Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Since 2015, our parish of Holy Rosary has celebrated a Tenebræ service on Wednesday of Holy Week. This year, we are unable to do so, but below I’ll provide information on how you can join our former pastor, Father Wichert, in celebrating. What is Tenebræ? Tenebræ Begins The word itself is Latin for “shadows”. It is a Holy Week service […]
» Read more
This weekend, Holy Week begins with the Sunday of Lord’s triumphal entry into Jersusalem – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Although Good Friday is coming – the Passion and Death are coming – for the moment, this moment, joy resounds as our King arrives in His city. In most parishes throughout the world, the principal Mass is normally celebrated […]
» Read more
A week ago we celebrated Lætare Sunday, a burst of joy in the midst of Lent. This coming week, the week before Holy Week, we double-down on Lent. Traditionally, today’s Fifth Sunday of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide, when we walk with Christ on the way to Jerusalem. In the Ordinary Form this is no longer celebrated as a […]
» Read more
Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.Be joyful, all who were in mourning;exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast. (Roman Missal: Introit for the Fourth Sunday of Lent) In this long Lent, it may be difficult to find any but the most transient pleasures. We’ve been sheltering in place since we returned from the American Pilgrims conference on Monday. […]
» Read more
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And with those words, our Lent has begun. Holy Mother Church calls us to make these next forty days until Easter a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a pilgrimage, in a sense, through time if not space, through death to resurrection. A pilgrimage of penitence. Let […]
» Read more
Today, we begin the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. The modern Roman Missal has a set of rubrics that cover the whole of Lent, before digging into each day separately. Most folks are familiar with number 4, and I’d venture to say that 3 is not exactly unknown to priests and ministers, if not the folks in the pews. […]
» Read more
Leading up to the great celebration of the mysteries of the death and resurrection of Christ during Holy Week, the Church calls us to forty days of penitence. The Lenten Season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving has been observed by Christians since Apostolic times. Indeed, Christ himself retreated to the desert for forty days, where he was tempted by the […]
» Read more
Arms of Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle By I, SajoR, CC BY-SA 2.5, Link Fasting, almsgiving, and prayer are the three traditional disciplines of Lent. The faithful and catechumens should undertake these practices seriously in a spirit of penance and of preparation for Baptism or of renewal of Baptism at Easter. (Code of Canon Law, 1249-1252) Ash Wednesday, February 26, […]
» Read more
Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the beginning of a liturgical season known as Septuagesima or Fore-Lent or Shrovetide. It consists of the three weeks immediately before the start of Lent, and indeed the name Septuagesima means seventy, in reference to Quadragesima – forty – which is the proper Latin name for Lent. This liturgical season, meant to prepare us for the […]
» Read more
Today was once one of the most solemn feasts of the year. It’s gone by several names over the millennia: the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Candlemas. Coming forty days after Christmas, it was even once the end of the Christmas season. Even today there are relics of […]
» Read more
Happy Epiphany, probably! In a sense, the Feast of the Epiphany is the culmination (if not quite the end) of the Christmas Season. It was once a much more celebrated feast than it is now. In fact, it once had its own Octave. Like many others, I’d love to see that restored. In the popular imagination, the Feast of the […]
» Read more
Happy twelfth day of Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying your twelve drummers drumming. Depending on what calendar you happen to be using, today might very well be the Epiphany for you. If so, happy Epiphany! Traditionally, though, the Epiphany is celebrated on January 6. Since the calendar reforms of 1970, any diocese may choose to move the celebration to the […]
» Read more
Happy Eleventh Day of Christmas! Today we honour a more modern saint than those of recent days. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized. She was born in 1774 and grew up in a home in upperclass New York society. Her father was frequently absent in London for his business, and her stepmother spurned her […]
» Read more
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(Philippians 2:9-11) Happy Tenth Day of Christmas! Today we […]
» Read more
Happy Ninth Day of Christmas! Today is the Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church. Well, it is in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. On the older calendar, it is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. More on that tomorrow. Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen were contemporaries […]
» Read more
All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady. (J.R.R. Tolkien) Wishing all of you a very happy new year of 2020, and a most blessed Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Mother of God, celebrated today on the Octave Day of Christmas. “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5) Let us […]
» Read more
Happy seventh day of Christmas! Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Sylvester I, pope and confessor. He was born in the southern Italian town of Sant’Angelo a Scala to two Roman citizens, Rufinus and Justa. He was ordained by Pope Saint Marcellinus just before the persecutions of Diocletian got underway. He survived those years of terror and saw […]
» Read more