Oh, the Coverdale Psalter...

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Everyone says they love the Coverdale Psalter, the grace of its language, its majestic tone.  Most people have never used Coverdale's Psalter exactly as he wrote it, but rather we have worshipped with it via various recensions and twigglings over the years.

The American recension of 1928 is to my mind one of the very best.  It does have single problems with the elimination of the word "Satan".  A closer reading of the Vulgate and Septuaginta also has suggested worthy corrections.

Currently, the best version I have encountered is in The St. Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter published by Lancelot Andrewes Press -- a press of the Western Rite Orthodox who are also of the Anglican Patrimony, my friends.  Frankly, I recommend the adoption of this Plainsong Psalter as it is.  It is a wise revised edition of Canon Douglas' great Plainsong Psalter.  It includes Sarum tones and other ancient British tones.  Its version of the Coverdale Psalter restores some things got wrong in the American 1928 recension, and it makes other slight alterations that make the text sing doubly in the mouth of a worshipper.

This press, Lancelot Andrewes Press, is one of the reasons to cheer among the Anglican diaspora.  They have brought Dr. Neale's commentary on the psalter back into print. Deo gratias!  They have published a gorgeous Western Orthodox edition of The Book of Common Prayer.  They have made Lancelot Andrewes great prayers available in a beautiful edition.  And the version of the Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English sold by them is the one I use.

If you cannot tell, I think very highly of them and of the Western Rite Orthodox clergy and people.  The Western-rite Orthodox shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in north Texas is headed by a most lovely man, a priest of sincere devotion.  They are part of the Anglican patrimony that must not be forgot by us in the Catholic Church.  

Their beautiful new edition of the American Missal should be considered by all those making liturgical decisions for the future of the Ordinariate. Why, you may ask?  The Divine Liturgy of St. Tikhon within it is an authorised liturgy by the Holy Synod of the Antiochian Orthodox Church.  It is an Anglican liturgy edited in line with suggestions from the great St. Tikhon.  It is a liturgy judged wholly Orthodox by one of the most ancient of Orthodox Churches, Antioch.  Surely, this Liturgy should be at least reviewed for study by the liturgical Working Group... whose membership no one seems to know for certain. (A bad sign and easily remedied by posting their names on Ordinariate websites i.e., 'Our Delegates to the Working Group' et al.)  

I think it important as it provides a way to rescue the lost language and spiritual devotion arising from that found in the Scottish-American Eucharistic Prayer of the Prayer Book tradition.  If the Latin rite in its normative form has four Eucharistic Prayers, surely the Ordinariates and Anglican Use parishes may  as well?

A final word about the Lancelot Andrewes Press: their St. Ambrose Prayer Book is magnificent.  In the tradition of private prayer books like The St. Augustine Prayer Book of the Episcopalian Order of the Holy Cross, it is a volume much loved by my dear mother.  The cover is soft and lovely. The size is easy for one to hold.  The pages are printed on the best paper.  I think it is a splendid effort and shows that the Anglican Patrimony is alive albeit within the Antiochian Orthodox world.

+Ut omnes unum sint.

Reparation for English & Anglican Crimes

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St. Oliver Plunkett, pray for us.

As a cradle Anglican I learned a version of my denomination's history that was not true.  As an Anglican priest I also repeated these errors without knowing the truth of things.  It was by a chance encounter with the record of the martyrdom of St. Margaret Clitherow that opened my eyes to the fact that the Anglican Church that I loved had blood on its hands, and no amount of washing could out the spot.

For a long time I studied, spoke with scholars, priests, nuns, and came to understand that those of us born now could not be held responsible for the blood and crimes  that cover the birth of the Anglican Church, the Elizabethan Era, the evil Penal Laws, the martyrdoms of God's true saints.... but I have found spiritually it is not that simple.  Reparation is essential.

There is a desire to sort of draw a line in the sand and create an ecumenism that doesn't look back beyond that line in the sand.  Lines in the sand blow away in the Wind of God, my friends.  Without acknowledging the great crimes and sins at the founding of the Anglican Church will those who grew up with Black Legends and fallacious spinning of history ever know the truth?

I am convinced that the Anglican Use Parishes and now the new Ordinariates have needed to be and must become communities that have reparation and penitence related to these matters at the heart and centre of spiritual life.  To do so does not eclipse those things of God grown up in that Anglican Church which Blessed John Henry Newman had said was not entirely bereft of its Catholic heart-beat.  

