Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Seattle has a new auxiliary bishop! I offer my heart-felt congratulations to the Most Reverend Frank Schuster who was today consecrated a bishop at Saint James Cathedral in Seattle. The Most Reverend Frank Schuster I only met his Excellency once. He was (and still is) in charge of the formation of permanent deacons for the archdiocese, and we briefly met […]
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May the second looms large in my life. On this day in 2013, Francine and I walked into Santiago de Compostela for the first time, at the end of our first Camino. At this point, Francine had been walking for almost two weeks, and me for more than a month. I can’t describe the joy of that day. Arrival in […]
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Earlier today as I was taking out the trash, I heard a symphony of panicked squawks from our hens in Paradise Towers. I’d heard that sound before. It could only mean one thing. One of the hens had died. And indeed, the three surviving hens were huddled near the body of Amelia, who we usually called “Big Red”. She was […]
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Earlier today, Pope Francis consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine”, thus fulfilling the wishes of Mary at Fátima in 1917. Theologians can debate whether this consecration was somehow more “valid” than the ones performed by Venerable Pope Pope Pius XII in 1942, Pope Saint Paul VI in 1964, or […]
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Well that got your attention, didn’t it? It’s not quite true of course; Patrick may have been born on the isle of Britain, but in a time before the Angles had arrived and started making it Angland. No, his family were Roman Catholic churchmen from the Roman Imperial province of Britannia. Today, nobody is going to go around speaking in […]
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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. For […]
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Back in December of 2019, I posted some noodlings about the call of the Camino and where we might walk next. While both of the options I discussed there are still very much in our future plans, a more immediate Camino adventure calls: the Camino Primitivo. Francine and I have been talking about this particular Camino for close to a […]
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Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the fourteenth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It’s important to mark those changes in our lives. Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I […]
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Once again, it’s time for our annual look back at the year that was. And what a year! The plague and lockdowns continued, but instead of looking at the crazy out there, we’re concentrating on the crazy in here – in the form of a top ten. This is now the fifth annual, so I guess it now falls under […]
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Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. Over the years, I’ve written many articles on St. Thomas Becket, one of my favourite saints. I’ve provided links to them below. While thinking about what new thing I could say about this great saint, it occurred to me that this year […]
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Today has been a busy, exciting, and exhausting day. This morning, after a series of interviews this week, I accepted an offer from GitHub, where I have been contracting much of the year. I also contracted with them for a year or so before the Plague. There are still some formalities – a contract to sign on Monday, a background […]
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Today is the 450th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto. In later years, the anniversary of this day was celebrated as the Feast of Our Lady of Victory and later, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Back in high school, a group of us did an extensive report on the events of this day for my freshman history class. We […]
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Depart from me, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me. (Antiphon 1 of Monastic Lauds for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows) One year ago today, Archbishop Paul Etienne celebrated the final Mass of Holy Rosary parish in Tacoma. Tomorrow is the Feast of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the following day is the Feast […]
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Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,fair as the moon, bright as the sun,terrible as an army set in array?(Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that holds a special […]
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Although they are not mentioned in scripture, tradition remembers the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents as Saints Joachim and Anne. Today is their feast. This is also the patronal feast of our new parish of St. Ann. May you have all the joy of the feast! Yesterday evening, having just arrived back home after several days hiking and […]
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Today, July 1 2021, is the effective date of my parish of Holy Rosary merging into the parish of Saint Ann. It is a bittersweet moment. On the one hand, I am told that a decree officially suppressing Holy Rosary parish and merging it into Saint Ann will be published today, and it truly does seem like the final end […]
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