Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
One year ago, our parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation were deep in prayer for the health and soul of our pastor, Rev. Michael Wagner. Rev. Michael Wagner On April 10 2018, Father Wagner collapsed during the celebration of the holy Mass. He was admitted to hospital with an irreversible brain hemorrhage. The doctors advised his family and the archdiocese […]
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I joke sometimes that Holy Week for an MC is like running a marathon. So this year, I used my FitBit tracking and figured out the distance I walked, starting with our Palm Sunday rehearsals and ending on Easter Sunday. This year, I clocked about 70km – that’s 43 miles. Given that a marathon is 26 miles, I actually walked […]
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Today is the 92nd birthday of Father Benedict, once Pope Benedict XVI. Happy birthday! Obviously, we don’t know how history will judge the life and works of Pope Benedict XVI. As for me, I think that in a century or so, he will be enrolled amongst the Doctors of the Church. Pope Francis visits Father Benedict, 2019 If you have […]
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Gene Wolfe has died. Mr. Wolfe was an enormous influence on me as a writer and as a human being. Gene Wolfe (1931-2019) He was a master of implication and manipulating the reader’s inferences. You could read the first page of any Wolfe book and know things about the world in which the book was set that he never directly […]
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The following is the Holy Week schedule for the parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation in Tacoma, Washington. It’s less jam-packed than previous years, but there’s still a lot here! Wednesday Tenebræ is not to be missed. And of course, the Holy Triduum is essentially one giant liturgy (with some serious overnight breaks) that begins with the Introit of the […]
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Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, our Lent has begun. Holy Mother Church calls us to make these next forty days until Easter a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a pilgrimage, in a sense, through time if not space, through death to resurrection. A pilgrimage of penitence. Let […]
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Yesterday at about 12:35 in the afternoon or so, while crossing 11th in downtown Tacoma in a driving rain, I was hit by a car that ran a light. I rolled over the hood and onto the pavement. The driver, an EMT from the Seattle Fire Department, was lost in Tacoma and distracted. My head was down as I crossed […]
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Who doesn’t like top ten lists? These are the top ten post hits on the blog for this past year. Not all of the posts receiving the hits were necessarily written this year. Apparently, their appeal is enduring. In addition, for posts that are part of a numbered series (Novena to the Holy Deacons, I’m looking at you), I’ve only […]
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Thank you all for your help and encouragement over the past three years as we worked on this project. Two years ago, we celebrated Holy Rosary’s Quasquicentennial – the 125th Anniversary of our parish. Now, the Holy Rosary Parish Commemorative book is finally available for purchase! This beautiful, full-color coffee table book includes a full history of the first 125 […]
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We leave for Spain on Tuesday, and we’ve definitely entered into scramble mode. Equipment purchases, refinements, and testing has gone on for months, but it always seems like there’s something breaking or not working at the last minute. Our rigourous training schedule has gone by the boards this week due to increasingly frantic work pressures. And of course, there’s always […]
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Today at 10:05 local time, a small vial of dried blood in Naples turned to liquid, as it has done several times a year since at least the 1380s. The Archbishop of Naples, Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe, briefly collapsed during Mass, just after the miracle occurred. While those reporting the event blamed the heat, I note that the Cardinal is under […]
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Prior to each of our previous Camino pilgrimages, I’ve tried to articulate why it is that we walk. Everybody’s answer is, of course, different. It has ever been thus. Before my first Camino, I had this sense that God was calling me to it, and maybe that was enough of a reason. Maybe it was partly the sense of adventure […]
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So saith today’s saint, the incomparable Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407). He was, of course, himself a bishop. It seems that this pithy quote is a popularization of the full (attributed) quote, where the saint is talking about the relatively few in number who will be saved and the bad shepherds who are responsible: The road to Hell is paved […]
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Twelve years ago, on September 10th 2006, I made my final oblation to Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey. I am an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict. Much has happened in those years, but much remains the same. As an Oblate, I promise to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict inasmuch as it applies to my state in life. […]
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In this very volatile moment in history, where so much anger rises to the surface so quickly, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the meaning of our times. Anger and factionalism and the accompanying doom-saying – even within the Church – is hardly unique to our age. Charles Dickens’ great classic, A Tale of Two Cities, begins with […]
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Depending on your particular calendar, today or yesterday was the feast of Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), a great saint and Doctor of the Church who founded the Redemptorists and wrote on the spiritual life. I particularly enjoy his Way of the Cross and a short book (pamphlet, really) called How to Converse Continually and Familiarly with God. Yesterday I found […]
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Last month, I attended the Sacred Liturgy Conference in Salem, Oregon. This is the second time I’ve attended, the first being back in 2016. It’s a transforming conference, and the daily conference liturgies in particular have made, and continue to make, a deep impression on me and others. Obviously, it’s difficult to sum up a four day conference in just […]
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