31 July 2012

Hymn Translation: O Bread of Heaven

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Holy Mass in the Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, City of Westminster, England, 18 September 2010

O Bread of Heaven
Words: St Alphonsus Liguori
Translation: Rev. E. Vaughan C.SS.R.
Music: Tynemouth - H. F. Hemy
Performed by: Westminster Cathedral Choir


O Bread of Heaven, beneath this veil
Thou dost my very God conceal:
My Jesus, dearest treasure, hail!
I love Thee and, adoring, kneel;
Each loving soul by Thee is fed
With Thine own Self in form of Bread.

O food of life, Thou Who dost give
The pledge of immortality;
I live, no 'tis not I that live;
God gives me life, God lives in me:
He feeds my soul, He guides my ways,
And every grief with joy repays.

O Bond of love that dost unite
The servant to his living Lord;
Could I dare live and not requite
Such love - then death were meet reward:
I cannot live unless to prove
Some love for such unmeasured love.

Beloved Lord, in Heaven above
There, Jesus, Thou awaitest me,
To gaze on Thee with endless love;
Yes, thus I hope, thus shall it be:
For how can He deny me Heaven,
Who here on earth Himself hath given?
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Dr. Margaret Barker: Reading the Meaning

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"All religious belief is expressed, transmitted and received in code.  even the simplest statements, when they are examined carefully by an outsider, have very little meaning.  This is because every religious community has its own way of speaking about faith, and the most effective way to do this is in pictures.  People brought up in a Christian community recognise immediately what is meant by the Lamb of God, or by bread and wine; to someone from another culture, however, these are not vivd images but a solid wall which separates those inside, those 'in the know', from everyone else. 'Other cultures' are no longer those who can be identified as other faith communities.  The 'other cultures' now are the vast mass of people who have lost all touch with Christian tradition.

"It used to be thought that putting the code into modern English would overcome the problem, and make everything clear to people who had no roots in a Christian community.  This attempt has proved misguided, since so much of the code simply will not translate into modern English.  It was not the words themselves which were the problem, but rather the pictures, the signs and symbols which the words were describing.  The 'blood of the Lamb' is a phrase familiar to all Christians; it is perfectly good modern English, but, unexplained, is meaningless.

"There has also been an attempt to put the Bible, more particularly the New Testament, into a code-free form.  Remove the symbols and the pictures, it was thought, break the pure truth free from the story in which it was unfortunately embedded, and then all would be clear.  The result proved to be exactly the opposite; a fog of contemporary philosophical jargon was offered in place of the vivid symbols and stories of the Bible, and the problem remained.

"The task, then, has had to alter. The need now is not just for modern English, or modern thought forms, but for an explanation of the images and pictures in which the ideas of the Bible are expressed.  These are specific to one culture, that of Israel and Judaism, and until they are fully understood in their original setting, little of what is done with the writings and ideas that came from that particular setting can be understood.  Once we lose touch with the meaning of biblical imagery, we lose any way into the real meaning of the Bible.  This has already begun to happen, and a diluted 'instant' Christianity has been offered as junk food for the mass market.  The resultant malnutrition, even in churches, is all too obvious."


Margaret Barker

"On Earth as it is in Heaven"
[2009: Sheffield Phoenix Press]
pp. 1-2.

Hail, Jesus, Hail: Fr. F.W. Faber

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HAIL, Jesus, hail! who for my sake
Sweet blood from Mary's veins didst take
And shed it all for me:
Oh, blessèd be my Saviour's blood,
My light, my life, my only good,
To all eternity.

To endless ages let us praise
The precious blood, whose price could raise
The world from wrath and sin:
Whose streams our inward thirst appease
And heal the sinner's worst disease,
If he but bathe therein.

Oh, sweetest blood, that can implore 
Pardon of God, and heaven restore,
The heaven which sin had lost;
While Abel's blood for vengeance pleads,
What Jesus shed still intercedes
For those who wrong him most.

Oh, to be sprinkled from the wells
Of Christ's own sacred blood, excels
Earth's best and highest bliss;
The ministers of wrath divine
Hurt not the happy hearts that shine
With those red drops of his.

