Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Saint Hildegard of Bingen is one of those medieval figures who can cause a lot of confusion to people not paying close attention. She (or, rather, a version of her with her Christianity stripped out) has been adopted by some of the New Agers as one of their own. Of course, if you strip the Christianity out of the life […]
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So saith today’s saint, the incomparable Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407). He was, of course, himself a bishop. It seems that this pithy quote is a popularization of the full (attributed) quote, where the saint is talking about the relatively few in number who will be saved and the bad shepherds who are responsible: The road to Hell is paved […]
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Only a handful of Popes ever get named “Great”. Today in the Ordinary Roman calendar is the feast of one of them, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 – 604). Gregory had been born into an ancient and wealthy Roman family. Before he was 30 years old, he had been a Roman Senator and […]
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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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“Keeper of the Treasures” by Deacon Lawrence Klimecki Today is the feast of the Deacon martyr, Saint Lawrence. There are so many stories about him, that it’s hard to sum him up briefly. In the confused days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus, the administration of the Roman churches fell to the Deacon, Lawrence. He was captured by the Imperial […]
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Today is the Memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Of old, it was the proper Vigil of Saint Lawrence. Both of these great saints suffered martyrdom, Lawrence to the Roman Empire and Teresa Benedicta to Nazi Germany. The Vigil of Saint Lawrence is still celebrated in my monastic breviary, albeit in a very peculiar fashion. Rather than praying […]
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Santo Domingo de Guzmán by Claudio Coello (1642-1693) Tomorrow is the feast of Saint Dominic de Guzmán. He was born near Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, just north of the Camino, in 1170. Legend has it that before his birth, his barren mother made a pilgrimage to Silos, and dreamt that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a […]
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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! Their names are first recorded in the Protoevangelium of James, written probably in the second century. This is one of those works that mix facts with fancy to prove a point, so we must […]
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Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus. Neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but rather from the Mozarabic Rite.
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Fifty years ago today, on July 20, 1969, human beings first set foot upon the Moon. My mother claims I watched the landing, at the tender age of two, hiding underneath the coffee table. If so, I don’t remember it. My lovely bride Francine, however, does. Her birthday is July 21, and she clearly remembers having a lunar module on […]
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On this, the Memorial of Saint Arnulf of Metz (c. 582 — 640), patron saint of brewers, let us hoist a tankard to his memory and say a prayer for his intercession. For some reason, the English found “Arnulf” too difficult, so in many English-language resources he is known as “Arnold”. Go figure. It was July 642 and very hot […]
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Tradition holds that on July 16, 1251, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Simon Stock, prior general of the Carmelites. She offered him a message of hope for the Order, a message that they sorely needed. At this time, the Carmelite Order was in trouble. They had their origins as a community of hermits on the slopes of Mount […]
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Saint Bonaventure (1221 – 1274) 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 […]
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I’m going to go out on a limb and say that vanishingly few American churches have an image of today’s saint. But ours does. Let me explain. It’s a pretty rare thing when Kings become saints, or at least become canonized saints. I can only think of a handful off the top of my head, though I’m sure there are […]
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Icon of Saint Benedict at Mount Athos For today’s Feast of Saint Benedict, I thought I’d share with you some of the short videos and documentaries I’ve found over the years that give an insight into the monastic life. Every monastery is different, of course, as you will see in these videos, but these monks have all responded to the […]
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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. Grant, almighty God,that we may glory in the Feast […]
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