The Anglican Church has produced great martyrs like Archbishop Janani Luwum, great teachers like Evelyn Underhill, great spiritual directors like R. Somerset Ward.  Nothing I say is meant to take away from those whose lives and witness have done honour to the Lord Jesus Christ and the life of the Christian people.

What I suggest is that the Liturgical Kalendar be made to reflect more concretely the debt owed to the Catholic martyrs of the British Isles.  Yes, it repeats various memorials, but some deserve to be of the level of a feast.  And if it were possible, I would suggest that St. Oliver Plunkett deserves to be in the context of the Ordinariates and Anglican Use communities a sort of Solemnity of Reparation and Penitence.

There is also the matter of the dishonoured Catholic monarch Queen Katharine, the daughter of Isabella the Catholic.  It is high time that the dishonour done to her be addressed by us through holding an annual Mass of Reparation as a Requiem Mass for Queen Katharine according to the text of the Sarum liturgical books for the requiem for a monarch.  Those whose Latin is good enough should say it Latin.  It is my sincere belief that the children of the Anglican heritage now within the Catholic Church must honour her memory and pray for her soul.

It would also be salutary to hold a Mass of Reparation on the anniversaries of the destruction of Walsingham, Glastonbury, Ipswich, Ladyewell and the other major shrines of Our Lady.  Why?  Because the Anglican Church profited from the destruction of the Blessed Mother's Shrines.  And such a horrific thing must be placed into a context for remembrance and reparation by those who draw from the good things of the Anglican witness.

Is it too much to ask for attention to such things?  Too much to ask that masses of reparation be set in the Kalendar to at least recall and make reparation for the destruction of Glastonbury and Walsingham?

On another note, it would be salutary to elevate St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's day to that of a Feast.  As the first cradle Episcopalian convert to become a Saint, the reason for that should be self-evident.  And St. Margaret Clitherow?  As a convert and martyr... surely a Feast Day for the Pearl of York?

The matter of remembering Anglican worthies will be another post.

+The Blessed Company of All Faithful People

Revising the Prayer of Humble Access

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Prayer Book revisions saw the original Prayer of Humble Access docked by degree (putting "Holy Mysteries" to the axe first) until in the American Episcopalian Prayer Book of 1979 the text was finally shorn of some very important phrases involving the Body and Precious Blood of Our Lord.  Very sadly this is the version one finds in the current Book of Divine Worship and to which I will devote no reprinting space here. 

The Prayer of Humble Access in the Book of Common Prayer, 1549, is as follows:

We do not presume to come to this thy table (o mercifull lord) trusting in our owne righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies: we be not woorthie so much as to gather up the cromes under thy table: but thou art the same lorde whose propertie is alwayes to haue mercie: Graunt us therefore (gracious lorde) so to eate the flesh of thy dere sonne Jesus Christ, and to drynke his bloud in these holy Misteries that we may continuallye dwell in hym, and he in us, that our synfull bodyes may bee made cleane by his body, and our soules washed through hys most precious bloud. Amen.

 It would be easy to suggest that this is the proper form to use in the revision with the spelling updated to the British world standard of spelling.  Obviously, the British standard should be the spelling convention for all of the Ordinariates including the North American one.

With liturgical revision in the works perhaps someone will forward this post to those entrusted with the revision of the Book of Divine Worship and other rites. Having inquired at length there is no official mechanism for the laity to contribute to the process by making a recommendation to this "Working Group".  

As my readers know I oppose any process for the Ordinariates or the Anglican Use Parishes that does not collaborate and consult the Laity who will be saddled with the revisions.  Whilst Roman Catholics have no concept of the consent of the governed touching upon such things, such an issue is a very significant matter for Anglicans who have found haven from the liturgical and polity wars of the Anglican Communion.  

For some it is true that it is haven enough to trust the True Church at work.  But in the long run it is short-sighted of Ordinaries and Authorities in Rome to proceed without a process that invites parochial participation and the collaboration of the clergy, religious, and especially the Laity in Christ.  We know how to do this, and after all our numbers are small at this time.

