Brazilian Prayer of Humble Access

O Livro da Oracão Comum 1950

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Não ousamos vir à tua Mesa, ó boníssimo Senhor, confiados em nossa própria retidão, mas em tuas muitas e grandes misericórdias. Nem ao menos somos dignos de apanhar as migalhas que caem de tua Mesa. Tu, porém, és o mesmo Senhor, sempre misericordioso por natureza. Concede-nos, pois, benigno Senhor, que de tal modo comamos a Carne de teu amado Filho Jesus Cristo, e bebamos seu Sangue, que nossos corpos pecadores sejam purificados por seu Corpo, e nossas almas lavadas por seu preciosíssimo Sangue, e que sempre vivamos nele, e Ele em nós. Amém.

Igreja Episcopal Brasileira

(Today this national Anglican church is called 

The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil)

The 1950 Brasilian Book of Common Prayer is essentially the 1928 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church USA translated into Brazilian Portuguese.  It is especially beautiful Portuguese of the Brazilian kind.  

Portuguese speaking Anglicans (Lusophones) are found in Brasil, Portugal, Angola, Moçambique and elsewhere.  In Portugal the Anglican Church is known as the Lusitanian Church and is extra-provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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The Offertory Rite

The Nigerian United Liturgy of 1965

All stand, and the offertory sentences are said

Minister   Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity. 

              We who are many are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

People       I will offer in His dwelling an oblation with great gladness, I will sing and speak praises unto the Lord.

A hymn is now sung, and the bread and wine for the Communion, together with the alms of the people, are brought forward and placed on the Table.

While all remain standing, the minister says

Holy Father, who through the blood of Thy dear Son hast consecrated for us a new and living way to Thy throne of grace, we come to Thee through Him, unworthy as we are, and we humbly beseech Thee to accept and use us and these our gifts for Thy glory.  All that is in heaven and earth is Thine, and of Thine own do we give to Thee.

People  Amen.

All kneel and say together

Be present, be present, O Jesus, Thou good High Priest, as Thou wast in the midst of Thy disciples, and make Thyself known to us in the breaking of the bread, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The minister stands and continues with the Sursum Corda saying, The Lord be with you.

The Anglican Church in Nigeria

Church of the Province of West Africa

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Our Lord's Summary of the Law

The Nigerian United Liturgy of 1965

Minister

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: The first commandment is, 

Hear, O Israel, 

the Lord, our God, the Lord is one : 

and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 

and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.

People

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Minister

The second is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is none other commandment greater than these.

People

Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Minister

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

People

Lord, have mercy upon us, and write these Thy laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee.

Minister

Brethren, we have come together to hear God's most holy Word, and to receive the body and blood of the Lord. Let us, therefore, kneel and examine ourselves in silence, seeking God's grace that we may draw near to Him with repentance and faith.

Then follows a short period of silence

Minister

Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the Commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways, make your humble confession to Almighty God, that you may be reconciled anew to Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All

Heavenly Father, we confess that we have sinned against Thee and our neighbour.  We have walked in darkness rather than in light; we have named the name of Christ, but have not departed from iniquity.  Have mercy upon us, we beseech Thee; for the sake of Jesus Christ forgive us all our sins; cleanse us by Thy Holy Spirit; quicken our consciences; and enable us to forgive others, that we may henceforth serve Thee in newness of life, to the glory of Thy Holy Name. Amen.

Anglican Church in Nigeria

Church of the Province of West Africa

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Madagascar Liturgy 1945

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Please note the epiclesis ('Hear us, O merciful Father') within the following excerpt from the Eucharistic Prayer of The Madagascar Liturgy 1945 of the Anglican Diocese of Madagascar (Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean) in the translation of the Revd Alan D. Rogers from the Malagasy language:

Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy servants offer this thy holy gift and make before thee the memorial which thy Son hath ordained to be made by us, and we remember his holy Passion and his precious Death, his mighty Resurrection and his glorious Ascension; and we give thee true thanks for the innumerable gifts which he procured for us thereby.

