WORDS TO THE WHYS

The truth will make you odd. Flannery O’Connor

Gavin Ashenden Conversion: Moment of Grace

-
Youtube/Turley & Ashenden/Screenshot

An NCRegister/Kevin Turley story.


As we walk around the ancient streets of Walsingham, the most obvious question is, of course: Why did he decide to become a Catholic? “Slowly, but surely,” Ashenden explained, “over the last 10 years it became clearer, both in my mind and in my prayers, that what the Catholic Church taught, particularly about the Mass, was not only true, but had always been true, from the Apostolic Fathers onwards.”

[...]

“So as my own tradition disappeared from under my feet,” he continued, “a number of voices in the Catholic Church, among them my own local Catholic bishop [Bishop Davies], reminded me that a struggle for the purity and faithfulness of the Church would never be wasted if it were brought to the service of Catholicism. Bishop Mark asked me to act on my convictions and be reconciled with the Church, sooner rather than later.”

“I had also begun to realize, with an increasing urgency, that I had a personal responsibility to heal the schism in Christ’s body that my spiritual ancestors had created,” Ashenden added. “And that could only really be done by returning, in all humility, to the Mother Church, in penitence for the schism and by being received penitentially into full Communion.”


What better way to heal the centuries of division in Christ's body that our ancestors created than by joining a community of the Personal Ordinariate? The Ordinariates of North America, the United Kingdom and Oceania, established by Pope Benedict XVI, are examples of lived and living ecumenism intended to restore unity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Your comments will be appreciated and posted if 1) they are on topic and 2) preserve decorum.

Stand by your word.

Popular Posts

Syro-Malabar Church: The Ad Orientem and Versus Populum Debate

-
Image
The Syro-Malabar Church (SMC), an  Eastern Catholic Major Archiepiscopal Church based in Kerala, India, is visiting the issue of the orientation of the altar. That is, the orientation of the priest at the altar. The question they are visiting: should the priest face in the direction of the liturgical east (ad orientem), or versus populum (toward the people)? The SMC is an autonomous ( sui iuris ) particular church in full communion with the Pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. [Wikipedia] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/syro-malabar-synod-may-take-up-liturgy-alteration-laity-meet-today/articleshow/73062622.cms Times of India reports that the issue pertains to the difference in conducting masses in dioceses under the Syro-Malabar Church (SMC). In Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese (and most other dioceses to the north of Ernakulam), the celebrant faces the laity during the mass. H...
Read more

14 Top Sites

-
Image
The following sites are selected from among numerous edifying internet resources that are accessible, faithful to Catholic teaching, fair-minded, up-to-date, and well-organized. Big Pulpit: intelligent news aggregator that presents links to current events and solid Catholic teaching. Consider supporting the work of Little Vatican/Big Pulpit. https://bigpulpit.com/ The Catholic Thing: features brief but highly informative and well-written essays by eminent authors. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/ Brian Holdsworth: Edmonton based marketing and communications expert and apologist who publishes well-informed videos on current issues that are solidly Catholic and highly engaging. https://www.brianholdsworth.ca/ Father Benedict Kiely | Gospel Nuggets offers excellent short videos featuring a knowledgeable Catholic priest’s take on biblical texts, pressing current issues, the saints, and key spiritual topics essential for living the Catholic Faith. https://www.nasarean.org/news?tag_id=17 Fr...
Read more

Through Thick and Thin: Surfing The Wake Of The Council

-
Image
Team Thick versus Team Thin On 4 December 1963, following the last vote at the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the Sacred Liturgy. Later, with the Apostolic Letter Motu proprio data Sacram Liturgiam dated 25 January 1964, Pope St. Paul VI established a Special Commission, called Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia (Council for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy). https://www.cultodivino.va/en/chi-siamo/storia/il-consilium-ad-exsequendam-constitutionem-de-sacra-liturgia.html The Consilium consisted of 48 members (11 Cardinals, 36 Bishops and 1 Abbot) and more than 200 international consultors and advisors, spread across 40 study groups (coetus a studiis). The internal debates within the Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia were intense, often revealing two competing visions of liturgical reform. Primary Axes of Disagreement 1. Continuity vs. Reconstructi...
Read more

