Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
By now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest attested antiphons in the Divine Office, being mentioned in passing in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. They’re rooted […]
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Today is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. If you are in Tacoma, you may hear this sung at Solemn Vespers this evening at Holy Rosary Church. Please join us for this beautiful and holy liturgy at 6:00 PM. These videos, which I will be embedding each day until Christmas, were recorded by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford in […]
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O Wisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for our annual look at the O Antiphons. These antiphons are part of the prayers at the liturgical hour of Vespers for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back to the […]
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Tomorrow is Gaudete Sunday – the joyous third Sunday of Advent. Jimmy Akin gives us the scoop.
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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 […]
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Yesterday, on the great feast of Christ the King, we held our annual feast of thanksgiving at Pistachio House as we do every year. Daughter Raine and I went to the Noon Mass at Holy Rosary. There were some additions to the Mass, as we closed out the great Jubilee Year of Mercy. In the afternoon and evening, we had […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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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. […]
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by G.K. Chesterton White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run; There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared, It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard; It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips; For the inmost sea of […]
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Today is celebrated in the western Church as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Exaltatio Sanctæ Crucis). In the eastern Church, it is known as “the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-creating Cross”. The feast commemorates a number of events: the finding of the True Cross in 326 in Jerusalem by Saint Helena, the later dedication […]
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Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? (Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that […]
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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the more important (if overlooked) feasts of the liturgical year. How overlooked? As far as I can tell, only two local parishes even have a Mass for the Feast today. Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up a mountain to pray. While he was praying […]
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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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