The Anecdotal Memory of One Healed

Note (18 June 2012): I welcome readers from SpiritDaily.com.  May God bless you in the reading of this thumbnail sketch of my story.  As some have asked, yes, I do hope to write a book about these experiences.  But, no, I don't have a publisher or anything like that yet. So please pray for me that I write what pleases the Holy Family.  I want to especially thank Fr. Byron Miller of Blessed Seelos Shrine in New Oreleans who upon my second visit let me hold and pray with Blessed Seelos actual preaching Crucifix.  More than anything I want people to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and to learn about Blessed Father Seelos so they can get to know him and enjoy his friendship from heaven.

When I was still a priest in the Anglican Communion, I was called by the Holy Family (through their sudden appearance in my living room) to enter the Catholic Church.  I was not prepared for this.  Deo gratias that I found and was very blessed to have a wise and soft-spoken scholar-priest to welcome me and answer my questions.  I remain so grateful to Fr. James Moore, the scholar-priest, for his magnificent pastoral gift toward me as well as his catechetical instruction that helped me understand what I was experiencing in such dramatic and unsettling ways.  I find people who are coming into the Church are having such extraordinary experiences all the time, and most like me remain quiet about it until it is the right time.  I think that the new folks coming into the Ordinariate will have that same wonderful experience with their scholar-Ordinary that I had with Fr. Moore, the founding pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Anglican Use) in Houston, Texas.

When I was about to enter the Church I also encountered some Catholic converts from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada who wanted to be sure that I knew what I was getting myself into.  I was told horror stories of other Episcopal priests who had been turned away or whose efforts strangely went nowhere.  One man, a judge I knew in Texas, said to me, "Son," (yes, I was younger then) "Son, ya' realize that we're as welcome in the Catholic Church as the mistress at the funeral."

Texans can be very colourful, but they will usually only put up with straight-shooting, as is said.  Here was a former Episcopalian telling me the worst of it because he cared about me without knowing me.  "Now some will tell ya' I'm a traitor for telling you it isn't all peaches and cream, but those are the rats I want to warn you about."  With eyes wide open I listened to what he said and because of him and his openness it cleared the way in my thinking so that I was ready to be received into the Catholic Church long before anyone in officialdom was prepared to deal with me.

Slowly over the course of years I watched the rules change again and again for a celibate former Episcopalian clergyman.  First, the Pastoral Provision no longer applied.  Then other changes.  Then it was decided that we would have to go to seminary for two years.  When I had first entered I would have gladly gone back to seminary, but after the intervening years of being jerked around, being treated badly by some Catholic priests who didn't want me coming in (because "we" would take the Church back to the Stone Age before Vatican II), and having my own experiences that could have gone into Good-bye, Good Men, I decided to simply focus on those apostolates with which I was affiliated.  I made a concerted effort to live as a member of the laity as taught by Blessed Pope John Paul II in his great work Christifideles laici.  I don't think anyone should convert to the Catholic Church before seriously engaging it in thorough study.

Anyone who knew me intimately could not figure out why I didn't go to Orthodoxy or back to Anglicanism.  For a time I did retrace my steps and found the friendship and worship of my Orthodox and Episcopalian friends life-giving and soul-sustaining.  My problem, if it could be called that, is that I knew through a heavenly visitation that the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph wanted me in the Catholic Church.  They told me it would cost me everything, but with my sacrifices offered up to the Lord Jesus, He would make use of them to heal and reunite the Church.  I could not refuse, and as I have said subsequently quoting the Apostle "whereupon I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision".

The rewards of being in Communion with the Chair of St. Peter far oustripped any suffering I might need to endure, and to this day I have believed this to be true.

My life has been a series of genuine miracles and heavenly visitations.  Consequently, I am not exactly an answer to prayer for anybody in any hierarchy.  Such folks like things to be stable, predictable, by the book ... and they want to be the only ones offering a Word from heaven.  When I entered the Catholic Church I was shocked to find how many priests loathed Fatima and despised Bl. now St. Faustina Kowolska.  I was horrified when I heard a bishop say upon hearing of the death of Sr. Lucia of Fatima, "Well, thank God, that's over."  Shepherds should be very careful about what they say.  They never know if the sheep are listening.  Truly I wasn't surprised by these little bombshells.  I knew Church history and the life of Christ Himself and understood the sources of such opposition.