I have spent some years searching out all of the various official and unofficial versions of the Prayer of Humble Access which can be found in Anglican service books, Lutheran service books in North America, and various Presbyterian and Methodist books of prayer and hymnals. 

The average standard is that found in the US BCP 1928 and related books, but it would be a pity simply to punt with the 1662 BCP and not look beyond it to the strong liturgical contributions found in the composition of this prayer and its editing.  Also, the 1662/1928 version no longer enjoys common recollection among us unless we are over 50 years of age or coming from a place using the older liturgical books.

What follows below is my version of the Prayer of Humble Access -- a synthesis of various approaches together with an original idea.  The first part of the prayer i normal typeface is unfailingly the same in every traditional sacred language version of the Prayer.  What needs to be considered is found in the second portion of the prayer in boldface : the boldface is used to highlight this but not to indicate a division in the participation of the Celebrant and that of the whole congregation: 

We do not presume to come to this thy Table, 
O merciful Lord,
trusting in our own righteousness
but in thy manifold and great mercies.
We are not worthy
so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table,
but thou art the same Lord 
whose property is always to have mercy.
In these Holy Mysteries, 
grant us therefore, gracious Lord,
so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ
and to drink his Blood
that, made clean by his Body
and washed through his most Precious Blood,
we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

The other worthy alternative is the original version of the Prayer of Humble Access found in the 1954 edition of the CSI Liturgy which follows:

WE do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, that our sinful bodies and souls may be made clean by his most precious Body and Blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

Should the CSI version be elected, I would suggest altering 'sinful bodies and souls' to 'souls and bodies'.  This slight alteration would reflect the language of the traditional BCP Eucharistic Prayer which is lost language in the BDW  ...  "souls and bodies" rather than "sinful bodies and souls".  

Any revision is awkward for the tongue when another form is known, but that we may have an excellent version for our children's children that does not merely reflect our tastes and preference for what we know in our personal experience but rather reaches up to the Lord with the best we can muster, I encourage us all to embrace either form of this prayer -- mine or the amended CSI version -- as the version we gift to the Church and the future generations of our children and converts yet to come. 

+Parce mihi, Domine.

Excerpt from the Dream of Gerontius

Blessed John Henry Newman

Gerontius

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus,

Parce mihi, Domine.

Firmly I believe and truly

God is three, and God is One;

And I next acknowledge duly

Manhood taken by the Son.

And I trust and hope most fully

In that Manhood crucified;

And each thought and deed unruly

Do to death, as He has died.

Simply to His grace and wholly

Light and life and strength belong,

And I love, supremely, solely,

Him the holy, Him the strong.

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus,

Parce mihi, Domine.

And I hold in veneration,

For the love of Him alone,

Holy Church, as His creation,

And her teachings, as His own.

And I take with joy whatever

Now besets me, pain or fear,

And with a strong will I sever

All the ties which bind me here.

Adoration aye be given,

With and through the angelic host,

To the God of earth and heaven,

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus,

Mortis in discrimine.

I can no more; for now it comes again,

That sense of ruin, which is worse than pain,

That masterful negation and collapse

Of all that makes me man; as though I bent

Over the dizzy brink

Of some sheer infinite descent;

Or worse, as though

Down, down for ever I was falling through

The solid framework of created things,

And needs must sink and sink

Into the vast abyss. And, crueller still,

A fierce and restless fright begins to fill

The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse,

Some bodily form of ill

Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse

Tainting the hallow'd air, and laughs, and flaps

Its hideous wings,

And makes me wild with horror and dismay.

O Jesu, help! pray for me, Mary, pray!

Some Angel, Jesu! such as came to Thee

In Thine own agony …

Mary, pray for me. Joseph, pray for me. Mary,

pray for me.

Assistants

Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour,

As of old so many by Thy gracious power:—

(Amen.)

Enoch and Elias from the common doom; (Amen.)

Noe from the waters in a saving home; (Amen.)

Abraham from th' abounding guilt of Heathenesse;

(Amen.)

Job from all his multiform and fell distress;

(Amen.)

Isaac, when his father's knife was raised to slay;

(Amen.)

Lot from burning Sodom on its judgment-day;

(Amen.)

Moses from the land of bondage and despair;

(Amen.)

Daniel from the hungry lions in their lair;

(Amen.)

And the Children Three amid the furnace-flame;

(Amen.)

