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The Deacon's Bench

For everyone who has ever dreamed, this song is for you. It’s surprising and funny and just wonderful. In a word: wow. Excuse me, while I blow my nose and dry my eyes. And, a grateful wave of the deacon’s stole to The Anchoress.

This one hits especially close to home. During the Triduum, I received word that my in-laws’ pastor in Maryland had died moments after celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. He was 55. For his flock, the tragedy added new meaning to the days that followed. The Washington Post has more: Dying on Holy Thursday…

The world’s greatest choir, singing the world’s greatest Easter hymn. He has been raised! Alleluia!

Above is the sanctuary at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, my parish in Forest Hills, New York. A friend snapped the shot during a momentary lull between masses this Easter Sunday. Most of the last 24 hours or so, the place has been teeming with people — altar servers (and we have amazing altar servers,…

Make no mistake: if He rose at allit was as His body;if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the moleculesreknit, the amino acids rekindle,the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers,each soft Spring recurrent;it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddledeyes of the eleven apostles;it was as His flesh: ours.…

Looking for a little dissection on The Exultet? Look no further. Visit Fr. Z’s site and you’ll find a rich and interesting look at that Everest of Chants (which Your Humble Blogger, along with countless others, will be scaling in a few short hours…I’m packing extra oxygen and ropes.)

This weekend is an especially exhausting one for Catholic clergy — is it Monday yet? — but it’s more frenetic and harried in regions hard hit by the priest shortage. The Baltimore Sun has a case in point: On Palm Sunday morning, the Rev. Jim Hannon awoke at 5:30, prayed and then exercised on a…

“He has been raised.” In those four simple words lie all the glory and mystery and joy of this feast we celebrate. That is Easter. If you want more, all you had to do was look around you as this mass began. In the darkness of this April night, one flame ignited hundreds of others,…

Check out this new resource for my diocese that just debuted Holy Week: brooklynpriests.org. The video is truly inspired. As one of the producers said to me, “We wanted it to look like a superhero putting on his uniform. Like ‘Batman Begins.'” Check it out.

A woman touches the white coffin of a child during the funeral service for quake victims in L’Aquila, Friday, April 10, 2009. The Vatican offered a special dispensation to allow a mass to be celebrated on Good Friday. You can read more here. Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord…
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