One day after teaching Gregorian Chant to a brilliant group of homeschooled Catholic students I went into the Holy House Chapel in the right transept of Our Lady of Walsingham Parish in Houston, Texas.  The Holy House Chapel is a stunningly holy place and a very faithful attempt to reconstruct the Holy House of Walsingham in England.

The image of Our Lady and the Christ Child there once served in the Slipper Chapel in Walsingham, England when their image of Our Lady of Walsingham had to be removed for repairs after an attack by a vandal.  As I knelt and prayed before the Tabernacle, the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and the Christ Child came alive to me.  The Little Lord and Our Lady spoke to me asking me if I would be willing to suffer and even to die for some very important things God the Father wanted.  I was stunned beyond all words.  

Our Lady told me that her shrine in Houston would be vandalised.  I began to weep.  She said that if I was willing to suffer a great illness a greater shrine would be built to honour her and her child through the offerings and sacrifices of many.  Would I do it? 'Yes, Mother, you know I will.'

The Lord told me that a monastery would be started and later move to Ireland.  Would I be willing to suffer another greater illness at the same time for a monastery that He loved greatly ... 'Yes, Lord, of course but you must help me.'  The Little Lord looked on me with great compassion.

Then the Little Lord and the Blessed Mother both seemed to speak together.  Would I be willing to suffer even more and even to die if with the addition of my suffering and death the Protestants would begin to be brought back to the Church and the ancient wounds in her begin to be healed.  I managed a Yes, but I could say nothing more.  The vision ended.  I got up from the Chapel, and I tried to prepare my heart and soul for what would be coming.

My spiritual director helped me review all of this and bring my mind to a place of peace.  The illnesses came one on top of the other and confined me to my bed for years.  A hurricane completely destroyed my home.  The doctors told me they didn't know how I was still alive.  And then for a while I tasted clinical death and the fulness of the Kingdom of God.

I then experienced the most painful experience of my life as I was placed back into my sad, suffering, bloated body.  The return was impossibly painful for me and I wanted to go back to heaven.  I seemed to start fading away again, more There than here.  But as everyone began to expect that it was time for me to leave for good, a friend from childhood arrived having been prompted by God to come see me.

Bl. F.X. Seelos, CSsR

He brought with him a First Class relic of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, the cheerful ascetic priest of New Orleans.  As I held the relic and we prayed, I prayed for a happy death.  My friend on the other hand prayed for a miracle of healing for me.  I felt wave on wave of warm energy wash up from my hand into my brain... my poor brain that had been catastrophically wasting away.  I felt a surge of alertness in my mind and a sense of well-being touch me that I had not felt in many years.

After that I was able to travel by car for the first time in some five years.  We went to New Orleans to give thanks for the graces and favours I had received in my healing.  I was now able to walk with a the help of a walker or a rollator, and I was over the moon happy.  While I was there a Helper named Tim prayed for me in the Shrine as I stood in between Blessed Father Seelos' relics and his beloved statue of Our Lady of Sorrows.  He prayed for me with a Redemptorist preaching crucifix embedded with a major relic of the Blessed.

After he prayed for me, without thinking of it I stepped away from my rollator and walked on my own toward the prayer desk in front of the large reliquary of Blessed Seelos' remains.  For the first time in perhaps six years I knelt down at the prayer desk all by myself.  Prior to this kneeling would have been impossible with my untreatable psoriatic arthritis that had developed.  Strangers who were in the Shrine at the time who knew nothing about me were pointing toward me with tears rolling down their faces.  I looked to my friends who likewise had tear-filled eyes and expressions of total shock on their faces.

I really didn't understand what was going on at first, but I felt the overwhelming Presence of the Lord Jesus and my soul, my heart felt light as a feather, and I was filled with such joy that for me that Shrine was the happiest place on Earth.  It was the place where my friends lowered me through the roof to see Jesus... my old friends and my new friend Blessed Seelos.

It was such a shock to me and all of my family and friends to see that I no longer needed assistance. In short order over a hundred pounds of weight dropped off my body.  There were no signs of psoriatic arthritis.  No signs of suspected lupus.  No signs of several other things.  I had my first normal EEG since suffering a stroke in 1999.  My brain no longer was listed as severely atrophied, but as moderately so.  Where the great Dr. Rosa Tang had found so much evidence of unidentified strokes, there was no visible evidence of those strokes.

