My 12 Favourite Posts of 2017
Yesterday, I posted a list of the most popular posts of the past year on this blog. However, the things I like are not always the most popular. I know this comes as a shock. I’ve been charitably described as eccentric, and I’m just going to go with that.
During the past twelve months I’ve written some posts that I thought were particularly important (to me, at any rate) or just plain amusing. Here they are, in chronological order.
And there are twelve of them. Why twelve instead of ten? I could say that it’s meant to represent the apostles, or the tribes of Israel, or even the months of the year, but the truth is that I couldn’t make up my mind sufficiently to narrow it down to ten.
Mea culpa.
ONE: Spoon!
Posted on 25 January 2017
Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the ninth 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”.
Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, I distracted her for a moment by …
TWO: Vesting Prayers
Posted on 29 March 2017
One of my volunteer positions at my parish is that of MC and Altar Server coordinator. Since I started in that position, we’ve made any number of changes. One of the simplest and most profound, though, was the reintroduction of Vesting Prayers.
And what are they? …
THREE: Holy Week, Busy Week
Posted on 12 April 2017
Every year I take vacation during Holy Week. There are a couple of reasons for this, both spiritual and practical. On the spiritual level, I find that I need time to prepare myself.
There may have been some work in the garden the past couple of days. I may also have resumed my habit from earlier in Lent of praying Compline with Sophie the cat …
Palm Sunday, 2017, Holy Rosary, Tacoma
FOUR: Being Monkish
Posted on 02 May 2017
This past weekend, I visited Mount Angel Abbey for retreat. I’d been once before, for an amazing liturgy conference they gave last year. This year, I went to accompany my new godson as he spent the weekend in a discernment retreat.
The instant I arrived, I felt like my blood pressure dropped twenty points.
During the weekend, I of course joined the monks …
Mount Angel Abbey Church
FIVE: Accept Hard Things with Patience and Even Temper
Posted on 02 June 2017
Yesterday evening we had a rehearsal for our Confirmation Mass, to be celebrated tonight. It was a chaotic affair, with Altar Servers, Confirmandi, Sponsors, family, and of course Catechists and Clergy. I wasn’t herding cats so much as juggling them. I was hoping that we could be out of there in an hour and a half. In the end, it was two and a half hours. I was uncharacteristically frustrated with the galloping chaos …
SIX: On Vestments
Posted on 12 July 2017
There is a tendency in the modern world to minimize the use of vestments in the liturgy. In my early days as a Catholic, it was not unusual to see a priest celebrate Mass wearing only an alb and a stole. Often, this was taken as a sign of humility on the part of the celebrant. It is, in fact, exactly the opposite.
To decide that you know better than the Church – that you know better than the rubrics of the Missal or the full weight of liturgical law and tradition – is not a mark of humility. It is naked pride….
Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon celebrating a Pontifical Mass at the Throne in the Extraordinary Form, 2014
SEVEN: Fátima in Tacoma
Posted on 27 July 2017
This past Saturday (July 22), our parish of Holy Rosary was host to the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fátima.
This statue has been on the road worldwide since 1947. The statue is in the middle of a two-year journey across America to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fátima. …
The image of the mother in the Presence of the Son.
EIGHT: In Praise of Altar Servers
Posted on 10 September 2017
Last Thursday, we celebrated a funeral in our parish of Holy Rosary. Nothing unusual in that. The one constant of life is the inevitability of death.
This particular funeral was that of a priest …
NINE: Restoring the Sacred
Posted on 17 October 2017
In the past week or so, I have spoken with several people about our liturgical strategic plan at our parish of Holy Rosary. We talk about the ideal liturgical life of the parish, about our constraints in terms of people and resources, and about what steps we can take to transcend our limitations and move forward.
I thought I might share with you the stories …
Mass Celebrated ad Orientem at Holy Rosary, 20 September 2017
TEN: Five Hundred Years
Posted on 31 October 2017
Today is the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It is fitting that this day is commemorated on the eve of All Saints Day, because Martin Luther began by doing the work of the saints.
Ultimately, though, he chose another path. …
The Meeting of Cardinal Cajetan and Martin Luther, 1518
Public Domain, Link
ELEVEN: The Extraordinary Form and Mutual Enrichment
Posted on 28 November 2017
This morning for the first time I served at a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It was a votive Mass of Saint Joseph, celebrated at Saint Joseph church in Tacoma by the Rev. Caleb Insco, F.S.S.P.
This is only the second time I’ve served at the Vetus Ordo, and I was extremely nervous. …
TWELVE: Rorate Cæli
Posted on 18 December 2017
This past Saturday, our parish of Holy Rosary celebrated a Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This particular tradition is known as the Rorate Mass, for the first word of its entrance antiphon (Introit) …
