Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Today is both the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul and the twelfth anniversary of the day I wed my beautiful bride. It is, as I have said before, a “moment when everything changed, celebrated on a day when everything changed”. It’s important to mark those changes. Francine and I have a funny tradition. When I proposed to her, […]
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I can’t speak for anybody else, but I need all the help I can get. As a writer, I often find that I love having written much more than actually writing. I distract myself easily. It doesn’t help, I suppose, that I tend to write in bursts, like I’m emptying my brain. Then I rather need to recharge the brain […]
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Happy Saint Agnes Day! Saint Agnes was a young Roman lady of 12 or 13 who suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of Diocletian in about the year 304. She was one of the youngest of the early martyrs and one of the most moving and articulate. Agnes hastened to the place of torture as a bride to her wedding feast. […]
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Today in the United States, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so I thought I’d tackle the question “are there non-Catholic saints?” Seems like a simple question. First off, what’s a saint exactly? We turn to our trusty Catechism once more and find the following: 823 “The Church . . . is held, as a matter of faith, to […]
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Today is the feast of the man many consider to be the founder of Christian monasticism, Saint Anthony the Great of Egypt, the “Father of Monks”. He was born in the middle of the third century in decidedly Pagan Middle Egypt to a well-to-do, comfortable family. He spent much of his life avoiding the sorts of comforts available to him […]
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Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (1924 – 2020) French newspapers are reporting the death of Christopher Tolkien, son and literary executor to the great J.R.R. Tolkien. As a boy, he drew the first published maps of Middle Earth. Following his father’s death in 1973, he supervised and edited his remaining work, publishing all that was publishable and much that was probably not. […]
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Ever since we returned from our first Camino in 2013, Francine and I have been taken with the idea of serving as hospitaleros. These are the folks who staff the albergues along the Way. Except in the private albergues, the hospitaleros normally work in two or three week shifts. They staff various municipal, parroquial (and monastic) and association albergues throughout […]
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The Wise Men by G.K. Chesterton Step softly, under snow or rain,To find the place where men can pray;The way is all so very plainThat we may lose the way. Oh we have learnt to peer and poreOn tortured puzzles from our youth,We know all the labyrinthine lore,We are the three wise men of yore,And we know all things but […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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On this day in 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Professor is 128 today! All around the world, at 9pm local time, the Tolkien Society and the Professor’s many other devotees will celebrate his birthday with a toast to “the Professor”. I will join in, though it may be with lunch rather than this evening, and […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Who doesn’t like top ten lists? These are the top ten post hits on the blog for this past year. Not all of the posts receiving the hits were necessarily written this year. Apparently, their appeal is enduring. In addition, for posts that are part of a numbered series (Novena to the Holy Deacons, I’m looking at you), I’ve only […]
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