Quasquicentennial!

If you are anywhere near Tacoma this weekend, please join us on Sunday for the 125th anniversary of the founding of our parish. The Mass is at Noon, and it will be followed by a reception in the School hall. Here’s the blurb from one of our local papers: Holy Rosary’s steeple rises above downtown Tacoma and towers over I-5. […]

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The Most Holy Rosary

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 […]

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Sacred Liturgy Conference

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 […]

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The Assumption

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? (Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that […]

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Of Benedict and His Monks

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 […]

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Summorum Pontificum at Nine

NINE 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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“I’d Cut Down Every Law…”

Hans Holbein the Younger: Sir Thomas 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 […]

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Corpus Christi Retrospective Part 2:
In Procession

An anonymous bishop once famously prescribed a remedy for many of the problems facing the modern Church with the words “less jabbering – more processions“. He was not wrong. In one sense, of course, processions form the structure of the entire liturgy: we begin with an entrance procession (introit), and there are processions for the Gospel, the offertory, and perhaps […]

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Corpus Christi Retrospective Part 1:
Ad Orientem

This year my parish continued its tradition of celebrating our Corpus Christi Masses on the high altar. This obviously means that rather than facing the congregation through much of the Mass, the priest is facing the same direction they are: towards the altar, toward the tabernacle, towards the Lord. This way of celebrating the Mass is called Ad Orientem, which […]

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Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity

Depending on what calendar you use (Ordinary Form or Extraordinary Form), and whether or not it is a Holy Day of Obligation in your diocese, today(or last Thursday) is (or was) the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Happy Corpus Christi! Whereas Holy Thursday is a celebration of the institution of the Eucharist, Corpus Christi is […]

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Practice and Celebration

This weekend we’re having what we call a “churchy” weekend. In just a few hours, I’m heading over to the parish to run a morning training for new and transferring Altar Servers. After lunch, rehearsals for the Corpus Christi Mass and Procession begin. In the church today, we’re also hosting some youth pilgrims coming to the Holy Door, Adoration, Benediction, […]

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Eucharistic Procession through the Streets of Tacoma

A Medieval Eurcharistic Procession

This coming Sunday my parish will participate in an outdoor Procession of the Blessed Sacrament following the Noon Mass. The Masses that weekend will be celebrated Ad Orientem. This will be the fourth year we’ve taken Jesus through the streets of Tacoma and amongst His people. If you are anywhere in the area, I hope you will consider joining us. […]

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