Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
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. Most probably written by Servant of God Thomas of Celano near […]
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Thank you all for your help and encouragement over the past three years as we worked on this project. Two years ago, we celebrated Holy Rosary’s Quasquicentennial – the 125th Anniversary of our parish. Now, the Holy Rosary Parish Commemorative book is finally available for purchase! This beautiful, full-color coffee table book includes a full history of the first 125 […]
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Tomorrow is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. For most of the Catholic world, this is a memorial of various sorts. Since, however, my parish is dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for us it is a Solemnity. Huzzah! If you are in the Tacoma area, please head over for the Mass of the feast, either tonight […]
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Just after the Noon Mass at our parish of Holy Rosary, Deacon Jim Fish bestowed the traditional Pilgrims’ Blessing on Francine and I – not to mention our “rucksacks”, “staves”, and shell and rosary. The blessing itself is ancient. In its current form it appears the Missal of Vich Cathedral, Barcelona, Spain, dated to AD 1078. We’re extremely grateful to […]
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For the last six weeks or so, our parish of Holy Rosary has been under the pastoral care of Father Francis Xavier Kikomeko. Father is from Uganda, and he spends his summers vacationing in the Seattle Archdiocese, filling in and helping out where he can. We are so grateful to Father! He is solid, orthodox, and joyful. Pretty much everything […]
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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 […]
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Last weekend, my beautiful bride Francine and I did some walking, and it got me to thinking about the spirituality of walking. I’m always amazed at what you can accomplish by walking. Modern psychologists say that walking makes us smarter, but the idea is hardly original to them. Solvitur ambulando – It is solved by walking. (Saint Augustine) This is […]
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This coming Sunday my parish will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass. This will be the sixth year we’ve taken Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. Our interim priest, Rev. Francis Xavier Kikomeko, will celebrate the Noon Mass of Corpus Christi at the high altar, and eleven children of […]
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It seems like lately, we’re doing this every year. As was announced at the Masses this weekend, Holy Rosary and Visitation Parishes in Tacoma are getting a new pastoral team. Instead of a single priest, however, we’re getting a deacon and a priest, and their roles are not what you might expect. The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain is appointing […]
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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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In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem. May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and […]
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The Reverend Michael Wagner passed to God in the early morning hours of May 2, 2018. Since then, we’ve been caught in the whirlwind of planning and work, with hardly a moment to take it all in. On the night of his death, our parishes came together to chant Solemn Vespers from the Office for the Dead. Rev. Nicholas Wichert, […]
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Mary’s month of May begins with a day for her husband. Today, celebrated around the world as “International Workers’ Day” is the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. There’s poetry to the fact that the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin begins by putting the focus on her husband, and therefore on their family life. Imagine the Holy Family of […]
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It is a week since Father Wagner collapsed and was taken to hospital. Since then, his parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation have had hour-long holy hours/prayer vigils, alternating every night. These are continuing. At Holy Rosary, we somewhat impulsively put his biretta on the altar. Many people were profoundly moved by this gesture, so it has remained there since, […]
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On Tuesday, April 10, Rev. Michael Wagner, Priest Administrator of Visitation and Holy Rosary Parishes in Tacoma collapsed during the celebration of the holy Mass. He was admitted to hospital with an irreversible brain hemorrhage. The doctors have advised his family and the archdiocese that he is unlikely to survive. Much of his family is with him now. Archbishop Sartain […]
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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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