Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Last Thursday, we celebrated a funeral in our parish of Holy Rosary. Nothing unusual in that. The one constant of life is the inevitability of death. This particular funeral was that of a priest, Rev. Dominic Hahn. He was born in 1937, was baptized and grew up in our parish, graduated from our parish school, became a Benedictine monk, and […]
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Dom Matthew Britt, O.S.B. is one of the great writers of practical liturgics in the twentieth century. His classic How to Serve was republished by Tan in 2011. This book is a treasure, and I have made extensive use of it, both in planning for Ordinary Form Masses and for learning to serve the Extraordinary Form. I also have a […]
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Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus. Neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but rather from the Mozarabic Rite.
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There is a tendency in the modern world to minimize the use of vestments in the liturgy. In my early days as a Catholic, it was not unusual to see a priest celebrate Mass wearing only an alb and a stole. Often, this was taken as a sign of humility on the part of the celebrant. It is, in fact, […]
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Here are some of the best articles I’ve seen on the ten-year anniversary of Summorum Pontificum: On the 10th anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, we can safely say the doomsayers are wrong by Dom Alcuin Reid (Catholic Herald) Pope Benedict’s Great Restoration by Michael Brendan Dougherty (National Review) The Glorious Revolution Overthrown: On the Tenth Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum by Peter […]
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TEN years ago today, Pope Benedict XVI caused to be published the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. With the stroke of a pen, the ancient rites of the Mass (last edited in 1962) could suddenly be celebrated by any priest of the Roman Rite. Deo gratias! This ancient form of the Mass, the so-called Extraordinary Form, is a great gift to […]
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This morning, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Father Nicholas Wichert celebrated his last Mass at Holy Rosary as its thirteenth pastor. The Mass was celebrated for the fathers of our parish on the Saint Joseph altar. I served at the Mass, and I was able to make good on a promise I made to one of our young […]
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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 […]
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This coming Sunday my parish will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass. This will be the fifth year we’ve taken Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. In addition, all weekend Masses will be celebrated at the High Altar, Ad Orientem. If you are anywhere in the area, I hope […]
» Read moreYesterday evening we had a rehearsal for our Confirmation Mass, to be celebrated tonight. It was a chaotic affair, with Altar Servers, Confirmandi, Sponsors, family, and of course Catechists and Clergy. I wasn’t herding cats so much as juggling them. I was hoping that we could be out of there in an hour and a half. In the end, it […]
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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 […]
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Yesterday at my parish of Holy Rosary, we celebrated a votive Mass on the Marian altar. This was more or less our Mother’s Day Mass. We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and last year we added a Father’s Day Mass in June at the Saint Joseph altar. This is a laudable custom, and I hope […]
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Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky; Heaven thunders forth its victor cry; The glad earth shouts its triumph high, And groaning hell makes wild reply: While He, the King of glorious might, Treads down death’s strength in death’s despite, And, trampling hell by victor’s right, Brings forth His sleeping Saints to light. Fast barred beneath the stone of late In […]
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Years ago, I wrote a post titled “Hopes and Prayers for a new Pastor“. If the stats are to be believed, this is one of the most consistently popular posts on this blog. I wrote then: Being a pastor is one of the most difficult jobs in the world, I think. The responsibility of shepherding souls must be a great […]
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Today for the first time I served at low Mass in the Extraordinary Form. It was a private Mass, the regularly scheduled daily Mass having ended about twenty minutes before. It was beautiful. Father Insco has been training me for a while now. I did flub up a few things at the very end, and my memorization is terrible. I […]
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This past weekend, I visited Mount Angel Abbey for retreat. I’d been once before, for an amazing liturgy conference they gave last year. This year, I went to accompany my new godson as he spent the weekend in a discernment retreat. The instant I arrived, I felt like my blood pressure dropped twenty points. During the weekend, I of course […]
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Today is the (combined) feast of four great Abbots of the Benedictine Order: Saints Odo, Majolus, Odilo, and Hugh. They were all good and holy men, and during the course of their reigns over the Abbey of Cluny and its associated priories, they reformed western monasticism – indeed, it could be fairly said that together they saved western monasticism. My […]
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