Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
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 moreOn the old calendar, today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was moved in the calendar reform to the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. For what reason, I’ve no idea. Since my breviary follows the old calendar, this is what I’m praying today. On the new calendar, today is also a […]
» Read moreYou might remember that I’ve been using the 1962 “A Short Breviary” for my daily office lately. Calendar issues aside, it has been a fruitful experience. Yesterday, however, I ran into a bit of a snag. Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Benedict. I didn’t expect to find an office commemorating his feast on the day, since before the calendar […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Except when it isn’t. The feast days of most saints are the day they died. For Thomas, today is properly the feast commemorating “the Translation of Saint Thomas” – the day on which his relics were translated (moved) from Mylapore in India to Edessa in Mesopotamia in A.D. 232. Presumably, this […]
» 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 moreIt’s the first of January, and I’m clearly looking and feeling my very best after last night’s festivities. We rarely throw parties, but when we do, we invariably overdo it a bit. Last night’s feast had libations aplenty and a table groaning with food for our family and friends old and new. Everybody brought something to share. Combine that with […]
» Read moreThe antiphon for today’s Invitatory prayer is Come, Let us worship God who brings the world and its wonders from darkness into light. It turns out that this has a much greater impact if you actually pray the Hours at their proper times. This morning, I prayed Vigils as the sun was rising. You can see what I mean. Might […]
» Read moreThe Liturgy of the Hours runs through the psalms in a four-week cycle. Every fourth Wednesday at the hour of Vigils (a.k.a. Matins, or the Office of Readings) we pray Psalm 103. There’s one stanza that never fails to give me pause. As for man, his days are like grass; he flowers like the flower of the field; the wind […]
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On this, the Feast of Saint Benedict, I thought I’d ruminate on the meaning of “reform”. Typically, when the Church, or some organization within the Church, has talked about reform, the word pretty specifically meant clearing out the laxness and shortcuts that had appeared in practices, devotions, and liturgy. The fact is, all organizations staffed by humans tend to get […]
» Read moreSaint Paul calls us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, cf. Ephesians 6:18). How are we to understand this? I think there are two ways. One is the way explored by an unnamed Russian pilgrim in the spiritual classic The Way of a Pilgrim. The book dates from the mid-19th century, and in it the author visits various monasteries […]
» Read moreOr, putting the labora back into Ora et Labora One of my hobbies is book design. This is an honourable and ancient occupation of monks, and I worked at it long before I worked at amateur monasticism. I’ve gotten fairly proficient over the years, so I’m often asked to put together publications for folks. Currently, I’m working on two major […]
» Read moreThis week, I am praying with a new breviary. For the last year and more, I’ve been using the four volume Liturgy of the Hours. It is an immense blessing to my prayer life, particularly the Office of Readings (Matins), which has introduced me to the works of the Fathers and other Saints and to some of the Concillar documents. […]
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