{"id":109392,"date":"2025-01-25T11:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T19:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/?p=109392"},"modified":"2025-01-25T11:27:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T19:27:24","slug":"still-roaring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/still-roaring\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Roaring!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>oday is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the seventeenth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before<\/a>, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It\u2019s important to mark those changes in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francine actually changed the trajectory of my life not just once but three times: when we married, when\u00a0we came into the Church<\/a>, and when she introduced me to the splendors of the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>.<\/span> Had any of those not happened, the arc of my life would have been very different indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, I distracted her for a moment by the gift of a wooden Welsh love spoon. While she was oohing over it, I fell to one knee and took out the ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On our wedding day in 2008, I gave her another. Since then, I’ve done the same for each anniversary. The wall is really starting to fill up!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
The Wall of Spoons this morning. You can probably guess where the new one will go.<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

They are small tokens of a great love. In the Welsh tradition, the various carvings have different meanings<\/a>. In addition, there are the meanings that we ourselves give them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That spoon in the photo with the two spoon-y bits is the one I gave her when I proposed – two becoming one. The funny crooked one to its right was our wedding spoon. We’re both a little twisty!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Roaring!\"<\/a>
Roaring Twenties Wedding photo at Saint Patrick Church in Tacoma, Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. (Photo\/John Froschauer)<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These spoons are just one example of physical commemorations given on a chronological commemoration. So that in times both difficult and beautiful, we can look up at the wall and remember what it’s all about. And when you think about it, this is also why we give gifts at Christmas. It’s why children still put their shoes (or socks!) out for Saint Nicholas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, this is why we celebrate feasts of the Lord and of the saints at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the reason we have icons and statues as well. To remember. To be reminded, for instance, that on this day nearly two thousand years ago, the Pharisee enforcer Saul was driven to the ground by the voice of the Lord, to arise (in time) as the Apostle Saint Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And having been so reminded, to celebrate that person or that event because these people are our family – the Communion of Saints – and these events are part of our family history and tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The<\/a>
The Conversion of Saint Paul by Blessed Fra Angelico, c. 1430<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the seventeenth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It\u2019s important to mark those changes in our lives. Francine actually changed the trajectory of my life not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[46,8,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual","category-francine-my-love","category-fun","category-saint"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Roaring.jpg?fit=600%2C404&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1aGBK-sso","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87161,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/santiago-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":0},"title":"Santiago!","author":"Thom","date":"02 May 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Praise God in His angels and in His saints! At about 3:00 PM on the Memorial of Saint Athanasius, the second of May 2016, we arrived at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.\u00a0 On the way in we met Anita, who escorted the three of us \u2013 Francine, Rebecca, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108287,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/roaring-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":1},"title":"Roaring!","author":"Thom","date":"25 January 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the sixteenth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a \"moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed\". It\u2019s important to mark those changes in our lives. Francine actually changed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Annual"","block_context":{"text":"Annual","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/annual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Roaring.jpg?fit=600%2C404&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Roaring.jpg?fit=600%2C404&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Roaring.jpg?fit=600%2C404&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":84001,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-cows-and-a-great-evening-in-fonfria\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":2},"title":"One Year Ago: Cows! And a Great Evening in Fonfr\u00eda","author":"Thom","date":"25 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"(from my journal) Fonfr\u00eda 25 April 2013 First Breakfast in Vega Today we traveled, on and off, with Iain, Anja, and a lovely Korean lady named Isabel (or, as I like to call her, Bob). The climb to O\u2019Cebreiro was steep and rough, quite the toughest climb so far\u2026 but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First Breakfast in Vega","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/14002984075_8a753b16b6_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/14002984075_8a753b16b6_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/14002984075_8a753b16b6_b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/14002984075_8a753b16b6_b.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":83970,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-year-ago-a-bus-a-bridge-and-lavender-fields\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":3},"title":"One Year Ago: a Bus, a Bridge, and Lavender Fields","author":"Thom","date":"20 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"(from my journal) Astorga 20 April Breakfasted in the Benedictine hotel with Francine. We walked to the bus station \u2013 maybe 1.5 km \u2013 and caught the 9:30 bus to Hospital de \u00d3rbigo. Walked across town to Puente de \u00d3rbigo and walked across (and back across) the astonishing medieval bridge\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Camino"","block_context":{"text":"Camino","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/camino\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Saint Benedict, Pray for Us!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9036259521_e22c7a6bb0_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9036259521_e22c7a6bb0_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9036259521_e22c7a6bb0_b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/9036259521_e22c7a6bb0_b.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":105292,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/gratitude-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":4},"title":"Gratitude","author":"Thom","date":"22 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"L\u00e6tare Sunday in 2012, Francine and I first attended Holy Rosary church for Mass. I described the event at the time like this: Rev. Jacob Maurer, First Mass, June 13, 2009 Something simply extraordinary happened today. This afternoon, I attended the Sacred Liturgy and participated in the Mass for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Francine my love"","block_context":{"text":"Francine my love","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/francine-my-love\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fr-Maurer-at-St-Mark-Laetare-2020.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fr-Maurer-at-St-Mark-Laetare-2020.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fr-Maurer-at-St-Mark-Laetare-2020.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fr-Maurer-at-St-Mark-Laetare-2020.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Fr-Maurer-at-St-Mark-Laetare-2020.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85445,"url":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/one-small-step\/","url_meta":{"origin":109392,"position":5},"title":"One Small Step","author":"Thom","date":"28 June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, Francine and I drove up to Sacred Heart church in Fairhaven, near Bellingham, to attend an informational session on the Diaconate. We put about 250 miles on the car. The talk was given by the director of the program, Rev. Frank Schuster. It was videotaped, so I'm sure it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Francine my love"","block_context":{"text":"Francine my love","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/amateurmonk\/category\/francine-my-love\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yr Obd't Servant in Fairhaven. 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