Call of Beauty

Solemn High Mass with Deacon | Divine Worship

The Mass of the Personal Ordinariate, Divine Worship, is a true home and family for those of us who have sought and found therein ultimate meaning and goodness. The liturgy - with its distinct voice and character - captures the imagination and, by the grace of God, entices the worshipper into an expanding communion with Jesus.

The beautiful prayers of the Ordinariate Mass - many received from the Book of Common Prayer and the Sarum Liturgy, thus preserving the unique flavour of a profound spiritual legacy - are gifts meant to be shared.

The General Thanksgiving

Said at the conclusion of Holy Communion prior to the Post-Communion Collect.

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we most heartily thank Thee for that Thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of Thy favour and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of Thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs, through hope, of Thy everlasting kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death and Passion of Thy dear Son. And we humbly beseech Thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with Thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as Thou hast prepared for us to walk in; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Divine Worship is a profound example of the liturgical renewal willed by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. The Liturgy images the intention of the Holy Spirit working through the Council Fathers and, a generation later, through those members of the Anglicanae Traditiones Interdicasterial Commission who birthed a magnificent liturgical synthesis true to the Latin and English patrimonies.

The Call of Beauty

Reverence and beauty are devices that draw us to the divine. Our worship here on earth is such that we too may be caught up in the heavenly worship.

We pay attention to our posture, to our manner of speaking, to the way that we carry out the actions – never in a stuffy way – but in a dignified manner. Likewise we bring beauty to our worship, by the way our churches are decorated, by the vestments the priest wears, to the worship items we use – never to the point of ostentatiousness or flamboyance – but elegant noble dignity which reminds us of the purpose of the Liturgy. | Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross

Ordinariate communities excel in mission by offering people the opportunity to discover they are not alone, that they can truly find themselves in and through Christ and be bound together in a community of hope defined by liturgical beauty and theological orthodoxy that together communicate the wisdom of God for joyful living and the goodness of fellowship and familiarity, a community of godly living and shared evangelical purpose. That is, a community of intentional Christianity which is, without any prefix (e.g., traditional, evangelical, conservative, charismatic), the lively lived Catholic Faith. For Catholics attending Ordinariate liturgies, the Christian's eucharistic Trinitarian identity is real and consuming. We are consumed by the truth, goodness and beauty of God made manifest.

The Call of Goodness

Beauty feeds the soul. Souls fed on beauty, truth and goodness rise joyfully each day to feed others, whether it be by offering bread or by offering the goodness of friendship or guidance or other charitable gifts and works of mercy.

St Matthew 18:20 | For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I (Jesus) in the midst of them.

Baptized Christians are continually formed by the Sacred Liturgy into the Body of Christ. In Ordinariate communities, that formation finds substantial expression in the hospitality extended to friend and stranger in the fellowship that follows Mass.

Former Anglicans in the Ordinariate are exemplars in encouraging authentic fellowship that recognizes and honours every person created in the image and likeness of God. It is easy to understand why they are models of communion: they are grateful for a home where they can bring the best of their Anglican formation into communion with the Catholic Church. Gratitude grafts one to the Eucharist, which - to state the obvious - means 'thanksgiving'. The true nature of the Liturgy is expressed, for example, in the lives of people who are grateful to God for His gift of Himself, His very life, and the many graces and blessings that He gives to those who trust in His ways.

The Call of Truth

Knowing who God is orients us to the truth about who we are. Discovery of our true identity requires us to be honest about our relationship with God. Our entire being must be configured to God's self revelation. For Catholics, that revelation comes to us through a door (Apostolic Tradition safeguarded by the Magisterium) fastened with two hinges: the written Tradition (Scripture) and the oral Tradition.

2 Thessalonians 2:15 | Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word (spoken), or our epistle (written).

The home, of course, in which that Sacred Tradition is found, is the Sacred Liturgy. The "both/and" of Scripture and Tradition, i.e., the Apostolic Tradition, is the Sacred Liturgy, which is another massive reason why the Mass must be celebrated in a manner that fully acknowledges the dignity of the Liturgy, for the Liturgy is Christ Present in and through His Sacrament offered for our sanctification and salvation.

Truth, Humour and Humility

Catholicism has produced some of the wittiest literary and stage comedians. Why is that? God has, for one, designed into us an ability to laugh to help us discern truth. The Catholic Faith is authentically human and divine. Jesus, true God and true man, certainly had a sense of humour. (Read the parables!) Christians, except perhaps neo-puritans who like all heretics lack a sense of humour, can laugh at themselves.

Anglocatholic humour received into the Ordinariates is habitually self deprecating and deft at exposing life's absurdities. This element of the Ordinariate Patrimony is, therefore, a refreshing asset to help one distinguish between wants and needs, and between vice and virtue. Graced humour can expose self deception, and orients our understanding to God "unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid."

Our proximity to God defines and refines who we are and how we act. As the Collect for Purity reminds us, we seek to perfectly love God, which also means we seek to love perfectly our neighbour.

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Divine Worship is replete with opportunities to be formed in the way of authentic prayer and worship. One such opportunity is the Prayer of Humble Access, which follows the Agnus Dei and that precedes the Lord, I am not worthy (St Matthew 8:8) in the Liturgy.

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 [strike the breast] 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 may be made clean by his Body, and our souls washed through his most precious Blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

The three prayers - Agnus Dei, Prayer of Humble Access, Centurion's Prayer (Domine, non sum dignus) - form a threefold petition that disposes the willing soul to the grace of God and prepares our hearts to receive Him.

Ordinariate Catholics embrace the opportunity to be formed in mind and body by truth, goodness and beauty. The Ordinariate Catholic "way" elevates discipleship and trains worshipers in a whole-person manner, a manner guided by the Holy Ghost, in order to be instruments of evangelization, to be vehicles or hosts of God's love and mercy among men.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (St John 3:16).