An Unofficial Ordinariate Primer

Overture
What is the Patrimony?
  • A chapter in the autobiography of the Holy Ghost?
  • The Holy Ghost working in and through the English Christian people, before and after the Tudor split, drawing people (back) to unity in the Church that Christ established, that is, the Catholic Church?
  • The Holy Ghost revitalizing the Church by bringing back into the Catholic fold "many elements of sanctification and of truth (...) found outside her visible confines"?
  • The grammar of the Holy Ghost organizing those "elements of sanctification and truth" belonging in and to the Catholic Church?
    In this unofficial attempt to add something useful to the conversation about Ordinariate Catholic identity, the temptation will be to say too much or too little. At the very least, let us hope that this attempt to witness to a way of being Catholic doesn't deter readers from considering who and what Ordinariate Catholics are, and what they have to say to the rest of the Church and to those considering the Catholic Faith.

    Disclaimer

    Admittedly, there are a lot of loose ends in this post left unthreaded, and perhaps some threads that require further untangling in order for the reader to access a culture and way of being Catholic that complements other experiences of being Catholic.

    There is no attempt in this post to be comprehensive, nor any attempt to render a verdict as judge and jury, save to expose facts that may prove useful to an exploration and appreciation of the Ordinariate charism. Point of fact: this blogger is no expert on the subject of the Ordinariate. Fortunately, for me, I'm in good company, for those of us so blessed to be members of the Ordinariate are, every day it seems, discovering anew the Anglican Patrimony in communion with the Catholic Church. Certainly, some - many, that is - have a much deeper grasp of the various subjects grouped under the patrimonial umbrella. Deference is due to those learned authors listed and cited.


    Knowing something about where Ordinariate Catholics are coming from can tell an interested visitor a great deal about where we, like all Catholics, hope on going and how we hope to get there.

    In case you're wondering where that 'there' is, the shorter answer would be the Apostles' Creed, à la the Ordinariate, especially that bit about the Life everlasting.
    I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to Judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: ✠ And the Life everlasting. Amen.
    The Amen that concludes the Creed speaks to our confident hope that we offer to anyone seeking the True, the Good and the Beautiful. That is, anyone and everyone seeking God.

    Hearken also to the words of Jesus recorded in the Holy Gospel according to Saint John:
    I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
    The Baltimore Catechism sums up beautifully our reason for being:
    Question: Why did God make you? Answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
    Let us proceed with the happy task of uncovering buried treasure and sharing (Ordinariate) gifts with the wider Church. The name of this blog site is, after all, A Treasure To Be Shared.

    Procedamus In Pace


    Matthew 6:20-21

    Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

    There is more than one kind of treasure to be shared. Minds alert to the needs at hand can fill in the gaps as the conversation expands to reveal aspects of the Patrimony that could or should be brought forward for inclusion. And, of course, this blogger will continue to dig for said treasure in the wide field of the internet and capture and redistribute knowledge as it presents itself on the lips of the informed.

    Mindful of this blog's mission, which is, in part, to avoid a misappropriation of authority properly belonging to our bishop, his presbyters and deacons, please forgive this blogger for statements that (unintentionally) assume too much and/or diminish another vital aspect of the Ordinariate experience. The combox is always open.

    Official and reliable patrimonial sites:
    And, of course, visit a few Ordinariate communities: https://ordinariate.net/parishfinder

    Saint Augustine of Canterbury: pray for us.
    Complementary Perspectives: Ingredients of Identity

    Fr. John Hunwicke has asked:
    What is our 'Patrimony'?
    Quite simply, the Rome of all Ages; the unchanging Rome of the Authentic Rule. As ever, those nostalgic phrases "Western Rite" and "Full Catholic Privileges" embody our raison d'etre.
    What a shame that, back in the C of E, we did let that culture slip away, for a few decades after the Council, when many among us were sadly persuaded that, because some Roman authorities had diluted their sacred inheritance, we should change too.
    But I thank God that, at the heart of our Patrimony are that Faith and that Rite which, for more than half a century, came to us between the covers of the Missale Romanum and its mediating handmaid, The English Missal.
     A moment earlier, in the same post, the good father notes that
    (w)e do, of course, have our Ordinariate Missal, which ingeniously marries elements of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, and even nods towards the oeuvre of Thomas Cranmer. But hard-wired into our DNA is that old Roman Rite, the rite of the 'Celtic' saints (vide Stowe) as well as of the Monks from the Caelian Hill; the rite of Hope Patten and Fynes Clinton, of Hole and Baverstock and all the rest of them, confessors within the separated Provinces of Canterbury and York of the pure Catholic and Roman Faith.
    At the mention of the confluence of liturgical elements one is reminded of Pope Saint Gregory the Great's exchange with Saint Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury (Antiphon 19.2 (2015) 109–115 Divine Worship and the Liturgical Vitality of the Church by Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P., citing Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price (London–New York: Penguin Books, 1990) I, 27.).
    Augustine’s second question: Since we hold the same Faith, why do customs vary in different Churches? Why, for instance, does the method of saying Mass differ in the holy Roman Church and in the Churches of Gaul?
    Pope Gregory’s reply: My brother, you are familiar with the usage of the Roman Church, in which you were brought up. But if you have found customs, whether in the Roman, Gallican, or any other Churches that may be more acceptable to God, I wish you to make a careful selection of them, and teach the Church of the English, which is still young in the Faith, whatever you can profitably learn from the various Churches. For things should not be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of good things. [Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt.] Therefore select from each of the Churches whatever things are devout, religious, and right [quae pia, quae religiosa, quae recta]; and when you have arranged them into a unified rite, let the minds of the English grow accustomed to it.
    The Patrimony is given focus in Divine Worship: the Missal. As Fr. James Bradley reminds,
    it is the liturgical books of Divine Worship that must now be considered the principal, and even essential means of transmitting the Anglican liturgical patrimony in the Catholic Church.
    At the website of the Ordinariate (OLSC) Catholic Parish of Saints Ninian and Chad, the question, 'What is the English Patrimony?', is answered as follows:
    The English, or Anglican, Patrimony is the sum total of the spiritual, liturgical, pastoral, cultural and social traditions that have come down to us primarily via the experience of Christian life primarily in England, but also to an extent from the whole of the British Isles. It begins with the first unknown missionaries to England, from the protomartyr Saint Alban, and continues through the Celtic Church, the Roman-Gregorian Mission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury. It includes the lives and writings of great figures like Saint Bede the Venerable, Edward the Confessor, Saint Anselm, Saint Richard of Chichester, Saint Hilda of Whitby, Margery Kemp, Walter Hilton, Richard Rolle, the Lady Julian of Norwich, the author of the Cloud of Unknowing, St Aelred of Riveaux, and continues down through the era of the time of the separation between the sees of Canterbury and Rome; the era of the Book of Common Prayer, and the King James Bible; with figures like Thomas Ken, George Herbert, William Laud, Jeremy Taylor, John Donne, Lancelot Andrewes, Charles Wesley, and into the Oxford Movement of the Nineteenth Century, with Saint John Henry Newman, Dr Pusey, Fr Faber, Christina Rosetti, A.W.N. Pugin, and later via the "Ritualists" into the "Anglo-Catholic" movement of the Twentieth Century, with figures like Eric Mascall, C.S. Lewis, Michael Ramsay, Percy Dearmer, and many, many others. In this great host of people, theologies, spiritualities, writings, understandings, customs and traditions, we find a worthy patrimony in and through which we can express our prayer to God in particular kinds of ways.
    St Osmund

