Category: Chant
Quasquicentennial!
If you are anywhere near Tacoma this weekend, please join us on Sunday for the 125th anniversary of the founding of our parish. The Mass is at Noon, and it will be followed by a reception in the School hall. Here’s the blurb from one of our local papers: Holy Rosary’s steeple rises above downtown Tacoma and towers over I-5. […]
» Read moreNo, It’s Just Thursday
What a day – and it’s not quite over yet! If it wasn’t for to-do lists, I don’t know how I would function. Called the paper for non-delivery (again) – check. Breakfast and Lauds – check. Worked on Incident Report for the Firm – check. Meeting with Pastor – check. Worked on making Firm security guide “more avuncular” – check. […]
» Read moreQuality of Life
What kind of life could the child possibly look forward to? He was born with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida. In these progressive days, the child very well might have been aborted after the doctor showed the mother her first detailed fetal ultrasound. But the child had the great fortune to be born in 1013, a much […]
» Read moreSacred Liturgy Conference
This weekend, me and a couple of guys are taking a road trip and heading over to Mount Angel Abbey for the 2016 Sacred Liturgy Conference. I realize that this is not what most folks do on their Labor Day Weekend, but I’m pretty comfortable in my eccentricities. Here’s the intro from the press release: The Oregon Sacred Liturgy Conference […]
» Read moreThe Queen of Heaven
On the old calendar, today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was moved in the calendar reform to the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. For what reason, I’ve no idea. On the new calendar, today is also a Marian feast, that of Our Lady Queen of Heaven. Whatever changes there might […]
» Read moreVespers for the Feast of Saint James
Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus, so neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but predating both. I believe it may be from the Mozarabic Rite.
» Read moreOf Benedict and His Monks
Happy Saint Benedict’s Day! Today is the principal feast of the founder of western monasticism: the author of the Holy Rule, and a great saint. Over the course of the last decade and more, new monastic institutions with many young monks and sisters are beginning to flourish throughout the world. For the last few years, I’ve made it my habit […]
» Read moreSaint John’s Eve
Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours. Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! We almost didn’t get to have one at all – it was […]
» Read moreMediatrix of All Graces
In the calendar used in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces. Here’s where many folks go off the rails in castigating the Church as non-Christian. Mediatrix of All Graces? Isn’t Christ our mediator? Does not the scripture say For there is one God. There is also one mediator between […]
» Read moreHappy Pentecost!
We read today in the Acts of the Apostles of this great day, which in a certain way we can celebrate as the birthday of the Church: When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire […]
» Read moreExult!
A Day in the Life of a Monastery
Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!
This weekend, Holy Week begins with the Sunday of Lord’s triumphal entry into Jersusalem – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Although Good Friday is coming – the Passion and the Crucifixion are coming – for the moment, this moment, joy resounds as our King arrives in His city. In most parishes throughout the world, the principal Mass is celebrated […]
» Read moreSunday Lenten Vespers
If you live in the area, please join us as we celebrate Vespers every Sunday during Lent at 6:00pm at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Tacoma. Sunday Schedule for Lent: Mass: Noon to 1:15 PM Adoration: 1:15 PM to 6:00 PM Vespers: 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM
» Read moreAsh Wednesday
Remember Man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” And with those words, our Lent has begun. Holy Mother Church calls us to make these next forty days until Easter a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a pilgrimage, in a sense, through time if not space, through death to resurrection. A pilgrimage of penitence. […]
» Read moreNot No Saints
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 some form. Today might be a good time to talk about the Roman Martyrology. This is one of those liturgical books […]
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