Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
The very clever amongst you no doubt noticed in my previous post that our new pastor was not named pastor of both of our parishes. Let me explain. The parishes of Holy Rosary and St. Joseph have been joined at the hip for something like twenty years. They were first consolidated under a single pastor during the last of our […]
» Read moreEight years ago today, Pope Benedict XVI caused to be published the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. With the stroke of a pen, the ancient rites of the Mass (last updated in 1962) could suddenly be celebrated by any priest of the Roman Rite. Deo gratias! This ancient form of the Mass, the so-called Extraordinary Form, is a great gift to […]
» Read moreToday, the Second Sunday in the Octave of Easter, is also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. Pope John Paul II proclaimed the Sunday after Easter as the Sunday of the Divine Mercy (Dominica II Paschæ seu de divina misericordia) in accord with the visions of the Divine Mercy received by
» Read moreO great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord. Alleluia! O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia.
» Read moreAs I do every year, I shall end this Advent chant sequence with the hymn assembled from the O Antiphons. I‘ve also posted one of my favourite carols, which is particularly appropriate in the deeps of Christmas Vigil. Come to Midnight Mass! For those of you in Tacoma and environs, I invite you to come to our parish of Our […]
» Read moreWe come to the last of the O Antiphons, for tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the Vigil of the Nativity. I mentioned yesterday that the O Antiphons were arranged backwards into the song Veni, Veni Emmanuel. This was by design, for the Antiphons themselves are a backwards acrostic. The first letters of the Messianic titles — Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, […]
» Read moreWith Christmas just days away now, we hear the penultimate O Antiphon this evening. I mentioned a couple of days ago that the antiphons might sound vaguely familiar to you. In the 12th Century, an unknown composer compiled versions of the O Antiphons into a single Advent hymn, called Veni, Veni Emmanuel. You know the English version as O Come, […]
» Read moreIt is altogether right and proper that we should celebrate Christ as the bringer of light on this, the day of the winter solstice. This was an ancient holy day in many religions, as indeed it continues to be. On this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, where people for eons have begged their divinity for […]
» Read moreContinuing on with our annual tradition, we come closer and closer to the birth of the Messiah, “the holy one, the true, who holds the key of David, who opens and no one shall close, who closes and no one shall open” (Revelation 3:7). The key is the symbol of authority. Christ is the Key of the House of David […]
» Read moreToday is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. It has been a long time since I’ve sung these properly, and I very much miss chanting Vespers in community. One of my great hopes is that our chapel will be finished this time next year, so that we may pray these antiphons there. Of course, I said that last year as […]
» Read moreO 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 for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back to the […]
» Read moreThis past Sunday, our parish celebrated its feast day with Masses (Ordinary Form, English with Latin responses) and a potluck. The feast of the Holy Rosary is actually today, but since it is our patronal solemnity, the Archbishop has given permission to move the celebration to the nearest Sunday. One of my volunteer gigs there is to coordinate the Altar […]
» Read moreVery rarely has today’s feast made much of an impression on me. I did write about it once, three years ago, because I was struck by the convergence of a beautiful dawn with the readings of the day. God is truly a poet to confound the mathematicians and a mathematician to confound the poets.
» Read moreThis arrived in the post today. It’s the seventh edition of the Monastic Diurnal, published in 2011 by Saint Michael’s Abbey Press. You can purchase it in the United States from Clear Creek Abbey. It’s a beautiful book. This should give you some idea of the size. In an odd coincidence, the table of dates at the front of the […]
» Read moreO great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger! Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord. Alleluia! O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio! Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia.
» Read more