Chaste Susanna from the slander and the shame;

(Amen.)

David from Golia and the wrath of Saul;

(Amen.)

And the two Apostles from their prison-thrall;

(Amen.)

Thecla from her torments; (Amen.)

—so to show Thy power,

Rescue this Thy servant in his evil hour.

+Parce mihi, Domine.

Irish College, Homosexuality, Celibacy, Secular Clergy

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There has been an angry response to Cardinal Dolan's report in Ireland from a group of dissenting Catholic priests called the Association of Catholic Priests.  The name makes them sound official, and they are anything but official.  These are priests who never dress as priests.  Some do not believe in the Real Presence.  Some are openly sexually active... on both sides of the street so to speak.  They do have a lot in common with a group of priests in Austria recently taken to task by the Pope.

Irish newspapers love anything that attacks the hierarchy and upper ranks of the Catholic Church.  It doesn't spring from nothing... this hate ... but arises from years upon years of abusive misuse of power by the Episcopate in Ireland.  Now that the Holy Father and Cardinal Ouellet have spoken openly about the problems in Ireland, one doesn't get tarred and feathered for speaking about how ill served the Irish people have been by any of those in Holy Orders.  Nonetheless, every Irishman knows when the local priest is a saint and will tell you plainly that this is a fact and an exception to the rule.  How many times have I heard, "Ah, but Father is a saint."

My own experience in Ireland over the years is that the Church is a shambles.  There are isolated pockets of light, but in general one can be forgiven for being given the extreme impression that the Catholic people and Catholic Church in Ireland would be well served by having everyone in Holy Orders deported to Italy.  When I first heard such thoughts, I thought they were belly-aching and griping of the lowest order.  Having seen and experienced some things first hand, I agree more than I disagree.

The Irish sometimes grow up never seeing their priest dressed in clerics.  The priest prefers to dress like he is going to golf.  Folks call such priests "Father Trendy".  I know a number of those like that and they are not all rotten apples but they are easily led astray.  Between the ones from Maynooth and those from the Irish College, it is the ones from the Irish College who seem to be the biggest part of the problem... and that is a very great shame.

The best thing that could happen in Ireland is if Mother Agnes Donovan of the Sisters of Life in New York City were sent to Ireland as Apostolic Administrator of the Church ... an idea guaranteed to "freak" out the left and the right.  Since that is right unlikely, I am by way of it pointing to the need for a miracle.  Cardinal Dolan cited the Irish College's reputation as a hotbed of homosexual 'activity' as the central problem.  Those outraged from his report say the College is merely gay friendly.  Most of us know that the issue in the Catholic Church isn't about homosexuality alone but few are prepared to give the appearance of not praising the gift of celibacy.

It isn't the gift of celibacy that is the problem.  The grace of celibacy given by God is powerful.  But God does not give said grace to all priests, nor does He transmit it by ordination.  The Latin Rite has an enforced discipline of clerical celibacy for priests and bishops.  It is not doctrine at all but discipline, but of late it has been spoken of with as much devotion and passion as one might speak of the Eucharist itself.  

Change in the Church is glacial, but I am convinced that the idea of celibate secular diocesan clergy is the underlying problem.  The orders aren't the problem they are gifts where clerical celibacy is often both grace and vow.  But the secular clergy of diocesan priests not in religious orders has been coming apart at the seams for a very long time.  It presumes a world in the West and a worldview among Catholic Westerners that has been gone for a very long time.  The model leaves a diocesan priest all by himself in a rectory incapable of doing everything a priest needs to do in a parish.  Many say they like being alone, and that should be a red flag that something has gone wrong.  Being alone is proper only to the hermit, and it is manifestly not spiritually salutary or wise for a priest to be flying solo in a parish.  Common sense knows this, but in the Church we prefer to go along with the status quo until long after a change was needed.

It doesn't mean the end of the Church, but it does have an impact upon the Church's mission to evangelise in very profound ways.  Souls are lost because the solo priest is burned out.  Souls are lost because the priest's private life is sexually at odds with his vows, but there is no one to notice and no one in the Chancery able to monitor such things until someone winds up in gaol/jail, Court, or in the Press.  Such a pity we cannot look at this calmly but only think in terms of those who attack us from the various groups of our enemies.  Circling the wagons only works for so long.  Eventually one must break out of the mode to go get food and drink. 

The Eastern model of parish priesthood is adapted for the various stresses and crises we face.  The normal model in the parish is the married priest and his family.  2, 3 or more monks may also be placed in a parish in some parts of the non-Catholic world.  It is from the monastic celibates and the widowed parish priests that the higher clergy are drawn.  Not that the Eastern Orthodox have everything worked out. They don't  However, their idea of the parish family church with the priest's own family at the head of it is one tried and tested by time that works.  The lone ranger... one secular diocesan priest who is an avowed celibate living alone in a large rectory is a recipe for disaster.

The Lord sent out his own two by two.  I don't think he was merely hinting at something.  I believe that two by two model should be the central idea for the deployment of clergy and the governance of parishes.  A blog isn't a place to explore these ideas in full.  I can only give some hints toward what I would have put in a paper or lecture.  But as one of the few celibate Anglican priests who has been reconciled with the Catholic Church in the USA, I feel I am not under any compulsion to sing the praises of the discipline of celibacy for the secular clergy as the incoming married priests are required to do.  I don't mean required to do so by the Church but rather required to do so by a kind of sense that they must justify their existence by giving praise for the status quo of the discipline of the Latin Church or by a desire to conform to the expectations of the discipline and the general expectations of the hierarchy.

As it has developed there are very few people actually given the grace of celibacy.  With the laity beginning to see the ordained clergy as a club of homosexuals and sex-criminals with their Enablers, the Laity's loyalty, love, and money will keep departing.  Praise of celibacy as a discipline is odious frankly.  It is a discipline or a tool.  Praise belongs where it is due with the Lord, His Gospel and His Sacraments.  

Praise of God for the grace and gift of celibacy is wonderful.  Now if a celibate secular diocesan priesthood is a charism of penance, that is a different matter.  As it is, it is just a law for the secular priests, and one that I have been shocked to learn unfortunately first hand has too few actual adherents among the priesthood.

If you keep doing the same thing, getting the same results and you make no change but rather keep doing the same things expecting different results you have landed in the lap of insanity.  Perhaps part of some sort of reunion with the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox will be the source of light and guidance with an elimination of a celibate secular diocesan priesthood as the norm and a return in the Latin West to the model of the East which is in some ways like that of the Latin West before the Cluniac Reform.  Yet in other ways it is profoundly different.

It takes humility to look at a discipline and see that perhaps our brothers in the Eastern lung of the Church have the answer we need.  The Eastern model would have been the proper one to give incoming Anglicans in a particular Church as it is the one most consistent with the Anglcian Patrimony and proven experience.  It takes humility and grace to allow for disciplinary differences whilst adhering to dogmatic unity.  Something must give when it comes to the clerical celibacy of the Latin West and the kinds of mess we have in Ireland and at the Irish College in Rome.  Even if my ideas are beyond the Pale, no pun intended, someone will need to completely overhaul the secular diocesan clergy in order to turn the focus away from the appalling sex abuse toward a productive future discipline through which the Catholic Church can get on with the work of the Gospel of Christ.

The Irish College in Rome only came into my awareness because it was where Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was trained for the Catholic diaconate and priesthood.  My point of reference was the venerable English College and to a less degree the North American one.  I pray the Irish College can be renewed and made to be a Celtic shining light for the Church once more.

+Good Shepherd, guide us in Thy straight way.

Cheerleaders, Coaches & Groupies

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A thought from the world of sport came to mind.  The Personal Ordinariates are now a bit like football clubs or teams (depending on where one lives in the world)...

There is the Owner: in this case Pope Benedict
There is the Coach: in our case the Ordinary

And in the world of sport the Coach always has gathered around him principal coaches (Msgr. Burnham, by way of example) and other coaching staff (the priests, deacons, and religious of the Ordinariates).

I am happy to expand this further for another venue, but for now I will keep it brief.  No sport can have success without supporters.  In the USA there is a tradition of "Cheerleaders" who form a team of their own employed to encourage the fans during matches or games.  Without the analogous "Cheerleaders" the Ordinariates will not stir up the base of support.  Cheerleaders aren't gatekeepers.  I repeat, Cheerleaders are not gate keepers.  They bring a particular expertise (i.e., cheering), and by sharing that expertise build enthusiasm among fans and those who may not be fans... yet.