    Christopher Mahon at the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society blog, posted the following reflection on Bishop Lopes' presentation at the 2019 Conference on the Anglican Tradition in the Catholic Church (Toronto).
    Our tradition goes back well before the Reformation, and saints like Augustine, Gregory, and Osmund brought about a patrimony that expresses the faith differently from Rome, that is older in some respects than the Tridentine books, and that is rich and only beginning to be explored. Our liturgical patrimony isn’t the entirety of it, but it is the most tangible part and opens up the space for exploring the less tangible elements.
    Same Faith differently expressed.

    Mr. Mahon notes that the Ordinariate Patrimony "expresses the faith differently from Rome". There is no suggestion that any aspect of the Patrimony exists in opposition to Rome, i.e., the See of Peter. As Fr. Hunwicke wisely reminds, our Patrimony is "the Rome of all Ages; the unchanging Rome of the Authentic Rule." There is no dichotomy between a restored Canterbury (i.e., the Anglicanorum Coetibus Ordinariate) and Rome. The schism between Canterbury and Rome is healed in the Ordinariates established by Anglicanorum Coetibus.

    Mr. Mahon draws our attention to a video of Bishop Lopes' keynote presentation at the 2019 Conference that addresses identity and mission.


    Patrimony: Lex Orandi Lex Credendi Lex Vivendi



    Borrowing, again, from an Ordinariate neighbour, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross (Oceania) presents an instructive sketch of the Ordinariate's unique charism, the expression of the Anglican Patrimony affirmed in the Catholic Church. That sketch is here presented, amplified and offered to readers as an introduction to the Ordinariate Roman Catholic experience.


    https://www.itsyourcall.net.au/our-charism?fbclid=IwAR058hTbHW7WbJXtuPbbbGDmeQalPi1eVXAudLY1GDx3NgMvo6O-fD0CK_A

    A few salient elements of the charism of the Ordinariate, of the Patrimony, are:
    1. Call to community faith and devotion
    2. Evangelical charity
    3. Sacral English
    4. Reverence and beauty in worship
    5. Music and congregational hymn singing
    6. Gospel preaching
    7. English theological tradition
    I. Call to community faith and devotion
    In the English tradition, faith and devotion are not seen just as individual pursuits, but are practised at the level of the community. One example is study groups that serve to develop faith. The communal practise of the offices of Matins and Evensong is a hallmark of English devotional practise.
    II. Evangelical charity
    We commit ourselves to helping those who need help through various outreach activities. We draw our inspiration from those such as the great Anglo-Catholic slum priests, who built their churches where no-one else would go because of the terrible poverty present.
    III. Sacral English
    The Book of Common Prayer as written by Thomas Cranmer remains a literary masterpiece. It developed a beautiful poetic way of conversing with God in the vernacular at a time when the western Church spoke only Latin. Yet Cranmer’s English was never vulgar or banal. 
    We continue this tradition in the Ordinariate in the language we use in our liturgies. Since the liturgy is an encounter with God, the language we use should be appropriate to this encounter. We know from our own personal experience that we speak differently for different situations. The way we speak to our friends at a BBQ is different to how we would speak if we were giving a speech at a wedding. Put simply – when we speak to God we do not use day-to-day language, we use sacred language.
    For this reason, the liturgies which have been approved for use in the Ordinariate are informed by the language of the Book of Common Prayer, either drawing directly from it, or using language in the style of it. We do this not for the sake of being old-fashioned, but as a reminder of the divine encounter we experience in the Liturgy.
    IV. Reverence and beauty in Worship
    Further to this idea is the way we celebrate the liturgy. We appreciate reverence and beauty as 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.
    V. Music and congregational hymn singing
    Music and hymn singing are integral to the English tradition. The English tradition considers music and singing to be an act of worship in its own right. This differs from the Roman tradition, which sees music as an accompaniment to the liturgical action. In the English tradition, while the liturgical action remains equally important, we also offer glory to God by music and singing. 
    Indeed, much of the great liturgical music of the western tradition has come from English composers. 
      • The English Hymnal and Hymns Ancient and Modern are two compilations that are spoken well of among Ordinariate Catholics.
      • The Healey Willan Society.
    VI. Gospel preaching
    Ordinariate priests are already gaining a reputation in the Catholic Church as preachers. 
    We believe that the homily should draw the congregation into the Scripture readings of the day, show them an aspect of what God is saying through those readings, and challenge and empower them to apply that in their own lives. 
    We do not believe in patronising or “warm and fuzzy” two minute homilies. 
    Priests have a divine calling to feed the flock of Christ, and this means in preaching as well as in the sacraments. For most Catholics today, the only time they will hear anything of the teaching of the Church is in the homily. This is a grave responsibility placed on the clergy of the Church.
    VII. English Theological Tradition
    The English theological tradition is that which began with the Celts and was heavily influenced by others such as Augustine of Canterbury, the English Mystics, (e.g., Julian of Norwich), the Caroline Divines and the Oxford Movement Fathers (Keble, Pusey and Newman), especially Saint John Henry Newman. 
    The English tradition has had a tremendous influence on the Catholic Church, yet it has done so without any vehicle within the Catholic Church to foster its growth and development. With the advent of the Ordinariates, there now exists a home within the Church for the English tradition.
    A bit more about the English theological tradition at the link below:



