{"id":2,"date":"2013-05-13T18:15:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T01:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:34:21","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span>elcome, fellow pilgrim! My name is Thom Ryng, and this is my blog. It was initially launched in 2006<\/a>. It limped along for a few years before being definitively re-launched in 2010<\/a>. This site is a spiritual and liturgical commentary and occasional apologetic by a Catholic convert and Benedictine Oblate<\/a>, faithful to the Magisterium and championing the New Liturgical Movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Your Ob’t Svt.<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I hope that this will someday become a spiritual journal. Maybe it already is; I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a twenty-year search for Truth<\/a>, I was baptized at the improbable age of 38. My wife and I subsequently became Oblates of the Order of Saint Benedict<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The fabulous Francine, my Forever Muse<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I am a widower. For 17 wonderful years, I was married to Francine my Muse<\/a>, my beautiful bride who made much of this journey with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was taken by the sudden onset of Creutzfeldt\u2013Jakob disease<\/a>, and she passed to God on June 21, 2025, just one month shy of her 63rd birthday. She entered hospital just after the celebration of the Easter Vigil, and she died on the eve of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I miss her terribly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By profession, I’m a writer and editor. You can see my CV here<\/a> and my portfolio here<\/a>, if you’re into that sort of thing<\/span>. I assisted Bishop Peter J. Elliott<\/a> in preparing Ceremonies Explained for Servers<\/em><\/a>, <\/span>published by Ignatius Press in 2019. I’m also the author of The Altar Server Handbook<\/a><\/em> (2022) and Practical Pilgrimage<\/em><\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years at my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma<\/a>, I was an adult catechist, Altar Server coordinator, and M.C. I chaired our Liturgical Commission mostly because I could run meetings and keep a diverse group of very intelligent but easily distracted folks on task. That all ended during the Year of the Plague, when our pari<\/a>s<\/a>h closed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In the working sacristy of Holy Rosary Church, 2017<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In late 2022, I again took up some of those roles at our new parish of Saint Patrick<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This site also recounts our pilgrimages<\/a> on the Way of Saint James \u2013 the Camino de Santiago<\/a> – as well as the planning involved. Much more is available on our dedicated Camino blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Beginning my First Camino, 2013<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2013, I walked the route known as the Camino Franc\u00e9s<\/a>, a trek of some 790km – 500 miles give or take – from the ancient Abbey of Roncesvalles<\/a> in the Pyrenees right across the north of Spain to the tomb of Saint James<\/a> in the Cathedral<\/a> at Santiago de Compostela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francine joined me in the beautiful city of Le\u00f3n, and we walked the final 300 or so km together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of 2016<\/a>, we did it again! This time, we both started in the village of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, we took a slightly shorter walk on the Galician portion of the Camino Franc\u00e9s<\/a> – about 160km or 100 miles, and then in 2022, we walked the Camino Primitivo<\/a> with a friend, a mountainous 320km or 200 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the summer and autumn of 2023, I walked a much, much longer Camino<\/a> – a thousand miles<\/a> from Le Puy-en-Velay in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Francine, meanwhile, served as an hospitalera in Spain and then walked the Camino in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by @corwynoneil, 2023<\/em><\/mark><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, I am a madman. But hopefully I learned a few things<\/a>. Some further pilgrim ruminations may be found on our dedicated Camino blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray for me, and pray for all pilgrims upon the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Church is an inn, where wayfarers returning to the eternal homeland are refreshed from their journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Saint Augustine)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

All comments<\/a> on this blog are screened. Sorry, that’s just how it has to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nunc c\u0153pi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Name of the Blog<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you feel . . . that well-read people are less likely to be evil, and a world full of people sitting quietly with good books in their hands is preferable to world filled with schisms and sirens and other noisy and troublesome things, then every time you enter a library you might say to yourself, ‘The world is quiet here<\/em>,’ as a sort of pledge proclaiming reading to be the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Lemony Snicket<\/a>, The Slippery Slope<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If God speaks to us even in silence, we in turn discover in silence the possibility of speaking with God and about God. … Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbours so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Pope Benedict XVI<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: It’s Just Me in Here<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author alone. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer or my pastor. Or anybody else, really. However, please also see the Guiding Principles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Welcome, fellow pilgrim! My name is Thom Ryng, and this is my blog. It was initially launched in 2006. It limped along for a few years before being definitively re-launched in 2010. This site is a spiritual and liturgical commentary and occasional apologetic by a Catholic convert and Benedictine Oblate, faithful to the Magisterium and championing the New Liturgical Movement. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1aGBK-2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":107239,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/altar-server-resources\/","url_meta":{"origin":2,"position":0},"title":"Altar Server Resources","author":"Thom","date":"16 October 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"For vesting prayers and other sacristy resources, please see Signs for the Sacristy. Resource for Training Altar Servers Altar servers should be properly trained and properly formed. This manual provides altar servers with detailed instruction on what their duties are and how to do them. It is a practical guide\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/zelanti.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Cover-Server-small-788x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86756,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/lex-orandi-lex-credendi-lex-vivendi\/","url_meta":{"origin":2,"position":1},"title":"Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi","author":"Thom","date":"12 February 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi: As we worship, so we believe, so we live. Let us consider the sacraments of priestly prayers, which having been handed down by the apostles are celebrated uniformly throughout the whole world and in every catholic Church so that the law of praying might\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Corpus Christi Mass, Holy Rosary, Tacoma, 2015","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/11401460_10152884020955382_8949689444964467811_n-240x320.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109814,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/109814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}