Gaudete!
Tomorrow is Gaudete Sunday – the joyous third Sunday of Advent. Jimmy Akin gives us the scoop.
» Read moreCategory: Chant
Advent Vespers
This Advent, my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be celebrating Vespers in the church on Sundays at 6:00 PM. Please join us! There’s noting like chanted Vespers in a beautiful, echoing church to pull the heart and mind towards the Lord. Please note that due to last minute changes in Fr. Wichert’s schedule, we will only have solemn […]
» Read moreThe Chant of All Souls
Can we talk about Gregorian chant? Because today has some doozies. I confess that I was a fan of chant long before I was a Catholic. Indeed, God used the beauty of this music to draw me to Him. Specific chants are prescribed for each Mass in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite. Each day’s […]
» 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, and it was fixed on November 1 in the […]
» Read moreInitial Reflections on the Quasquicentennial
This past Sunday, my parish of Holy Rosary celebrated its 125th anniversary – our Quasquicentennial. The project for this celebration was started several years ago by Dr Michael Barkley, a gentleman from the parish who deserves all credit for getting this ball rolling. His great-grandparents were in fact the first couple married at the parish, back in October of 1891. […]
» 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 moreToday!
Quasquicentennial!
If you are anywhere near Tacoma this weekend, please join us on Sunday for the 125th anniversary of the founding of our parish. The Mass is at Noon, and it will be followed by a reception in the School hall. Here’s the blurb from one of our local papers: Holy Rosary’s steeple rises above downtown Tacoma and towers over I-5. […]
» Read moreNo, It’s Just Thursday
What a day – and it’s not quite over yet! If it wasn’t for to-do lists, I don’t know how I would function. Called the paper for non-delivery (again) – check. Breakfast and Lauds – check. Worked on Incident Report for the Firm – check. Meeting with Pastor – check. Worked on making Firm security guide “more avuncular” – check. […]
» 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. But the child had the great fortune to be born in 1013, a much […]
» Read moreSacred Liturgy Conference
This weekend, me and a couple of guys are taking a road trip and heading over to Mount Angel Abbey for the 2016 Sacred Liturgy Conference. I realize that this is not what most folks do on their Labor Day Weekend, but I’m pretty comfortable in my eccentricities. Here’s the intro from the press release: The Oregon Sacred Liturgy Conference […]
» Read moreThe 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 moreVespers for the Feast of Saint James
Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus, so neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but predating both. I believe it may be from the Mozarabic Rite.
» Read moreOf Benedict and His Monks
Happy Saint Benedict’s Day! Today is the principal feast of the founder of western monasticism: the author of the Holy Rule, and a great saint. Over the course of the last decade and more, new monastic institutions with many young monks and sisters are beginning to flourish throughout the world. For the last few years, I’ve made it my habit […]
» Read moreSaint John’s Eve
Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours. Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! We almost didn’t get to have one at all – it was […]
» Read moreMediatrix of All Graces
In the calendar used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. Here’s where many folks go off the rails in castigating the Church as non-Christian. Mediatrix of All Graces? Isn’t Christ our mediator? Does not the scripture say For there is one God. There is also one mediator between […]
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