Hear us, O merciful Father, we humbly beseech thee, and of thy goodness vouchsafe by thy Word and Holy Spirit to bless and consecrate these thy gifts, the Bread and Wine, that they may be the Body and Blood of thy dearly beloved Son.

And we thy servants desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  And we humbly beseech thee to grant that by the merits and Death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through our trust in his Blood, we and the Church may receive forgiveness of our sins, and all the grace that comes from his Passion.

And we beseech thee that all who receive this Holy Communion may worthily receive the Body and precious Blood of Christ, and may be filled with thy grace and heavenly blessing, and be made one body with Christ.

And here we offer and present, O Lord, our minds and souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice.  And although through our manifold sins we are unworthy to offer any sacrifice to thee, yet we beseech thee graciously to accept this our duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our sins;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be given glory and praise, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, together with thee, O heavenly Father, for ever and for ever. Amen. 

The translator of the above, the Revd Alan D. Rogers, was until 1966 the Diocesan Secretary of the Anglican Diocese of Madagascar.

Please pray for the people of Madagascar and for God's blessings upon His Church and all Christian people on the island nation and throughout the nations of and around the Indian Ocean. 

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PRIERE D’HUMBLE ACCES

The Prayer of Humble Access

PRIERE D’HUMBLE ACCES (tous agenouillés)

Nous n’avons point la présomption, ô miséricordieux Seigneur, de nous approcher de ta Table, confiants en notre propre justice, mais en tes multiples et grands compassions. Nous ne sommes même pas dignes de recueillir les miettes qui tombent de ta Table. Mais toi, tu es le même Seigneur dont la nature est d’être toujours miséricordieuse. Accorde-nous donc la grâce, ô Dieu clément, de manger la chair de ton bien-aimé fils Jésus-Christ, et de boire son sang, de telle manière que nos corps soient purifiés de tout péché par son corps, et nos âmes lavées par son sang très précieux et que nous demeurions pour toujours en lui, et lui en nous. Amen.

Anglican Diocese of Guinée

West Africa

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The Grace in real Anglican Liturgy

The Normative Forms of the traditional Anglican Patrimony

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The Grace is a well known feature of Anglican worship as a sentence of Scripture used to close an Office or a service of prayer.  Its proper traditional Anglican form is:

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen.

It is not a part of Anglican tradition to use the Grace as an Opening Dialogue for prayer as is found in the Roman Missal of Paul VI or the new Ordinariate rite of Marriage.


Although the Funeral rite concludes with the Grace in the new Ordinariate Rite form i.e., The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen., the Marriage Rite abandons the traditional Anglican word "fellowship" for the word "communion" which is not normative to the liturgical Patrimony.  It is simply bad liturgy to introduce two slightly different translations of the same text.  One form will be heard as 'normal' and the other will be heard as 'odd'.


Again, in the Ordinariate Marriage Rite the Grace is used in a way not normative to the Anglican Patrimony as a verse and response and is unfortunately an importation from the Ordinary Form of the Roman Missal, the sort of Latinising and hybridising we had believed we would need not endure:

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.
And with thy spirit.


The Anglican ear expects to hear "fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen." rather than "the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you."


So the first problem is the use of two slightly different forms of the same text where neither is the form of the original Anglican tradition.  Once more, the original form is:

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen.

The Anglican form above is not used in the new rites.  Consistently "Holy Ghost" is replaced with "Holy Spirit" and the Anglican traditional form is thrown away.  A permissive rubric allows the use of Holy Ghost .... but Holy Ghost is the norm in traditional Anglican liturgy and should have been the form used in the text.  "Holy Spirit" should have been permitted in the permissive rubric for those folks in England who no longer wish to say the Anglican traditional translation "Holy Ghost".


Additionally problematic is that it is not normative in the Anglican Patrimony to use the Grace as an opening dialogue.  Nonetheless, the Grace as the opening dialogue can be found in a few number of Anglican Orders for the Eucharist where the form is not the Biblical one but that of the ancient Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem.  This form can be found in a number of Anglican books especially the Bombay Liturgy of the Anglican Church of India (used far more than Colin Buchanan admits in his dismissal of the rite).  The proper form then with a minority Anglican precedent should have been:

The love of God the Fa + ther; the grace of the only-begotten S + on; and the fellowship and indwelling of the Holy Spi + rit be with you all, my brethren, for ever (or  forevermore).

