Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
Only a handful of Popes ever get named “Great”. Today in the Ordinary Roman calendar is the feast of one of them, Pope Saint Gregory the Great, confessor and doctor of the Church (540 – 604). Gregory had been born into an ancient and wealthy Roman family. Before he was 30 years old, he had been a Roman Senator and […]
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Today is one of the more interesting feasts on the liturgical calendar, for today is the feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. OK, nowadays they’ve slightly sanitized the name; it’s now officially called the “Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist”, but for the sheer Catholic joy of calling a spade a spade, I’m sticking […]
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In this very volatile moment in our history, both of the United States and of the Catholic Church, where so much anger rises to the surface so quickly, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the meaning of our times. This anger and factionalism and the accompanying doom-saying is hardly unique to our age. Charles Dickens’ great classic, A […]
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This past weekend, our parish received a letter from the Archbishop of Seattle, His Excellency J. Peter Sartain. In it, he informed us that it was his decision to issue a decree to “close and raze” our parish church of Holy Rosary. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Tacoma This is a terrible decision for a host of reasons. […]
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On the old calendar, today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was moved in the calendar reform to the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. For what reason, I’ve no idea. On the new calendar, today is also a Marian feast, that of Our Lady Queen of Heaven. Whatever changes there might […]
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Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,fair as the moon, bright as the sun,terrible as an army set in array?(Benedictus antiphon, Monastic Office of Lauds for the Assumption) Today’s great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the East is known as the Dormition of the Theotokos, is one that holds a special […]
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“Keeper of the Treasures” by Deacon Lawrence Klimecki Today is the feast of the Deacon martyr, Saint Lawrence. There are so many stories about him, that it’s hard to sum him up briefly. In the confused days after the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus, the administration of the Roman churches fell to the Deacon, Lawrence. He was captured by the Imperial […]
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Today is the Memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Of old, it was the proper Vigil of Saint Lawrence. Both of these great saints suffered martyrdom, Lawrence to the Roman Empire and Teresa Benedicta to Nazi Germany. The Vigil of Saint Lawrence is still celebrated in my monastic breviary, albeit in a very peculiar fashion. Rather than praying […]
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Santo Domingo de Guzmán by Claudio Coello (1642-1693) Tomorrow is the feast of Saint Dominic de Guzmán. He was born near Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, just north of the Camino, in 1170. Legend has it that before his birth, his barren mother made a pilgrimage to Silos, and dreamt that a dog leapt from her womb carrying a […]
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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, one of the more important (if sometimes overlooked) feasts of the liturgical year. This event definitively revealed the divinity of Christ. It appears in the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36). Two of the witnesses refer to it in their writings, but they do not tell […]
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Today is the Memorial of the dedication of one of my favourite church buildings in the world, the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, also known in English as Saint Mary Major. It is occasionally known by the title of Our Lady of the Snows. A side chapel (photos by the author) When we were in Rome back in […]
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Bishop Peter J. Elliott is the author of two invaluable books for the celebration of the modern Roman Rite. They are basically the Fortescue of the Ordinary Form. His Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite and Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, which in my parish we sometimes call the Red Book and the Green Book, are now to be joined […]
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Although they are not mentioned in scripture, tradition remembers the names of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s parents as Saints Joachim and Anne. Today is their feast! Their names are first recorded in the Protoevangelium of James, written probably in the second century. This is one of those works that mix facts with fancy to prove a point, so we must […]
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Santiago Apóstol Today is the Feast of Saint James the Greater, known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as Santiago. He was one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles. Saint James is the patron saint of the archdiocese of Seattle, and therefore today is a solemnity within our archdiocese. May you have the joy of the feast! James and his brother John were natives […]
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Chanted from the version given in the Codex Calixtinus. Neither Ordinary nor Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but rather from the Mozarabic Rite.
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Fifty years ago today, on July 20, 1969, human beings first set foot upon the Moon. My mother claims I watched the landing, at the tender age of two, hiding underneath the coffee table. If so, I don’t remember it. My lovely bride Francine, however, does. Her birthday is July 21, and she clearly remembers having a lunar module on […]
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I‘m considering doing another “Camino Photo of the Day” series over on my Camino Blog, this time using our first Camino, back in 2013. Anybody interested? I mean, even if nobody is, I may just do it anyway. Some weird post-Camino blues redux going on in my life right now, and I found that this helps. Source: Camino Photo of […]
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