In some parts of the Ordinariates there are Cheerleaders working hard.  In some parts, the Cheerleaders have shown up ready to work and feel they have been sent home, unwanted, dejected.  Wake up, Coach!  You need all the cheerleaders you can get.  They are 'self-winding', motivated, committed.  They do not represent a burden to a coach but rather are agents of motivation the coach needs to have a winning season.
...
Leaders need to be as open and transparent as a sport team in the locker room talking to the Press while they disrobe, shower, celebrate, lament....  the Press and consequently the supporters participate in all of that.  This is a key metaphor, I suggest.

Sometimes groupies gather round a coach, a player, a team who take the mindset that they were their first and they must determine who has access to the Coach and the players.  At this point, enter Stage Left, the Robot warning, "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"

In Texas at the Texas A&M University, they have a cheerleading tradition called the Yell-leader.  This is a male cheerleader who does yeoman's work with the cheerleading squad and in stirring up the fans in support for their team.  I would have gladly been such a Yell-leader from the inside.  But as it is, I am not invited to the dance... oops, mixing my metaphors... a very Galveston Islander sort of thing to do, where we say things like "Well, that's just spilt milk under the bridge." So forgive the mixing of metaphors and images... would that I could avoid it, but it is a bit like telling an Italian not to use his hands when speaking. ;-)

And so from my Hermitage of Ste. Anne, I try to do what the Lord and Our Lady bid me to do.  Encouragement is the constant goal.  Sometimes it takes the form of a stiff kick in the seat of the pants.  But encouragement is the goal.  While it is the work of the Apostles that is, the bishops and ordinaries, to be the Sons of Encouragement like St. Barnabas, it is also a valuable part of the laity's participation in the apostolic mission according to their competencies.  I'm still looking for my team to support, and thank the Lord I may be near to finding it.

A final note (and image): it is a spiritual mistake for those at the top to expect the laity to be engaged only in the sort of encouragement of which they approve, to be Yes-men with rubber stamps with which to give their constant assent.  It will never happen, and it will give you dis-ease.  Be the constant Encourager from the top.  It is from the ground up that the Church organically grows no matter which portion of it we speak.  When the rain of encouragement falls upon the earth, the laity that is, then bright new growth arises as God gives the growth.  It is not necessary to be so worried and secretive, afraid of what might grow in the garden.  God is content to let wheat and tares to grow up together... to be sifted later at the harvest. 

And that last image, that last word & lesson, is the wisest word of all from Team Owner and Master Coach, Jesus Christ.

+Laudetur Jesus Christus.

Pope Benedict, New Evangelisation, Ordinariates

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In the United Kingdom the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham continues to lead in its forward vision of programming and events to build up that newborn portion of the Church.  After my brief comments, I have copied the list of forthcoming happenings as printed in the excellent e-Newsletter of the OLW-Ordinariate which keeps all apprised both home and abroad of the work of the OLW-Ordinariate.  

Naturally, these sorts of events are normative from the C of E experience, but it is wonderful to see the Personal Ordinariate not missing a beat and carrying on with what needs to be done in a calm and efficient manner.  Of course, that is what the English do, isn't it?  Keep Calm and Carry On. Bravo to Msgr. Newton for guiding this little barque in the flotilla of St. Peter forward and locating the Personal Ordinariate daily within the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The forthcoming one day event at Buckfast Abbey with Professor Tracey Rowland entitled "The New Evangelisation in the thought of Pope Benedict" I wish to 'underline' as a valuable and important contribution toward locating the theological resources that should underpin the Missionary Vision of the Personal Ordinariates as they are adapted in local situations.  For those of us from the English-speaking world outwith the UK, should we be in England on holiday it would be most worthwhile to take in this event.  I'd think to be certain that there is room available for one to attend it is best to contact Fr Ian Hillyer at the link provided. 
+++

 

Saturday 30th June 2012 -  The New Evangelisation in the thought of Pope Benedict
Professor Tracey Rowland, Dean and Permanent Fellow of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne, will present a concise examination of the idea of the New Evangelisation in the writings of Pope Benedict XVI, with particular reference to the establishment of Personal Ordinariates. The day will take place at Buckfast Abbey Conference Centre. Tickets are £5 (to help cover costs) and are available from Fr Ian Hellyer.

