Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today is the feast of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. And at this moment in the history of the Church, we could very much use another like him. 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 […]
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On today’s Vigil of the Assumption, we celebrate also the memory of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan Friar and priest who spent much of his life as a missionary. He returned to his native Poland, where he helped lead a publishing house that produced religious tracts and anti-Nazi literature. The friary itself provided shelter to refugees, including some 2,000 Jews […]
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A Requiem Mass will be offered for Rev. Kenneth Baker, S.J. tomorrow morning, Friday, August 14, at 8:00 AM at Saint Joseph Church in Tacoma. For a few brief months in 2011, he was our interim pastor at Saint Rita Parish. When he celebrated his first Mass with us on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, he began his […]
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Every day, I read a chapter (or part of a chapter) from the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. This is done on a specific cadence, so that in a year I read through the entirety of the Rule three times. Today’s reading discusses the three promises a new monk makes upon entering the monastery. These are not, as you would […]
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This morning just before I started my 5K walk, I reflexively checked the email on my phone. What I saw absolutely stopped me in my tracks, and I had to take a couple of minutes to regroup. The first two emails were little nudges to respond or follow up to older messages. The top one was something I had written […]
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This is somehow Francine’s second birthday since she passed to the Lord. No, I don’t understand it either. It was our custom to celebrate her birthday with a dinner at some new place we hadn’t tried before. In 2023, we had her birthday dinner at a local tapas place called Amor. Her photo from that dinner now hangs in the […]
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The chapel at Pistachio House is the oldest building on the property. It began its life in about 1904 as the shack in which the folks who built Pistachio House lived during construction. Over the decades and century since then, it has served at various times as a coal bin, a workshop, and storage. When Francine and I bought Pistachio […]
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One year ago today, I buried the love of my life in the cold earth of a priest’s grave. It’s an impossible thing. My heart aches even to think about it. Since I have returned from the Camino, the largest presence in Pistachio House is Francine’s absence. Today is also the feast of Saint Benedict, and Francine and I are […]
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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and […]
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This morning, I’m getting on an airplane to fly to Paris. God willing, I begin walking on pilgrimage from Vézelay, France, on April 9. It was Francine’s dream to walk the Camino from Vézelay ever since she heard about this route in 2022. We have been actively planning this pilgrimage walk since late 2023. Francine was an enthusiastic pilgrim – […]
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On this day, 25 years ago, I took an oath and became a citizen of the United States of America. I am an immigrant. I love my country, and perhaps more, I love the ideals that my country has always claimed to stand for, even if she has often fallen short. Twice in the previous three generations, my family have been […]
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During Lent, I am often reminded of one of my favourite stories from the Desert Fathers. This year, perhaps, it hits a little differently. In the relative aloneness and solitude I live these days, I am much closer to the desert than in years previous. Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as […]
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At our parish of Saint Patrick in Tacoma, we are celebrating Solemn Vespers on the evening of each Sunday of Lent at 6:00 PM. Please, join us in the coming weeks if you are local and able. Chanted Vespers is a beautiful and traditional way of worship in our faith. This is our third year singing Vespers in Lent, and two […]
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This has been a rough week. One of the ways I volunteer at my parish is as an adult catechist. I’m part of our OCIA team; we teach the faith to those adults seeking baptism or full communion with the Catholic Church. We have a great team – we have some folks who are real theological heavyweights, some folks who […]
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Today is the memorial of the blessed martyr Saint Polycarp. Burned alive and then beheaded in the city of Rome for the crime of being a Christian bishop, he was a disciple of Saint John the Apostle. In fact, he was ordained bishop of Smyrna by Saint John. He wrote many letters, though only one has survived the centuries, his […]
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Francine and I bought Pistachio House in the Autumn of 2006. We moved in with a tribe of kids and cats. Sometime before that first Christmas, we rescued two kittens who had been born under the porch next door in the Autumn and abandoned by their mother. These were Sophie and Linus, who by our reckoning were the first of […]
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Eighteen years ago today, Francine and I were married at Saint Patrick Church in Tacoma. The celebrant was our good friend (and my former coworker and chess opponent) Rev. Bryan Dolejsi. Afterwards, we had a reception at the Holy Rosary school auditorium. Both the wedding and reception had a roaring 20s theme. Francine made her wedding dress and some of […]
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