Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an […]
» Read moreDuring this Year of Faith, the Pope has asked us to re-examine the most recent Council, which began fifty years ago this year, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which turns twenty. Plenty of folks have an axe to grind one way or the other about the Second Vatican Council, but frankly it ended before I was born, and […]
» Read morePope Benedict XVI has proclaimed a “Year of Faith” to run from today, 11 October 2012, through to 24 November 2013. Pastoral guidelines have been published that call for prayer, celebrations, pilgrimages, catechetical events, missions, and new forms of evangelization. The Pope calls us to profess the faith, celebrate the faith, and witness to the faith. Faith grows when it […]
» Read moreBenedict! The man who saved European civilization! The man who invented western monasticism! I‘ve often written of him, and of his sister Saint Scholastica. The very foundation of this blog was the monastic movement that Benedict began 1500 years ago. Frankly, you’re probably sick of hearing my blatherings. What we need is somebody way smarter than me to sum him […]
» Read moreHildegard of Bingen is one of those medieval figures who can cause a lot of confusion to people not paying close attention. She (or, rather, a version of her with her Christianity stripped out) has been adopted by some of the New Agers as one of their own. Of course, if you strip the Christianity out of the life of […]
» Read moreWhen Pope Saint Pius V issued the Papal Bull “Quo Primum” in 1570, Christendom was in chaos. The happy diversity of rites that had persisted through the middle ages had come home to roost in the disjointed response to the Lutheran reforms that, driven by ego and ignorance on both sides, had spun out of control into heresy and reformation. […]
» Read more…to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCRW). The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has called for reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and named Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its Archbishop Delegate for the initiative. Bishop Leonard Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki also were also named to assist in […]
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As he was mobbed by Bavarian well-wishers on the occasion of his 85th birthday celebrations, Pope Benedict XVI today said, I find myself on the last stretch of my journey in life, and I don’t know what is awaiting me. I know, however, that the light of God exists, that he is risen, that his light is stronger than any […]
» Read moreThis afternoon at Mass, the priest took the rather unusual step of preaching the Pope’s homily from his Mass in Cuba. He said that although it was intended as a call to arms for those suffering under the Cuban-Castro-Communist regime, it might just as well be a wake-up call to us here in the United States. Here’s the part he […]
» Read moreOn his current trip to Mexico and Cuba, Pope Benedict XVI has been spotted using a cane to steady himself. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, after all the Pope at 85 is one of the longest-lived Popes in history – though he still has a long way to go if he wants to catch up to Leo XIII! Would […]
» Read moreLISTEN, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart, and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father, that by the toil of obedience thou may return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away. (Beginning of the Rule of Saint Benedict) Although it […]
» Read morePope Benedict XVI has proclaimed a “Year of Faith” to run from 11 October 2012 to 24 November 2013. Pastoral guidelines have been published that call for prayer, celebrations, pilgrimages, catechetical events, missions, and new forms of evangelization. The Pope calls us to profess the faith, celebrate the faith, and witness to the faith. Faith grows when it is lived […]
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Something simply extraordinary happened today. This afternoon, I attended the Sacred Liturgy and participated in the Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Lætare Sunday), and it was absolutely by the book. I know this because I follow along in my hand missal, and it’s always jarring to me when a priest goes off on his own. This priest, Rev. […]
» Read moreOn the old calendar, today is the feast of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 – 604). In addition to the above, Saint Gregory was also a Benedictine abbot prior to his election as Pope. So it is in the monastic spirit that today I offer a recent catechesis by Pope Benedict XVI on […]
» Read moreSince Lent began, I’ve been praying the hours using an old 1963 Monastic Diurnal. The history of the Divine Office is complicated enough that I’m not going to go into it here. Suffice to say that there were some serious changes following the reforms of 1970. One of the big changes was the calendar. This came home to me this […]
» Read moreYesterday for World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI rather counter-intuitively gave an address on silence. In the spirit of the Desert Fathers, and of the monastic admonition to silence, the Pope spoke of the relationship between “silence and the word”. No dialogue is possible without both of them. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; […]
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