    Flavourings

    Monsignor Steenson, Ordinary-emeritus of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, has said that
    the Holy See helped us to define what is genuinely Catholic in (the) Anglican texts. Left to our own devices, we could not have defined our patrimony, simply because it is too various and too diverse; every congregation has a definition of ‘what is’ the distinctive Anglican patrimony of those they represent. Anglican patrimony was principally expressed locally, not universally. The Holy See needed to come in and help us ‘see it.’
    The Patrimony can seem to be, as you dear Reader may have already imagined, many things to many people. It is, nevertheless, real and true and good. It is, as Bishop Lopes identified in his presentation, both tangible and intangible. It does not fit neatly - not because it is arbitrary or chaotic - into a concise package. A short definition of the Ordinariate Patrimony is necessarily insufficient because the Ordinariate continues something that is vast, centuries in the making, and very much a living Latin Rite way of being Catholic and Christian, something akin to the unique experiences of Eastern Catholic communities, those varied expressions of the Catholic Faith authentically preserved in the sui juris churches: Byzantine Catholic; Maronite; Chaldean; Syro-Malabar; etc.


    Alpha and Omega, Source and Summit

    The patrimony of which Monsignor Steenson speaks might be defined as the communal relationship of the people to (and in) the Liturgy and in the shared prayer of the Office, finding expression in the hospitality of fellowship following - and flowing from - the Mass.

    Eucharistic fellowship is centripetal. People are drawn to a centre, the Mass, because Jesus, present in the Eucharistic Liturgy, is the heart of the community. Christ's Mass is the heart and centre of the Catholic Christian community. That fellowship nurtured during Mass, mentioned in the previous paragraph, extends into daily life. The Mass informs our lives and propels us to extend to others the invitation to "come and see" and be "eucharisted", to be grafted to Jesus and received into His fellowship, His Church. Our encounter with the Risen Saviour in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass moves us outward from the centre to draw others to the centre, to Jesus. We, the baptized into Christ, receive Jesus by eating His divine Flesh and drinking his Precious Blood, and thus we are eucharisted. Jesus lives in us! How can we remain still, isolated, content in our warm pews, when we carry such hope within us? As my mum used to say, "Get a move on!"

    Moving On

    The genius of the Ordinariate, the worthy Anglican patrimony discerned by the Holy See received into communion, is very much a liturgical spiritual patrimony that expands out into a cultural patrimony, a complex family of complementary experiences identified, unified and informed by faithfulness to the Apostolic Tradition.

    As hinted at in the Overture to this Ordinariate concerto, perhaps we might view the Patrimony as a movement throughout history of the Holy Ghost shaping a particular people, the English people, in and through the Mass, the Office, communal devotions and fellowship that flows from the Holy Eucharist.

    Why the English people?

    God engages individuals and communities whom He calls out (1 Peter 2:9) from societies to reach further outward to the periphery of the human community. God engaged the Romans to cast a very large net. God enlisted a people that had persecuted the Church; like Saul-become-Paul, Rome was converted and baptized to serve a global population. Could God be enlisting another people - the English and their language, which is near universal as a language of trade, transport and technology - to reach outward, again, for the salvation of souls?


    Of the liturgical patrimony, Fr. James Bradley has said that
    (t)he “ingredients”, we might say, have been weighed and measured into something which is altogether “new”, and yet instantly recognizable as an authentic expression both of the Roman Rite and the Anglican liturgical patrimony. 
    With this in mind we might conclude with two simple points. First, the preservation of the Anglican liturgical patrimony within the Catholic Church is definitively achieved in the texts of Divine Worship. To be sure, other means of expressing this may be found within the life of the ordinariates and, as we have said, this discernment is not over—how can it be? However, it is the liturgical books of Divine Worship that must now be considered the principal, and even essential means of transmitting the Anglican liturgical patrimony in the Catholic Church, both for the faithful of the personal ordinariates and as a treasure to be shared. This is an explicit expectation of the apostolic constitution and, as we have demonstrated, a constitutive element of the vision expressed therein. 
    Secondly, with the advent of Divine Worship the communities of the personal ordinariates need no longer consider their experience as Anglicans as the sole measure of their liturgical life—constantly referring back to what was done on the other side of the Tiber. Rather, whilst always keeping that rich history in mind, we now find in the promulgated books of Divine Worship the authentic expression of the juridical, ecclesiological, and spiritual life of the personal ordinariates, refined and presented anew by the Church, for the edification of all. Thus it is this “codified” Anglican patrimony, and not the subjective experience or individual expectation, upon which the merit and worth of each endeavour within the life of the personal ordinariates may now be measured.

    Let us recall, too, an exposition that summarizes the Ordinariate's multifaceted patrimony from the perspective of mission, posted at the website of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, a.k.a. the North American Ordinariate.
    Ever committed to serving the people of the Ordinariate, his mission as bishop (and ours) is dedicated to: Inviting new disciples into a life-giving relationship with Christ; Nurturing reverence and beauty in liturgy, so that the Ordinariate’s tradition of worship deepens the faith and authentic discipleship of all the faithful; Modeling ecumenism, fostering the unity of the Church that our Lord prayed for (John 17:21); Serving in evangelical charity by caring for those in need.
    Our identity as Ordinariate Catholics is, indeed, preeminently informed by the action of the Holy Ghost acting through the particular form of the Mass we celebrate, called Divine Worship.

