Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Faith and reason are like the two shoes you wear on your journey. You get a lot farther with both than just one. (J. Michael Straczynski) 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 – you […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of the man many consider to be the founder of Christian monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great of Egypt, the “Father of Monks”. He was born in the middle of the third century in decidedly Pagan Middle Egypt to a well-to-do, comfortable family. He spent much of his life avoiding the sorts of comforts available to him […]
» Read moreOn this day in 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Professor is 121 today! All around the world, at 9pm local time, the Tolkien Society and the Professor’s many other devotees will celebrate his birthday with a toast to “the Professor”. I will join in, and I encourage you to do the same. The Professor’s writing, […]
» Read moreWisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for 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 earliest days of the Christian […]
» Read more
Do you pray to your Guardian Angel? Do you ask them for advice or help? Why not? The Church teaches that we all receive a guardian angel at birth, an angel assigned to guide and protect us, to watch over us. As it says in scripture: There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy […]
» Read more
I am a Polish Catholic priest. I would like to take the place of this man, since he has a wife and children.” (Saint Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Con., taking the place of fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek at Auschwitz. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after being administered a lethal injection.) Because God’s glory shines through most brightly in the salvation […]
» Read moreBoth of my readers will recall that I often reread the Desert Fathers during Lent. Today is the feast day of one of them, Saint Arsenius. He was a wealthy, educated man who gave up everything to worship God in the desert. Quite a contrast with yesterday’s feast of Saint Arnulf of Metz! Benedicta Ward gives the following summary of […]
» Read moreAt a lecture many years ago, I heard Ray Bradbury say, “your job is to collect metaphors”. Apparently, nobody I was with there heard it. So I always assumed he was talking to me. Eternal rest, Mr Bradbury.
» Read more“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” (G.K. Chesterton) Today’s feast is of the great martyr, Saint George. Pious legends of dragon slaying notwithstanding, George was a soldier of the Roman army who was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian in the early […]
» Read moreThese quotes were published by St. Peter’s List. They’re too good not to share. The sense behind these is pervasive throughout much of Catholicism. God created the world, and it is good. The Catholic Church is like a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar. (G.K. Chesterton) In Catholicism, the pint, the pipe and the Cross […]
» Read moreNot only men, but also women went out into the desert in the 4th and 5th centuries. Today’s short reading is attributed to one of these ascetic women saints, Syncletica of Alexandria (c. 270 – 350). Amma Syncletica of holy memory said, “Sore is the toil and struggle of the unrighteous when they turn to God, and afterwards is their […]
» Read moreAn old man was asked, “What is the straight and narrow way?” He replied “The straight way is this, to do violence to one’s thought and to cut off one’s own will. That is what this means. ‘Behold we have left all and followed Thee.’” (Mk 10:28). (Apophthegmata Patrum – The Desert Fathers)
» Read moreYesterday for World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI rather counter-intuitively gave an address on silence. In the spirit of the Desert Fathers, and of the monastic admonition to silence, the Pope spoke of the relationship between “silence and the word”. No dialogue is possible without both of them. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; […]
» Read moreSuffering through a snow day here at Pistachio House when I came upon this. It needs to be shared, and I for one need to ponder the scriptures and the Pope’s words. Helping Those Called to “Recognize the Voice of God and Follow It” VATICAN CITY, JAN. 16, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of the man many consider to be the founder of Christian monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great of Egypt, the “Father of Monks”. He was born in the middle of the third century in decidedly Pagan Middle Egypt to a well-to-do, comfortable family. He spent much of his life avoiding the sorts of comforts available to him […]
» Read moreWisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for 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 earliest days of the Christian […]
» Read moreIn every age the Church is supported by the light and strength of God, that is fed in the wilderness with the bread of His Word and the Holy Eucharist. And so in all tribulations, through all the trials that she meets during the times and in different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecution, but always wins. And […]
» Read more