Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
My new book, Practical Pilgrimage, is now available for purchase. Subtitled “Useful Rules for Walking the Camino de Santiago”, it’s a deeper exploration and expansion of a blog post that appeared back in 2023, Thom’s Practical Rules for the Camino. Purchase on Amazon (affiliate link) This short book (about a hundred pages) is chock-full of photos and anecdotes from my […]
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The Church honours Saint Benedict with two great feasts. One is not much celebrated these days, as it typically occurs during Lent, and it has been removed from the Universal Calendar. The Benedictines, of course, continue to celebrate both. To these, some Benedictine monasteries add a third feast, which is celebrated today. Icon of Saint Benedict at Mount Athos The […]
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Surrexit Odo, plenus Spiritu Sancto, et monastici Ordinis decus per orbem renovatum est. (Odo arose, filled with the Holy Spirit, and restored the glory of the monastic Order throughout the world.) —Antiphon 2, Lauds of Saint Odo Today is the memorial of Saint Odo of Cluny on some of the calendars of the Benedictine Order. Others – most especially the […]
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The Zelanti resources are back online! I imagine most folks reading this have no idea what I’m talking about, so perhaps a little background is in order. For several years now, I’ve been involved with a group of like-minded liturgy geeks. We call ourselves the Society of Saint Odo of Cluny. Saint Odo was one of the early Abbots of […]
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On the Memorial of Pope Saint John XXIII, I thought I’d post the saintly Pope’s 1962 Apostolic Constitution, Veterum Sapientia. This landmark constitution is a love letter to the Latin Language. While never abrogated, it was to my knowledge never enforced. On the Vatican website, it is only available in Latin and Spanish. Fortunately the full English translation may be […]
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On today’s memorial of Our Lady, Untier of Knots, I’m pleased to announce the long-delayed publication of my Altar Server Manual. It is available in both a regular (server) edition as well as an expanded Trainer Edition. They are available in book shops and Amazon. “Altar servers should be properly trained and properly formed. This manual provides altar servers with […]
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The Church honours Saint Benedict with two great feasts. One is not much celebrated these days, as it typically occurs during Lent, and it has been removed from the Universal Calendar. To these, some Benedictine monasteries add a third feast, which is celebrated today. Icon of Saint Benedict at Mount Athos The feast of the Transitus of Saint Benedict is […]
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Thursday, October 7 is the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. For those of us who were once parishioners of Holy Rosary parish in Tacoma, it was our patronal feast. In years past, we could celebrate this on a Sunday. Altar servers for our patronal feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary parish (Tacoma, WA) in 2019. We […]
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When Pope Saint Pius V promulgated the revised Missale Romanum in the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum in 1570, he famously wrote that it applied “henceforth, now, and forever, throughout all the provinces of the Christian world”. Yet, just a year later the Pope himself issued the first changes to the Missal, inserting the feast of Our Lady of Victory, to celebrate […]
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Depart from me, I will weep bitterly; labour not to comfort me. (Antiphon 1 of Monastic Lauds for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows) Two days ago, Archbishop Paul Etienne celebrated the final Mass of Holy Rosary parish in Tacoma. Perhaps appropriately, today is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. In his blog, his excellency had this to […]
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With all of the livestreamed Masses going on right now, it was inevitable that the music companies and hymnal publishers would start to raise a fuss about licensing and copyright. Here’s a secret: the Latin Mass parts and the Gregorian hymns are not under copyright. I mean, there are hymnal publishers that will change a few notes or words so […]
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Our parish of Holy Rosary will not be streaming any Holy Week or Easter liturgies this year. We want to protect Father Justin’s health! So instead, we’ve put together some recommendations. First and foremost, Archbishop Etienne will be live streaming the Holy Week and Easter liturgies from Saint James Cathedral, and we encourage you to view and to take part at home […]
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Pope Francis calls on everyone to pray the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary tomorrow, the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, at 9:00pm Rome time invoking “Our Lady, Health of the Sick and Saint Joseph, to protect our families from coronavirus COVID-19, especially the ill and those who are caring for the sick, the doctors, nurses, who are risking their lives”. This […]
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Now that a copy of Bishop Elliott’s latest book is finally in my hands and shipping from both the publisher and Amazon, it’s time to reprint my initial review, below. I did some minimal editing for clarity, and I’ve added a note about the illustrations at the end. As an additional note, I will be revising our Altar Servers Training […]
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Rose Window, Church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Tacoma For most of the Catholic world, tomorrow is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. For most of the Catholic world, this is a memorial of various sorts. Since, however, my parish is dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, for us it is a Solemnity. And we’re […]
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Bishop Peter J. Elliott is the author of two invaluable books for the celebration of the modern Roman Rite. They are basically the Fortescue of the Ordinary Form. His Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite and Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, which in my parish we sometimes call the Red Book and the Green Book, are now to be joined […]
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A Reflection and a Resource Last week I attended the rites of the Triduum at three different churches. This is not really normal; one should attend what is essentially one long, if interrupted, liturgy at one’s own parish church. In our case, this is complicated by the fact that two parishes share a pastoral team. So Good Friday was at […]
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