THE PEOPLE: And with thy spirit.

To conclude, the forms of the Grace found in the new Ordinariate rites for Marriage and Burial are not consistent with the overwhelming Anglican normative tradition regarding the use and translation of the Grace.  With respect to the Anglican Patrimony, these forms are not part of the standard worldwide Anglican Patrimony.  They do not belong and should be replaced with the traditional forms from the Patrimony.

+Kyrie elision imas.

Not Anglican enough?

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I reprint the following from the Our Lady of Walsingham Ordinariate website.  It is regrettable that the article from The Tablet about this matter misses the important point that the Ordinariate returned the funds of its own volition.  Perhaps in missing such a point (and writing in such a way as to make it appear that the Ordinariate had been ordered by Authority to return the funds) those writing for the Tablet justify its being called The Pill.

There is so much I could write about what all of this represents, but I would be pointing to things already decided that could not be undone.  The tragedy is that those who objected to the gift could not see the Ordinariate in relationship to the stated purpose of the Confraternity i.e., "advancement of the Catholic faith in the Anglican Tradition".  What should wake us up is that the Charity Commissioners could not look at the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and see "the Anglican Tradition".

The question of course is whether or not the Ordinariate is Anglican enough to be seen as carrying forward the Catholic faith in the Anglican Tradition.  By way of example, it calls into question an editorial decision in the otherwise excellent forthcoming Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham ...  the use of the Roman Breviary 2 year Office Lectionary instead of the Office Lectionary in The Book of Divine Worship which is of Anglican Communion provenance.  In relation to a separate decision taken, the ill-advised statement that there is no well-beloved Anglican baptismal rite needs to be withdrawn forthwith: it is manifestly untrue.  What a huge loss of beautiful Anglican prayers would take place if our leaders decided to make the futile Ultramontane gesture to simply use the Ordinary Form of the Baptismal Rite.


So I take this ruling to be a wake up call to be intentionally Anglican in every area in a manner that is not in conflict with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the ordinary magisterium.  The various Vatican Congregations will be more than happy to make it clear if we have gone too far.  But we must go as far as we can for the sake of this catholic Anglican Tradition that we love.  Our leaders and those deputised for the liturgical Working Group must be advocates for the Anglican experience in its world-wide catholic expressions and avoid unhelpful and unnecessary Latinising that so plagued the Eastern Catholics before Blessed Pope John Paul II.  There are many of us who understand the vital importance of these matters and have nothing to lose by being bold for our heritage, tradition, and Patrimony.
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Latest News from the Ordinariate
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Statement . 28 June 2012   A grant of funds from the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has been returned.  . The grant was awarded by the Trustees of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament following extensive legal advice in 2011.   . Subsequently the grant was challenged and, as the result of an investigation by the Charity Commissioners, the Ordinariate has returned the funds of its own volition.  . Until the conclusion of the investigative process undertaken by the Charity Commissioners, the charitable aims of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham precluded the return of the funds.   . . It is deeply regrettable that this generous benefaction is to be returned, but our sincere hope is that the conclusion of the legal process regarding this grant may now lay this issue to rest. . ENDS

I expect that the lesson taken from the Charity Commissioners ruling will be focused on the particulars of the ruling regarding the inquorate vote and the impropriety of the donors giving to something from which they will benefit (?!?).  Others will come away saddened by the mean-spiritedness of some who have chosen to stay in the C of E.  I hope the larger issue of Anglican-ness does not get lost.  If one were to mount an appeal (I admit I do not know if it is now possible to appeal the ruling of the Commissioners), would one not want to fit the very definition of the CSB's stated purpose: for the advancement of the Catholic faith in the Anglican Tradition...

+Christ, have mercy upon us.

