Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Last night’s Tenebræ service was incredibly powerful. There were probably a hundred people in attendance, and we had half a dozen servers and the full choir. Fr. Wichert led. And the choir! Oh, they were fantastic! The last anthem, sung in absolute darkness, was absolutely heavenly. On a personal note, this is one of my favourite (para)liturgies that we celebrate […]
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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 […]
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Here’s an insight into how my mind works. As I was walking into work one morning a couple of years ago, commuter coffee mug firmly in hand, it suddenly struck me: the reason we call coffee “joe” is because it gets us through our morning, much as Saint Joseph got his foster-son Jesus through the “morning” of his life. I […]
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We’re just back from the Rite of Election. This is where our Catechumens and Candidates signify their call to the Easter Sacraments. In theory, this should be done at the Cathedral, but the enormous number of people entering the Church make this impractical. Every year, the Archdiocese of Seattle celebrates a number of these Rites throughout the Archdiocese – this […]
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The feast of Saint Valentine was removed from the Roman calendar during the reforms of 1969. It seems a shame, since this is one of a vanishingly small number of saint’s feasts that have remained in the secular culture. It seems to me that it could be used as a touchstone for the new evangelization. Mind you, he’s still in […]
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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 […]
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Yesterday, on the great feast of Christ the King, we held our annual feast of thanksgiving at Pistachio House as we do every year. Daughter Raine and I went to the Noon Mass at Holy Rosary. There were some additions to the Mass, as we closed out the great Jubilee Year of Mercy. In the afternoon and evening, we had […]
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This past Sunday, my parish of Holy Rosary celebrated its 125th anniversary – our Quasquicentennial. The project for this celebration was started several years ago by Dr Michael Barkley, a gentleman from the parish who deserves all credit for getting this ball rolling. His great-grandparents were in fact the first couple married at the parish, back in October of 1891. […]
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Today is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. For most of the Catholic world, this is a memorial of various sorts. Since, however, my parish is dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for me it is a Solemnity. Always a happy thing on a Friday! Through a weird happenstance, there isn’t actually a Mass being celebrated at […]
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Just about everybody knows Saint Francis. He’s the plaster birdbath guy, right? The saint who hung around with fuzzy pastel animals. Well, sort of. “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” (Saint Francis of Assisi) I very nearly took “Francis” as my confirmation name. It might have been awkward, though, what with being engaged to Francine at the time. Reading […]
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Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? (Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that […]
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Today in both the Extraordinary Form and the Benedictine Ordo is the Memorial of the Seven Holy Maccabees. Their story may be found in the Bible – provided you’ve got a Catholic or an Orthodox one. Martin Luther removed these books from his Bible – so if you don’t know their story, go read it! I happened to mention this […]
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Today 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 our pilgrimage to Rome in 2005. Peter With the body of Saint John Paul II mere feet from me, I knelt near Saint Peter’s tomb at the high altar of the dark and nearly […]
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Eleven years ago today, on the night of the 26th of March 2005, I was baptized into the Church at the great Vigil of Easter. Last year, I wrote a retrospective on my first decade as a Christian. I don’t think I have much to add to that. I remain absurdly grateful to God for the life He has seen […]
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Last Friday morning, I was struck particularly by a psalm from the Office for Saint Agatha: O God, my God, for Thee I long at break of day: My soul thirsteth for Thee, my body longeth for Thee, As desert, arid land: thus I appear before Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. For Thy mercy […]
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Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the eighth 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 […]
» Read moreToday has just been a lovely day. We had a morning meeting at church with our parish Liturgical Commission. Thanks to Francine’s strategic kicks under the table, I was able to keep us on topic and relatively focused. Good meeting, and many fewer squirrels than usual. (Squirrel!) Went to Confession in the afternoon, followed by a pilgrimage to our parish’s […]
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