Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
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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At Vespers this evening, the season of Advent begins. For many of us, it seems as though we’re still living through a long Lent. Francine and I have more or less been locked down since March, only venturing outside for our daily walks, store expeditions, and church. Yesterday we pulled the “Advent box” out of the garage and began decorating […]
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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. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral under orders to root out some French colonists in the area. Sighting land in La Florida on 28 August […]
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For many people throughout the world, this year has been a year of loss. The present plague prevents people from gathering and imposes other restrictions on our free-wheeling behaviours. This year, we have cancelled our family Thanksgiving, which we normally hold this weekend. In most places, Mass attendance has been dispensed by our bishops, and in many places access to […]
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Today is the 99th anniversary of the dedication of our former parish church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The church, now in danger, was dedicated on November 21, 1921. Here is what the parish history has to say about the event: Nov. 21, 1921 Thanksgiving Day. The new Church building is dedicated by the Most Rev. Edward J. […]
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Appropriate to today – the Feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order – we once again have the Dies Iræ, the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. Today we pray for the souls of all Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates in purgatory. Servant of God Thomas of Celano Most probably written by […]
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Once again we come to a feast of All Saints. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “wasn’t that back on the first of November?” Right you are! But today on the Benedictine calendar is the feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside […]
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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 the church of Saint John Lateran. Front façade. It’s really hard to capture the scale of the place. Which Saint John? Good […]
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Today in 1605, a cabal of Catholic plotters, hoping to turn back the tides of reformation and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne of Great Britain, attempted to assassinate the very Protestant King James. Their plan – if you can dignify it by calling it a plan – was to blow up the House of Lords during the State […]
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Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Given the day’s importance in the life of the Church, there’s a lot of history and liturgy – and Gregorian chant – to unpack. First, let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at […]
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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, thanks to the abbots of Cluny, and it was […]
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Protestants all over the world celebrate “Reformation Day” on October 31. I don’t. In 2017, on the five hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s revolt, I wrote a lengthy essay on exactly why not, and I think it’s worth reprinting in its entirety. Five Hundred Years Today is the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It is […]
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Today, on the Memorial of Saint John Paul II, I am forcing myself to write. For most of my life, I’ve struggled with – no, “struggled” is too dramatic – I’ve scuffled with recurring mild depression. This will typically manifest itself as lethargy, or nearly manic episodes, or just feeling blue, or some combination or sequence of these. It’s not […]
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Often on this day, I will re-run some version of my article on the “miracle of the sun“. Feel free to follow the link and read up on that again! For today, however, I’d like to highlight Saint Edward the Confessor. He was the son of the unfortunate King Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. Being the King’s seventh son, he never […]
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On October 12, AD 40, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle Saint James near the town of Caesaraugusta in the Roman Province of Hispania, in what is now Zaragoza, Spain. He was discouraged. His mission in Hispania was largely a failure, with few converts and only a handful of ordained men to preach the Gospel here, at the […]
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Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This is the first year since 1891 that no Mass will be celebrated for this feast at what was once the parish of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Tacoma. I’m feeling melancholy today, so I thought I’d post some photos from past celebrations of what was our patronal […]
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by G.K. Chesterton White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;For the inmost sea of all the earth is […]
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