Preacher Man | Ordinariate Gift

-
Image
preach  (v.) - from www.etymonline.com Middle English prechen , "deliver a sermon, proclaim the Gospel," from late Old English predician , a loan word from Church Latin; reborrowed 12c. as preachen , from Old French preechier "to preach, give a sermon" (11c., Modern French précher ), from Late Latin praedicare "to proclaim publicly, announce" (in Medieval Latin "to preach," source also of Spanish predicar ), from Latin prae "before" (from PIE root * per - "forward," hence "in front of, before") + dicare "to proclaim, to say" (from PIE root * deik - "to show," also "pronounce solemnly"). Meaning "give earnest advice, especially on moral subjects" is by 1520s. To preach to the converted is recorded from 1867 (the form preach to the choir attested from 1979). The Role of Preaching in the Church The Catechism explains that preaching is central to the Church’s mission of sharing t...
Read more

The Language Of Sacrifice In The Offertory of Divine Worship

-
Image
Mass - Bloodless Synonym for Christ's Eternal Sacrifice for the Salvation of Souls The first offertory prayer of Divine Worship discloses the sacrifice of the Mass as an act in which Christ’s once‑for‑all oblation is made present and lovingly offered to the Father through the Church’s hands. Its language emphasizes that the gifts set upon the altar—“holy bread” and “chalice of salvation”—are not merely symbolic tokens but the very matter through which the faithful join themselves to Christ’s self‑giving. The prayer frames the offering as both propitiatory and participatory: propitiatory, because it looks to the Cross as the singular source of reconciliation; participatory, because the faithful unite their intentions, labours, and lives to Christ’s perfect sacrifice. This offertory thus reveals the Mass as a living movement of ascent, in which earthly gifts are taken up into the heavenly worship. It also underscores the priest’s mediating role, asking that the sacrifice be accepted ...
Read more

Newman's Doctrinal Development and the Collapse of False Binaries

-
Image
The Church’s struggle to preserve authenticity often intensifies in particular eras, and in recent decades has surfaced as a tension between so‑called “progressives” and “conservatives.” These labels, borrowed from secular political discourse, obscure the deeper question Newman identified: whether a given proposal represents a genuine development of doctrine or a corruption of it. Political categories shed little light on this discernment, for authentic development preserves the type, principles, and living continuity of the Faith, while corruption either breaks from the apostolic deposit or refuses the Spirit’s ongoing deepening of it. When debate is framed in partisan terms, each camp is tempted to caricature the other, seeking adherents through opposition rather than through the careful, Spirit‑guided evaluation Newman saw as essential to the Church’s growth in understanding. Both the “trad” and “rad” orientations remain firmly entrenched in a polarizing debate, fueled by stereotype...
Read more

EZEKIEL 44:23

They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common.

POPE LEO XIV Magnifica Humanitas

Even in the darkest nights, the Lord raises up men and women who refuse to give up, who persevere in doing good, who protect the vulnerable and open pathways to reconciliation. The memory of the saints, righteous people and the oft-forgotten peacemakers, show us that grace does not magically eliminate conflict, but instead it inspires active resistance to evil and an astonishing creativity in doing good” (paragraph 211).

A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD FOR ONE'S GUARDIAN ANGEL

ALMIGHTY and eternal God, it is fitting to render unto Thee thanks for my guardian angel. At the end of my earthly sojourn, grant, I humbly beseech Thee, that my guardian may accompany me into Thy glorious Presence, there to rejoice with the entire company of heaven, and to offer praise unto Thee for all eternity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

I doubt not then but innocence shall make false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience.