Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
On this day in 1431, one of the most truly remarkable women who ever lived was burned at the stake. She was 19 years old. She was known as Jehanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maiden), but today we name her Saint Joan of Arc. In 1429 at the tender age of 17, she led the French army to a string […]
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On this day in 1453, the great and holy city of Constantinople fell to the Turks and the Christian Roman Empire came to its apocalyptic end. This morning, as I always am upon this date, I am reminded of Yeats. Sailing to Byzantium That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees […]
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The church in which I was Baptized, Confirmed, and Married has all sorts of Christian symbols painted on the walls. One of them that always set my brain to thinking looked something like this: It is, of course, an ancient Trinitarian symbol, reminding us in a visual way that while the Father is God, and the Son is God, and […]
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Today in the calendar of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is the feast of this blog’s patron, Saint Bede the Venerable. The amazing Saint Bede was a monk, priest, historian, and a Doctor of the Church, all while dealing with Viking attacks. I took the name Bede when I made my final oblation as a Benedictine. Bede occupies […]
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Well, it’s official. The one wrinkle that I’d not seen before is that even though the appointments are effective July 1, the “first weekend of pastoral responsibilities will be July 7-8, 2018”. The other interesting thing is the note that a pastoral coordinator is “under the supervision of a priest moderator”. I’m not sure how that works. Is the parish […]
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It seems like lately, we’re doing this every year. As was announced at the Masses this weekend, Holy Rosary and Visitation Parishes in Tacoma are getting a new pastoral team. Instead of a single priest, however, we’re getting a deacon and a priest, and their roles are not what you might expect. The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain is appointing […]
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We read today in the Acts of the Apostles of this great day, which in a certain way we can celebrate as the birthday of the Church: When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire […]
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Tomorrow is Pentecost, the great solemnity celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. The Church has long celebrated this event in three ways: the solemnity of the day itself, the octave of the day, and the vigil. With the liturgical reforms of the 1960s and 1970s, all but the day itself was suppressed, a sad testament to […]
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Viri Galilæi, quid admiramini aspicientes in cælum? Forty days (and more) have passed since Easter. While most of the world (and indeed, my Benedictine Ordo and our local F.S.S.P. parish) celebrate the day more properly last Thursday, in many places in the United States, today is the Solemnity of the Ascension. That moment when Christ ascended into heaven has to […]
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In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem. May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and […]
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The Reverend Michael Wagner passed to God in the early morning hours of May 2, 2018. Since then, we’ve been caught in the whirlwind of planning and work, with hardly a moment to take it all in. On the night of his death, our parishes came together to chant Solemn Vespers from the Office for the Dead. Rev. Nicholas Wichert, […]
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Mary’s month of May begins with a day for her husband. Today, celebrated around the world as “International Workers’ Day” is the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. There’s poetry to the fact that the month dedicated to the Blessed Virgin begins by putting the focus on her husband, and therefore on their family life. Imagine the Holy Family of […]
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Were it not Sunday, today would be the (combined) feast of four great Abbots of the Benedictine Order: Saints Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugh. They were all good and holy men, and during the course of their reigns over the Abbey of Cluny and its associated priories, they reformed western monasticism – indeed, it could be fairly said that together […]
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Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. In memoria æterna erit iustus, ab auditione mala non timebit. Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord: and let perpetual light shine upon her. She shall be justified in everlasting memory, and shall not fear evil reports. Absolve, Domine, animas omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni vinculo delictorum et gratia tua […]
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John Mark was one of the original seventy disciples (Luke 10:1 ff). Tradition holds that he was one of those who left Christ when he preached on the Bread of Life (John 6:44-6:66). Saint Peter brought him back to the faith. He traveled with Paul and Barnabas, who thought him unreliable (Acts 15:37-41). Again he left, again he came back […]
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