Now for the really amazing part.  I became well enough that I could undergo two unexpected surgeries.  One removed my gall bladder at nearly the last minute before it ruptured.  The other removed my left and right breast a pre-cancerous threat.  And then three small polyps were removed in a colonoscopy that were pre-cancerous.  I never could have survived these things without the healing I received.  In this fashion it seems to me the Lord wanted to show the value of the healing arts in addition to His miraculous power to heal.

During the scans at the time of the gall bladder surgery, a CT scan showed three tumours in my lungs.  I had never had tumours there, but I had been given two dreadful drugs that had the  side-effect of encouraging the growth of tumours and cancer.  It seemed to many that the victory of my healing was being erased, but privately Blessed Seelos had come to me in my bedroom and told me to have no cares about it.  Jesus would take care of everything.

I had another high resolution CT scan in anticipation of surgery, but there were no tumours to be found.  My Muslim pulmonologist was convinced he had witnessed a miracle.  My Catholic rheumatologist was likewise impressed by the miraculous events in my life that had turned me into a completely new person.  Nature had been reversed.

However, not everything had been healed.  A cyst in my spinal cord remained leaving me functionally disabled, and I still suffered from syringomyelia though the pains of it were profoundly reduced.  I asked the Lord why he wouldn't heal me completely, and I heard His Voice say outside of my own mind, "Who said I was finished healing you?"

I have become grateful for what he did not heal because it has kept me grounded and close to Jesus.  I am able to do most anything I want or need to do, but I still need to be careful not to overextend myself.  He also showed me that he intends to heal some of the effects of the stroke from 1999 that beset me interiorly.  No one who sees me can believe that I endured so much save for the people who witnessed these things happen to me.

For some the most telling of all was seeing my hair having grown back in after having fallen out for no apparent reason.

What I have written is merely a sketch in thumbnail, but it is clear that even so it will give encouragement to those who need it.  I can direct others to seek the intercession of Blessed Father Seelos and to go to his shrine to pray with him to the Lord, the healer of our souls.

I also hope by sharing all of this to encourage those who have not yet come into the Catholic Church to do so.  This is the real Church in all of its fulness with the real Lord Jesus Christ and all of his very real friends and family.  As Fr. Benedict Groeschel would tell you, mindful of all the frailties and faults of the human beings in the Church, 'Come on in!  It's awful!'  Yes, some things are, but it is surpassingly the Kingdom of God on Earth where the most miraculous things happen to the lay faithful every day.  

And the greatest miracle for us all is our Lord's daily Real Presence in the miracle of the Holy Mass and His abiding presence in the Tabernacles of the Church, the very Living Bread which came down from heaven.  I give thanks to Blessed Father Seelos for his intercession, to the Holy Family for their direct guidance in my life, to Blessed Pope John Paul II for his prophetic vision which made such a wonderful place of homecoming for me at the Parish and Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.  But above all praise be to Jesus Christ for simply being who he is, my Lord and my God.  Laudetur Jesus Christus!

+Hosanna in excelsis.

New Evangelisation & Church Planting

The Anglican Use Society, which predates the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will be having its 2012 Conference around the theme of the New Evangelisation of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Wonderful news!  But remember a New Evangelisation Conference does not a missionary make.  But with the proper catechetical instruction and reference points in the New Evangelisation of Blessed Pope John Paul II you will have the most fertile intellectual ground from which to develop your local mission strategies.  I hope the Ordinariate would develop a common mission strategy.  A consideration may be that perhaps because you are scattered all across North America in relatively small groups the really important task is to develop your local mission strategy in concert with the Church's invitation to the New Evangelisation rather than a directive from the Ordinariate itself.

Papers will be given by most excellent speakers at the Conference relating to the New Evangelisation and the Anglican experience, and some issues will be explored in a presentation by Fr. Scott Hurd, the Vicar General of the Ordinariate, and Mr. Marlon de la Torre of the Pastoral Provision Office in Fort Worth, Texas that I think will be very key:  "Pastoral Considerations and Future Directions in the Pastoral Provision and in the Ordinariate".  One would hope that a common mission strategy could be developed for both the Pastoral Provision parishes and clergy and the Ordinariate... but there is a great danger if it is simply a strategy delivered from on high, top down.  The great chance you have is to collaborate as clergy and laity in the whole process because your numbers are so small that you could all gather in one Great Conference ... even by satellite uplink technology.

