A priest in the Episcopal Church USA has sent me this collect for John Mason Neale from one of the Episcopal Church USA supplementary books with the suggestion that it is an excellent model for a collect for any Anglican worthy we may wish to remember ... even if unofficially in the Church:
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know thy presence and obey thy will; that, following the example of thy servant John Mason Neale, we may with integrity and courage accomplish what thou dost give us to do, and endure what thou givest us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I do not know the origin of this collect. Perhaps I did once upon a time, but as it stands it seems one we could use to our communal benefit for the remembering of those Anglo-Catholics of the past who made such sacrifices 'for the life of the world' in union with Christ Jesus. I can imagine praying this collect and including the name of Father Andrew who once laboured in London where many non-catholic Anglican clergy feared to tread, someone to whom I have had great devotion from my youth.
Others coming to mind: sainted women like Priscilla Lydia Sellon, the Martyrs of Memphis, Mother Esther of the Community of the Holy Name, and Mother Cecile of Grahamstown. I am certain you have some who are likewise revered in your families and communities from our anglo-catholic past who deserve to be remembered in our Roman Catholic present.
Although with some stumbling at the present, the future nevertheless shines brighter than I ever imagined for the Anglican diaspora in the Catholic Church, and for those difficulties and problems encountered we should remember the wise words of the great and sainted Mother Cecile of Grahamstown, ‘We shall have to go on our knees.’
+We beseech thee to hear us, O Lord.
