Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Mary’s month of May draws to a close with the Feast of the Visitation. This feast celebrates the visit of Mary, pregnant with Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:39-56). So this feast is a celebration of the very first Christian community, consisting of two pregnant mothers and their unborn children. Saint Luke’s account culminates […]
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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, 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 – Those dying generations – at their […]
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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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Today in the calendar of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is the feast of this blog’s patron, Saint Bede the Venerable. Today in the older calendars, it is the Solemnity of the Ascension. More on that later, probably. The amazing Saint Bede was a Benedictine monk, priest, historian, and a Doctor of the Church, all while dealing with […]
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Today is the feast of a most remarkable saint, Peter Celestine. Pietro Angelerio was born in the village of Sant’Angelo Limosano, in south-central Italy, in the year 1215. At age 17, he became a Benedictine monk. By the time he was in his thirties, his abbot had given him permission to enter a hermitage in a cave. He became famed […]
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Yesterday at my parish of Holy Rosary, we celebrated a votive Mass on the Marian altar. This was more or less our Mother’s Day Mass. We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and last year we added a Father’s Day Mass in June at the Saint Joseph altar. This is a laudable custom, and I hope […]
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On this day in 1917, exactly a century ago, the Blessed Virgin began appearing to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal. She appeared on the thirteenth day of six consecutive months, culminating in the great Miracle of the Sun. Regardless of miracles, Catholics are not obliged to believe these “private revelations”. Indeed, the Church is very careful to investigate these […]
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Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky; Heaven thunders forth its victor cry; The glad earth shouts its triumph high, And groaning hell makes wild reply: While He, the King of glorious might, Treads down death’s strength in death’s despite, And, trampling hell by victor’s right, Brings forth His sleeping Saints to light. Fast barred beneath the stone of late In […]
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Years ago, I wrote a post titled “Hopes and Prayers for a new Pastor“. If the stats are to be believed, this is one of the most consistently popular posts on this blog. I wrote then: Being a pastor is one of the most difficult jobs in the world, I think. The responsibility of shepherding souls must be a great […]
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Today for the first time I served at low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. It was a private Mass, the regularly scheduled daily Mass having ended about twenty minutes before. It was beautiful. Father Insco has been training me for a while now. I did flub up a few things at the very end, and my memorization is terrible. I […]
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This past weekend, I visited Mount Angel Abbey for retreat. I’d been once before, for an amazing liturgy conference they gave last year. This year, I went to accompany my new godson as he spent the weekend in a discernment retreat. The instant I arrived, I felt like my blood pressure dropped twenty points. During the weekend, I of course […]
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Today is 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 they saved western monasticism. My […]
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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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