Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
In years passed, I’ve generally adopted a reading program as part of my Lenten observance. This year, I am (re)reading the great spiritual masterpiece of Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. The version I’m reading is published by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood, and it rather oddly bears the title My Imitation of Christ. It’s pocket-sized, and the […]
» Read more
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 more
From the Benedictine monks of Norcia (of whom I’ve spoken before) comes the fantastic news that they are now shipping their beers to the United States! From their blog: NORCIA, ITALY — Beginning January 22 at 7am EST and following closely on the heels of the chart topping release of their Benedicta CD of Gregorian chant, the Monastery of San […]
» Read moreYesterday, on the great feast of Christ the King, we held our annual feast of thanksgiving at Pistachio House. We had a houseful of guests for dinner, including family and friends. We ate good food, drank good vino tinto (or beer, tonic, cider, water, coffee, or tea as the occasion demanded), played board games, wore silly hats, talked, and laughed. […]
» Read moreIt’s raining here in Tacoma, harder than I’ve seen it rain in a long time. Earlier this afternoon we had a bit of a water-dribbling-down-from-the-laundry-room-ceiling problem at Pistachio House, which required standing outside in the pouring storm – me on a ladder and nephew Jason holding the ladder steady – while I cleaned out the gutter. And then there was […]
» Read moreEverybody knows a guy who just won’t shut up. Sometimes it’s not even that he has something to say, or that he likes the sound of his own voice. Sometimes these are the folks who are genuinely frightened by silence. Sometimes, they just don’t know how not to talk. If those folks had a patron saint, it would no doubt […]
» Read moreSo, this little blog doesn’t get an enormous amount of traffic. Normally, we peak during Advent and around Easter – about what you’d expect. The other day, however, I had the largest number of hits ever in a single day. That was the day I published my post about Father Maurer’s farewell. Go figure!
» Read more“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” (G.K. Chesterton) Today’s feast is of the martyr Saint George. Pious legends of dragon slaying notwithstanding, George was a soldier of the Roman army who was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian in the early fourth […]
» Read moreIf you haven’t yet discovered Sister Vassa’s videos, you owe it to yourself to take a look. She’s an Orthodox nun and teaches Liturgical Studies at the University of Vienna. And she’s fantastic. Her YouTube channel. Her web site.
» Read moreWell that got your attention, didn’t it? It’s not quite true of course; Patrick may have been born on the isle of Britain, but in a time before the Angles had arrived and started making it Angland. No, his family were Roman Catholic churchmen from the Roman Imperial province of Britannia. Today, nobody is going to go around speaking in […]
» Read moreIt’s been a while since I’ve posted links to some of the many interesting things I’ve been reading online lately. I blame FaceBook. It’s easy to just post a single link there, and then I never get around to posting groups here. Well, since I’m off Facebook for Lent, I’m reviving the ancient custom. I’m cheating by starting with a […]
» Read moreIn years passed, I’ve generally adopted a reading program as part of my Lenten observance. For several years, I read the Desert Fathers. This year, despite a friend bequeathing me a copy of the Philokalia, I’m looking for something else. I’ve started a thin little volume by Bishop Athanasius Schneider called Dominus Est - It is the Lord! I’m about […]
» Read moreOn this day in 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Professor is 123 today! All around the world, at 9pm local time, the Tolkien Society and the Professor’s many other devotees will celebrate his birthday with a toast to “the Professor”. I will join in, and I encourage you to do the same. The Professor’s writing, […]
» Read more
Happy Saint Nicholas Day! How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a thin man, most famous for giving gifts to prostitutes and punching heretics. That whole “eight tiny reindeer” thing seems like a bit of a come down. Wait, prostitutes? Well, almost. That was their father’s plan, since […]
» Read moreHappy Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian! Enter the KING WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day! KING. What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark’d to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if […]
» Read more