    Divine Worship: the Missal, authorized for use in the communities of the Personal Ordinariates, draws on the authentic spiritual resources preserved in the Anglican experience, riches now brought back into communion with the Catholic Church. Elements from the Sarum Mass and from the venerable English Missal and, of course, from the Book of Common Prayer (which is itself shaped by the Sarum Use), embedded in the Ordinariate Liturgy, waft into the spiritual senses like the finest incense that elevates the physical senses and move us into docility to the action of the Holy Ghost.


    The Mass forms us in prayer; the Mass forms in us prayer; the Mass form us into prayer.

    Our personal or individual prayer must be in harmony with the Sacred Liturgy wherein we encounter the Lord Who is Himself the One Who prays the Mass. We are joined to Christ's action through the priest ordained to act in persona Christi. The priest is alter christus, another Christ.
    Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vice-regent of Christ on earth! He continues the essential ministry of Christ: he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of alter Christus. For the priest is and should be another Christ” (The Faith of Millions, 255-56). - Fr. John Anthony O'Brien
    John Keble, a don of the Oxford Movement, said
    § 6. [...] the Eucharist is our Saviour coming with these unutterable mysteries of blessing, coming with His glorified Humanity, coming by a peculiar presence of His own divine Person, to impart Himself to each one of us separately, to impart Himself as truly and as entirely as if there were not in the world any but that one to receive Him. And this also, namely, the bringing home of God's gifts to the particular individual person, has ever been felt by that person, in proportion to his faith, as a thrilling call for the most unreserved surrender that he could make of himself, his whole spirit, soul, and body: i.e. of the most unreserved Worship.

    Anglicanism Refocused

    A blurb has been mentioned about the Oxford Movement. And, there's this:
    The Oxford Movement encouraged a recovery of the beauty of (Anglican) worship in the external forms of liturgical ceremonies, vestments, and music. It led to a renewed appreciation for (Anglicanism's) catholic heritage and tradition, the importance of the apostolic ministry and the sacraments, the recovery of Anglican spiritual life, the revival of monastic life in the Anglican Communion, and appreciation for the ancient doctrines, discipline, and devotional practices of the church.
    If one examines the Tracts for The Times, one will find in the Advertisement introduction to the Tracts an almost if not entirely prophetic riff that hints at where Newman knew he himself had to go, even while, during the period of the Tracts that were composed between 1833 to 1841, he was hoping for a full recovery of Anglicanism's Catholic foundation.
    There are zealous sons and servants of her (Anglican) English branch, who see with sorrow that she is defrauded of her full usefulness by particular theories and principles of the present age, which interfere with the execution of one portion of her commission; and while they consider that the revival of this portion of truth is especially adapted to break up existing parties in the Church, and to form instead a bond of union among all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, they believe that nothing but these neglected doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress that extension of Popery, for which the ever multiplying divisions of the religious world are too clearly preparing the way.
    At the writing of the last tract, Tract 90 in 1841, surely the way forward had become clear. Newman eventually swam home to Rome, acknowledging that "to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant" (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845): Introduction, Part 5.)
    Newman realized that his position in the Church of England rested on church and public approval of an interpretation of the Anglican formularies in a catholic sense. This was the goal of Tract 90. If it failed, Newman knew that men would leave for Rome. He was proved right, after Tract 90 was denounced. For if the Church of England could not accept its own catholicity, it had little to offer the catholic Christians in its fold. He wrote: “I would not hold office in a Church which would not allow my sense of the Articles." And: "There were no converts to Rome, till after the condemnation of Tract 90." Newman subsequently converted to the Roman Catholic faith where he was later elevated to Cardinal.
    With the advent of the Personal Ordinariates established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, one can imagine Newman and the other Tractarians weeping for joy at the return to the Catholic fold of "zealous sons and servants of (the) English branch". If Saint John Henry Newman were alive today, perhaps he would also be lamenting the loss of beauty in diocesan Catholic circles. Though, any misery would likely be tempered by the recovery of worshiping "God in the beauty of holiness" that habitually occurs in communities of the Personal Ordinariates.

    Slumming It
    Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
    Matthew 25:45-46

    There is, in the biography of the Patrimony, a chapter that reads 'slum priests', a chapter about those Anglocatholic clergy who, in the Church of England, were often denied parishes because of their fervor for beautiful liturgy. Their overseers tended to assign them urban parishes in places where few other clergy would venture to serve. Those "high church" clergy were alternately called 'heroic' (for their support for the poor) and 'ritualistic' (in a derogatory sense by "low church" types) for emphasizing solid liturgical principles and enacting beautiful liturgies.
    One of the more important byproducts of the Anglo-Catholic movement was a renewed emphasis on ministry among the urban poor. In the late-nineteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church was having great success among Irish immigrants, and the elements of ritual they used were believed to provide consolation and relief from an earthly existence that was often drab and poor. Ritualist priests combined an impressive and effective English liturgy with a genuine pastoral concern, which enabled them to build up great parishes in industrial cities like London, Manchester, and Birmingham. "Slum priests" such as Charles Lowder and Alexander Mackonochie were men of great sanctity whose example inspired subsequent generations of English clergy to serve the urban poor.  
    That particular episode in the Patrimony mirrors the emphasis given to the preferential option for the poor lauded in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:
    This love of preference for the poor, and the decisions which it inspires in us, cannot but embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without health care and, above all, those without hope of a better future.
    That principle is "not limited to material poverty but encompasses cultural and spiritual poverty as well" (paragraph 57 Centesimus annus 1991).
    The strong doctrinal theology preached by the Tractarians had by now found its expression in contexts very far removed from the Universities. From the very first, the call to holiness - individual and corporate - had been at the heart of the Tractarians’ teaching. It was inevitable that their attentions would turn to the social and evangelistic problems of the industrial working class. Young men who had sat at Pusey’s feet found themselves called to work in new and demanding slum parishes. The ritual innovations of they were accused were entirely rooted in the desperate pastoral needs they encountered. Miss Sellons’s Devonport Sisters of Mercy worked with the clergy of St Peter’s Plymouth in the cholera epidemics of the late 1840s, and petitioned the parish priest, Fr George Rundle Prynne, for a celebration of the eucharist each morning to strengthen them for their work. So began the first daily mass in the Church of England since the Reformation. Similarly the clergy of St Saviour’s, Leeds (a parish Pusey had endowed), laid what medicines they had on the altar at each morning’s communion, before carrying them out to the many dozens of their parishioners who would die of cholera that very day.
    These slum churches and their priests are far too many to mention, but their audacity and their piety are to be marveled at. The Church of England, at this time, looked upon ritual as a wicked aping of a Papist Church. Vestments were horrific to most, and yet in places such as the mission church of St George’s in the East, thuribles were swung, genuflecting was encouraged, the sign of the cross was made frequently, devotion to the blessed sacrament was taken for granted. Confessions were heard, holy anointing was practised. Here a group of priests, led by Fr Charles Lowder, were carrying through their interpretation of the Tractarian message. The poor must be brought the ministry of Christ, in the celebration of the sacraments and the preaching of the gospel.