Ah, there is joy amid the saints,
And hell's despairing courage faints
When this sweet song we raise:
Oh, louder then, and louder still,
Earth with one mighty chorus fill,
The precious blood to praise. 




[18TH CENT.  TR. F.W. FABER, 1814-62]

THE WESTMINSTER HYMNAL, No. 95 

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What happened

This post has been removed because it no longer matters.

Anglican Patrimony: On the BVM

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John Pearson [from An Exposition of the Creed.  On the words of Aricle III, "Born of the Virgin Mary."  Ed. Oxford (E. Burton), 1864, p. 321.  Cp. note on No. 13.]

St. Anne, B.V.M., & the Child Jesus*
In respect of her [i.e., of the Blessed Virgin] it was therefore necessary that we might perpetually preserve an esteem of her person, proportionable to so high a dignity.  It was her own prediction, From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed ; but the obligation is ours to call her, to esteem her so. If Elizabeth cried out with so loud a voice, Blessed art thou among women, when Christ was but newly conceived in her womb, what expressions of honour and admiration can we think sufficient now that Christ is in Heaven, and that Mother with Him!  

Far be it from any Christian to derogate from that special privilege granted her, which is incommunicable to any other.  We cannot bear too reverend a regard unto the Mother of Our Lord, so long as we give her not that worship which is due unto the Lord Himself.  Let us keep the language of the Primitive Church.  Let her be honoured and esteemed, let Him be worshipped and adored.
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*Image is an East Window in St. Andrew's Hingham
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30 July 2012

St. Anne's Octave: Her Relics

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During the Octave of the Feast of St. Anne, I always sit down to read again the story of the miraculous finding of her holy relics by Emperor Charlemagne.  My favourite Church in the world is St. Anne's Catholic Church in Jerusalem, a church with a most marvellous acoustic for bearing aloft the sung praises of God and the worship due His Name. But this story today takes us to southern France during the reign of the great Emperor Charlemagne.  He was greatly devoted to St. Anne and even had her image embroidered upon his coronation robes.  If ever a monarch were to discover the resting place of St. Anne's relics due to personal devotion, Charlemagne was that king.  
 
There are several accounts in English of the discovery of the relics of St. Anne, the Grandmother of the Lord, by a disabled child in the company of Charlemagne.  They all derive from a record kept during the reign of Pope St. Leo III.  One such account may be read on Dr. Taylor Marshall's blog here.   Also, there is a splendid new translation by Kathy Pluth of the Office Hymn for the Feast of St. Anne which one can read here.  Below I post another version of the story of St. Anne's relics and Charlemagne's involvement in their discovery; this version was made available through a Catholic parish named for the Grandmother of the Lord:

"According to most ancient and uninterrupted tradition, the body of St. Anne was carried to Gaul [a province of the Roman empire which included what are now the countries of France and upper Italy] by the same vessel which carried Lazarus and his sisters there. 

"During the first century of the Christian era, these friends of Our Lord were banished from Palestine because of their faith. From their hands St. Anne’s precious remains were taken for safekeeping to the city of Apta Julia, which in our own times is the city of Apt, France. In those stormy days of persecution, it was necessary to hide the relics of the Martyrs and Saints. Consequently, the body of St. Anne was buried in an underground church or crypt. The martyrology of Apt, one of the most ancient in existence, mentions this fact.

"The first bishop of Apta Julia, St. Auspicius, who died before 118, took further precautions to guard this holy treasure from desecration and had the body buried still deeper in the subterranean chapel. All approach to it was carefully concealed till persecutions and invasions should have ceased. For centuries, the
country was repeatedly overrun by hordes of barbarians, and it was only natural that during these agitated years the precise spot where St. Auspicius had carefully hidden his treasure became lost in obscurity. 

"After Charlemagne’s decisive victory over the Saracens at the close of the eighth century, peace and security returned to Gaul. It was then that the people began to restore and rebuild the holy places destroyed or desecrated by the invaders. Priests and bishops of Apta Julia began to seek for the exact spot in the deep crypt where St. Auspicius had hidden and walled up the sarcophagus of St. Anne.

