Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Seventeen centuries ago on this very night, the Roman Emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus, in peril of his crown and his life, had a dream. Constantine was fighting a civil war against his rival, the Emperor Maxentius. Constantine had marched his army of 40,000 men over the Alps and across Italy. Maxentius, who had already defeated two other rivals, […]
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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 moreProfessor Tolkien’s works embody his deep and abiding Catholic faith and worldview. Today in the calendar of Middle Earth, it is Durin’s Day. Durin J.R.R. Tolkien The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No words were laid on stream or stone, … When Durin woke and walked along. He named the nameless […]
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Today is the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England. But I’m not going to talk about him today. On this day in 1307 – on the 63rd birthday of their Grand Master Jacques de Molay – hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Phillip IV. I’m not going […]
» Read moreAs part of my observance of the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, I will be receiving e-mail snippets every day in an effort to read the Catechism in a year. Today I received the first of these e-mail messages, containing the first ten paragraphs of the Catechism. I was immediately struck by paragraph 3, which outlines our […]
» Read morePope Benedict XVI has proclaimed a “Year of Faith” to run from today, 11 October 2012, through to 24 November 2013. Pastoral guidelines have been published that call for prayer, celebrations, pilgrimages, catechetical events, missions, and new forms of evangelization. The Pope calls us to profess the faith, celebrate the faith, and witness to the faith. Faith grows when it […]
» Read moreEverybody 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 moreLast year on this great feast day, I discussed the Battle of Lepanto, which gave rise to the feast, and the Rosary, which is its heart. This year, when I am now a parishioner of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, I can do no better than to present G.K. Chesterton’s great poem on the events. Lepanto White founts falling […]
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Most High, all powerful, good Lord, Yours are the praises, the glory, the honor, and all blessing. To You alone, Most High, do they belong, and no man is worthy to mention Your name. Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he […]
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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 moreGod willing, six months from today I will set out on my Camino. Where has the time gone? Most of the clothing and equipment I plan on taking has been purchased at this point, though there are still a lot of fiddly things to get – lightweight containers (stuff sacks), for example. I’m keeping track of some of the items […]
» Read moreThis beautiful, rainy Saturday 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 […]
» Read moreWhat 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 […]
» Read moreThere’s something deeply poetic about God’s continual use of the lowly and marginalized to proclaim His majesty and His Truth. Let’s review; the ancient Hebrews were not exactly on par with mighty Egypt or Babylon, Assyria or Hatti, Greece or Rome, in terms of power and prestige among nations of the ancient world. The father or their nation, Abraham? A […]
» Read moreFrom the Catholic News Agency: Members of the Catholic clergy from around the United States hiked 100 miles of an ancient pilgrimage this summer, relying on God to give them strength to endure suffering along the way. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup, N.M., Fr. Gerry Baker of Owensboro, Ky. and Fr. Don […]
» Read moreToday is celebrated in the western Church as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Exaltatio Sanctæ Crucis). In the eastern Church, it is known as “the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-creating Cross”. The feast commemorates a number of events: the finding of the True Cross in 326 in Jerusalem by Saint Helena, the later dedication […]
» Read moreSo 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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