    Beauty and holiness were to go into the midst of squalor and depression, as a witness to the Catholic faith in Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, present and active in his world. And, perhaps most significantly, the sick and dying were to receive this sacramental presence as far as was possible. Deathbed confessions, the oil of unction, even, occasionally, communion from the reserved sacrament became the priests’ weapons against, for example, the appalling East London cholera epidemic of 1866.

    Slum priests brought hope to the poorest of the poor when others dared not to venture where hope was needed most. Perhaps, in our own day, we in the Ordinariate would do well to honour their charism by being true to that element of the Patrimony which seems so desperately needed throughout the world.

    Hope Shared

    Ordinariate communities emphasize truth, goodness and beauty through liturgical and pastoral service at a time when the Church, and certainly the entire world, desperately needs hope. Concrete signs of hope, of actual engagement, that restore hearts are needed to enable people to be resilient when despair would have them surrender to self destruction.

    Ordinariate communities, which tend to be smaller than diocesan RC parishes and therefore more approachable than larger faceless parishes, excel by offering people the opportunity to discover they are not alone, that they can find themselves in 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 purpose. That is, a community of intentional Christianity which is, without any prefix (e.g., traditional, orthodox, evangelical, conservative, charismatic, etc., and certainly not liberal or progressive), the lively lived Catholic Faith.


    The Goodness of Fellowship

    Blessed by Association

    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, at formation finds substantial expression in the hospitality extended to friend and stranger in the fellowship that follows Mass.

    Speaking for the moment as an outsider or relative newcomer to the Ordinarate experience, our brothers and sisters, former Anglicans, are exemplars in encouraging authentic fellowship that recognizes and honours every person created in the image and likeness of God. And, 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 He gives to those who trust in His ways.

    Gratitude expands out(ward from the pew) into hospitality (in the wider community).

    The spiritual legacy of Gospel hospitality retained and celebrated in the English Patrimony, a legacy born of centuries of English Benedictine monastic influence prior to the Reformation, inspires us to be mindful that we are created in the image and likeness of God, and that by participating in the Eucharist we are formed by God's grace, grace received by consuming the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, to recognize, celebrate, honour and serve our brothers and sisters in truth and charity. To echo something of Saint Teresa of Calcutta's teaching, to meet our brothers and sisters in Christ is to meet Christ in our brothers and sisters. A community oriented to serving Jesus in our fellow brothers and sisters, and in the stranger we meet begging on the corner or despondent in a shopping mall or a colleague at work, is a community that is and must be generous in its service to the materially poor and to the spiritually impoverished.

    We are strengthened in that service by the reception of the Holy Eucharist:
    CCC1324 The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.
    Because the Eucharist is, indeed, the source and summit of the Christian life (Lumen Gentium 11), Ordinariate Catholics take very seriously the preparation and celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. For Ordinariate Catholics, as with our Extraordinary Form brethren, to speak of the Liturgy is to use a vocabulary that affirms the meaning and identity of the Mass. Thus, Ordinariate Catholics speak of Divine Worship. To refer to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as 'Divine Worship' is to acknowledge the sublime character of the Sacred Liturgy established by Jesus Christ, Lord and God, for our salvation. How are we to learn from and worship the Lord if we obscure His Face, the Mass, by cheapening the Mass with talk that obscures the sublime nature of the Sacrifice of the Mass, or by imposing haphazard or wayward antics that distract from encountering Him as He is?

    Immersed in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we anticipate the heavenly glory, the hope of the resurrection that all faithful souls desire to attain.


    Assent to Beauty

    Excepting, of course, the enthusiastic appreciation of true preaching, sacred music, art and architecture demonstrated by Ordinariate Catholics and by our like-minded Extraordinary Form brethren, there is a general iconoclasm in the Latin Church. Among those who harbour a neo-puritanical attitude masquerading as a concern for the poor, who demand that resources be used to feed and house the poor rather than wasting said resources on building beautiful churches for God and His people, there is often a near allergic reaction to beautiful architecture and art, sacred music, beautiful vestments, and so on. Of course, rather than surrendering to a false dichotomy, Ordinariate Catholics, acknowledging that spiritually and materially impoverished people need both spiritual and material sustenance, construct churches and offer services that nourish the spiritual and material needs of man.

    By producing "worship spaces" that are more shopping malls than sanctuaries, banal barns more than beautiful temples dedicated to God, advocates for the (re)distribution of resources away from the creation of soul-nourishing spiritual homes have created conditions for people to become spiritually and intellectually stunted. Where it has died in the former Soviet Union, that spiritually bankrupt anti-human soul-destroying system, socialist realist architecture has found a hideaway in far too many diocesan Catholic parishes constructed over the past sixty years or so.


