Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
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 moreIt’s raining here in Tacoma, harder than I’ve seen it rain in a long time. Earlier this afternoon we had a bit of a water-dribbling-down-from-the-laundry-room-ceiling problem at Pistachio House, which required standing outside in the pouring storm – me on a ladder and nephew Jason holding the ladder steady – while I cleaned out the gutter. And then there was […]
» Read moreIn addition to being the Memorial of Saint Denis, today also commemorates Blessed John Henry Newman. For many years, I’ve had one of Newman’s meditations hanging over my desk. Indeed, you can even find it on this site under the “Prayers and Meditations” menu above. It continues to bring me comfort, and more importantly to remind me that while there […]
» Read moreEverybody knows a guy who just won’t shut up. Sometimes it’s not even that he has something to say, or that he likes the sound of his own voice. Sometimes these are the folks who are genuinely frightened by silence. Sometimes, they just don’t know how not to talk. If those folks had a patron saint, it would no doubt […]
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Back in high school, a group of us did an extensive report on the events of this day for my freshman history class. We had flip chart maps, reenactments, and gave three separate papers. For on this day in 1571, the naval forces of a Holy League, consisting of several maritime Catholic countries, met the main Ottoman fleet at the […]
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As we head into October, the new pastors are in their places and the parishes are settling down into their new schedules. This is probably the last formal post I will make about the three transitioning Tacoma parishes. Saint Joseph On Thursday the first of October, Rev. Michael Stinson, FSSP celebrated the first Mass in the Extraordinary Form held at […]
» Read more(This is a reprint from this day in 2011. Weirdly, it is one of my top ten Googled posts. Enjoy!) Saint Jerome should be the patron saint of grumpy old men. Born in the Roman province of Dalmatia in modern Slovenia, he studied in Rome starting in about the year 360. During a journey to Syria in 373, he fell […]
» Read moreMy annual camp/cabin trip was this past weekend. Basically it’s the same group of guys every year, with the occasional comings and goings. Back in the day, we camped. One particular weekend, about seven or eight years ago now, it rained so hard that it put out our campfire. Since then, it’s been U.S. Forestry service cabins. This is the […]
» Read moreThis bright, brilliant Tuesday 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 […]
» Read moreWhat 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 […]
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Just a quick update with a few new items from each of the three transitioning Tacoma parishes. Saint Joseph Shortly after I published Episode 10, a parishioner of the Tacoma branch of the North American Martyrs FSSP parish wrote to tell me: Thought you might like to know and pass along that at today [Sunday -ed.] at Sts. Peter and […]
» Read moreOf all the photos I took on our 2013 Camino – and I took thousands of them – this is the one that for me best sums up the spirit of the pilgrimage. Francine in the Mists of Galicia It was taken as we walked through the Galician forests on our way to the Royal Monastery of Samos. It reminds […]
» Read moreWhither 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 moreToday 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 […]
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Some fairly hefty information for the Tacoma parish changes at Holy Rosary, Visitation, and Saint Joseph, so let’s dive right in, shall we? Saint Joseph The incoming pastor, Rev. Michael Stinson, FSSP, preached at this evening’s Mass at Saint Joseph. He will likewise preach at the 10:00 Sunday Mass tomorrow. The following weekend, he will be available following both Masses […]
» Read moreAs both of my long-time readers know, I am a fan of Fr. Robert Barron. His Catholicism Project is to religion what Carl Sagan’s Cosmos was to science. Therefore, it is with undisguised glee that I share this with you: This afternoon, Bishop-elect Robert Barron will be ordained Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles during the Mass of […]
» Read moreGod is truly a poet to confound the mathematicians and a mathematician to confound the poets. Nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception, celebrated on 8 December, today we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast so ancient that it is celebrated on the same day in both East and West. If I may be […]
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