"Charlemagne’s first care on his arrival at Apt was to have the cathedral re-consecrated. This took place during the Easter solemnities, in the presence of an enormous crowd of nobles, clergy and people. But there was one cause of sadness amid all the rejoicing, namely, that every effort to find the remains of St. Anne had proved fruitless. A miracle, however, was to lead to the discovery of her resting place, as is related by Charlemagne in a letter to Pope Adrian I.

"Among the young nobles who accompanied their parents on this occasion was John, a lad of fourteen, the son of Baron Casanova, deaf, dumb and blind from birth. People near the boy in the sanctuary remarked that during the services he was carried away by some overpowering emotion.

"With rapt and upturned face he seemed to be listening to voices from above. Presently, he moved toward the high altar, struck with his staff the steps leading up to it and made signs that they should dig there. His persistence caused considerable disturbance amid the solemn rites, but neither the clergy nor the royal guards could quiet or restrain the youth. Charlemagne was deeply impressed. After Mass, he commanded that the excavation desired by the boy should be made. 

By the hand of Kathleen Anderson
"The altar steps were removed and a door, closed up with huge stones, was revealed. This was the door of the ancient crypt in which St. Auspicius had been accustomed to celebrate the holy Mysteries and to feed his flock with the Bread of Life. Its size and adornments reminded one of the Roman catacombs. 

"No sooner had this door been opened and the flight of steps leading down from it disclosed than the blind boy rushed forward, as if his eyes had been suddenly opened, and led the way into this underground church. Charlemagne now held the boy’s hand and gave orders to keep back the excited multitude. John made signs that they should search farther, and he struck the wall of the crypt, indicating that what they sought lay beyond. 

"When the wall was broken down, another and lower crypt was discovered at the end of a long and narrow corridor. As they came in view of this crypt, a bright light flashed upon the Emperor and his assistants. They beheld, in front of a walled recess, a burning lamp, which flooded the place with unearthly splendor. No sooner, however, had the Emperor and his cortege entered this place, than the lamp went out. But, more wonderful still, at that very moment the blind boy could see, speak and hear. “The body of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, is in yonder recess,” were his  first words.

"The awe-stricken Emperor and his followers, at first dumb with amazement, gave vent to their emotion in words of praise and thanksgiving. The walled recess was thrown open, a sweet fragrance like that of oriental balm filled the air, and a casket of cypress wood was discovered containing the body of St. Ann wrapped round and round with folds of precious cloth. On the casket was the inscription: “Here lies the body of Blessed Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary.”

"Charlemagne, with all those present, venerated the sacred deposit thus brought to light. Afterward he had an exact narrative of the discovery drawn up by one of his notaries and a copy sent to the Pope with the royal letter. This letter and the Pope’s answer are still extant. 

The Holy Relics of Apt Cathedral
"The miraculous discovery at once made the Cathedral of Apt the center of attraction for Christian pilgrims from every part of Gaul. In the wars which followed the reign of Charlemagne down to our own times, the clergy and people of Apt have watched with never failing love over the sacred treasure which is the glory of their city. Travelers visiting the venerable Cathedral of St. Auspicius will find piles of ex votos, the indisputable testimonies during eleven centuries of the wonders wrought there by Christ at the intercession of His sainted Grandmother. ..."
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Cardinal George: On "Chicago values"

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With the rapidly deteriorating situation in the USA with regard to religious liberty, Cardinal George has provided an excellent response to the illiberal positions being taken by the Democratic Party mayors of several large cities.  The context of Cardinal George's statement is with regard to the City of Chicago and its mayor Rahm Emmanuel.

