Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
After three days of airplanes, buses, and one miraculous taxi, we have finally arrived at the start of our pilgrimage. Francine in the baptistery of the church in O Cebreiro It is late in the evening on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. We have obtained our pilgrim shells, and we attended Mass in the local church of Santa […]
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The tradition that Saint Francis of Assisi made the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is found in some of the earliest hagiographies of the saint. The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, composed in the 14th century, says this: Saint Francis of Asissi In the first beginning of the Order, when there was as yet but few brothers and no convents […]
» Read moreIt is the eleventh hour of our twenty-hour Atlanta layover. We spent much of it getting our Madrid boarding passes, getting to a hotel, and sleeping. Our Atlanta greeter Before that, however, and before our flight, our Camino began with one of those crazy bits of rhyme the Lord seems to love throwing our way. We took a Lyft to […]
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Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope’s true gage, And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage. (from “The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage”, attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh) (Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)
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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 Francine and I embark on our pilgrimage today, we will certainly be asking their help. As it says […]
» Read moreWe thought we’d try something new. This is a (rather disjointed) attempt to put together a video about how we train for the Camino. I blather, Francine makes funny faces, and we walk. And eat second breakfast. Our Training plan for 2016. (Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)
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Just after the Noon Mass at our parish of Holy Rosary, Deacon Jim Fish bestowed the traditional Pilgrims’ Blessing on Francine and I – not to mention our “rucksacks”, “staves”, and shell and rosary. The blessing itself is ancient. In its current form it appears the Missal of Vich Cathedral, Barcelona, Spain, dated to AD 1078. We’re extremely grateful to […]
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Today 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 was marked by […]
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We leave for Spain on Tuesday, and we’ve definitely entered into scramble mode. Equipment purchases, refinements, and testing has gone on for months, but it always seems like there’s something breaking or not working at the last minute. Our rigourous training schedule has gone by the boards this week due to increasingly frantic work pressures. And of course, there’s always […]
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What 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 […]
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Today at 10:05 local time, a small vial of dried blood in Naples turned to liquid, as it has done several times a year since at least the 1380s. The Archbishop of Naples, Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe, briefly collapsed during Mass, just after the miracle occurred. While those reporting the event blamed the heat, I note that the Cardinal is under […]
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Prior to each of our previous Camino pilgrimages, I’ve tried to articulate why it is that we walk. Everybody’s answer is, of course, different. It has ever been thus. Before my first Camino, I had this sense that God was calling me to it, and maybe that was enough of a reason. Maybe it was partly the sense of adventure […]
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Whither is thy Beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women? Whither is thy Beloved turned aside, and we will seek Him with thee? We begin with the first antiphon of Lauds for today’s feast of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Monastic Diurnal. The Blessed Virgin Mary is sometimes called Our Lady of Sorrows – […]
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Today 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 […]
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So 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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Twelve years ago, on September 10th 2006, I made my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey. I am an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict. Much has happened in those years, but much remains the same. As an Oblate, I promise to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict inasmuch as it applies to my state in life. […]
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Nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December, today we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast so ancient that it is celebrated on the same day in both East and West. Scripture tells us very little about the early life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Tradition tells us that she was […]
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