I note in particular that there will be a presentation on financing start-ups and new congregations by C. Denis Green.  I sincerely hope many more such informational presentations will be made targeting the particular issues of planting new churches.  This will be a very different thing for the Ordinariate than what is normally done in the dioceses of the USA.  Because the Ordinariate comes from an Anglican wellspring, I would hope they would look to the whole Boot Camp for Church Planters experiences that are out there in order to tailor one for the Ordinariate's own needs and one for the needs of the Pastoral Provision parishes.

Without the fresh ideas coming from this very successful movement a priest starting a new congregation will be tempted to simply do what he knows from his own experience and what he tries to apply from what he has studied or heard.  It can be so much easier than trying to reinvent the wheel.  It's been done.  So if you are starting up a new Ordinariate congregation, try not to rely on the fact that you are coming from existing congregations with their structures and customs and merely replicate those.  Take advantage of the expertise that largely comes from the committed Evanglical part of the Protestant Churches and make it your Catholic own.

Starting a new parish can be the most difficult thing in a priest's life.  It can also be the most rewarding.  By making use of the Church Planting models, needless stress upon one's wife or children can be avoided.  And needless stress and troubles can be avoided for you too by simply learning some of the strategies for growth in the contemporary post-Christian culture as well as strategies for avoiding the pitfalls of parish formation and life.

The Rev. Tom Herrick of Titus Church Planting is one of the best in Church Planting in North America, and as he is an Anglican in North America you will likely find a sympathetic soul prepared to challenge the hell out of you to bring in new souls for the Lord of the harvest.  Some of you may well know him from courses he has taught at various venues including Nashotah House.  I would hope you would seek out someone like him as you new priests and deacons plant your new communities of Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony.

More established congregations from a TAC background might also consider the model of a "restart" that is found in Church Planting strategies since you are in fact restarting your communities within a new context and now have all of the fulness and beauty of the Catholic Church and your Anglican heritage to offer.

Admittedly, many, many souls will be drawn to your  new churches because of the profound reverence and beauty of your liturgies that are so different from the normative Latin rite but are not as big a leap as the Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy.  You will be that place just right to worship God and watch the family grow.

I offer these thoughts as a person who has no authority beyond the authority of the Lay State as enunciated in Christifideles laici of Blessed Pope John Paul II ... which in short means I am called to the front lines of the battle for souls sharing in Christ's threefold office as prophet, priest and king.  I am not connected to the Ordinariate in anyway except for that I pray for its clergy, religious, and people daily. 

+Laus tibi, Christe.

New Pastor in Houston

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With the retirement of the excellent Fr. James Ramsey who was one of the first priests of the Pastoral Provision 25 years ago, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter has appointed recently ordained Deacon Charles Hough IV as pastor of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church in Houston, Texas.

Some are concerned that he was only ordained in the Episcopal Church in 2007 and hasn't had that much experience as a parish pastor in his own right.  Don't worry, dear friends.  The gift of a new priest with all of his energy and zeal is a wonderful thing!  He must be very special indeed to enjoy the confidence of the Ordinary, and having been born into the family of an Episcopal priest he is no stranger to parish life ... both its beauties and its rough spots.

Pray for him.  Bless him.  Encourage him. And hope with him for a wonderful future at your parish in Houston.  When God permits an appointment there are always marvellous discoveries to be made in getting to know each other, and there needs to be a real openness among the laity to receive and rejoice in his gifts just as you hope to be received by him and have him welcome your gifts.

I hope the new pastor is not teased too much for his youth.  When I was his age and put in charge of a my first tiny parish, I heard over and over again "And a little child shall lead."  Some will be put off by a priest's youth, but it is that very youth which is needed at this time as you set out on the next chapter in your great Catholic adventure as a parish of the Anglican Patrimony within the Catholic Church.

The finest Christian congregation I have ever known is that of Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, and although I am moving to another parish outside of the area, I pray for every blessing and success for the parish and the new pastor.  May the honeymoon be long, and the joys together abundant!