The Cardinal's statement may be read here

It is also interesting to note the 'liberal' and 'gay activist' chorus rising in opposition to the Mayor's demagoguery: an example may be found here.
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Rorate Caeli Blog

J+M+J
The traditional Latin Mass blog Rorate Caeli has taken up the matter of Msgr. Steenson's latest statement:


In other blogs it is alleged that Cardinal Wuerl, Fr Hurd, and Msgr Steenson apparently do not want Ordinariate priests learning how to celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and are intent on denying them the right or opportunity to celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.   Some say this is all Cardinal Levada's doing.  Really?

Is any of this true?  And if it is true, what gives these men the right to eviscerate Summorum Pontificum and Anglicanorum coetibus? As is to be expected this points not to all Ordinariates but rather points to a particular problem with the Ordinariate in North America.  (And, yes, it may point to a problem in what was Cardinal Levada's office.)  

Unfortunately, in today's retelling of the story the young child who cries out "The Emperor has no clothes!" gets shot.  Dear readers, where there is smoke, there is fire. 

Of course this development points beyond the Ordinariates toward the whole of the Latin Rite.  Bishops everywhere are doing everything they can to prevent the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Holy Mass.

In light of the New Evangelisation, I pray the Vicar of Christ will grant the faculty to celebrate multiple masses to his priests of the Latin Rite so as to meet the needs of the missionary field especially that missionary field of Europe and those of the English-speaking nations. I beg the Holy Father to give every priest the universal Pontifical right to celebrate Holy Mass according to the Extraordinary Form without reference to any other authority between the priest and the Vicar of Christ. 

How else are the priests and People of the Church to get around the Cabal that serves the Shining Darkness, that same Cabal that has its hands clutched to choking around the neck of Holy Mother Church.

+Kyrie eleison imas.

Not integral

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I have read Msgr. Steenson's latest statement regarding the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass by Ordinariate clergy and congregations.

Msgr. Steenson writes:

"But as the Extrordinary Form is not integral to the Anglican patrimony, it is not properly used in our communities."

The first part of this statement "But as the Extroardinary Form is not integral to the Anglican patrimony" is, of course, not true.  

It may be correct that Msgr. Steenson and his new crop are all 1979 Book of Common Prayer folks who never added a jot or tittle from outside the book.  However, that does not describe the majority of Anglican Use Catholics and anglo-catholics who were longing for the Ordinariate structure.  In the USA many worshipped with the People's Anglican Missal and other missals which are the Extraordinary Form put into Tudor English with elements of the Prayer Book tradition added.  In several provinces of the Anglican Communion, the Extraordinary Form albeit in Tudor English or local language was an authorised form with certain emendations, additions, and alterations.  Did those peoples and parishes not exist?  Were they not Anglican?

Needless to say, the Missal Anglicans around the world were and have been deeply rooted in the Extraordinary Form albeit in English even if they are unaware of to what extent that is true.  And Prayer Book Episcopalians in the USA have long added elements from the Extraordinary Form or the Sarum Missal to their ceremonial and manner of celebration.  The assertion that the Extraordinary Form is not integral to the Anglican patrimony is simply, incredibly wrong -- unless he is trying to say simply that the Ordinariates will not celebrate the Mass in Latin. ... Could he really be saying something that odd?

These statements don't drop out of the sky.  They come because of an issue raised.  Not referencing the issue directly is a calculated risk because it breeds even greater clouds of confusion. As it is, his statement reads as a rejection of the commonly held belief that the Anglican Patrimony pre-dates 1549.  How very unfortunate for the Ordinariates if Msgr Steenson's statement is indeed the official opinion. 

Anglo-Catholics have long insisted on the continuity of the English Church experience going back to the Sarum Missal and even to some of the ancient antiphonaries and Anglo-Saxon prayers. I suppose if the Ordinariates are saying that the part of the Anglican Patrimony that they are embracing only goes back to 1549, those in the Ordinariates can bid farewell to the Sarum Use in its entirety.  What a pity. And the English Missal? Well, good-bye to you, too. And the full propers of the Mass?

