Corpus Christi

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 Vigil of Pentecost

Tomorrow is Pentecost, the great solemnity celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. The Church has long celebrated this event in three ways: the solemnity of the day itself, the octave of the day, and the vigil. With the liturgical reforms of the 1960s and 1970s, all but the day itself was suppressed, a sad testament to […]

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Boniface, Apostle to the Germans

Saint Boniface, whose feast is today, is widely known as the “apostle to the Germans”. An Englishman of Devonshire, he was part of a great Anglo-Saxon missionary effort in the Saxon marches of the Frankish Empire in the early eighth century. The Saint Boniface Window at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Tacoma Since my parish church of Holy […]

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The Ascension of the Lord

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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Holy Rosary, Transitioning Again:
a Plea for the Future of our Parish

My parish of Holy Rosary has been going through a rough year. I’ve restrained myself from speaking too much about it, although I did have numerous posts on the inciting incident: the sudden collapse and then death of our pastor Father Michael Wagner last year. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Tacoma Following Father’s death, we had a string […]

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Vespers for the Dead

One year ago, our parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation were deep in prayer for the health and soul of our pastor, Rev. Michael Wagner. Rev. Michael Wagner On April 10 2018, Father Wagner collapsed during the celebration of the holy Mass. He was admitted to hospital with an irreversible brain hemorrhage. The doctors advised his family and the archdiocese […]

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Holy Week Marathon

I joke sometimes that Holy Week for an MC is like running a marathon. So this year, I used my FitBit tracking and figured out the distance I walked, starting with our Palm Sunday rehearsals and ending on Easter Sunday. This year, I clocked about 70km – that’s 43 miles. Given that a marathon is 26 miles, I actually walked […]

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Schedule for Holy Week

The following is the Holy Week schedule for the parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation in Tacoma, Washington. It’s less jam-packed than previous years, but there’s still a lot here! Wednesday Tenebræ is not to be missed. And of course, the Holy Triduum is essentially one giant liturgy (with some serious overnight breaks) that begins with the Introit of the […]

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A Plea for Beauty in the Sacred Liturgy

Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the American way!” We should fight for the three transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. The transcendentals were known to the Ancient Greeks, but Catholic theologians quickly baptized them into their study of philosophy and theology. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being. They are the properties of all beings, as well as […]

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Our 2018 in Review

This has been a crazy year. Here at Pistachio House, we had designated 2018 as the “Year of Hygge“. This was going to be the year that we concentrated on coziness. Pistachio House would be finally made into the cozy home we imagined. There would be coffee cake, walks, and new furnishings. It started out strongly enough, and it certainly […]

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Rorate Mass Resources – in the Ordinary Form

Last year about this time, our parish of Holy Rosary celebrated a Rorate Mass in the Ordinary Form. And what, pray tell, is a Rorate Mass? The name comes from the opening words of the Entrance Antiphon, Rorate cæli desuper, Latin for “Drop down dew, ye heavens”. The Rorate Mass is a Solemn Votive Mass in honor of the Blessed […]

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