Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
After futzing around with it for the past two nights, it’s at least working again. I’ve lost a bunch of functionality that will be restored in bits and pieces, but for right now I’ve emerged from the labyrinth of the WordPress dungeons, and I’m done with it.
» Read moreFor no reason that I can ascertain, the template on this blog has suddenly reset to the defaults. This means that all of the sidebars, all of the formatting, even the header, are gone. Poop. That’s going to be a long fix.
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Each year about this time, I post some variation of this essay on the liturgical season boringly known as “Ordinary Time”. Ordinary? Well, what’s so ordinary about it, anyway? Christmas is over, all too soon, and we have now entered into a new season of the liturgical year. This is the time of the year that does not fall into […]
» Read moreOur Camino training has begun in earnest. We’re taking smaller walks throughout the week – some for speed, some for hills. On the weekends, we’re taking longer hikes with full packs. Today, that’s 12k. Over the coming weeks, this will ratchet up to 24k. Of course, the real “training ” for the Camino is in Navarra! one of the locals […]
» Read moreToday has just been a lovely day. We had a morning meeting at church with our parish Liturgical Commission. Thanks to Francine’s strategic kicks under the table, I was able to keep us on topic and relatively focused. Good meeting, and many fewer squirrels than usual. (Squirrel!) Went to Confession in the afternoon, followed by a pilgrimage to our parish’s […]
» Read moreWith any luck, this is the first post to this blog using the WordPress app on my phone. If this works properly, that’s one more thing I can check off my to-do list! (Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)
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Happy Epiphany! Today is the traditional date of this great Solemnity, and in many places throughout the world (like, I dunno, Rome for instance) it is still celebrated today. In my monastic diurnal, certainly, today’s Divine Office is for the Epiphany. For more information on this feast, you can read last Sunday’s article. Whenever you celebrate it, I pray the […]
» Read moreHappy twelfth day of Christmas! This evening is called Twelfth Night, traditionally the vigil of the Epiphany. This was traditionally a time of feasting and festivity (all of which seem to include various varieties of enormous pastries) marking the end of Christmastide and the beginning of Epiphanytide. These days, of course, the calendar has been moved around a bit and […]
» Read moreHappy eleventh day of Christmas! I’ve been sick in bed the past few days, so there’s no coherent post today – just some scattered notes. Today is the memorial of the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of […]
» Read moreHappy tenth day of Christmas! Today, we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Epiphany. Traditionally, this feast would have been celebrated on the day following the twelfth day of Christmas, the 6th of January, but like many other feasts it fell victim to the “move it to a Sunday” mania that has gripped the Church these past few decades. For […]
» Read moreHappy ninth day of Christmas! Today the Church turns to the east for her celebrations, honouring Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and Doctors of the Church. They both lived in the middle of the fourth century – in fact, they knew each other and were friends. Interestingly, this is not infrequently the case with two great Doctors […]
» Read moreHappy eighth day of Christmas, a very happy new year, and a most blessed Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God to you! First, a word about the eighth day, and then we’ll move on to Mary. Christmas is celebrated as a day, an octave, and a season. The celebration of the octave – that is, the day and the week […]
» Read moreHappy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Saint Sylvester I, pope and confessor. He was born in the southern Italian town of Sant’Angelo a Scala to two Roman citizens, Rufinus and Justa. He was ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus just before the persecutions of Diocletian got underway. He survived those years of terror and […]
» Read moreHappy sixth day of Christmas! Today is the first day of the Christmas Octave that is not otherwise also a solemnity, feast, or memorial. That does not mean, however, that there aren’t other saints we could celebrate today in some form. Today might be a good time to talk about the Roman Martyrology. This is one of those liturgical books […]
» Read moreHappy fifth day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the martyrdom of the splendid Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name “Thomas”, I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. Each year, I write something about the saint here. Previous articles on Saint Thomas Becket: 2014: A Happy Death (Thoughts on the saint’s martyrdom and the grace of a happy death) 2012: […]
» Read moreThe number of days to our next Camino continues to drop precipitously. Less than three months to go! At this point, equipment and footgear is all acquired. For shoes and socks, I have stuck with Keen. Their “garage” store is in downtown Portland, and it’s well worth a drop-by if you’re in the area. The shoes are rugged and comfortable […]
» Read moreHappy fourth day of Christmas! Today we pause a moment in our revelry for the feast of the Holy Innocents. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained […]
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