+Gloria in excelsis Deo

New Discoveries of Ancient Texts

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We live in a time of continuing recovery of texts thought long lost to the Church.  From the reappraisal of the Septuaginta because of Dead Sea texts & related research to the discovery year after year of bits of text found in this or that library now to the discovery of a significant volume from Origen, that Church-father-but-not-Church-father... what wonders may we yet see returned to us!  

May many more such lost texts fall into the hands of our scholars who can recognise the lost treasure for what it is.  And so please God, may a translation be made into the modern languages for those without facility in Greek.  Many will wait on tiptoe for the chance to read Origen's commentary on the Psalms.

If you are able please remember to financially support Zenit.org where you will find the completely story excerpted below.
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Origen Rediscovered

L'Osservatore Romano Reports Unpublished Homilies Found

ROME, JUNE 13, 2012 (Zenit.org).- An Italian philologist has found unpublished sermons of  Origen in the library of Monaco of Bavaria. The discovery was announced Tuesday by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

On April 5, Marina Molin Pradel, who was studying a Byzantine manuscript of the 11th century, the Monacense Greco 314, realized that some homilies on the Psalms contained in it were similar to those of Origen, who lived from 185 to 232.

Following further study of them she came to the conclusion that all the 29 homilies contained in the manuscript, to date unpublished, were of Origen. ...

Laus tibi, Christe.

Giving up on the Ordinariate?

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When a friend learned that I was withdrawing my application for membership in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and its Ordination process, she asked if I were giving up on the Ordinariate.  Quite to the contrary, I shall pray for the Lord God to prosper everything that is of Him that is within it.  The Church will be enriched by those entering in the USA and Canada, and many will find the real home for which they have been longing.

The Lord has given me a different vision and course to take for now, but I can envision a future where I am a member of one of the Personal Ordinariates.  There are many places in the Catholic Church where I am very welcome, but the new US Ordinariate is not where I need to be.

As a former Angican priest and a member of some years in an Anglican Use Parish in Texas, I have seen the best and the worst of the Pastoral Provision.  I remain enthusiastic about Anglicanorum coetibus.  However, I was given a very different vision from the Lord of what He requires and expects from Catholics of Anglican heritage than what one finds in the advent and development of the US Ordinariate in its organisation.

One wag has suggested that the Ordinariate will be that perfect marriage of the worst of Catholic secrecy and Anglican navel-gazing.  The central and fundamental problem is the lack of any expression of a clear vision or a willingness to embrace all Anglicans desiring to enter and all previous Anglican Use Catholics.  Also, there has been a great dishonouring of some of the faithful and some of the clergy who have built up the Anglican Use parishes.  All of this will stunt the growth of the US Ordinariate and set its new DNA at odds with the vision of Pope Benedict XVI expressed in Anglicanorum coetibus and subsequent norms.

One could say 'vision' is the main issue but it is not simply generating a mission statement or vision statement and congratulating each other over having done so.  No, vision is far broader and more significant.  There is no expressed vision for the US Ordinariate beyond a vague "living out" of Anglicanorum coetibus, and that is not enough.  Without a vision one is left with the satisfying of the personal tastes of those in charge, and that is a recipe for catastrophe to be avoided at all costs.

Some would say, as they always do, that it is too soon.  But on the contrary, the vision and missionary objectives should have been set before the whole thing was inaugurated.  Why didn't it happen that way?  None of the men involved seem to have ever planted a new church, and apparently none of them have been in charge of a new business start-up.  Naturally, they will only replicate the DNA of their own experience and values, and those values are certainly Christian but they are not missionary, "missional", or that of the New Evangelisation enunciated by Blessed Pope John Paul II.

The US Ordinariate is clearly not set up to lead but to follow.  Though it could make rapid strides in the New Evangelisation, its leadership prefers to take baby steps.  If one bears that in mind, then a big hurdle can be overcome for those who may be disappointed in what they are encountering.  But let us be clear, those baby steps are important and need to be celebrated when taken.  For those for whom those baby steps are enough then the US Ordinariate is a good fit.

The Ordinary is a historian and scholar and not a missionary.  (The grace of office and the grace of state do not make one a missionary.)  The gifts and skill-sets are different, and one must pray that the very special gifts possessed by the Ordinary will provide what the new clergy and new people need at this time.  

