Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
The Church used to celebrate many Octaves. Many great solemnities, and even some older feasts of lesser liturgical stature, had an Octave. Some holy days are so holy that a single day can’t contain them. Take Easter, for instance. The ancient tradition of the Church is to add an entire week to the Sunday that is Easter, making it actually […]
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Today 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 […]
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Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the American way!” We should fight for the three transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. The transcendentals were known to the Ancient Greeks, but Catholic theologians quickly baptized them into their study of philosophy and theology. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being. They are the properties of all beings, as well as […]
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by G.K. Chesterton Step softly, under snow or rain, To find the place where men can pray; The way is all so very plain That we may lose the way. Oh we have learnt to peer and pore On tortured puzzles from our youth, We know all the labyrinthine lore, We are the three wise men of yore, And we […]
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Happy Epiphany! In a sense, the Feast of the Epiphany is the culmination (if not quite the end) of the Christmas Season. It was once a much more celebrated feast than it is now. In fact, it once had its own Octave. Like many others, I’d love to see that restored. In the popular imagination, the Feast of the Epiphany […]
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Happy twelfth day of Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying your twelve drummers drumming. This evening is called Twelfth Night, traditionally the vigil of the Epiphany. In my Monastic Diurnal, Epiphany begins with tonight’s Vespers. This was traditionally a time of feasting and festivity (all of which seem to include various varieties of enormous pastries) marking the end of Christmastide and […]
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Happy Eleventh Day of Christmas! Today we honour a more modern saint than those of recent days. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized. She was born in 1774 and grew up in a home in upperclass New York society. Her father was frequently absent in London for his business, and her stepmother spurned her […]
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On this day in 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Professor is 127 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, […]
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Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11) Happy Tenth Day of Christmas! Today […]
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Happy Ninth Day of Christmas! Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church. Well, it is in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. On the older calendar, it is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. More on that tomorrow. Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were contemporaries […]
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All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Wishing all of you a very happy new year of 2019, and a most blessed Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, celebrated today on the Octave Day of Christmas. Let us celebrate the motherhood of the Virgin Mary, and let us worship […]
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This has been a crazy year. Here at Pistachio House, we had designated 2018 as the “Year of Hygge“. This was going to be the year that we concentrated on coziness. Pistachio House would be finally made into the cozy home we imagined. There would be coffee cake, walks, and new furnishings. It started out strongly enough, and it certainly […]
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Happy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Sylvester I, pope and confessor. He was born in the southern Italian town of Sant’Angelo a Scala to two Roman citizens, Rufinus and Justa. He was ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus just before the persecutions of Diocletian got underway. He survived those years of terror and saw […]
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Who doesn’t like top ten lists? These are the top ten post hits on the blog for this past year. Not all of the posts receiving the hits were necessarily written this year. Apparently, their appeal is enduring. In addition, for posts that are part of a numbered series (Novena to the Holy Deacons, I’m looking at you), I’ve only […]
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Happy sixth day of Christmas! Today we celebrate the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the Holy Family, God gives us a living icon of family life: child, mother, father. And more than that, this being an icon and not just a pattern or ideal, we are given […]
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Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the martyrdom of the splendid Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name “Thomas”, I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. As we walk through the Christmas season day by day, many martyrs crowd round the crib of the infant Jesus. Saint Thomas, however, is the first of these whose story is […]
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Happy fourth day of Christmas! Today we pause a moment in our revelry for the feast of the Holy Innocents. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained […]
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