Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Happy Saint Nicholas Day! How Saint Nicholas was transmogrified into Santa Claus, I’ll never know. “Jolly Old Saint Nick” was by all accounts a thin man, most famous for giving gifts to prostitutes and punching heretics. That whole “eight tiny reindeer” thing seems like a bit of a come down. Wait, prostitutes?
» Read moreYesterday’s anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium was tackled by a number of Catholic blogs, but I’d like to draw your attention to two of them specifically. Andrew Casad, Director of the Office for Liturgy at Archdiocese of Seattle, offers his reflections Celebrating Fifty Years of Sacrosanctum Concilium.
» Read moreThe Council of Trent, 1562 We Catholics sure seem to enjoy coincidental dates, or at least doing things on specific days that have specific meanings. This past year, the Church has made a big deal out of the 50th Anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Benedict XVI even proclaimed it a “Year of Faith“. Indeed, today marks the 50th […]
» Read moreYesterday, Francine posted some very good ruminations on her blog about her time on the Camino. She was far more eloquent than I on the experience, and particularly the post-Camino experience. Honestly, after more than half a year, I’m still trying to process it. I haven’t even been able to post and catalogue all my photos yet – although I’ve […]
» Read moreAndrew, 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 moreFifty-six years before the English Puritan refugees at Plymouth celebrated their “first Thanksgiving”, Spanish explorers and their Timucua allies celebrated one in Saint Augustine, in what is now Florida. They had bean soup. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral under orders to root out some French colonists in the area. Sighting land in La Florida on 28 August […]
» Read moreYesterday, on the great feast of Christ the King, the Year of Faith drew to a close. Pope Benedict XVI established it as a time to re-dedicate ourselves to professing the faith, celebrating the faith, and witnessing to the faith. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience […]
» 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 […]
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Yesterday, the second Mass I attended had five people. Oh, the regularly-scheduled morning Mass for All Souls was packed to the rafters, but this was later. The rubrics in the Missal for All Souls specifically allow priests to celebrate up to three Masses that day – indeed the Missal has three separate sets of antiphons and prayers for the day. […]
» Read moreLet’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day. Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Last […]
» 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 […]
» Read moreWe Catholics have done a spectacularly poor job of teaching the faith over the last forty years. Part of the problem, of course, is media narratives – such as the one that paints one of the most profound teachers of the past century as an “inquisitor” or worse. I’m gratified that Pope Francis has managed to change the narrative. I […]
» Read moreProfessor Tolkien’s works embody his deep and abiding Catholic faith and worldview. Today in the calendar of Middle Earth, we celebrate the Dwarven (lunar) New Year. When on this day both the Sun and Moon may be seen in the sky together, it is called Durin‘s Day. Durin J.R.R. Tolkien The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet […]
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