The odd thing is that such statements don't need to be made unless a problem has arisen.  Statements like this don't get issued because of a couple of questions arising.  And not referencing the particular problem is a poor administrative decision in any organisation... especially the Church.
. . .
There is a tale, a story, or perhaps it is a myth, oft-repeated, that the Personal Ordinariates are the Pope's personal project.  It sounds good, but what does it mean?  It seems to be invoked anytime someone questions anything done by Cardinal Wuerl or the USCCB or by the current hierarchy of the Ordinariates.  It may be a convenient cloak behind which to hide, but eventually even the Wizard of Oz finds his curtain pulled back ... as shall we all on that dreadful Day of Judgement that draweth nigh.

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favourably on thy whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of thy Providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

+Arise, shine, for thy light hath come!

29 July 2012

Dismissal of the Catechumens: Anglican Patrimony

Nyasaland Liturgy


After the reading of the Gospel and before the Nicene Creed:


Priest  
You catechumens, pray to the Lord.


Catechumens   
Lord, have mercy upon us. 
Lord, have mercy upon us.  
Lord, have mercy upon us.


Priest   You Christians, pray for the Catechumens.
People  Lord, have mercy upon them.


Priest   Make them to know thy truth.
People  Lord, have mercy upon them.


Priest   Reveal to them the Gospel of Righteousness.
People  Lord, have mercy upon them.


Priest   Grant them a new heart and a prepared spirit.
People  Lord have mercy upon them.


Priest   Lead them into thy Holy Church.
People  Lord, have mercy upon them.


Priest   
You Catechumens, worship the Lord.


Catechumens  
Thou art our God; and we praise thee.  
Thou art our God and we praise thee.  
Thou art our God and we praise thee.


Priest   
Let us pray.
Almighty God, who dost daily give to thy Church new Children; grant to these Catechumens that they truly increase in knowledge and in faith, till they are born again in Holy Baptism and made thy children by adoption and grace; through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.  Amen.


Priest   
You Catechumens, depart in peace.





+Pax vobiscum.

28 July 2012

Queen Elizabeth for President

Vivat!


I suppose it was only a matter of time.  I have read on a number of blogs and social networks statements of great disgust by U.S. citizens with regard to the presumptive candidates for the Repbulican and Democratic Parties in the U.S. General Election this November.  Most striking to me have been the many statements that echo the following, "That does it. I'm voting for Queen Elizabeth!"


At first I thought it was merely a humorous statement of frustration, but now there appears to be a deeply felt need expressed in the thought.  In part it is simply a protest statement, but it seems many U.S. Americans long for a kind of leader who is above the sordid world of politics, a leader like Her Majesty the Queen.  Some have expressed this very simply and directly as "Queen Elizabeth for President" or "Elizabeth Windsor for President!"  
There are many kinds of monarchists -- fanatics, absolutists, constitutionalists, nostalgics -- but the expression at heart of these various quips and declarations of 'Queen Elizabeth for President' is a realisation that the USA is sorely impaired without a living anointed monarch, a visible constant personification of the nation who is neither elected nor expressive of the political struggle of the nation and who in that most ancient sense connects the people and the Land with the Divine. The symbols of the U.S. Flag, the various Monuments, the White House, the Capitol Building, even the currency formerly known as the Greenback simply cannot do the job they once did.  Ergo, EIIR 4 Prez.


Americans have long had a not so secret love-affair with the British Royal Family.  Only in America do you find the Duchess of York with many, many fans and supporters.  And now in this Her Majesty's Jubilee Year there is indeed a great longing for someone like the Queen or Prince William (but not Prince Charles, thank you) to serve as non-political Head of State ... but there is no getting around it ... lots of U.S. Americans simply want the Queen.  And in what is shaping up to be a very bad election year it is no surprise to hear or read the sentiment "Her Majesty for President!" -- an idea only an American could dream up.


And true to U.S. American entrepreneurial spirit, one can even celebrate this idea with bumper stickers, fridge magnets, and car magnets through the Queen Elizabeth for President shop.  I kid you not.  To be sure it is perhaps more a form of political protest than anything, but I won't be surprised for a minute when I see these start popping up on cars driving down the roadways of Texas and the rest of America.  

+God save the Queen! 