Forthcoming events in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, UK

Sunday 24th June 2012 at 11am - Ordinary to preside at Mass in Portsmouth

Monsignor Newton will preside and preach at the Church of St Agatha, Portsmouth for the IoW and Portsmouth Ordinariate Group.

Saturday 30th June 2012 -  The New Evangelisation in the thought of Pope Benedict

Professor Tracey Rowland, Dean and Permanent Fellow of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, Melbourne, will present a concise examination of the idea of the New Evangelisation in the writings of Pope Benedict XVI, with particular reference to the establishment of Personal Ordinariates. The day will take place at Buckfast Abbey Conference Centre. Tickets are £5 (to help cover costs) and are available from Fr Ian Hellyer.

Friday 6th – 8th July 2012 - Invocation 2012

Invocation is a national festival for young adults held in the grounds of St Mary’s College, Oscott from 6-8 July 2012. The festival is aimed at young men and women aged 16-35, who are looking to deepen their relationship with Christ and are open to possibility of a vocation to the priesthood or Religious life. A number of members of the Ordinariate were present last year. This year the relic of the heart of St John Vianney will be present at the festival. 

Saturday July 14th 2012 - Annual Pilgrimage of Reparation and Consecration to Walsingham

This will be Led by Fr. Ivan Aquilina of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. 

Saturday 28th July 2012 – A day with Newman at Littlemore

The Portal Magazine is organising this event giving the opportunity to spend a day in Littlemore on Saturday 28th July 2012. Hear about Blessed John Henry Newman’s time at Littlemore, attend Mass and enjoy a good lunch. Further details, timings and booking details for the day are published here. 

Thursday 9th - 12th August 2012 - Blessed John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage

Members of the Ordinariate are taking part in the Blessed John Paul II walking pilgrimage to Walsingham for the New Evangelisation in England & Wales. The 50 mile pilgrimage starts with Mass in the ruins of the Abbey at Bury St Edmunds and concludes at the Sunday Mass in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Accommodation and food are provided as is transportation each day for luggage. Morning & Evening Prayer is sung each day and Mass is celebrated en route with prayers, hymns, rosary and talks as the pilgrims walk along. The cost is £55 per person. Further information and booking from Sister Hyacinthe OP. 

Saturday 15 September 2012 - National Pilgrimage to Walsingham

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is organising a National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham on Saturday 15 September 2012. More details here. 

+Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.

Heart of Mary

Bl. John Henry Newman, ora pro nobis! 

 Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

(Vincent Uher's Personal Version for Family Recitation 
of the Litany of the Immacualte Heart of Mary of Blessed John Henry Newman

adapted to the Sacral Language of the Anglican Patrimony)

+ 

Lord, have mercy upon us.  

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.  

Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us. 

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, hear us.  

Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven,  

have mercy upon us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,  

have mercy upon us.
God the Holy Spirit,  

have mercy upon us.

Holy Trinity, + one God,  

have mercy upon us.

Heart of Mary,   ...................................… pray for us.
Heart of Mary, after God’s own Heart,
Heart of Mary, in union with the Heart of Jesus,
Heart of Mary, vessel of the Holy Spirit,
Heart of Mary, shrine of the Trinity,
Heart of Mary, home of the Word,
Heart of Mary, immaculate in your creation,
Heart of Mary, flooded with grace,
Heart of Mary, blessed of all hearts,
Heart of Mary, throne of glory,
Heart of Mary, abyss of humbleness,
Heart of Mary, victim of love,
Heart of Mary, nailed to the cross,
Heart of Mary, comfort of the sad,
Heart of Mary, refuge of the sinner,
Heart of Mary, hope of the dying,
Heart of Mary, seat of mercy,

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,  

spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,  

graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, 

have mercy upon us.

Christ, hear us.  

Christ, graciously hear us.

Lord, have mercy upon us. 

Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us. 

Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of heart,
Conform our hearts to the Heart of Jesus.

Let us pray:

O most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, has made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
.

+Ave Immaculata!

Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of the Southern Cross

+

Gaudium magnum!  

Congratulations and blessings to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.  

Fr. Entwistle is a gift to the Church!  

God grant him +MANY YEARS+!

Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of the Southern Cross 

erected in Australia

Media Release
15 June, 2012

This evening 15 June, 2012, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI officially erected the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury.

