Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Andrew, son of Jonah, fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee. Follower of John the Baptist. The first apostle called by Christ, who told him and his brother, Simon, to “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men”. After the Resurrection, Andrew preached along the coasts of the Black Sea, both north and south, founding churches that included one […]
» Read moreCecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs, even though the facts of her martrydom are a little vague. Legend has it that she, her husband Valerian, and her brother-in-law Tiburtius were martyred during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus, about the year 230. Her name appears in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) […]
» Read moreWell, I gave my talk this evening to our RCIA class about the Angels and the Saints. It went fairly well, I think. I had given the class some small bit of homework last week for this session, and it proved to be a great success. I had each of them pick a Saint who interested them or touched them […]
» Read moreHappy Feast of All Saints! This is the day where we celebrate all the saints, known and unknown: the Church Triumphant. This day has been a feast since the sixth or seventh century, and it was fixed on November 1 in the Roman calendar by Pope Gregory III in the mid 8th century. Yesterday, of course, was the vigil or […]
» Read moreJoseph Stalin famously demanded to know “How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin was, of course, asking the wrong question, as the saint whose feast is today finally proved. When Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II in October of 1978, I was not only just 11 years old – I wasn’t even Catholic. It’s safe […]
» Read moreSaint 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 […]
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Just about everybody knows Saint Francis. He’s the plaster birdbath guy, right? The saint who hung around with fuzzy pastel animals. Well, sort of. “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” (Saint Francis of Assisi) I very nearly took “Francis” as my confirmation name. It might have been awkward, though, what with being engaged to Francine at the time. Reading […]
» Read moreLately I’ve been using an old Monastic Breviary in my Divine Office. I’ve spoken before about the calendar confusion that I’ve had to deal with when using books based on the pre-1970 calendar. Mostly the issue stems from feasts being suppressed or moved. Today, however, I ran into something I’ve never seen before: a feast on the old (monastic) calendar […]
» Read morePlease consider heeding the call of Pope Francis to fast and pray for peace on this coming Saturday the 7th of September. In that spirit, please consider this litany. Litany of Syrian Saints For private use only Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison, Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison, Kyrie eleison. Christe audi nos, Christe audi nos. Christe exaudi nos. Christe exaudi […]
» Read moreToday is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking […]
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Urged to reflect upon myself, I entered under your guidance the innermost places of my being; but only because you had become my helper was I able to do so. I entered, then, and with the vision of my spirit, such as it was, I saw the incommutable light far above my spiritual ken and transcending my mind: not this […]
» Read moreBorn of Christian parents about the year 331 at Tagaste in Africa, Monica was reared under the strict supervision of an elderly nurse who had likewise reared her father. In the course of time she was given in marriage to a pagan named Patricius. Besides other faults, he possessed a very irascible nature… Her marriage was blessed with three children: […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of the deacon martyr, Saint Lawrence. There are so many stories about him, that it’s hard to sum him up briefly. In the confused days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus, the administration of the Roman churches fell to the Deacon, Lawrence. He was captured by the Imperial authorities, but he bargained for his release. The […]
» Read moreSaint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr. (12 October 1891 to 09 August 1942) Edith Stein was an influential German Jewish philosopher. An atheist by the time she was a teenager, she was influenced by the writings of Saint Teresa of Ávila and converted to the Roman Catholic Church. She was baptized at the age of 31. She […]
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Today in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is the feast of Saint Dominic de Guzmán (1170 – 06 August 1221), founder of the Order of Preachers, known as the Dominicans. In the Extraordinary Form calendar that my current breviary follows, this feast was last Sunday, the 4th (or would have been, had it not been a Sunday). You […]
» Read moreSantiago Apóstol Today is the feast of Saint James the Apostle, son of Zebedee and Salome of Bethsaida, brother of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist. One of the “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). Santiago. On this day last year, I wrote about what we know of Saint James from scripture and tradition. That was before I had walked 500 […]
» Read moreIt’s a pretty rare thing when Kings become saints, or at least become canonized saints. I can only think of a handful off the top of my head: Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Edward the Confessor of Anglo-Saxon England, Saint Stephen of Hungary. Today is the feast of the only Emperor-Saint of which I’m aware: Saint Heinrich II, Duke […]
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