The 10 Most Popular Posts of 2021
Once again, it’s time for our annual look back at the year that was. And what a year! The plague and lockdowns continued, but instead of looking at the crazy out there, we’re concentrating on the crazy in here – in the form of a top ten. This is now the fifth annual, so I guess it now falls under the rubric of venerable custom.
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. I’m finding that the posts on liturgical resources and reviews are bubbling to the top of the list.
Most of the new entries on the list are news-type articles, though a three-year old piece on the Saints of the Benedictine Order does make a surprise debut.
As always, there are links in each title to the full article.
TEN: Antiphony Reborn: Singing the Mass Propers
Does Sunday Mass in your parish start with a hymn? Why? Did you know that the Church actually provides scripture to be read or sung during the entrance of the Priest and servers?
This, my friends, is the Entrance Antiphon or, to give it its traditional name, the Introit. In a talk he gave at the recent Sacred Liturgy Conference, Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth, Director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, called the antiphons a “musical lectio on the day”.
Would you replace the First Reading at Mass with a chapter from Jonathan Livingston Seagull? How about replacing the Responsorial Psalm with “On Eagle’s Wings”? No?
Then why replace the Entrance Antiphon with “Here I am, Lord”? …
NINE: All Saints of the Benedictine Order
Once again we come to a feast of All Saints. “But wait!” I hear you cry, “wasn’t that back on the first of November?”
Right you are! But today on the Benedictine calendar is the feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Order. …
EIGHT: Orphans No Longer
Posted on 01 July 2021
Today, July 1 2021, is the effective date of my parish of Holy Rosary merging into the parish of Saint Ann. It is a bittersweet moment. On the one hand, I am told that a decree officially suppressing Holy Rosary parish and merging it into Saint Ann will be published today, and it truly does seem like the final end to this sad chapter in the life of my parish.
On the other hand, many good things are coming out of this merger. …
SEVEN: Parish X
As this Lentiest of Lents finally drew to a close, I was reminded that for our (former) parish of Holy Rosary this time of suffering has lasted not 40 days, not 400 days, but for years. I reflected a bit on this in an essay called All is Loss back in November.
Our final Mass after almost 130 years was celebrated not in our beautiful church, not even in the gymnasium to which we had been exiled for two years, but outside in the parking lot under a smoky apocalyptic sky reddened by nearby wildfires. Step by step our parish had lost everything. …
SIX: New Chapters Being Written
Posted on 15 October 2021
Today has been a busy, exciting, and exhausting day. This morning, after a series of interviews this week, I accepted an offer from GitHub, where I have been contracting much of the year. I also contracted with them for a year or so before the Plague.
There are still some formalities – a contract to sign on Monday, a background check, etc. – but I was dancing in my office today, super excited. I like the people I’m working with, I love the company culture, and the job I’m doing is both challenging and interesting. And although the words “senior manager” appear in my title, I won’t actually have any direct reports. The best of all worlds. Huzzah!
And then this afternoon Francine and I returned to the Holy Rosary campus …
FIVE: The Road to Hell is Paved with the Skulls of Bishops
Posted on
So saith today’s saint, the incomparable Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347–407). He was, of course, himself a bishop.
It seems that this pithy quote is a popularization of the full (attributed) quote, where the saint is talking about the relatively few in number who will be saved and the bad shepherds who are responsible: …
FOUR: Sancte Joseph, Terror Dæmonum, Ora Pro Nobis
Posted on
Today on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, we would do well to meditate on the life of the man who helped raise the Son of God. It can’t have been easy. Tradition holds that Joseph was already an old man and a widower when he married the Blessed Virgin, who was very young, perhaps 16 or so.
He had several children already (Saint James the Less comes to mind), and the children needed a mother. Mary’s parents, Saints Joachim and Anne, were also very old, and the young girl would need a protector. It was, perhaps, a marriage of convenience for all concerned. …
THREE: Vesting Prayers
Posted on 29 March 2017 (2018: 6th; 2019: 7th, 2020: 3rd)
One of my volunteer positions at my parish is that of MC and Altar Server coordinator. Since I started in that position, we’ve made any number of changes. One of the simplest and most profound, though, was the reintroduction of Vesting Prayers.
And what are they? In the immemorial tradition of the Roman Rite, certain prayers were recited while vesting for Mass. Indeed, each vestment had its own specific prayer, that alluded to the symbolic meaning behind that particular vestment.
Such things weirdly fell out of favour following the liturgical reform. …
TWO: Review: Monastic Diurnal at One Year
Posted on 24 July 2015 (2016: 1st; 2017: 1st; 2018: 2nd; 2019: 3rd, 2020: 1st)
Although I’ve prayed some form of the Divine Office since before my baptism, just over a year ago I began using the Farnborough Monastic Diurnal. It is only at this point that I feel confident enough to review it. …
ONE: Rorate Mass Resources – in the Ordinary Form
Posted on 12 December 2018 (2019: 8th, 2020: 4th)
… our parish of Holy Rosary celebrated a Rorate Mass in the Ordinary Form. And what, pray tell, is a Rorate Mass?
The name comes from the opening words of the Entrance Antiphon, Rorate cæli desuper, Latin for “Drop down dew, ye heavens”. The Rorate Mass is a Solemn Votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated in Advent. It is traditionally celebrated by candlelight on the high altar, and sung in Gregorian Chant. The sky is dawning just as it finishes. This is to symbolize the coming of Christ, the Light of the World. …
Many new posts on the list, mixed in with just a couple of old stalwarts, which continue to climb up the list. I’m particularly pleased at how strongly the Rorate and Vesting Prayers posts continue to perform.
What was your favorite this year? Any favorites that didn’t make the list?
Thank you to each and every one of my readers. You guys are the best.