Ordinariates have thus far been erected in England and the United States and are the response of Pope Benedict to Anglicans who have been petitioning the Holy See to enter into full corporate unity with the Catholic Church while retaining essential elements of their heritage.

The first ordination to the Catholic priesthood to serve in the Ordinariate took place this evening at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth when former Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Bishop Harry Entwistle was ordained a Catholic priest and also named as the first Ordinary.

Following his ordination this evening by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, Fr Harry Entwistle will be the leader of the Personal Ordinariate in Australia.

His jurisdiction as the Ordinary is equivalent in law to a Diocesan Bishop.

Fr Entwistle has been serving as a Bishop in Western Australia since 2006, and is married to Jean. They have two adult children.

Fr Entwistle is honoured to have been chosen to lead the Ordinariate and explained that it is a wonderful privilege and step towards unity between the Churches.

“Pope Benedict has made it very clear that unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the lowest common denominator, and those entering an Ordinariate accept the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith”, said Fr Entwistle.

“Membership is open to former Anglicans who accept what the Catholic Church believes and teaches; former Anglicans who have previously been reconciled to the Catholic Church but who now wish to reconnect with their Anglican spiritual heritage and those baptised in the Catholic Church who have close family members who belong to the Ordinariate.”

“As the Ordinariate is in organic unity with the Catholic Church, Western and Eastern Catholics are welcome to worship and receive communion in an Ordinariate mass and vice versa”, he said.

More information about Fr Harry Entwistle including his Curriculum Vitae is available at www.catholic.org.au

For media enquiries, please contact Beth Doherty on media@catholic.org.au or 0407 081 256

Anglican Patrimony: A Manual of Catholic Devotion

From the Propers for the Sacred Heart from the Anglican Missal 

A Manual of Catholic Devotion, pp. 346-348.

COLLECT

O GOD, who hast suffered the Heart of thy Son to be wounded by our sins and in that very Heart hast bestowed on us the abundant riches of thy love: grant that the devout homage of our hearts which we render unto him may of thy mercy be deemed a recompense acceptable in thy sight.  Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

OFFERTORY

THY rebuke hath broken my heart, I am full of heaviness:  I looked for some to have pity upon me, but there was no man : neither found I any to comfort me.

COMMUNION

ONE of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

POST-COMMUNION

O LORD Jesus Christ, who hast given unto us to taste of the sweetness of thy gracious Heart: kindle in us by these holy mysteries the fire of thy divine charity, that we may learn to despise the joys of earth and to set our affections on things above: Who livest and reignest.

+Deo gratias.

Jeremy Taylor: Anglican Patrimony

Holy Living, 1650, p. 379

LL ANGELS 

AND ARCHANGELS, 

all Thrones and Dominions, all Principalities and Powers, the Cherubins with many eyes, and the Seraphins covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory : These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns, and eternal Anthems to the glory of the eternal God, the Almighty Father of Men and Angels.

Holy is our God: Holy is the Almighty:  Holy is the Immortal:  Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory. Amen.  With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant, O thou great lover of souls, though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a Majesty, yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire, and confesse the glories of the Lord.  For thou art holy, and of thy greatnesse there is no end; and in thy justice and goodnesse thou hast measured out to us all thy works.

Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image: thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure, and gavest him laws of righteousnesse to be to him a seed of immortality.

O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he hath done of the children of men.

+SANCTUS SANCTUS SANCTUS!

Jeremy Taylor: Anglican Patrimony

On Prayer, The Worthy Communicant, 1660, p. 160

+

Since prayer can obtain every thing, it can open the windows of heaven and shut the gates of hell ; it can put a holy constraint upon God, and detain an Angel till he leave a blessing; it can open the treasures of rain, and soften the iron ribs of rocks, till they melt into tears and a flowing river; prayer can unclasp the girdles of the North, saying to a mountain of ice; be thou removed hence, and cast into the bottom of the Sea; it can arrest the Sun in the midst of his course, and send the swift winged winds upon our errand; and all those strange things and secret decrees and unrevealed transactions which are above the clouds and far beyond the regions of the stars shall combine in ministry and advantages for the praying man : it cannot be but we should feel less evil, and much more good than we do, if our prayers were right.

+Lord, teach us to pray.