A Treasure To Be Shared

Fr. Kenyon, Parish Administrator of the Ordinariate quasi-parish of Saint John Henry Newman, Victoria, and a Director of the Guild of Saint Stephen in Canada, enrolled in the Guild Mr. Jamey Guerrero (centre) of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, a parish of the Diocese of Victoria. Mr. Guerrero brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to his community. Welcome Jamey! Please pray for Mr. Guerrero in his ministry of service and the formation of altar servers.

A happy and holy Christmas to all. Three servers of the Latin Mass community were welcomed on Christmas Day into the Guild of Saint Stephen: Kyle (front row, second from left) and his son Lucas (front row, third from left); and Tyler (front row, third from right). Servers are typically welcomed into the Guild on the Feast of Stephen (26DEC). The enrollment ceremony was moved to accommodate scheduling. The servers pictured above are members of the Latin Mass (TLM) community associated with Queen of Peace Parish, Esquimalt, BC, in the Diocese of Victoria. Fr. John Domotor, the pastor and priest for the Queen of Peace TLM community, was directed to enroll the candidates by the Rev. Fr. Lee Kenyon, Parochial Administrator of the Victoria Ordinariate and a Director of the Guild in Canada. Fr. Domotor was assisted by Wendell, an Instituted Acolyte (back row, first on the right/square cotta) and Guild member from the Victoria Ordinariate community of Saint John Henry Newman. Welcome Kyle, Luc...

Among the three memorial acclamations fixed in Divine Worship: the Missal, the third acclamation - O Saviour of the world - is frequently heard in Ordinariate communities. Arguably, it is the most patrimonial of the acclamations. The third acclamation is likely unfamiliar to most diocesan Catholics who visit Ordinariate communities. It is not included in the Novus Ordo Missae. The third acclamation is a statement of fact. Our redemption is wrought in and through Jesus Christ. Our hope and salvation is made known to us in the Mass. Acknowledging our dependency upon the Lord, we humbly plead with Him to rescue us and sustain us. The third acclamation invites the worshipper into a solemn intimacy of trust in the Lord. O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and precious Blood hast redeemed us: save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord. The crib rests in the shadow of the Cross. This Christmas, when so many of the brethren are suffering at the hands of the many Herods of this w...

Basilica of the Holy Blood in Bruges, The Trinity, fresco above the high altar | René de Cramer Wikipedia H/T David Clayton The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. - Michelangelo Gart is the term that a former philosophy professor of mine imparted to us students to describe something pretending to be art. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as bad art. Art, by definition, describes something - is something - that belongs in the category of excellence and the sublime. Art epitomizes the best of something. Art embodies the true, the good and the beautiful. Gart, on the other hand, is something less than art. A determination of artistic merit does not depend on the popularity of a thing. Artistic merit is determined by the degree to which something epitomizes the true, the good and the beautiful. Merit can be intuited and/or deduced. One does not necessarily need a university degree to be able to recognize art. A trained intellect corrupted by attachmen...

Thanks be to God, at Saint John Henry Newman quasi-parish, in Victoria, BC, we are blessed to have three Rorate Masses in Advent, on Saturdays. Rorate Masses are Votive Masses said by candlelight to honor the Virgin Mary during Advent. The Rorate Mass got its proper name from the first line of the Introit: Rorate caeli désuper et nubes pluant justum (Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.) https://www.victoriaordinariate.com PREPARING THE CHURCH

Fuga mundi  - flee the world - is the cry of the prophet bidding us to venture out to meet the Lord.  John the Baptist said (St John 1:23): I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said. Architecture We enter the inner precincts of a Catholic Church. A centrally located tabernacle wherein the Eucharistic Lord is reserved, on an ad orientem altar, places the Lord at the center of our attention. We have fled the cacophony of the workaday world to dwell in the serenity of the house of the Lord. This Advent, we flee Sodom. And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city. And seeing them, he rose up and went to meet them: and worshipped prostrate to the ground. [...] And when it was morning, the angels pressed him, saying: Arise, take thy wife, and the two daughters which thou hast: lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city. [...] The sun was risen upon the...

The following comment by John-Bede Pauley from the AOF Facebook site offers insight into the concept of liturgy as a both-and outlook and experience, a key aspect of a spiritual heritage preserved in the Anglican tradition and retained in the Personal Ordinariates established by the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. [edited/formatted with embedded links by Gilbert] - - - John-Bede Pauley, Faculty Member, College of Saint Benedict/St. John's University, responding in a thread initiated by a post by Sarah Rodeo Dzialo, who asked, "What are the most influential/significant/important hallmarks of Anglican spirituality, to you?" Liturgy. But that in an ethos that gives the word “liturgy” a different sense than commonly found in the Roman context. For example, Liturgy in the Anglican tradition means both Eucharist and the Office. This both/and was sometimes more a Prayer Book ideal than a lived, daily experience, depending on the where and when. But as shifts occur...

Blue Nile image | 4.01 Carat Marquise Cut Diamond A diamond symbolizes permanence, purity, uniqueness, the brilliance of the sun, and authenticity. Artificial diamonds? Not so much. The darkness of carbon transformed into the brilliance of a diamond can serve as a metaphor that reminds us that fallen nature can be redeemed. The ordinary can be transformed into the extraordinary. Sins can be forgiven. Grace perfects nature. The likeness of the soul to God can only be restored in Christ Jesus, Who is the way, the truth and the life (St John 14:6). It takes immense heat and pressure to convert carbon into diamond. We should not be surprised that, during the course of life, crises of one kind or another might provide pressure to change, to abandon the darkness of sin and to choose the life God wills for each one of us, a life of truth, goodness and beauty.  Struggles can be signs of possibility. The experience of dissatisfaction hints at an openness in the person to embrace change...