Without a vision the people perish, and to simply say you are "living out Anglicanorum coetibus" is completely meaningless.  Without a missional orientation and a clear expression of comprehension of the Anglican patrimony ... who are its people and clergy first and foremost -- all included, no exceptions ... then there can only be a very limited embodiment of what Pope Benedict XVI had hoped to provide to the Church and the world through his extraordinary gift.

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Without a clear vision, one is usually left with reactionary responses to problems.   Time for some folks to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Christifideles laici among other things... and learn to embrace the gifts and talents being brought forward by the laity with an eager desire to serve.  Any leader who says to such willing people, No thanks for we've got that covered, has profoundly missed the mark.   Learn to make use of such people.  You will be held accountable by the Lord for those driven away from the bosom of the Church otherwise.

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The vision of this blog is to advocate for the Catholic best of the Anglican experience and for its relevance and life within the Catholic Church and a recovery of those treasures within the Catholic past that have been neglected or overlooked.

Pentecost Sequence of St. Notker

Translated by John Mason Neale

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Shower of Pentecost Rose Petals • The Pantheon, Rome

The grace of the HOLY GHOST be present with us;

And make our hearts a dwelling place to itself ;

And expel from them all spiritual wickedness.

Merciful SPIRIT, Illuminator of men,

Purge the fearful shades of our mind.

O holy Lover of thoughts that are ever wise,

Of Thy mercy pour forth Thine Anointing into our senses.

Thou purifier of all iniquities, O SPIRIT,

Purify the eye of our inner man,

To the end that the FATHER of all things may be seen by us,

He, Whom the eyes of none
save the pure in heart can behold.

Thou didst inspire the Prophets to chant aforehand
their glorious heralding of CHRIST.

Thou didst confirm the Apostles,
so that they shall bear CHRIST's glorious trophy
through the whole world.

When, by His Word,
GOD made the system of heaven, earth, seas,

Thou didst stretch out Thy Godhead over the waters,

and didst cherish them, O SPIRIT!

Thou dost give virtue to the waters to quicken souls ;

Thou, by Thine Inspiration, grantest to men to be spiritual.

Thou didst unite the world,
divided both in tongues and rites, O LORD !

Thou recallest idolaters
to the worship of GOD, best of Masters !

Wherefore of Thy mercy hear us
who call upon Thee, HOLY GHOST :

Without Whom, as the faith teaches,
all our prayers are in vain, and unworthy of the ears of GOD.

Thou, O SPIRIT, Who by embracing the Saints of all ages,
dost teach them by the impulse of Thy Divinity ;

Thyself, by bestowing on the Apostles of CHRIST
a gift immortal, and unheard of from all ages,

Hast made this day glorious.

+Alleluya!

Thanksgiving for the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord

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LET us bless the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost:
Let us praise and exalt him for ever.

Then shall be said together:

BLESSING and honour and glory and power
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty:
Just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints;
All glorious thy gifts, thou Spirit of life.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving
and honour and power and might
be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

O GIVE thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious;
And his mercy endureth for ever.

Who hath loved us from all eternity;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And remembered us when we were in trouble;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Who by his Cross and Passion hath redeemed the world;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And hath washed us from our sins in his own blood;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Who on the third day rose from the dead;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And hath given us the victory;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Who ascended up on high;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And opened wide for us the everlasting doors;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Who sitteth on the right hand of God;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

And ever liveth to make intercession for us;
For his mercy endureth for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

FOR the gift of his Spirit;
Blessed be Christ.

For the Catholic Church;
Blessed be Christ.

For the means of grace;
Blessed be Christ.

For the hope of glory;
Blessed be Christ.

For the triumphs of his gospel;
Blessed be Christ.

For the lives of his saints;
Blessed be Christ.

In joy and in sorrow;
Blessed be Christ.

In life and in death;
Blessed be Christ.

Now and unto the end of the ages;
Blessed be Christ.

Here may be added thanksgivings for particular mercies, and at their end all shall say together the General Thanksgiving.

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies,
we thine unworthy servants
do give thee most humble and hearty thanks
for all thy goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all men.
We bless thee for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for thine inestimable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we beseech thee,
give us that due sense of all thy mercies,
that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful;
and that we show forth thy praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to thy service,
and by walking before thee
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit,
be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

BLESSING and honour and thanksgiving and praise more than we can utter, more than we can conceive, be unto thee, O most adorable Trinity, + Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by all angels, all men, all creatures, for ever and ever. Amen and Amen.

