Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Viri Galilæi, quid admiramini aspicientes in cælum? (Acts 1:11) One of the more succinct descriptions of this day I’ve found has been copied all over the Internet, to the point where I’m unable to properly source it: The Ascension of Our Lord, which occurred 40 days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter, is the final act of […]
» Read morePope Benedict XVI Like so many others, I am stunned and grieving. I was baptized in 2005 just a month before Pope Benedict’s election, and his hand on the tiller is the only one I’ve really known. We can but pray. Francine and I are beginning the Camino de Santiago shortly after Easter, and I will now offer it for […]
» Read moreFaith and reason are like the two shoes you wear on your journey. You get a lot farther with both than just one. (J. Michael Straczynski) Today is the Feast of the Universal Doctor of the Church and one of my name Saints, Thomas Aquinas. When (certain) people, told of my conversion, said to me “oh, you’re Catholic – you […]
» Read moreI can’t speak for anybody else, but I need all the help I can get. As a writer, I often find that I love having written much more than actually writing. I distract myself easily. It doesn’t help, I suppose, that I tend to write in bursts, like I’m emptying my brain. Then I rather need to recharge the brain […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of the man many consider to be the founder of Christian monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great of Egypt, the “Father of Monks”. He was born in the middle of the third century in decidedly Pagan Middle Egypt to a well-to-do, comfortable family. He spent much of his life avoiding the sorts of comforts available to him […]
» Read moreOn this day in 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Professor is 121 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 moreEach year on this, his feast day, I write a short article about Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name “Thomas”, I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons. Last year, I quoted a small passage from G.K. Chesterton on the matter of Becket’s martyrdom. This year, I’d like to focus a moment on the idea of pilgrimage. Following his death, […]
» Read moreThough holy doctors have uncovered many mysteries and wonders, and devout souls have understood them in this earthly condition of ours, yet the greater part still remains to be unfolded by them, and even to be understood by them. We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of the great Doctor of the Church, Saint Ambrose of Milan (340-397). Rather than prattle on about this great saint, I thought I’d post the second reading from today’s Office. Although Ambrose is specifically addressing bishops in this letter, his call to evangelization is for all of us, for all time. You have entered upon the […]
» Read moreNew York, 3 October 1789 By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee […]
» Read moreProfessor Tolkien’s works embody his deep and abiding Catholic faith and worldview. Today in the calendar of Middle Earth, it is Durin’s Day. Durin J.R.R. Tolkien The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No words were laid on stream or stone, … When Durin woke and walked along. He named the nameless […]
» Read moreAs part of my observance of the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, I will be receiving e-mail snippets every day in an effort to read the Catechism in a year. Today I received the first of these e-mail messages, containing the first ten paragraphs of the Catechism. I was immediately struck by paragraph 3, which outlines our […]
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Do you pray to your Guardian Angel? Do you ask them for advice or help? Why not? The Church teaches that we all receive a guardian angel at birth, an angel assigned to guide and protect us, to watch over us. As it says in scripture: There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy […]
» Read moreWhat 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 moreThere’s something deeply poetic about God’s continual use of the lowly and marginalized to proclaim His majesty and His Truth. Let’s review; the ancient Hebrews were not exactly on par with mighty Egypt or Babylon, Assyria or Hatti, Greece or Rome, in terms of power and prestige among nations of the ancient world. The father or their nation, Abraham? A […]
» Read moreToday 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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I am a Polish Catholic priest. I would like to take the place of this man, since he has a wife and children.” (Saint Maximilian Kolbe, OFM Con., taking the place of fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek at Auschwitz. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after being administered a lethal injection.) Because God’s glory shines through most brightly in the salvation […]
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