27 July 2012

CRS Scandal: "Remove and Scrap"

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With the latest news of the scandal of CRS, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, and CARE, I have been asked to support "this" and reprint "that" on my blog.

None of it will help.  I raised my voice against defects in the development and implementation of the Ordinariates arising from Anglicanorum coetibus because my conscience demanded it and I was certain of the Holy Ghost's leading after serious consultation with my spiritual director.  Yes, I believe I had to say something because one must shout out loud when the emperor's new clothes turn out to be neither new nor clothes.

Some of you have things you need to say, ideas you need to propose, and you must follow as the Holy Ghost calls on your conscience to act or to behave.  I have no such leading now and I will refrain from endorsing or appearing to endorse particular ideas relating to reform or restructuring.  It would be naïve to believe that the U.S. bishops would repent of anything or acknowledge any impropriety save in very nuanced ways.  

Many other scandals will be revealed in the days and years to come that will further jeopardise the American Church's ability to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel.  And the Lord will allow each and everyone to come to light.  But we are not without hope.  Matters can be ameliorated if not changed, but it will take courage and extreme humility.

"What can alter this trajectory to doom?" someone wrote me not long ago.  The Lord and Our Lady have shown me some simple things that are easy for saints, more difficult for the ordinary faithful, and almost impossible for the prideful to do.  About these I have spoken, and I continue to feel they are what I must say at times like this with the revelation of another scandal.

The bishops placing the statue of Our Lady of America in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and solemnly enthroning her there is one such concrete thing they can do.  I know this does not compute with the modern American mind, but this of course only reveals how much one's mind needs to undergo conversion to the way God sees and does things.  You see, Our Lady will flood the USA with the graces and blessings placed into her hands by her Son if the bishops will do this one small thing that thus far they have refused to do.

Another very important action for the bishops to take is the reinstating of Our Lady's Lent the two weeks before the Solemnity of the Assumption.  This would be a serious 'game changer', so to speak, if the U.S. bishops were to make use of Our Lady's Lent as a time for their public repentance and corporate penance for the failures of the U.S. American bishops... including their failure to protect innocent children and youth from sexual predators among the clergy and religious ... and repentance for the failures of the American bishops to support Pope Paul VI and Humane vitae together with their failure to forcefully teach the content of Humanae vitae and their failure to demand absolute assent to it by every bishop, priest, deacon, religious, and lay person in the USA.  These things are all connected at both mystical and practical levels.

During Our Lady's Lent, Christ's lay faithful must solemnly engage to repent for their sexual sins and their complicity with the culture of death.  Almost impossible for the proud man to do, but what graces for the soul who can humble himself before the Living God!

Our Lady of America, pray to the Lord for us.
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26 July 2012

The Other Face

Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I
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There is but one book I would insist an Anglican convert to the Catholic Church should read from cover to cover:

The Other Face:
Catholic Life
Under Elizabeth I

Collected and Edited
By Philip Caraman



This may seem an obscure choice, but I am one who is most moved by primary sources rather than scholarly reflexions and historical recreations.  After reading this book—after taking in the martyrdom of St. Margaret Clitherow if nothing else—the convert will want to learn as much as possible about the truths they were not taught as Anglicans.
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Fancy a bumper sticker?

On the Cafe Press website:

25 July 2012

As were the Arians

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Eamon Duffy writes:  "Robert Parkyn homes in on the same variation in practice between the two prayer books: 


for the table (whereatt theolly Communion was ministered in the qweare) was hadde down in to the bodie of the churche in many places & sett in the mydde allee emonge the people … uppon wich table a loaf of whytte bread such as men use in their howses with meate and a cuppe of wyne was sette without any corporax … the priest or minister … straightly forbidding that any adoration should be done there unto, for that were idolatrie, said the boke, and to be abhorride of al faithfull Christians … Oh how abhominable heresie and unsemynge ordre was this, let every man pondre in his owne conscience. 


