Opening Address Bloom’s Daily Offering for Friday, and the psalm sung between the readings this morning opens with a finished sentence: thou hast saved us. Not save us. Not thou wilt save us one day when the paperwork is done. Today is a fourth-class feria in green, with no saint, no feast and no commemoration […]
Author Archives: Pastora Tori Matthews
27
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Bloom’s Daily Offering for Thursday, and the entrance chant this morning says you shall call upon me, and I will hear you. That is the whole promise, handed over at the door, with nothing attached to it and no conditions on the front. Today is a fourth-class feria in green: no saint, no […]
26
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Peter asks the blunt question today, and he asks it out loud in front of everybody. Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? It is the question the pious part of us is embarrassed by, and there is no rebuke anywhere in the answer. Christ […]
25
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Good morning, and welcome. Today is Tuesday, the twenty-fifth of November, and the Church keeps St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr, third class, in red. The Lesson she is given is a list of everything that nearly destroyed a man, and the clause sitting in the middle of that list is five […]
24
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Nothing in today’s Mass is new except three prayers. Every reading, every antiphon and every sung line of it was heard nine days ago, on the feast of a different teacher, and the Church has used the whole of it again for John of the Cross. What is his alone is a Collect, […]
23
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Bloom’s Sunday Mass, and this is the last one of the Church’s year. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent and the vestments go violet, so this morning closes the long green season—and the Church closes it by reading you twenty-one verses about the end of everything and then handing you, in […]
22
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Good morning, and welcome. Today is Saturday, the twenty-second of November, and the Church keeps St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr, third class. Before a single reading, before the saint is so much as described, the entrance chant hands us four words about somebody’s standing: I was not ashamed. The day the temporal calendar […]
21
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Good morning, and welcome. Today is Friday, the twenty-first of November, and the Church keeps the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, third class, in white. The day the temporal calendar names is the Friday after the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, and that feria is not commemorated at all. There is no other […]
20
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. That is the first thing said this morning, and everything else in the passage comes after it. Beloved, grace and peace to you, however you arrive at this hour: rested or worn through, praying easily or not praying […]
19
Nov
Nov
Opening Address Give her of the fruit of her hands: and let her works praise her in the gates. That is the last line of a twenty-two verse poem, and it is not addressed to her. It is an instruction to everybody else in the room. Beloved, grace and peace to you, however you come […]