays on the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. If I had to guess, I’d say that the part of the General Instruction that has been read by the fewest is Chapter II: The Structure of the Mass, Its Elements, and Its Parts. Why? Because when you read it, you quickly come to […]
» Read moreDay of the Dead
Let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Somebody […]
» Read moreLitany of the Saints
Happy Feast of All Saints! This is the day where we celebrate all the saints, known and unknown: the Church Triumphant. We ask them to pray for us. I for one could use all the help I can get! This day has been a feast since the sixth or seventh century, thanks to the abbots of Cluny, and it was […]
» Read moreChants of the Masses of All Souls
Can we talk about Gregorian chant? Because All Souls Day – coming up on November 2nd – has some doozies. I confess that I was a fan of chant long before I was a Catholic. In part, God used the beauty of this kind of music to draw me to Him. Specific chants are prescribed for each Mass in both […]
» Read moreOn the Feast of Saint Luke
Saint Luke is my kind of writer. Luke the historian and Luke the lyrical poet are both in evidence in his New Testament writings, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He freely admits that he never met Christ in the flesh, that he was not a witness to the events he describes in his Gospel. Like any good […]
» Read moreQuality of Life
What kind of life could the child possibly look forward to? He was born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida. In these progressive days, the child very well might have been aborted after the doctor showed the mother her first detailed fetal ultrasound. Blessed Hermann of Reichenau But the child had the great fortune to be born […]
» Read moreSaint Hildegard of Bingen
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 morePope Saint 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). Gregory had been born into an ancient and wealthy Roman family. Before he was 30 years old, he had been a Roman Senator and […]
» Read moreOur Lady, Queen of Heaven
On the old calendar, today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was moved in the calendar reform to the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. For what reason, I’ve no idea. On the new calendar, today is also a Marian feast, that of Our Lady Queen of Heaven. Whatever changes there might […]
» Read moreChant on the Vigil: Vespers for the Feast of St. James
Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus. Neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but rather from the Mozarabic Rite.
» Read moreSome Monkish Videos for Saint Benedict’s Feast
Icon of Saint Benedict at Mount Athos For today’s Feast of Saint Benedict, I thought I’d share with you some of the short videos and documentaries I’ve found over the years that give an insight into the monastic life. Every monastery is different, of course, as you will see in these videos, but these monks have all responded to the […]
» Read moreThe Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
How does the human brain wrap itself around the eternal and infinite love of God for His creation? How can can we even begin to comprehend the depth of love in Christ’s wounded heart as he pours Himself out for us sinners at Calvary? The truth is, we can’t. The saints and the mystics may catch glimpses, but we humans […]
» Read morePentecost: “You Can Become All Flame”
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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