"And preaching in Bristol, Roger Edgeworth homed in on the same subject. This, he told his hearers, ‘is the verie property of Heresies, thei be ever unstedfast and not agreinge arnonge theim selves, but some one way and some another … for example, how manie maners and dyverse wayes of ministeringe the Cammunion have we hadde among us?’ He then launches into a description whose essential features are by now familiar – the common bread irreverently laid on the tablecloth, the people driven from the chancel lest they see and worship, ‘and anone that way seemed not best, and therefore was there veils or curtens drawn, yea and in some churches the very Lent cloth or veil hanged up … to hide it’, the tables in the nave, the ministers turning ‘East or West or North or South’. This ‘pulling down of altars and setting up of boards’, he tells his hearers, was also the mark of the Arian heretics in the early church. But now, if we ‘convert ourselves to the God of grace, he will solidate, stay and settle us sure, contrary to all such inconstancy.’

Duffy, Eamon (2012-05-24). Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Religion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations (p. 228). Continuum UK. Kindle Edition. 


Tonusperegrinus writes:
Having written previously about what I call - metaphorically - 'the new Arianism' of unbridled sensuality, sexuality and revolutionary service to the self alone, I am reminded that these"new Arians" of my era also got up to pulling down altars and placing tables hither and thither and experimenting with 'breads' etc.  It seems to go together that the worship of the self carries with it a great hate of the Altar of God and will not rest until making sure that the worship due God in His Temple and in His Sarifice is eliminated.  
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24 July 2012

Why oh Why

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A friend I shall call Brother Jeremy has written me wondering why the Ordinariates have not simply authorised the Anglican Breviary, the English Missal, the Anglican Missal and the several Anglican Monastic Diurnals ... together with some additional rubrics concerning feasts to be added or omitted.

I have no answer.  Clearly, Anglicanorum coetibus implied as much and left the door open wide for such a generous provision of beloved liturgical books ... even if only on an interim basis.  Why everything is so narrow and secretive is anybody's guess.  Perhaps the Anglicanae traditiones commission will have a 'rethink' on these matters and decide to err on the side of generous provision.  Good St. Jude, pray for us.

Most important is that the Commission should at once reauthorise the marriage and burial rites of The Book of Divine Worship to stand alongside of the new marriage and funeral services for at least a period of five years.   

In the meantime I hope the Ordinariate in America will have the pastoral good sense to grant to longtime Anglican Use parishioners the right to be buried with The Book of Divine Worship burial rite if it is so desired.   
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Anglican Chant: Anglican Patrimony

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Psalm 138, Coverdale Psalter, 1662 BCP Recension
 The Choir of Westminster Abbey 
(Royal Peculiar of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)
Papal Visitation to England 2010

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Anglican Patrimony: Hymn Translation

Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning
Thomas of Celano Dies Irae, Dies Illa
William Irons, translator
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Day of wrath, O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophet’s warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning.
Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendeth
When from Heav’n the Judge descendeth
On Whose sentence all dependeth!

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth’s sepulchres it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Death is struck and nature quaking;
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.

Lo, the book, exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded;
Thence shall judgment be awarded.
When the Judge His seat attaineth
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding
When the just are mercy needing?
King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.

Think, good Jesus, my salvation
Caused Thy wondrous incarnation;
Leave me not to reprobation!
Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
On the cross of suffering bought me;
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?

Righteous Judge, for sin’s pollution
Grant Thy gift of absolution
Ere that day of retribution!
Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning:
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning!

From that sinful woman shriven,
From the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me a hope hast given.
Worthless are my prayers and sighing;
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
Rescue me from fires undying.

With Thy favored sheep, oh, place me!
Nor among the goats abase me,
But to Thy right hand upraise me.
While the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me, with Thy saints surrounded.

Low I kneel with heart submission,
See, like ashes, my contrition;
Help me in my last condition!
Day of sorrow, day of weeping,
When, in dust no longer sleeping,
Man awakes in Thy dread keeping!

