1066
Nine hundred fifty years ago today, the English lost the Battle of Hastings to the Norman invaders. King Harold II died in the battle, and the claim of William the Bastard of Normandy to the throne of England was sealed. Just yesterday was the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England of the old line. […]
» Read moreAnd the Sun Trembled…
Today is the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England of the old line. But I’m not going to talk about him. On this day in 1307 – on the 63rd birthday of their Grand Master Jacques de Molay – hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Phillip IV. […]
» Read moreQuasquicentennial!
If you are anywhere near Tacoma this weekend, please join us on Sunday for the 125th anniversary of the founding of our parish. The Mass is at Noon, and it will be followed by a reception in the School hall. Here’s the blurb from one of our local papers: Holy Rosary’s steeple rises above downtown Tacoma and towers over I-5. […]
» Read moreLepanto
by G.K. Chesterton White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run; There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared, It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard; It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips; For the inmost sea of […]
» Read moreThe Most Holy Rosary
Today is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. For most of the Catholic world, this is a memorial of various sorts. Since, however, my parish is dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for me it is a Solemnity. Always a happy thing on a Friday! Through a weird happenstance, there isn’t actually a Mass being celebrated at […]
» Read moreNo, It’s Just Thursday
What a day – and it’s not quite over yet! If it wasn’t for to-do lists, I don’t know how I would function. Called the paper for non-delivery (again) – check. Breakfast and Lauds – check. Worked on Incident Report for the Firm – check. Meeting with Pastor – check. Worked on making Firm security guide “more avuncular” – check. […]
» Read moreSaint Francis of Assisi
Just about everybody knows Saint Francis. He’s the plaster birdbath guy, right? The saint who hung around with fuzzy pastel animals. Well, sort of. “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” (Saint Francis of Assisi) I very nearly took “Francis” as my confirmation name. It might have been awkward, though, what with being engaged to Francine at the time. Reading […]
» Read moreHappy Memorial of Saint Jerome!
Happy Michaelmas!
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 […]
» Read moreQuality of Life
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 […]
» Read moreRev. Carmine Sacco: Requiem Æternam
In your mercy, please pray for the repose of the soul of Rev. Carmine Sacco, S.J. Fr. Sacco was the pastor of St. Rita parish in Tacoma from 1979 to 2011. He was a solid rock in Tacoma’s Catholic community and touched the lives of generations of Tacoma’s Catholics. He was pastor at St. Rita’s so long that he once […]
» Read moreOur Lady of Sorrows
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 – […]
» Read moreExaltation of the Holy Cross
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 […]
» Read moreNew Benedictine Abbot Primate Elected
This morning, on September 10, 2016, Abbot Gregory Polan, O.S.B., of Conception Abbey, Conception, Mo., was elected Abbot Primate of the 1500-year-old Benedictine Order at the Congress of Abbots meeting in Rome, Italy held every four years. As head of the Benedictine Confederation, Abbot Gregory will be the unifying head of the worlds 7,000 Benedictine monks and become the abbot […]
» Read moreSacred Liturgy Conference
This weekend, me and a couple of guys are taking a road trip and heading over to Mount Angel Abbey for the 2016 Sacred Liturgy Conference. I realize that this is not what most folks do on their Labor Day Weekend, but I’m pretty comfortable in my eccentricities. Here’s the intro from the press release: The Oregon Sacred Liturgy Conference […]
» Read moreHe’s Lost His Head!
Today is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking […]
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