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

    Ordinariate Catholics are fond of saying that we seek to worship God in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 96:9). We endeavor, therefore, to offer the sacred Liturgy (and Offices of Matins and Evensong) in a manner that honours God and allows His people to perceive His truth, goodness and beauty. That clarity of purpose is not a sterile or banal approach that, to the uninitiated, appears to idolize good gifts while ignoring the Giver of those gifts. Rather, Ordinariate Catholics access the Church's vast treasury of art, music and architecture, enthusiastically employing elements of that venerable treasure trove of beauty to service as reliable vehicles for prayer through which God entices us into His embrace. The Ordinariate brings back to the awareness of Latin Catholics a lively and sober celebration of God through the gifts He has given us, blessed avenues through which we enter into a personal communion with Him. The Sacraments, preeminently, embody the love, glory and mercy of God and divinize the man who humbly enters into relationship with Jesus Christ, the author of those sacraments. The Sacraments can and should be offered with care appropriate to their dignity as signs of Christ acting among us.


    The Ordinariate brings to the Church a renewed sense of appreciation for the gifts God has given in and through the English Patrimony that enthusiastically preserves a wealth of artistic and architectural forms that edify and invigorate souls thirsty for the joy and hope God offers.

    Show me a beautiful church and you show me a people of hope.

    The parish liturgical landscape tends to reflect or mirror the inner landscape of the congregation. A sanctuary that embodies beauty and goodness is likely an affirmation of a congregation that acknowledges the glory of God and celebrates His innumerable gifts. We who have received God's blessing should surely muster the appropriate humility and enthusiasm to honour the gifts God gives us to invite others into God's embrace.

    Patrimonial Humour

    Having been raised by a mother who grew up and nursed in England during the Second World War, an intelligent and down-to-earth person who possessed a deep faith and a sophisticated sense of humour, I learned that humour and faith can and should accompany each other so as to enable one to be honest about oneself and the world, and to understand one's place in the bigger picture.

    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 is habitually self deprecating and deft at exposing life's absurdities. Good Catholic comedians are adept at exposing the truth about man's fallen nature and the contradictions that flow from the Fall.

    O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam.

    In response to the question why are there so many Catholics in comedy, Charles Coulombe has said:
    The first has to do with the nature of comedy itself, which consists, in my opinion, of making the absurdity of life obvious to one’s audience. As with any of the other arts, this requires a certain aesthetic distance from the everyday scene – without that, one cannot depict, portray, write about (or ridicule) the passing circus. So it is that artists in general and comedians in particular tend to come from marginal tribes of one sort or another. This is why popular entertainment in the US rapidly fell into the hands of the three groups (African Americans, Jews and Catholics) previously mentioned.
    Moreover, good comedy requires a great deal of conscious or unconscious reflection upon the world. I have yet to meet a comedian who was not in some sense a philosopher, and I have met many. The result, of course, is that the comic is also very much aware of human foibles, and many a laugh-master has had a thick melancholy streak.
    Widely regarded as one of the most amusing ecclesiastical memoirs of the 20th century, Colin Stephenson's autobiography is an Anglo-Catholic classic, embodying a great love for people and a relish for their eccentricities and foibles.

    From Humour to Humility

    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 precedes the Lord, I am not worthy (Matthew 8:8).
    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. Reverently repeating prayers three times - the Agnus Dei and Centurion's Prayer, and the Kyrie for that matter - disposes deeply the soul to God's grace.

    Ordinariate Catholics, like our Extraordinary Form brethren, embrace the opportunity to be formed in mind and body by truth, goodness and beauty. The ritual gestures found in the Ordinariate Mass are more frequent and profound than those practiced in the Novus Ordo Mass (of Pope Saint Paul VI). The Ordinariate "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, vehicles 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 (John 3:16).
    Without a true object or focus, it is far too easy to worship a god made in one's own image. How can we observe that true and necessary focus unless we humble ourselves in a manner that acknowledges our God-given dignity and God's sovereignty?

    1 John 4:7-21
    Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
    Communion In and Through the Word

    We trust in God to help us overcome obstacles to a deepening communion with Him. We rely upon God through His inexhaustible mercy to sustain us with His grace, the grace mediated through His Church. We encounter that grace through the wisdom of God's holy word, sacred Scripture.

    The Ordinariate, saturated with the collective memory of Christian English men and women who have laboured vigorously for the Faith in their former Anglican homes, realizes the teaching of Dei Verbum promulgated by Pope St Paul VI (1965). Consider the Preface of the same document:
    1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.
    Saint John Henry Newman, Anglican convert to Catholicism, well known to readers of this blog, wrote in his work On the Inspiration of Scripture from The Nineteenth Century, Section 8, Vol. 15, No. 84 (Feb. 1884):
    Now then, the main question before us being what it is that a Catholic is free to hold about Scripture in general, or about its separate portions or its statements, without compromising his firm inward assent to the dogmas of the Church, that is, to the de fide enunciations of Pope and Councils, we have first of all to inquire how many and what those dogmas are.
    I answer that there are two such dogmas; one relates to the authority of Scripture, the other to its interpretation. As to the authority of Scripture, we hold it to be, in all matters of faith and morals, divinely inspired throughout; as to its interpretation, we hold that the Church is, in faith and morals, the one infallible expounder of that inspired text.
    Saint John Henry, in the same work, declares
    the Roman Catholic Church ... insists on its members believing … a great deal more in pure criticism and pure history than the strictest Protestants exact from their pupils or flocks.' Should, then, a doubting {186} Anglican contemplate becoming Catholic by way of attaining intellectual peace, 'if his doubts turn on history and criticism, he will find the little finger of the Catholic Church thicker than the loins of Protestantism.'
    An Ordinariate Catholic, especially one who swam the Tiber as an Anglican in search of the home of true Scripture scholarship, easily recognizes Newman's words as a precise testimony by which one is confronted not merely with an inadequacy - i.e., that Anglicanism has lost its focus - but with the excellent preparation provided by Anglican divines to help others engage the fullness of Truth found only in the Catholic Church.
    Within the Anglican tradition, "divines" are clergy of the Church of England whose theological writings have been considered standards for faith, doctrine, worship, and spirituality, and whose influence has permeated the Anglican Communion in varying degrees through the years. - see Sykes, Stephen, and John E. Booty. The Study of Anglicanism. Philadelphia, Pa: SPCK/Fortress Press, 1988; p.176.
    At this blog the label "Anglican divines" is understood to refer to clergy such as Newman, Keble, et al, who sought to restore a Catholic reading and understanding of Holy Scripture to their community. Readers would do well to consider the following comments made by Father Aidan Nichols, O.P., presented at the website of the erudite Ordinariate priest Fr. John Hunwicke:
    Contemporary orthodox-minded Roman Catholics look with admiration at those Anglican divines who, in various historical periods, sought to restore the authentic portrait of the Church and the faith of the Church. One thinks, for example, of Thomas Ken and John Keble, as well as, closer to our own day, Gregory Dix and Eric Mascall. These are separated doctors in whom the Church of Rome can recognise the overwhelming preponderance of the apostolic patrimony she has received. Your task now is not only the negative one of defending their work but the positive one of completing it (2002).

