Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. O Sovereign Lord! O Adonaï! come and redeem us, not by thy power, but by thy humility. Heretofore, thou didst show thyself to Moses thy servant in the midst of a mysterious flame; thou didst give thy law to thy people amidst thunder and lightning; now, on the contrary, thou comest not […]
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O Wisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for our annual look at the O Antiphons. These antiphons are part of the prayers at the liturgical hour of Vespers (evening prayer) for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back […]
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This Advent, as in past years, our parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be chanting Vespers on Sunday evenings. Because of the damage to our beautiful church, this year we’re celebrating Vespers the school auditorium. I know, I know, the poster says the chapel, but we decided at the last moment that the chapel perhaps wouldn’t hold everybody. The […]
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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. Most probably written by Servant of God Thomas of Celano near […]
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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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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. Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Somebody […]
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Happy Feast of All Saints! This is the day where 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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Can we talk about Gregorian chant? Because All Souls Day – coming up on November 2nd – has some doozies. I confess that I was a fan of chant long before I was a Catholic. In part, God used the beauty of this kind of music to draw me to Him. Specific chants are prescribed for each Mass in both […]
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More than a century ago on this very day in the town of Fátima, Portugal, a miracle occurred. This remarkable event occurred at the height of the Great War, and an estimated 70,000 people witnessed it. It is known as the “Miracle of the Sun”. Avelino de Almeida, writing for Portugal’s popular pro-government and anti-clerical newspaper O Século, said: Before […]
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Today is celebrated in the western Church as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Exaltatio Sanctæ Crucis). In the eastern Church, it is known as “the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-creating Cross”. The feast commemorates a number of events: the finding of the True Cross in 326 in Jerusalem by Saint Helena, the later dedication […]
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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 we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the more important (if sometimes overlooked) feasts of the liturgical year. It was also the theme of the Sacred Liturgy Conference I attended back in June. More on that in a few days, probably. This event definitively revealed the divinity of Christ. It appears in the three […]
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Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus. Neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but rather from the Mozarabic Rite.
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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 from a couple of years ago. Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! So what’s the deal with John […]
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How does the human brain wrap itself around the eternal and infinite love of God for His creation? How can can we even begin to comprehend the depth of love in Christ’s wounded heart as he pours Himself out for us sinners at Calvary? The truth is, we can’t. The saints and the mystics may catch glimpses, but we humans […]
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Last weekend, my beautiful bride Francine and I did some walking, and it got me to thinking about the spirituality of walking. I’m always amazed at what you can accomplish by walking. Modern psychologists say that walking makes us smarter, but the idea is hardly original to them. Solvitur ambulando – It is solved by walking. (Saint Augustine) This is […]
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This coming Sunday my parish will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass. This will be the sixth year we’ve taken Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. Our interim priest, Rev. Francis Xavier Kikomeko, will celebrate the Noon Mass of Corpus Christi at the high altar, and eleven children of […]
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