Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11) Happy Tenth Day of Christmas! Today […]
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Happy Ninth Day of Christmas! Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church. Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were contemporaries from Cappadocia and great theologians of the early Church. They were lifelong friends and cohorts in fighting against the Arian heresy. Their names are sung together in the Litany of […]
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All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Wishing all of you a very happy new year of 2025! This day, being the Eighth Day of Christmas—the Octave Day of the Nativity—has always been a holy day in the Christian Calendar. However, the name and focus of this day have […]
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Happy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the 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 saw […]
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Happy 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 the midst of our Christmas joy. Today might be a good time to talk about the Roman Martyrology. This is one […]
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Happy fifth day of Christmas! Today, the Church usually celebrates the memorial of Saint Thomas Becket. Because it’s the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, it is instead the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In the Holy Family, God gives us a living icon of family life: child, mother, father. Russian Icon of the Holy Family […]
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Happy fourth day of Christmas! Today we pause our revels for a moment to remember and celebrate 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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In our life of faith, we are given a name at Baptism, and we choose a new name at Confirmation. It was a little different for me, as I was baptized and confirmed on the same day as an adult. My mother gave me the name Thomas at my birth, and for my confirmation, I took the name of John […]
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The rest of the world thinks Christmas is over, with the possible exception of those who celebrate Boxing Day today or those fond of partridges in pear trees. Oh, how wrong they are! For like Easter, Christmas isn’t just one day, but a whole season! The Twelve Days of Christmas continue right up through the Epiphany (January 6, more or […]
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“The Birth of Christ” by Sandro Botticelli O great mystery,and wonderful sacrament,that animals should see the new-born Lord,lying in a manger!Blessed is the Virgin whose wombwas worthy to bearChrist the Lord.Alleluia! Omagnum mysterium,et admirabile sacramentum,ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,jacentem in praesepio!Beata Virgo, cujus viscerameruerunt portareDominum Christum.Alleluia.
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a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien Grim was the world and grey last night:The moon and stars were fled,The hall was dark without song or light,The fires were fallen dead.The wind in the trees was like to the sea,And over the mountains’ teethIt whistled bitter-cold and free,As a sword leapt from its sheath. The lord of snows upreared his head;His mantle […]
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As I do every year, I shall end this Advent chant sequence with the hymn assembled from the O Antiphons. You can also listen to one of my favourite carols, which is particularly appropriate in the deeps of Christmas Vigil. And now for a more traditional version, with the original words in Latin. May all who read these words have […]
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At last we come to the final O Antiphon, for tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the great Vigil of the Nativity. Tonight is the very last O Antiphon. Here’s what the great Dom Guéranger has to say: We adore Thee, O Emmanuel! in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of […]
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With Christmas just days away now, we hear the penultimate O Antiphon this evening. I mentioned a couple of days ago that the antiphons might sound vaguely familiar to you. In the 12th Century, an unknown composer compiled versions of the O Antiphons into a single Advent hymn, called Veni, Veni Emmanuel. You know the English version as O Come, […]
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It is altogether right and proper that we should celebrate Christ as the bringer of light on this, the day of the winter solstice. This was an ancient holy day in many religions, as indeed it continues to be. On this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, where people for eons have begged their divinity for […]
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Continuing on with our annual tradition, we come closer and closer to the birth of the Messiah, “the holy one, the true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open”. The key is the symbol of authority. Christ is the Key of the House of David who opens […]
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By now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest continually attested antiphons in the Divine Office. The earliest known mention is in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. […]
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