A Necessary Primer on Anglican Patrimony

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I have needed to expand this post and to likewise enlarge one of the answers to the suggested Primer.  The changes are in maroon or red typface for ease in seeing the original & the augmentations.

You, dear reader, may not be  aware how angry some Anglicans are because they mistakenly presume that the Holy See intends  to determine what is or what is not the Anglican Patrimony.  Some simple Catechism style questions and answers could clear this up quickly.  The genius of the expression, "The Anglican Patrimony is our people." made by the Chancellor of the U.S. Ordinariate should be the touchstone for this effort.   Let us remove misunderstanding and give no cause for anger among our fellow Christians, and embrace what all are doing for the cause of Christ arising from the Anglican heritage we hold in common.

It is too be greatly lamented that the broad vision of Anglicanorum coetibus is being whittled away by someone a piece at a time.  What a pity that some Reformed Episcopalian clergy are being told that they do not have a place in this invitation when they manifestly do.  What a tragedy that the U.S. Anglo-Lutherans were rebuffed when the U.S. Lutheran liturgical tradition in English is nearly identical with Book of Common Prayer and the King James Bible (See the Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America for a clear example of the same... they even said the Prayer of Humble Access, dear reader.)

By way of example ... could we not read the following (or something like it) on all Ordinariate and Anglican Use congregation websites as part of a short primer that we hold in common?:  

Question:  What is the Anglican Patrimony?  

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• Answer:  All of the children, women, and men of the Anglican Communion, related Churches, and Churches sharing The Book of Common Prayer tradition together with the Catholics of the British Isles who went before them; Roman Catholics who are of Anglican heritage by blood or by choice; and, those of Anglican background who have found a welcome among the Eastern Orthodox faithful: all of these people are the Anglican Patrimony.  

Question:  Is the Anglican Patrimony welcome within the Catholic Church?

• Answer:  (1) Those who are the Anglican Patrimony are welcome within the Catholic Church when (a) they are in communion with the Chair of St. Peter and (b) are committed to the Magisterium of the Church.  
• Answer (continued): (2) They are expected to articulate the Anglican heritage and traditions which have been welcomed into the Church through Anglicanorum coetibus, and this articulation of the Anglican tradition and heritage shall be made by the laity, religious, and clergy in the context of and in a manner consistent with the Magisterium of the Church and the Teaching Authority of the Bishop of Rome.  
• Answer (continued):  (3) They are also expected to take up the Call for the New Evangelisation of Blessed Pope John Paul II and confirmed by H.H. Pope Benedict XVI and to evangelise the world for Jesus Christ with their unique gifts and heritage.

 Question:  Are only Caucasian English-speaking members of the Anglican Patrimony welcome within the Catholic Church?

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• Answer:  All members of the Anglican Patrimony are welcome regardless of their language, race, or national origin provided that they are in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter, are obedient to the Magisterium of the Church, and loyal to the Teaching Authority of the Bishop of Rome.   Those who are not yet in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter are invited to study, receive the necessary Sacraments, and become members of Holy Mother Church and join the family of loyal sons and daughters of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.

Certainly some of you, dear readers, are better at this sort of thing than I am.  But I hope you will consider how important such a primer could be for the dissemination of truth and the encouragement of goodwill.  Separately I hope you will consider the content of  what I have written as it tries to respond to a number of criticisms and misunderstandings that have arisen.  I believe it is essential that these things be said and published abroad for all to see and appreciate.

The first expression of the idea that the Anglican Patrimony and the Anglican people are one in the same was to be found online here: http://atonementparish.blogspot.com/2010/01/anglican-patrimony.html

 +Patrimonia Anglicana populus noster est.

Radio KUHF Report on Walsingham in Texas

Today I am sharing a link to a splendid report by Melissa Galvez on Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Anglican Use). She interviews three of my favourite people: Fr. James Ramsey, Pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham, and Nancy Macarthur and Don Dean.

One can listen to the radio broadcast or read the transcript.

Applause and the tipping of my former Anglican biretta to Melissa Galvez for her excellent reporting.