Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Here’s an insight into how my mind works. As I was walking in to work one morning a couple of years ago, commuter coffee mug firmly in hand, it suddenly struck me: the reason we call coffee “joe” is because it gets us through our morning, much as Saint Joseph got his foster-son Jesus through the “morning” of his life. […]
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On this Friday, a week before Good Friday, the Church has traditionally remembered the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. While the commemoration was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1970, it survives in the Extraordinary Form and in many local calendars, including the calendar of that most Catholic country of Malta, as well as in many Hispanic countries. […]
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Well that got your attention, didn’t it? It’s not quite true of course; Patrick may have been born on the isle of Britain, but in a time before the Angles had arrived and started making it Angland. No, his family were Roman Catholic churchmen from the Roman Imperial province of Britannia. Today, nobody is going to go around speaking in […]
» Read moreThere has not been a lot of training this week. In fact, I have not left the house since Sunday. I get migraines a couple of times a year. Normally, I can spot the symptoms of a developing migraine and “head it off at the pass” with hydration and Excedrin. On Saturday afternoon, however, I did not spot the symptoms […]
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A week ago we celebrated Lætare Sunday, a burst of joy in the midst of Lent. This was, coincidentally, the fourth anniversary of our first Mass at our parish of Holy Rosary. This coming week, the week before Holy Week, we double-down on Lent. Traditionally, this Fifth Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide, when we walk with Christ […]
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My hosting provider has been wildly unreliable for the past 24 hours, with the site going down intermittently sometimes for hours at a time. As they keep telling me, “we are really sorry for the inconvenience”. Even making this post has been an exercise in pain and frustration.
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I look like a gnome. On the beautiful, sun-shiny Saturday just past, Francine and I walked 18 kilometers. I’m still a little achy! Francine’s foot was bothering her, and she very nearly called it quits at 4k. Instead, we slowed our pace down from 13-minute kilometers to 15-minute kilometers, and that made all the difference in the world. We still […]
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Below the image of the Divine Mercy, you will see the words “Jesus I trust in Thee”. I confess that despite my devotion to the Divine Mercy, I continually stumble over the simple act of trusting in the Lord. Saint Augustine tells us to “pray as though everything depends on God, and work as though everything depends on you”. Fair […]
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Every pilgrim carries a credencial to identify him or her as a legitimate pilgrim. They are issued by various Confraternities of Saint James, and you can also get them at Cathedrals and other places along the Way. All pilgrim albergues and refugios require that you have a credencial in order to stay there. You get it stamped at least twice […]
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My very smart daughter has enrolled in college! I’m so proud of her. Huzzah, huzzah, and thrice huzzah! Her first day of classes is our first day in Spain. Being as there’s no such thing as a meaningless coincidence in the rhyming poetry of God’s great creation, I suspect that means that this is a great day for new beginnings. […]
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In years passed, I’ve generally adopted a reading program as part of my Lenten observance. This year, I am (re)reading the great spiritual masterpiece of Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. The version I’m reading is published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, and it rather oddly bears the title My Imitation of Christ. It’s pocket-sized, and the […]
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A conversation about journaling comes round on the Camino forums every so often – what do you use, how do you do it, and so forth. Rather than ramble there on scattered threads, I thought it might be better to ramble here, where at least my ramblings have the virtue of being together in one place. To be brief: I […]
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Most folks have seen some variation of this photo of Bernini‘s “Chair of Peter” in the Vatican. It’s a masterpiece of baroque art, found in every art textbook covering the period. The chair in question is carried aloft by four saints. The image of the dove in the Holy Spirit window has been duplicated and copied all over the world […]
» Read moreAs a follow-up to Monday’s post, this morning we received confirmation for our reservation at Beilari. All of our pre-walk pieces are now in place. I’m a little giddy. (Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)
» Read moreWe hope to begin our 2016 Camino in the quaint French mountain village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a name that more or less means “Saint John at the Foot of the Pass”. Getting to Saint-Jean is always a bit of an adventure, particularly if you are, like us, flying into Madrid rather than Paris. You may remember that we purchased bus tickets […]
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The feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman calendar during the reforms of 1969. It seems a shame, since this is one of a vanishingly small number of saint’s feasts that have remained in the secular culture. It seems to me that it could be used as a touchstone for the new evangelization. Mind you, he’s still in […]
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13). 1. By God the Father’s will, from which all gifts come, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit Consolator, we, Pope Francis […]
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