Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Happy they who dwell in your house! Continually they praise you. Happy the men whose strength you are! Their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage. (from Psalm 84, Optional Responsorial Psalm for today’s Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) With just over three months to go until I leave for the Camino, my preparations are again […]
» Read moreEach year on this, his feast day, I write a short article about Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name “Thomas”, I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. Last year, I quoted a small passage from G.K. Chesterton on the matter of Becket’s martyrdom. This year, I’d like to focus a moment on the idea of pilgrimage. Following his death, […]
» Read moreFifteen weeks to go! Some of you will have noticed a link to my Camino Amazon wishlist under the countdown. While I’ve got all of the important equipment settled, there are a few odds and ends there. The other day, I received a package from Amazon. Now, I’ve got a couple of things purchased there on a “pre-publication” status, so […]
» Read moreAs you can see, I’ve added a countdown calendar to the blog on the left-hand side. Right now it stands at 20 weeks! Equipment testing continues, this time with an eye towards the weather. We tested our water-proof regime a few weeks ago on a hike round and round Snake Lake. Although we probably didn’t go any further than about […]
» Read moreGod willing, six months from today I will set out on my Camino. Where has the time gone? Most of the clothing and equipment I plan on taking has been purchased at this point, though there are still a lot of fiddly things to get – lightweight containers (stuff sacks), for example. I’m keeping track of some of the items […]
» Read moreFrom the Catholic News Agency: Members of the Catholic clergy from around the United States hiked 100 miles of an ancient pilgrimage this summer, relying on God to give them strength to endure suffering along the way. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup, N.M., Fr. Gerry Baker of Owensboro, Ky. and Fr. Don […]
» Read moreAlthough there’s no such thing as an “average” day on the Camino, it would seem that 25km a day is a fair rate. Some days are less, of course, and some are a bit more. This past weekend, some buddies and I were on our annual camping trip. Well, we used to camp. The past few years, we’ve stayed at […]
» Read moreWhy walk the Camino? Why would anybody want to spend a month walking nearly 500 miles through northern Spain? Why do I? That’s a darn fine question. I wish I had a good answer. When somebody asks me, I usually reply with a glib, “obviously, I’m an idiot.” The truth is, I don’t know why I feel called to the […]
» Read moreSantiago, Saint James the Greater, was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. His feast is celebrated today. He and his brother John were natives of Galilee, sons of the fisherman Zebedee and his wife Salome, whom the Eastern Christians name Myrrh-bearer. They were disciples of John the Baptist, but the Baptist sent them to Jesus. So fiery were these two brothers, […]
» Read moreHow did I not know about this? Camino Seattle is a five-week walking/hiking and prayer event for St. James Cathedral Parish, beginning June 24, 2012 and ending July 29, 2012, the Feast of St. James. It looks very cool, but it’s practically over! And given that this weekend is Francine’s birthday, it’s unlikely that we’ll be attending any of the […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Except when it isn’t. The feast days of most saints are the day they died. For Thomas, today is properly the feast commemorating “the Translation of Saint Thomas” – the day on which his relics were translated (moved) from Mylapore in India to Edessa in Mesopotamia in A.D. 232. Presumably, this […]
» Read moreOver the course of my initial equipment acquisition and experimentation, the Camino Boards have been invaluable. My Keens are just fantastic – they were broken in by the end of my first hike. My pack – an Osprey Kestrel 48 – is comfortable and roomy. Even with 15 pounds packed in, it weighs almost nothing on my back. And of […]
» Read moreToday the Church celebrates one of her oldest feasts, commemorating the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul. I prayed at the tombs of these apostles during my time in Rome in 2005. With the body of Blessed John Paul II mere feet from me, I knelt near Peter’s tomb at the high altar of the dark and nearly empty Vatican […]
» Read moreToday, after attending a young friend’s graduation, we headed over to Cabela’s to exchange my hiking shoes. I had purchased a pair of Merrils several weeks ago, but after about 20 miles of hikes they had not broken in. In fact, they’d gotten more and more painful the more I wore them. So I exchanged them for a pair of […]
» Read moreWhile today is the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, I really have little to add over what I wrote last year. Instead, I’d like to ruminate a bit about next year. Yesterday at Mass, I heard the word “pilgrim” an awful lot, including twice the phrase “pilgrim Church on earth” (cf. Third Eucharistic Prayer). Among other things, it got […]
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