    On-Word

    It is far too brief a summary to merely assert that Ordinariate Catholics have a profound love of Scripture. Anglicans, now Catholics of the three Ordinariate bodies (North America, the United Kingdom and Oceania), were forced to defend the authority of Scripture in their former Anglican homes and, having realized their former homes couldn't possibly sustain a necessary respect for Scripture, now have their zeal for the word of God affirmed in the home in which Scripture was composed and has always been protected.

    The Reformation claimed to restore the authority of Scripture. The sola scriptura doctrine (i.e., "scripture alone") declares the sole primacy of Scripture in matters doctrinal and spiritual, but ignores the fact of the complete Apostolic Tradition: Scripture and Tradition. Sola scriptura, that heterodoxical position has, ironically, led to a curious and damaging outcome. Protestant communities, claiming scripture as their sole guide, promote a wide range of doctrinal positions which, in many cases, cannot be reconciled to each other. The various emphases found in different Protestant communities often contradict each other wildly. The Catholic Church preserves the authority of Scripture and the authority of the oral Tradition. Former Anglicans and others with whom I have spoken acknowledge that respect for the authority of Scripture and Tradition can no longer be reliably found in Anglicanism, but can only be found fully in the Catholic Church.

    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.


    Ecumenism In A Living Form
    legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi

    The Ordinariate experience is informed and anchored by a deference and reference to the Holy See. Anglocatholicism, certainly Anglopapalism, sought to bring Anglicans back into close orbit around the Petrine sun. Of course, for many contemporary Anglicans, for example those of the liberal kind most commonly, that glorious sun is more a black hole sucking in all light. The truth couldn't be farther from that thought. As Anglicans- (and Methodists-) now-Catholics can fully attest to, the Petrine Office, far from destroying diversity, is the guarantor of authentic diversity and unity.
    This single Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her visible confines. Since these are gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, they are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.” - Lumen Gentium 8
    Only in communion with Peter can one hope to retain a constant orthodoxy. As present circumstances may indicate or remind, the retention or conservation of orthodoxy requires considerable effort, for the devil prowls the earth seeking the ruin of souls, and the battle to defend orthodoxy requires a few good souls to storm the gates of hell to protect the Church from enemies within as much as from those launching assaults from outside the Church.

    For the three ordinaries (leaders of their respective jurisdictions - North American, the United Kingdom and Oceania), the Personal Ordinariate is the first real example of true Christian unity and ecumenism.
    “I have no doubt that if you read the Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) that actually the ordinariate is the first occasion where that vision of that document has been fulfilled,” Msgr Newton said.
    “When people are looking for what ecumenism really is, here it is, in a living form.”
    What that means is the ordinariate, which became possible in 2009 through Pope Benedict XVI’s promulgation of the apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus, gives former Anglicans a way to express their tradition, heritage and elements of worship but still be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

    We are reminded, too, by a paragraph at the website of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter that
    (t)he key to understanding the essential purpose of the Ordinariate is to be found in the preface to Anglicanorum coetibus. In those opening paragraphs, there are no fewer than nine references to the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Here the one Church of Jesus Christ is said to subsist in the Catholic Church: although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure, these elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity. There is an inner dynamic in the life and teaching of Anglicanism which continues to draw Anglicans to its source. The Personal Ordinariate is Pope Benedict XVI’s response to “this holy desire.”
    An essay by Monsignor Mark Langham may further introduce readers to the importance of communion with the See of Peter. The Ordinariate: Realised Ecumenism; Realised Unity by Monsignor Mark Langham, Catholic Chaplain to Cambridge University, provides a thorough examination of the ecumenical landscape and the necessity of offering the Ordinariate for facilitating unity among Christians.
    Communion has content; only when they can share the Eucharist can you claim a wonderful expression of the unity of the Church.
    So it is that the Ordinariate is a truthful response to the claim to be Catholic, a realistic expression of the unity of the Church. In this it is contributing to a more honest ecumenical project, by demonstrating the need to draw a rigorous theological conclusion from the claims of communion. 
    Catholics need certainty. Our whole sacramental system is predicated on an assurance given to us that the sacrament is doing what it claims to be; that the sign is authentic, that grace is truly conferred. I am not prepared to be dragged into an argument about whose Anglican orders might or might not be valid; because in the end that is not the question I want answered. I want to know that my priest is truly ordained; that I am really receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, that my sins are forgiven. Ultimately, there is only one guarantee of that: communion. Communion with the Church, and, when all is said and done, Communion with Peter.
    (T)he Ordinariate’s championing of elements of the traditions of Anglicanism can re-introduce Catholics in this country to their own Catholic heritage. There is a common assumption among English Catholics (it was certainly prevalent in my own Catholic schooling) that the Catholic faith disappeared in this country in 1536 and re-started again in 1850. There was simply an intermission, like turning your computer on and off. It was in no way acknowledged that the form of Catholicism restored in 1850 was in many ways unlike that of the middle ages, drawing its identity and spirituality from sources unknown to medieval English Catholicism. Accordingly, the names of Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, St Edith of Wilton, St Wilfrid, St Frideswide are virtually unknown to modern English Catholics. They are all there, in the Customary. The Ordinariate can help re-present a Catholicism whose spirituality, language, customs and music are grounded in these islands; whose mysticism draws upon not only upon St Theresa of Avila but also the Cloud of Unknowing; not only upon Francis de Sales but also Aelred of Rievaulx; whose piety, as well as Italian and baroque, is also forged in the mists and vales of England; who honours Mary not only at Lourdes and Fatima but also at Walsingham; whose liturgical seasons, as well as marching to the mighty beat of Rome, also recall the native footfall of Sarum.


