Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Saint Ambrose of Milan, a contemporary mosaic portrait Today is the feast of the great Doctor of the Church, Saint Ambrose of Milan (340-397). Rather than prattle on about this great saint, I’m posting the second reading from today’s Office of Readings. Although Ambrose is specifically addressing bishops in this letter, his call to evangelization is for all of us, […]
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For many people throughout the world, this year has been a year of loss. The present plague prevents people from gathering and imposes other restrictions on our free-wheeling behaviours. This year, we have cancelled our family Thanksgiving, which we normally hold this weekend. In most places, Mass attendance has been dispensed by our bishops, and in many places access to […]
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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, thanks to the abbots of Cluny, and it was […]
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Today, on the Memorial of Saint John Paul II, I am forcing myself to write. For most of my life, I’ve struggled with – no, “struggled” is too dramatic – I’ve scuffled with recurring mild depression. This will typically manifest itself as lethargy, or nearly manic episodes, or just feeling blue, or some combination or sequence of these. It’s not […]
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Do you pray to your Guardian Angel? Do you ask them for advice or help? Why not? The Church teaches that we all receive a guardian angel at birth, an angel assigned to guide and protect us, to watch over us. As it says in scripture: There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy […]
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What kind of life could the child possibly look forward to? He was born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida. In these progressive days, the child very well might have been aborted after the doctor showed the mother her first detailed fetal ultrasound. Blessed Hermann of Reichenau But the child had the great fortune to be born […]
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O great work of love: death then was dead when on the Cross Life iteself had died.(Antiphon 1 of Monastic Lauds for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) At some point over the next day or so I may have some reflections on yesterday’s Mass (and unexpected procession). I’m still processing the emotions, sense of mourning, and the consolations and […]
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Today is the fourteenth anniversary of my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey. Recently, Francine and I have considered the idea of transferring our promise of stability to Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon. Just another moment of uncertainty in this uncertain age. Saint Benedict. Detail from a fresco by Fra Angelico. As Oblates, we promise to […]
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Nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December, today we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast so ancient that it is celebrated on the same day in both East and West. WEST: Giotto’s Birth of the Virgin Scripture tells us very little about the early life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. […]
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Today is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking […]
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In this very volatile moment in our history, both of the United States and of the Catholic Church, where 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 is hardly unique to our age. Charles Dickens’ great classic, A […]
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No, not that one. Today is the feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Born in 1090 to a noble Burgundian family near Dijon, he entered the monastery at age 23. In less than three years, he was sent by his abbot to found a new monastery in Vallée d’Absinthe on 25 June 1115. Bernard named this new monastery Clairvaux, meaning […]
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Saint Bonaventure, whose memorial is today in the Ordinary Form, received his (much delayed) doctorate in theology in Paris in 1257, in the same class as Saint Thomas Aquinas. Later that same year, he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order. Bonaventure spent much of his life as a theologian at the university, living in poverty as a Franciscan […]
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Happy feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle! Today wasn’t always his feast. In fact in my Monastic Diurnal, today is the Memorial of Saints Processus and Martinian. I’m sure these holy martyrs will forgive me if I choose to celebrate the Apostle today as well, since he is my name saint. I thought today I’d share with you part of […]
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Sir Thomas More(by Hans Holbein the Younger) Today is the memorial of one of my favourite saints, Saint Thomas More, who died at the hands of King Henry VIII (that villain). That is, today is his memorial in the modern Roman calendar, which he shares with Saint John Fisher, also executed by the same king. In my Benedictine ordo, however, […]
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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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For seven years, on the Sunday Solemnity of Corpus Christi, my parish of Holy Rosary had an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass, taking Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. Rev. Jacob Maurer in the Corpus Christi Procession, 2013 This is a particularly special solemnity for our parish. Back in 2013, this […]
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