Sunday 6 June 2004


As anyone with a television knows by now, today is the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. And there is also much on the web on that great day. You could start here to read of the heroic actions of Teddy Roosevelt's son on Utah beach. Scroll up for reminsicence of Admiral Samuel Eliot Morrison, the naval historian.

Try MSNBC's The Week In Pictures for some archive pictures of the invasion and some snippets of NBC's radio news broadcasts at the time.

Liturgically, the feast of Trinity Sunday is celebrated today. Some of the sources point out that this is a signal contribution of England to the liturgy of the Church. The traditional text for today's liturgy was composed by the Franciscan Archbishop of Canterbury, John Peckham. The Medieval English Church through the Sarum Rite, and the Anglican communion to this day count the days after Trinity Sunday rather than the days after Pentecost. And, indeed, this makes some sense even in the traditional Roman Rite since it is the preface of the Holy Trinity that is prayed on these Sundays, not the preface of Pentecost.

6 June is also the feast of St. Norbert, the founder of the Canons Regular of Premontre. One of the principal foundations of this Order, also called the Norbertines and the Premonstratensians, is St. Michael's Abbey in Orange, California. This foundation is a lynchpin of orthdoxy and orthopraxis in southern California. Their Abbey prep school is very highly regarded and the sermons and homilies of their priests at parishes throughout the area ensure that the sana doctrina is still being preached. When the situation, i.e., the bishop, permits many of the Norbertines are prepared and willing, not to say delighted, to celebrate the traditional liturgy in the Roman Rite and, if I'm not mistaken, in their own traditional Premonstratensian Rite.