Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today is the memorial of the blessed martyr Saint Polycarp. Burned alive and then beheaded in the city of Rome for the crime of being a Christian bishop, he was a disciple of Saint John the Apostle. In fact, he was ordained bishop of Smyrna by Saint John. He wrote many letters, though only one has survived the centuries, his […]
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Happy Saint Agnes Day! Saint Agnes was a young Roman lady of 12 or 13 years old who suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian in about AD 304. She was one of the youngest of the early martyrs and one of the most moving and articulate. Agnes hastened to the place of torture as a bride to […]
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Today is the feast of the man many consider to be the founder of Christian monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great of Egypt, the “Father of Monks”. He was born in the middle of the third century in decidedly Pagan Middle Egypt to a well-to-do, comfortable family. He spent much of his life avoiding the sorts of comforts available to him […]
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Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, celebrating that day when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, […]
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Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today, the Church celebrates the anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. Over the years, I’ve written many articles on this, one of my favourite saints. I’ve provided links to them below. Many of these articles focus on the saint himself, his life and martyrdom, and others on his legacy to the Church, particularly […]
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It is altogether right and proper that we should celebrate Christ as the bringer of light on this, the day of the winter solstice. This was an ancient holy day in many religions, as indeed it continues to be. On this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, where people for eons have begged their divinity for […]
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Time again for some history! If you think that the Spanish conquistadors are the ones who imposed Catholicism on the hapless Aztecs, well you’re wrong. Lord knows they tried. And tried. And failed. In the first decade of Spanish rule (1521 – 1531), only a handful of Native Americans embraced Christianity. And then… well, a miracle. Here’s the story as […]
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Today is the memorial of Saint Edmund Campion. If the paintings of him are to be believed, he is a man to whom I bear more than a passing resemblance, at least in my youth. We commemorated the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation a few years ago. Many continue to see this as a good thing. I don’t. […]
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Fifty-six years before the English Puritan refugees at Plymouth celebrated their “first Thanksgiving”, Spanish explorers and their Timucua allies celebrated one in Saint Augustine, in what is now Florida. They had bean soup. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral from Asturias. He was under orders to root out some French colonists in the area. […]
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Today is the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This morning, I served at the school Mass at my parish. This particular Mass was offered for the repose of the soul of my beautiful bride, Francine. I am sure that she was absolutely delighted that a Mass was offered for her on a Marian feast. Many, many people gifted […]
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The Dies Iræ is the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. While this sequence no longer appears at Mass in the Ordinary Form of the modern Roman Rite, it remains in both the Extraordinary Form and in the Benedictine liturgies – and I note that it is sung during the All Souls Mass at Seattle’s […]
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On this day in 1605, a cabal of Catholic plotters, hoping to turn back the tides of reformation and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne of Great Britain, attempted to assassinate the very Protestant King James. Their plan—if you can dignify it by calling it a plan—was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of […]
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Protestants all over the world celebrate “Reformation Day” on October 31. I don’t. In 2017, on the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s revolt, I wrote a lengthy essay on exactly why not. It has become my custom to reprint it on this day each year. Five Hundred Years Today is the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant […]
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Joseph Stalin famously demanded to know, “How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin was, of course, asking the wrong question, as the saint whose feast is today finally proved. When Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II in October of 1978, I was not only just 11 years old—I wasn’t even Catholic. It’s safe to say […]
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On this day in 1571, the naval forces of a Holy League, consisting of several maritime Catholic countries, met the main Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto. In later years, the anniversary of this day was celebrated as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, and later, as the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Back in […]
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Today marks five years since 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, […]
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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. […]
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