Reflections on the Mass of the Immaculate Conception
Normally, we ask the servers, lectors, and extraordinary ministers to arrive thirty minutes before Mass. I was coming from work, and due to the train schedule I arrived an hour before Mass was scheduled to begin. I walked from the train station to the church in a refreshingly cool evening rain. Father was hearing Confessions, and there were a small […]
» Read moreImmaculate!
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.
» Read moreJolly Old Saint Nicholas
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 their father’s plan, since […]
» Read moreFor the Crime of Being a Priest
In addition to being the first Monday of Advent this year, today is also historically the memorial of Saint Edmund Campion. If the paintings of him are to be believed, he is a man to whom I bear more than a passing resemblance. Today I’m going to upset some of my (Protestant) Christian friends who see the Reformation as a […]
» Read moreIt’s Advent!
Advent begins with tonight’s vespers, for tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent. Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, and His glory fills all the earth. (Magnificat Antiphon for I Vespers on the First Sunday of Advent, Monastic Diurnal) Not sure exactly what Advent is? Here’s a two-minute snapshot.
» Read moreThe First Thanksgiving
Fifty-six years before the English Puritan refugees at Plymouth celebrated their “first Thanksgiving”, Spanish explorers and their Timucua allies celebrated one in Saint Augustine, in what is now Florida. They had bean soup.
» Read moreCecilia
Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs, even though the facts of her martrydom are a little vague. Legend has it that she, her husband Valerian, and her brother-in-law Tiburtius were martyred during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, about the year 230. Her name appears in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) […]
» Read moreLex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi
Dom Mark Kirby, the Prior of Our Lady of the Cenacle Monastery (Silverstream Priory) has written a thoughtful and important article to which I’d like to draw your attention. Speaking in Vienna this week, His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke said, “The Church’s discipline can never be other than true to her doctrine.” His Eminence was, in effect, articulating a […]
» Read moreFrom Living and Chosen Stones
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 in the church of Saint John Lateran. Which Saint John? Good question. Two of them, actually, for the full name of this […]
» Read moreThe Day of the Dead
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 […]
» Read moreFor All the Saints
Happy Feast of All Saints! This is the day where we celebrate all the saints, known and unknown: the Church Triumphant. This day has been a feast since the sixth or seventh century, and it was fixed on November 1 in the Roman calendar by Pope Gregory III in the mid 8th century. Yesterday, of course, was the vigil or […]
» Read moreThese Wounds I had on Crispian’s Day
Happy Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian! Enter the KING WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day! KING. What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark’d to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if […]
» Read moreSaint Luke
Saint Luke is my kind of writer. Luke the historian and Luke the lyrical poet are both in evidence in his New Testament writings, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He freely admits that he never met Christ in the flesh, that he was not a witness to the events he describes in his Gospel. Like any good […]
» Read moreThe Four Ends of Mass
I‘ve long been an admirer of the Catholic Gentleman blog, so much so that I recently added a link in the “Blogs of Note” section on the left. Today they’ve got a great article up on The Four Ends of Mass. Let’s begin with what the mass is not. The mass is not a community meal designed to strengthen our […]
» Read moreHe Just Never Stopped Preaching
Everybody knows a guy who just won’t shut up. Sometimes it’s not even that he has something to say, or that he likes the sound of his own voice. Sometimes these are the folks who are genuinely frightened by silence. Sometimes, they just don’t know how not to talk. If those folks had a patron saint, it would no doubt […]
» Read moreAltar Servers on the Feast
This past Sunday, our parish celebrated its feast day with Masses (Ordinary Form, English with Latin responses) and a potluck. The feast of the Holy Rosary is actually today, but since it is our patronal solemnity, the Archbishop has given permission to move the celebration to the nearest Sunday. One of my volunteer gigs there is to coordinate the Altar […]
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