Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
O Wisdom! Advent is drawing to its close, and it’s time again for our annual look at the O Antiphons. These antiphons are part of the prayers at the liturgical hour of Vespers (evening prayer) for the 17th through the 23rd of December – the 24th is of course the Christmas Vigil itself. They are ancient prayers, possibly dating back […]
» Read more
Today is Lucy’s Day! No, not that one. Saint Lucy was a Sicilian martyr. She was a wealthy young lady of Greek extraction brought up by Christian parents. She was killed during the horrific persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian in about 304. The facts surrounding her martyrdom have accreted so many legends that it’s difficult to be sure exactly what […]
» Read more
The Easter Season has ended, and we’re back in Ordinary Time. Which of course, is not so ordinary at all. For most of the Catholic world, we’ve been in Ordinary Time for a week. Unless, of course, you celebrated the Octave of Pentecost. Which I did. Because, why wouldn’t you? Full disclosure: the Octave is celebrated in my Monastic Diurnal. […]
» Read more
Viri Galilæi, quid admiramini aspicientes in cælum? Forty days (and more) have passed since Easter. This year, I was was fortunate enough to celebrate the Ascension twice. The first was Ascension Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, Spokane, as part of the 2019 Sacred Liturgy Conference. It was a Pontifical High Mass of the Ascension of our […]
» Read more
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 lateIn watch and ward where soldiers wait,Now shining […]
» Read more
There are two kinds of time. There’s the kind you can measure. That’s the kind we live through sequentially, moment to moment. The Greek word for this is “kronos”, where we get words like “chronometer” and “chronicle”. Then, there’s the other kind. The Greeks call this “kairos”. This is the time when God acts, when eternity breaks into linear time. […]
» Read more
I joke sometimes that Holy Week for an MC is like running a marathon. So this year, I used my FitBit tracking and figured out the distance I walked, starting with our Palm Sunday rehearsals and ending on Easter Sunday. This year, I clocked about 70km – that’s 43 miles. Given that a marathon is 26 miles, I actually walked […]
» 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 celebrated by […]
» Read more
At my parish of Holy Rosary in Tacoma, we are celebrating Sunday Vespers as we do each Lent. Please, join us in the coming weeks if you are local and able. Chanted Vespers is a beautiful and traditional way of worship in our faith.
» 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
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
Happy Epiphany! 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 Epiphany […]
» Read more
Happy twelfth day of Christmas! I hope you’re enjoying your twelve drummers drumming. This evening is called Twelfth Night, traditionally the vigil of the Epiphany. In my Monastic Diurnal, Epiphany begins with tonight’s Vespers. This was traditionally a time of feasting and festivity (all of which seem to include various varieties of enormous pastries) marking the end of Christmastide and […]
» 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 […]
» 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