Cambridge Offices and Orisons
Eric Milner-White
B.T.D. Smith

The Ascension of the Lord

APPEAR, O Lord, make thyself known, O Lord, as thou didst appear manifest in the flesh; born of a Virgin, found by the shepherds, recognised in power, proclaimed by the Star, adored with gifts, manifest in the river, believed on in faith, received up in the cloud and promised again by him that announced it: that by the grace of this holy festival thy Church may now receive thy joys, as once it made known thy mysteries.

Mozarabic Missal

WORTHY of glory from every mouth, and of confession by every tongue, and of adoration and exaltation from all ceatures, is the adorable Name of thy glorious Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: thou who didst create the world in thy grace and its inhabitants in thy pitifulness: who didst save mankind by thy compassion and hast shown great grace unto mortals. Thousand thousands of those on high bless and adore thy Majesty, O my Lord; and ten thousand times ten thousand holy angels, and hosts of spiritual beings, ministers of fire and spirit, glorify thy name: thy holy cherubim and spiritual seraphim, offering adoration, crying and praising without ceasing, calling one to another and saying "Holy, holy holy."

Liturgy of SS. Adai and Mari

BEFORE the glorious seat of thy majesty, O Lord, and the exalted throne of thine honour, and the awful judgment-seat of thy burning love, and the absolving altar which thy command hath set up, and the place where thy glory dwelleth, we, thy people and the sheep of thy fold, do kneel with thousands of the cherubim singing ALLELUIA, and many times ten thousand seraphim and archangels, acclaiming thine holiness, worshipping, confessing and praising thee at all times, O Lord of all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for ever.

Chaldean Liturgy

Our Lady, Guardian of Plants, pray for all of us upon the earth.

Ascension Collects

O ALMIGHTY GOD, whose blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abideth with his Church on earth, even unto the end of the ages; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.


GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Collects from the Book of Common Prayer Tradition

Sunday after Ascension Day

From The Day Hours 

(Dedicated to John Fielder, the Anglican Bishop of Oxford)
.

The Sunday after the Ascension.

AT THE FIRST VESPERS

Antiphon to Magnificat.
After the Lord had spoken unto them : He was received up into heaven, and sat at the Right Hand of God. Alleluia .—St. Mark xvi. 19.

The Collect.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

————

AT LAUDS

The Chapter, 1 St. Pet. iv. 7,8.
The end of all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
R. Thanks be to God.

Antiphon to Benedictus.
When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.  Alleluia.—St. John xv. 26.

Collect as at the First Vespers.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

————

AT TERCE

The Chapter, 1 St. Pet. iv. 7,8.
The end of all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia.
V. Above the heavens. Alleluia. Alleluia.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord, above the heavens.  Alleluia, Alleluia.—Ps. viii.1
V. God is Gone Up with a merry noise.
R. And the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Alleluia. Ps. xlvii.5 
 
Collect as at the First Vespers.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

————

AT SEXT.

The Chapter, 1 St. Pet. iv. 9, 10.
Use hospitality one to another without grudging.  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia.
V. Above the heavens. Alleluia. Alleluia.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord, above the heavens.  Alleluia, Alleluia.—Ps. viii.1
V. God is Gone Up with a merry noise.
R. And the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Alleluia. Ps. xlvii.5
 
Collect as at the First Vespers.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

————

AT NONE.
 
The Chapter, 1 St. Pet. iv. 11.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God : if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia.
V. Above the heavens. Alleluia. Alleluia.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost.
R. Thou hast set Thy Glory, O Lord, above the heavens.  Alleluia, Alleluia.—Ps. viii.1
V. God is Gone Up with a merry noise.
R. And the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Alleluia. Ps. xlvii.5 
 
Collect as at the First Vespers.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

————

AT THE SECOND VESPERS

The Chapter, 1 St. Pet. iv. 7,8.
The end of all things is at hand ; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves : for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Antiphon to Magnificat.
These things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.  Alleluia.—St. John xvi. 4.

