Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Happy Saint Nicholas Day! How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a thin man, most famous for giving gifts to prostitutes and punching heretics. That whole “eight tiny reindeer” thing seems like a bit of a come down. Wait, prostitutes? Well, almost. That was the plan of the […]
» Read more
Advent began with last night’s vespers, and today is the First Sunday of Advent. Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, and His glory fills all the earth. (Magnificat Antiphon for I Vespers on the First Sunday of Advent, Monastic Diurnal) Not sure exactly what Advent is? Here’s a two-minute snapshot. Meanwhile, I’m doing my annual fumbling to […]
» Read more
Today is historically the memorial of Saint Edmund Campion. If the paintings of him are to be believed, he is a man to whom I bear more than a passing resemblance. We commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation this year. Many continue to see this as a good thing. I don’t. Here is one of many, many […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
This morning for the first time I served at a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It was a votive Mass of Saint Joseph, celebrated at Saint Joseph church in Tacoma by the Rev. Caleb Insco, F.S.S.P. This is only the second time I’ve served at the Vetus Ordo, and I was extremely nervous. Throughout the […]
» Read more
This Advent, as in past years, our parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be celebrating Vespers in the church on Sundays at 6:00 PM. Please join us! There’s nothing like chanted Vespers in a beautiful, echoing church to pull the heart and mind towards the Lord.
» Read more
Today is the great feast of Christ the King. In years past, we’ve held our “Franksgiving” feast on this day. This year, due to logistics, we held it last week. As it is every year at this time, Pistachio House was transformed into a great feasting hall of the ancient of days. And it is right that we celebrate God’s […]
» Read more
You are invited to an Advent tradition: a Rorate Mass on Saturday, December 16 at 6:00 AM. I can already hear the questions forming. What is a Rorate Mass? And why on earth would you have one at six in the morning? Well, here’s the FAQ, as the kids say. What is a Rorate Mass? It is a Solemn Votive […]
» Read more
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.
» Read more
Saint Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. Legend has it that she, her husband Valerian, and her brother-in-law Tiburtius were martyred during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, about the year 230. Her name appears in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) among Rome’s other beloved martyrs, and when Christianity became legal […]
» Read more
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. Most probably written by Servant of God Thomas of Celano near […]
» Read more
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 […]
» Read more
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. Which Saint John? Good question. Two of them, actually, for the full name of this church […]
» Read more
Today in 1605, a cabal of Catholic plotters, hoping to turn back the tides of reformation and restore a Catholic monarch to 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 Opening of England’s […]
» Read more
Let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Somebody […]
» Read more
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, and it was fixed on November 1 in the […]
» Read more
Today is the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It is fitting that this day is commemorated on the eve of All Saints Day, because Martin Luther began by doing the work of the saints. Ultimately, though, he chose another path. He chose the path of deciding that he knew better than Scripture, Tradition, the combined […]
» Read more