Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
On this day in 1968, the great Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton died. Despite his valuable spiritual writings, including The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation, and the Christian virtue with which he lived his life, the Church will never name him a saint. To say that I am made in the image of God is to […]
» Read moreOn this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us join together with the Angels and the Saints of all ages in singing the praises of the Mother of God.
» Read moreHappy 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 […]
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