Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
From the Benedictine monks of Norcia (of whom I’ve spoken before) comes the fantastic news that they are now shipping their beers to the United States! From their blog: NORCIA, ITALY — Beginning January 22 at 7am EST and following closely on the heels of the chart topping release of their Benedicta CD of Gregorian chant, the Monastery of San […]
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Over the years, some people have asked me why I prefer the (ancient) monastic Divine Office to the modern Liturgy of the Hours. Let me hasten to assure you that both are equally valid. Both are the prayer of the Church, for the Church. Indeed, to these we could add the Extraordinary Form’s Divinum Officium, the various Eastern rites, as […]
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Happy Saint Agnes Day! Saint Agnes was a young Roman lady of 13 or 14 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. […]
» Read moreWell, the Alsa web site is much better than it was three years ago. For one thing, it’s pretty clear that they have a new English translator, and that he or she knows English. There are still occasionally blocks of Spanish text, but that’s manageable. Trying to interpret Spanglish was not. As I said, much improved. And we are now […]
» Read moreSlowly but surely, we’re ticking things off of our pre-Camino “to-do” list. Today, I purchased our travel insurance. As in our last Camino, we purchased the “standard” package from World Nomads. What I love about these guys is that they have an exhaustive list of all activities covered under their plans – and that list goes from abseiling (rappelling) to […]
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Today in the United States, we celebrate a federal holiday honouring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It seems like a good day to 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 […]
» Read moreAfter futzing around with it for the past two nights, it’s at least working again. I’ve lost a bunch of functionality that will be restored in bits and pieces, but for right now I’ve emerged from the labyrinth of the WordPress dungeons, and I’m done with it.
» Read moreFor no reason that I can ascertain, the template on this blog has suddenly reset to the defaults. This means that all of the sidebars, all of the formatting, even the header, are gone. Poop. That’s going to be a long fix.
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Each year about this time, I post some variation of this essay on the liturgical season boringly known as “Ordinary Time”. Ordinary? Well, what’s so ordinary about it, anyway? Christmas is over, all too soon, and we have now entered into a new season of the liturgical year. This is the time of the year that does not fall into […]
» Read moreOur Camino training has begun in earnest. We’re taking smaller walks throughout the week – some for speed, some for hills. On the weekends, we’re taking longer hikes with full packs. Today, that’s 12k. Over the coming weeks, this will ratchet up to 24k. Of course, the real “training ” for the Camino is in Navarra! one of the locals […]
» Read moreToday has just been a lovely day. We had a morning meeting at church with our parish Liturgical Commission. Thanks to Francine’s strategic kicks under the table, I was able to keep us on topic and relatively focused. Good meeting, and many fewer squirrels than usual. (Squirrel!) Went to Confession in the afternoon, followed by a pilgrimage to our parish’s […]
» Read moreWith any luck, this is the first post to this blog using the WordPress app on my phone. If this works properly, that’s one more thing I can check off my to-do list! (Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)
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Happy Epiphany! Today is the traditional date of this great Solemnity, and in many places throughout the world (like, I dunno, Rome for instance) it is still celebrated today. In my monastic diurnal, certainly, today’s Divine Office is for the Epiphany. For more information on this feast, you can read last Sunday’s article. Whenever you celebrate it, I pray the […]
» Read moreHappy twelfth day of Christmas! This evening is called Twelfth Night, traditionally the vigil of the Epiphany. 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 the beginning of Epiphanytide. These days, of course, the calendar has been moved around a bit and […]
» Read moreHappy eleventh day of Christmas! I’ve been sick in bed the past few days, so there’s no coherent post today – just some scattered notes. Today is the memorial of the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of […]
» Read moreHappy tenth day of Christmas! Today, we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Epiphany. Traditionally, this feast would have been celebrated on the day following the twelfth day of Christmas, the 6th of January, but like many other feasts it fell victim to the “move it to a Sunday” mania that has gripped the Church these past few decades. For […]
» Read moreHappy ninth day of Christmas! Today the Church turns to the east for her celebrations, honouring Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and Doctors of the Church. They both lived in the middle of the fourth century – in fact, they knew each other and were friends. Interestingly, this is not infrequently the case with two great Doctors […]
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