Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
With 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 more
It 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 more
Continuing 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 more
By now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest attested antiphons in the Divine Office, being mentioned in passing in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. They’re rooted […]
» Read more
Today is the second “O” antiphon, O Adonai. If you are in Tacoma, you may hear this sung at Solemn Vespers this evening at Holy Rosary Church. Please join us for this beautiful and holy liturgy at 6:00 PM. These videos, which I will be embedding each day until Christmas, were recorded by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford in […]
» Read more
O 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 more
This Advent, my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma will be celebrating Vespers in the church on Sundays at 6:00 PM. Please join us! There’s noting like chanted Vespers in a beautiful, echoing church to pull the heart and mind towards the Lord. Please note that due to last minute changes in Fr. Wichert’s schedule, we will only have solemn […]
» Read more
Saint Luke is my kind of writer. Luke the historian and Luke the lyrical poet are both in evidence in his New Testament writings, his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He freely admits that he never met Christ in the flesh, that he was not a witness to the events he describes in his Gospel. Like any good […]
» Read more
Today 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 me it is a Solemnity. Always a happy thing on a Friday! Through a weird happenstance, there isn’t actually a Mass being celebrated at […]
» Read more
Whither is thy Beloved gone, O thou most beautiful among women? Whither is thy Beloved turned aside, and we will seek Him with thee? We begin with the first antiphon of Lauds for today’s feast of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Monastic Diurnal. The Blessed Virgin Mary is sometimes called Our Lady of Sorrows – […]
» Read more
This weekend, me and a couple of guys are taking a road trip and heading over to Mount Angel Abbey for the 2016 Sacred Liturgy Conference. I realize that this is not what most folks do on their Labor Day Weekend, but I’m pretty comfortable in my eccentricities. Here’s the intro from the press release: The Oregon Sacred Liturgy Conference […]
» Read more
Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus, so neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but predating both. I believe it may be from the Mozarabic Rite.
» Read more
Happy Saint Benedict’s Day! Today is the principal feast of the founder of western monasticism: the author of the Holy Rule, and a great saint. Over the course of the last decade and more, new monastic institutions with many young monks and sisters are beginning to flourish throughout the world. For the last few years, I’ve made it my habit […]
» Read more
Tomorrow being the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, today is Saint John’s Eve. Throughout much of Europe, the tradition on this day is to light bonfires. Here’s ours. Not much of a bonfire, strictly speaking, but we do live in the city after all! We almost didn’t get to have one at all – it was […]
» Read more
Today is the memorial of one of my favourite saints, Saint Thomas More, who died at the hands of King Henry VIII (that villain). That is, today is his memorial in the modern Roman calendar, which he shares with Saint John Fisher, also executed by the same king. In my Benedictine ordo, however, it is no such thing – you’d […]
» Read more
Mary’s month of May draws to a close with the Feast of the Visitation. This feast celebrates the visit of Mary, pregnant with Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:39-56). So this feast is a celebration of the very first Christian community, consisting of two pregnant mothers and their unborn children. Saint Luke’s account culminates […]
» Read more
The following is the Holy Week schedule for the parishes of Holy Rosary and Visitation in Tacoma. There’s a lot there. One thing to bear in mind is that the Holy Triduum is essentially one giant liturgy (with some serious overnight breaks) that begins with the Introit of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, continues through the […]
» Read more