Collect as at the First Vespers.
O GOD the King of glory, Who hast exalted Thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Thy Kingdom in heaven ; We beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless ; but send to us Thine Holy Ghost to Comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before.  Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, One God, world without end. Amen.

+Alleluya!

After the Miracle ... Life Goes On

Since being given a divine gift of healing that has allowed me to walk again without assistance and to have more of a normal life, I have found it challenging to say the least.  First, the Lord directed me to several things to be done each of which proved personally terribly disappointing even as I was aware that the Lord's work and will had been done.

We are always in a danger of loving something more than God does.

In my case He directs me to go here, and I go.  One challenge for me is not to allow any expectations to build up.  If they do, then they will need to be eliminated and that pruning can be unpleasant.  The Lord Jesus and His desires and direction are what matter, and sometimes it is very unsettling to find that He will not allow us to stay on the mountaintop and build booths to live in.  No, we must keep moving onward to Jerusalem, the Holy City that is above.

It is true that when you have left your body during clinical death and you taste of Paradise and the immediate Presence of God... returning to this world can be very difficult.  But in time one can see its own tragic beauty and learn to love those moments and movements in life where the fragrance of Christ can be inhaled and cherished.

When one decides that one will do whatever the Lord says, one must forsake the opinions of people.  In their eyes I could either be a loyal servant of Christ, an enormous fool, or a madman ... and none of that matters.  What does the Lord say when you have done what He has asked you to do?  'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'  And so we press on, onward to the Jerusalem that is above.  And we do so with a heart full of joy knowing that doing what the Lord bids us to do is the only joy that never fades away, and it is the only 'work' of man that will not perish.

Yes, I would like everyone to respond to the messages I bring from the Lord, but my rôle is simply to be the emissary not to try to elicit a desired response.  All of that is up to the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit will accomplish all that needs to be done.

Recently I went to a place in another country where I was told by heavenly visitors "Welcome, home." and I took that to mean that the location was to be my new home, but I was very mistaken.  The home of which they spoke wasn't a physical location but rather moving in the Will of God longing only to please the Lord by whatever He had for me to do ... even if it was personally painful or costly.

It was a profound learning for me that the "home" God wants me to find is in the doing of His will and going where He sends me ... and nothing more.  Yes, I have a home in my parent's beautiful home.  Yes, I have found a home in the house of very generous friends ... and as cherished and wonderful as these are, they are seconds to the primary home which is in moving, living, and acting within the Spirit of the Lord in order to accomplish His will and His purpose.

When we move where we are supposed to move, we come "to the place just right" as the Shaker hymn sings.  And it is not a location but rather the very Love of God … active and sharp and consoling and convicting.  We may be given the work of prayer which is a constant movement of the soul and the Holy Ghost ... and it is a movement, a work, a deed within God Himself.  

We may be given the job to go to another land and outfit a hospital with solar power and a new fresh water well ... and it is a movement, a work, a deed within God's own will.  Whatever it may be, when we go with the direction of God or simply the longing to please the Lord, we will find our true 'home' with the Lord who ceases not and does not rest till every soul finds its perfection in Him.

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

+

Dear friends and readers,

After years of illness and being largely confined to bed, I have received a miraculous healing through the intercession of Blessed Father Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R. of New Orleans.  

I was not able to walk on my own and had to use a rollator, walker, wheelchair, or walking sticks/canes.  After being prayed for at the Shrine of Blessed Seelos in New Orleans I no longer needed any assistance either from such mechanisms or from others in order to walk about.  I can even run and dance now.  Those who know me know what a total miracle this is.

As for those who need evidence, before my healing my EEG was always abnormal and a source of alarm.  Now my EEG is normal.

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

I praise the Lord for my healing, a healing which has been granted for a purpose.  First, I hope to promote the cause of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and to encourage everyone to make of him their friend in Heaven.  I also encourage the sick and suffering to ask for the intercession of Blessed Seelos for I have found him to be a most happy saint eager to help all those in need.

Now mind you, he is not yet a saint, and I do not know if my results can qualify for the sort of miracle for which they are seeking in order to raise him to the altar as a Saint with a capital "S".  But regardless of his official status there is no doubt in my mind or heart that he is truly a great saint of God and a continuing witness of the Lord Jesus Christ preaching to all of the Lord Jesus through these miraculous healings and favours received.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, pray for us.

Laetare, Ierusalem!