Lenten Vespers
If you live in the area, please join us as we celebrate Vespers every Sunday during Lent at 6:00 pm at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Tacoma.
» Read moreCategory: Holy Rosary Parish Tacoma
A Liturgical Lent: a Review and a Look Forward
At my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma, we had a lot going on for this first weekend of Lent. Think of this as a look into the life of a parish pursuing the vision of the New Liturgical Movement during Lent. You could almost consider this a snapshot review of our parish liturgical life. Friday Although not strictly liturgical, […]
» Read moreParish Lenten Calendar, 2018
Come join us for some of these liturgies and devotions this Lent! This Lenten Calendar is obviously in addition to our normal Mass schedule at Holy Rosary: Saturday Vigil: 5:00 PM (preceded by Adoration, Rosary, Benediction) Sunday: 12:00 PM (with asperges and Angelus) Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 7:15 AM (followed by Rosary) Friday School Mass: 9:00 AM Plus, don’t forget simple […]
» Read moreAsh Wednesday
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, our Lent has begun. Holy Mother Church calls us to make these next forty days until Easter a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a pilgrimage, in a sense, through time if not space, through death to resurrection. A pilgrimage of penitence. Let […]
» Read moreCandlemas
Today was once one of the most solemn feasts of the year. It’s gone by several names over the millennia: the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Candlemas. Coming forty days after Christmas, it was even once the end of the Christmas season. Even today there are relics of […]
» Read moreRorate Cæli
This past Saturday, our parish of Holy Rosary celebrated a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This particular tradition is known as the Rorate Mass, for the first word of its entrance antiphon (Introit): Roráte cæli désuper, et núbes plúant jústum. Aperiatur terra et germinet salvatorem. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the […]
» Read moreAdvent Vespers
This Advent, as in past years, our parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be celebrating Vespers in the church on Sundays at 6:00 PM. Please join us! There’s nothing like chanted Vespers in a beautiful, echoing church to pull the heart and mind towards the Lord.
» Read moreRorate Mass in the Ordinary Form
You are invited to an Advent tradition: a Rorate Mass on Saturday, December 16 at 6:00 AM. I can already hear the questions forming. What is a Rorate Mass? And why on earth would you have one at six in the morning? Well, here’s the FAQ, as the kids say. What is a Rorate Mass? It is a Solemn Votive […]
» Read moreRestoring the Sacred
In the past week or so, I have spoken with several people about our liturgical strategic plan at our parish of Holy Rosary. We talk about the ideal liturgical life of the parish, about our constraints in terms of people and resources, and about what steps we can take to transcend our limitations and move forward. I thought I might […]
» Read moreOur Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary
Today 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 join us for the Mass of the feast, either tonight […]
» Read moreAd Orientem Training
At our parish of Holy Rosary, we sometimes celebrate Mass on the High Altar. This method, where for much of the Eucharistic prayer the Priest and the people are facing the same direction, is known as ad Orientem. For many years, we have celebrated Mass this way at the Solemnity of Corpus Christi and at least one Sunday in Advent. […]
» Read moreIn Praise of Altar Servers
Last Thursday, we celebrated a funeral in our parish of Holy Rosary. Nothing unusual in that. The one constant of life is the inevitability of death. This particular funeral was that of a priest, Rev. Dominic Hahn. He was born in 1937, was baptized and grew up in our parish, graduated from our parish school, became a Benedictine monk, and […]
» Read moreDom Matthew Britt
Dom Matthew Britt, O.S.B. is one of the great writers of practical liturgics in the twentieth century. His classic How to Serve was republished by Tan in 2011. This book is a treasure, and I have made extensive use of it, both in planning for Ordinary Form Masses and for learning to serve the Extraordinary Form. I also have a […]
» Read moreFátima in Tacoma
This past Saturday (July 22), our parish of Holy Rosary was host to the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fátima. This statue has been on the road worldwide since 1947. The statue is in the middle of a two-year journey across America to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fátima. It was sculpted according to […]
» Read moreThe Emperor Saint
It’s a pretty rare thing when Kings become saints, or at least become canonized saints. I can only think of a handful off the top of my head, though I’m sure there are more: Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Edward the Confessor of Anglo-Saxon England, Saint Stephen of Hungary. Today is the memorial of the only Western Emperor Saint […]
» Read moreChanges 2017: Welcome Father Wagner!
This weekend, Father Michael Wagner celebrated his first Masses at our parish of Holy Rosary as its Priest Administrator. In his homily, he gave us a thumbnail sketch of his life and vocation story. Welcome Father Wagner! Within ten minutes of meeting him, he had already given me a catechesis on the correct placement of the Stations of the Cross […]
» Read moreChanges 2017: Farewell to Father Wichert
This morning, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Father Nicholas Wichert celebrated his last Mass at Holy Rosary as its thirteenth pastor. The Mass was celebrated for the fathers of our parish on the Saint Joseph altar. I served at the Mass, and I was able to make good on a promise I made to one of our young […]
» Read more