This additional verse may be used with tunes of a different meter:


To the rest Thou didst prepare me
On Thy cross; O Christ, upbear me!
Spare, O God, in mercy spare me! 
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Required Reading: Anglican Origins

For converts to the Church of Rome from the Anglican churches

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Holy God,
Holy and Mighty,
Holy Immortal One,
Have mercy upon us.
(The Book of Divine Worship)


This post has in mind those Anglican converts who will serve as clergy, catechists and Sunday School teachers in the Roman Catholic Church. It can be a very great shock to the psyche to realise that one was taught something not true and that one has dutifully taught that same falsehood to others.  Some prefer to refer to such things as "misconceptions".  Others prefer to call them damned lies.    The reality is that Anglican converts must 'unlearn' the official story taught by Anglicanism with regard to its origins in the era of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and then set out to learn what is the truth of the matter. 

My interest is not in supporting claims or battling contentions.  I am interested in Anglican converts educating themselves and discovering the whole truth of Anglican origins.  I believe the only way to achieve this is through committed self-study, and to that end I provide something of a 'required reading list' in this post.

There is but one book I would insist a convert should read from cover to cover:


The Other Face:
Catholic Life
Under Elizabeth I

Collected and Edited
By Philip Caraman


This may seem an obscure choice, but I am one who is most moved by primary sources rather than scholarly reflexions and historical recreations.  After reading this book—after taking in the martyrdom of St. Margaret Clitherow if nothing else—the convert will want to learn as much as possible about the truths they were not taught as Anglicans.


From this point, my required reading list turns to Eamon Duffy:



  • The Voices of Morebath
  • Marking the Hours
  • The Church of Mary Tudor (Duffy and Loades)
  • Fires of Faith (Kindle version available) 



  • The first two in the list above are essential:  The Stripping of the Altars and Saints, Sacrilege, and Sedition. Although I am inclined to list other books, let me summarise in a shorter form what I have said above would form the very minimum for a reading list:



  • The Other Face — Philip Caraman




  • The Stripping of the Altars — Eamon Duffy




  • Saints, Sacrilege, and Sedition — Eamon Duffy
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    (The temptation to go on with a much longer list is very great, but I will only suggest that one could go on and read Dr. Christopher Haigh's English Reformations or  Professor J. J. Scarisbrick's The Reformation and the English People.)   

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    [Update: Ash Wednesday A.D. 2017]

    Before one enters into the communion of any Church or denomination, one must soberly consider the fact that there is no Eden in our fallen world.  There will still be human beings wherever one goes who treat others shabbily, there will be bishops, priests, and deacons who hurt the Witness of the Body of Christ, there will be clergy who lie, there will be Laity who do not know their Faith, there will be Laity who are rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.  In other words, wherever one pitches his tent in the Body of Christ, one will find a hospital in this broken world, a hospital for the soulsick and the lost.

    I was reconciled to the See of St Peter when Pope St John Paul II sat upon the Papal Throne.  It could be said to a great degree that his witness and his writings are essential to understanding why I found a home in the Church of Rome.  I will be honest in stating that had Pope Francis been the pope at the time of my enquiry into the Roman Catholic Church, I would have waited.  It is not at all clear to me what is happening in Rome and throughout the Catholic Church, and such chaos does not indicate the godly order that obtains when the Holy Spirit is leading the Church into all truth as Sacred Scripture teaches us.

    I am reminded of the state of things when Jesus spoke his most difficult teaching and enormous numbers abandoned him. The Lord turned to His apostles and asked them if they two would turn and leave.  Peter (Kepha) alone said in reply "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life." So for all of us, let us turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and listen to him.  

    A papal reign can be thought of in brackets, put into parantheses within the totality of the Church's history.  Some of those "reigns" led to outright schism. Some led to the election of multiple claimants to the See of St Peter (the antipopes).  The "reign" of Pope Bergoglio will bear its fruit: adding the name of St. Joseph to the Canon of the Mass, raising St Mary Magdalene's day to a Feast of same rank as the Apostles.  Additionally, the current Pope's reign will also leave a residue of items that will remain within the brackets of his "reign" and will be dealt with by his successors and some will be set aside quietly and some will be overturned by official Papal acts in the future.
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