Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Andrew, son of Jonah, fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee. Follower of John the Baptist. The first apostle called by Christ, who told him and his brother, Simon, to “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. After the Resurrection, Andrew preached along the coasts of the Black Sea, both north and south, founding churches that included one […]
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Fifty-six years before the English Puritan refugees at Plymouth celebrated their “first Thanksgiving”, Spanish explorers and their Timucua allies celebrated one in Saint Augustine, in what is now Florida. They had bean soup. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral from Asturias. He was under orders to root out some French colonists in the area. […]
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This weekend we celebrate the great feast of Christ the King. Traditionally here at Pistachio House, we have had our “Franksgiving” feast on this weekend. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I forgot to take a photo of our little gathering yesterday, though I did get one of Francine with the turkey. It is right and just that we celebrate God’s bounty […]
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Saint Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. Legend has it that she was martyred during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, about AD 230. Her name appears in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) among Rome’s other beloved martyrs, and when Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire in the fourth century, […]
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Today is the 103rd anniversary of the dedication of our former parish church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The church, still in danger, was dedicated on November 21, 1921. Here is what the parish history has to say about the event: Nov. 21, 1921 Thanksgiving Day. The new Church building is dedicated by the Most Rev. Edward J. […]
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Several years ago, The Catholic Herald published an article on one of today’s lesser known saints that absolutely delights me: Blessed Lucy of Narnia. Of all the great characters from children’s literature, who better to have a namesake to intercede for us in heaven? (At least, in the absence of a St Bofa of Sofa.) After all, it was she, […]
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Appropriate to today – the Feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order – we once again have the Dies Iræ, the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. Today we pray for the souls of all Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates in purgatory. Servant of God Thomas of Celano Most probably written by […]
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Once again we come to a feast of All Saints. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “wasn’t that back on the first of November?” Right you are! But today on the Benedictine calendar is the feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside […]
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You would be forgiven for thinking that the Pope’s main church is St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It’s certainly the largest. But no. The Pope’s own church – his episcopal seat as Bishop of Rome – is the church of Saint John Lateran. Which Saint John? Good question. Two of them, actually, for the full name of this church […]
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Today in 1605, a cabal of Catholic plotters, hoping to turn back the tides of reformation and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne of Great Britain, attempted to assassinate the very Protestant King James. Their plan – if you can dignify it by calling it a plan – was to blow up the House of Lords during the State […]
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So. Let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Given the day’s importance in the life of the Church, there’s a lot of history and liturgy – and […]
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Happy Feast of All Saints! This is the day when we celebrate all the saints, known and unknown: the Church Triumphant. We ask them to pray for us. I, for one, could use all the help I can get! This day has been a feast since the sixth or seventh century, thanks to the abbots of Cluny, and it was […]
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Let us prepare our souls for the graces heaven is about to shower upon the earth in return for its homage. To-morrow the Church will be so overflowing with joy, that she will seem to be already in possession of eternal happiness; but to-day she appears in the garb of penance, confessing that she is still an exile. Let us […]
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Protestants all over the world celebrate “Reformation Day” on October 31. I don’t. In 2017, on the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s revolt, I wrote a lengthy essay on exactly why not. Five Hundred Years 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 […]
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Today is the 609th anniversary of King Henry V’s famous victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. As Shakespeare reminds us in his Henry V, this battle took place on the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian. May you have the joy of the feast! The two saints were beheaded during the Diocletian persecution in AD 285, give […]
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Joseph Stalin famously demanded to know “How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin was, of course, asking the wrong question, as the saint whose feast is today finally proved. When Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II in October of 1978, I was not only just 11 years old – I wasn’t even Catholic. It’s safe […]
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Saint Luke is my kind of writer. Luke the historian and Luke the lyrical poet are both in evidence in his New Testament writings, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He freely admits that he never met Christ in the flesh, that he was not a witness to the events he describes in his Gospel. Like any good […]
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