Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph in the Year of Saint Joseph, we would do well to meditate on the life of the man who helped raise the Son of God. It can’t have been easy. Tradition holds that Joseph was already an old man and a widower when he married the Blessed Virgin, who was very young, perhaps […]
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Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one.(J. Michael Straczynski, “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars“) Today is the Feast of the Universal Doctor of the Church and one of my name Saints, Thomas Aquinas. When (certain) people, told of my conversion, said to me “oh, you’re Catholic […]
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Happy Saint Agnes Day! Saint Agnes was a young Roman lady of 12 or 13 who suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of Diocletian in about the year 304. She was one of the youngest of the early martyrs and one of the most moving and articulate. Agnes hastened to the place of torture as a bride to her wedding feast. […]
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Happy Epiphany, probably! In much of the world, and for much of time, today is celebrated as the great Solemnity of the Epiphany, even if many in the United States and Canada celebrated it this past Sunday. In a sense, the Feast of the Epiphany is the culmination (if not quite the end) of the Christmas Season. It was once […]
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All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Wishing all of you a very happy new year of 2021! This day, being the Eighth Day of Christmas, the Octave Day of the Nativity, has always been a holy day in the Christian Calendar. However, the name and focus of this […]
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As 2020 comes finally to its end, we welcome with hope (and no small amount of trepidation) its sequel, 2021. It’s worth remembering, though, that we are also celebrating some other years as well: holy years. The Year of Saint Joseph Pope Francis has declared a “Year of Saint Joseph” from December 8, 2020 through December 8, 2021. This year […]
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Happy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Sylvester I, pope and confessor. He was born in the southern Italian town of Sant’Angelo a Scala to two Roman citizens, Rufinus and Justa. He was ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus just before the persecutions of Diocletian got underway. He survived those years of terror and saw […]
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Congratulations to my friend Gary Rose and to the twenty other men who were ordained to the Diaconate by Archbishop Etienne this morning! Gary and I served together in the altar server program at Holy Rosary, and five years ago both he and I both applied for consideration to be formed for the diaconate. Gary was chosen, and I was […]
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If you think that the Spanish conquistadors are the ones who imposed Catholicism on the hapless Aztecs, well you’re wrong. Lord knows they tried. And tried. And failed. In the first decade of Spanish rule (1521 – 1531), only a handful of natives embraced Christianity. And then… well, here’s the story as found in the venerable Catholic Encyclopedia: To a […]
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On this great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us join together with the Angels and the Saints of all ages in singing the praises of the Mother of God. AVÉ MARÍA, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc […]
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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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Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (d. 06 December 343) Happy Saint Nicholas Day! I mean, it’s on a Sunday this year, so we’re not celebrating him liturgically, but I’m sure in many houses the shoes are filled with chocolate regardless. How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a […]
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Andrew, son of Jonah, fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee. Follower of John the Baptist. The first apostle called by Christ, who told him and his brother, Simon, to “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. After the Resurrection, Andrew preached along the coasts of the Black Sea, both north and south, founding churches that included one […]
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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. Servant of God Thomas of Celano Most probably written by […]
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Once again we come to a feast of All Saints. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “wasn’t that back on the first of November?” Right you are! But today on the Benedictine calendar is the feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside […]
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You would be forgiven for thinking that the Pope’s main church is St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It’s certainly the largest. But no. The Pope’s own church – his episcopal seat as Bishop of Rome – is the church of Saint John Lateran. Front façade. It’s really hard to capture the scale of the place. Which Saint John? Good […]
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Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Given the day’s importance in the life of the Church, there’s a lot of history and liturgy – and Gregorian chant – to unpack. First, let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at […]
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