Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
By now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest attested antiphons in the Divine Office, being mentioned in passing in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. They’re rooted […]
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Today is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. If you are in Tacoma, you may hear this sung at Solemn Vespers this evening at Holy Rosary Church. Please join us for this beautiful and holy liturgy at 6:00 PM. These videos, which I will be embedding each day until Christmas, were recorded by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford in […]
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O Wisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for our annual look at the O Antiphons. These antiphons are part of the prayers at the liturgical hour of Vespers for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back to the […]
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This past year, we lost our elderly cat Lucy. She’d lived a good long life, despite some self-destructive behaviour and the fact that most days she was dumb as a bag of rocks. In her kittenish youth, she was quite acrobatic and active, though she also once ate a wicker basket. I miss her. I am reminded of this because […]
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On this 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.
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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 thought I’d post the second reading from today’s Office. Although Ambrose is specifically addressing bishops in this letter, his call to evangelization is for all of us, for all time. You have entered upon the […]
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Happy Saint Nicholas Day! How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a thin man, most famous for giving gifts to prostitutes and punching heretics. That whole “eight tiny reindeer” thing seems like a bit of a come down. Wait, prostitutes? Well, almost. That was the plan of the […]
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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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Let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Somebody […]
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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, and it was fixed on November 1 in the […]
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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 me it is a Solemnity. Always a happy thing on a Friday! Through a weird happenstance, there isn’t actually a Mass being celebrated at […]
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Just about everybody knows Saint Francis. He’s the plaster birdbath guy, right? The saint who hung around with fuzzy pastel animals. Well, sort of. “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” (Saint Francis of Assisi) I very nearly took “Francis” as my confirmation name. It might have been awkward, though, what with being engaged to Francine at the time. Reading […]
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Today is the “Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels” or, in the old calendar, the “Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Michael the Archangel”. Whatever you call it, the most common name is Michaelmas. It is one of several harvest festivals celebrated throughout Christian Europe. In England this is one of the “quarter days”, which was marked by […]
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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. But the child had the great fortune to be born in 1013, a much […]
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In your mercy, please pray for the repose of the soul of Rev. Carmine Sacco, S.J. Fr. Sacco was the pastor of St. Rita parish in Tacoma from 1979 to 2011. He was a solid rock in Tacoma’s Catholic community and touched the lives of generations of Tacoma’s Catholics. He was pastor at St. Rita’s so long that he once […]
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This weekend, me and a couple of guys are taking a road trip and heading over to Mount Angel Abbey for the 2016 Sacred Liturgy Conference. I realize that this is not what most folks do on their Labor Day Weekend, but I’m pretty comfortable in my eccentricities. Here’s the intro from the press release: The Oregon Sacred Liturgy Conference […]
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In this very volatile election in the United States, 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 Tale of Two Cities, begins with words that could […]
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