    The New Via Media

    Anglicanism long thought of itself as (a) via media, a "middle way" between Protestantism and Catholicism. The former via media has been assumed and transformed.

    Allied in thought or by way of association, Richard Hooker (Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity), Martin Bucer, Thomas Cranmer and Heinrich Bullinger, and later the Tractarians and those proponents of the Oxford Movement, proposed Anglicanism as a middle way (via media) between Protestantism and Catholicism. However, from the moment Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon and the declaration of his supremacy over the Church, Anglicanism became (much) more Protestant.
    The new via is truly a middle way in the sense that 'middle' refers to a centre, a centre of thought and praxis characterized by: 1. obedience to Christ and His Church; 2. orientation to Apostolic Tradition; 3. liturgical integrity and the embodiment of truth, goodness and beauty, the transcendentals.
    The "new" via is really the one and same via of Jesus, Who is Himself the Way.
    The (true) via media has been identified or realized by those unity-minded Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church through one of the Personal Ordinariates (cf Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus). The Personal Ordinariates are a way for non-Catholics to find their way home to Rome, and a way for all Catholics to embrace the authentic renewal taught by the Second Vatican Council. The via of a personal ordinariate is a way of service to unity in Christ. The Personal Ordinariates reunite the Catholic liturgical heritage retained in Anglicanism with the Catholic Church.

    Spiritual Fitness

    For the Ordinariate Catholic, discipleship is a whole-person, whole-body and whole-mind act and way of being. We, of course, model our prayer on the examples of Jesus and Mary. We also look to the saints, especially the martyr saints, whose example offers trainees a sure witness to authentic living.

    We train through fasting, by following the prescriptions encouraged by Holy Mother Church, taught to us by the successors of the Apostles. Those prescriptions, like all forms of effective medicine, dispose the believer to spiritual health and freedom. Like the communities that preserved elements of the older calendar, the Ordinariate has retained special days of spiritual discipline called Ember and Rogation days. The observation of these days seems particularly apt in times when the True Religion is forced to compete with a particularly pernicious ideology that deprives individuals and families of their fundamental dignity. Ordinariate Catholics are mindful, then, that (Ephesians 6:12)
    we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
    We are, as the holy Apostle reminds us in his letter to Timothy (II Timothy 2:3), to
    take (our) share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
    In August of 1941, Franklin Roosevelt arrived off the coast of Newfoundland on the heavy cruiser Augusta and Churchill on the battleship HMS Prince of Wales. Churchill chose the hymns for a service. Given the present challenges to the well being of mankind, the words of Sir Winston Churchill bear repetition:
    We sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers" indeed, and I felt that this was no vain presumption, but that we had the right to feel that we were serving a cause for the sake of which a trumpet has sounded from on high. When I looked upon that densely packed congregation of fighting men of the same language, of the same faith, of the same fundamental laws, of the same ideals ... it swept across me that here was the only hope, but also the sure hope, of saving the world from measureless degradation. 
    We are also blessed in the Ordinariate with a spiritual formation that comes to us through Morning Prayer (Matins) and Evensong, the hinges of the Divine Office. The genius of the English Patrimony concerning the Office has been or is being preserved in the emerging Ordinariate Office. Emerging, because that which has been received - a beautiful Psalter, the Ancient Office Hymns, formatting (an algorithm of prayer), a vast musical heritage - is adapting as the former office meets, for one, new saints in the Roman Calendar (Ordo).
    (I)n the 16th century the air was full of reforming projects; and two foreign books had considerable effect upon Archbishop Cranmer and the other English Reformers — the Reformed Roman Breviary of Cardinal Quiñones, and the Consultation of Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne — indeed our second Preface, "Concerning the Service of the Church," is a restatement by Cranmer of Quiñones' arguments for the reform of the Breviary.
    For anyone who has not experienced the communal recitation - sung and/or spoken - of the Breviary, get thee to an Ordinariate community and apply thyself to the recitation of the Office for thine own health and benefit.



    Ordinariate Catholics are a people with a fascinating and rich story, a history filled with workings of the Holy Ghost. The story of the Christian English people began early on in the history of the New Covenant. It is a vibrant history, a history of heroic martyrs, great teachers, great artists and humble fervent witnesses devoted to Jesus and Mary.

    Much of the early chapters of that story has been captured in that comprehensive work by the Venerable Bede. That is, An Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

    The early years of the Catholic Faith in the British Isles constitute a dramatic and instructive story of resolute mission and frequent miracles. Consider a section about Saint Chad from Book IV, Chapter III: How Chad was made bishop of the Mercians - of his life, death and burial (A D. 669).
    Chad died on the 2nd of March, and was first buried by St. Mary's Church, but afterwards, when the church of the most holy prince of the apostles, Peter, was built, his bones were translated into it. In both which places, as a testimony of his virtue, frequent miraculous cures are wont to be wrought. And of late, a certain distracted person, who had been wandering about everywhere, arrived there in the evening, unknown or unregarded by the keepers of the place, and having rested there all the night, went out in his perfect senses the next morning, to the surprise and delight of all; thus showing that a cure had been performed on him through the goodness of God. The place of the sepulchre is a wooden monument, made like a little house, covered, having a hole in the wall, through which those that go thither for devotion usually put in their hand and take out some of the dust, which they put into water and give to sick cattle or men to drink, upon which they are presently eased of their infirmity, and restored to health. In his place, Theodore ordained Winfrid, a good and modest man, to preside, as his predecessors had done, over the bishoprics of the Mercians, the Midland Angles, and the Lindisfarnes, of all which, Wulfhere, who was still living, was king. Winfrid was one of the clergy of the prelate he had succeeded, and had for a considerable time filled the office of deacon under him.
    Bede concludes his work: 
    Such being the peaceable and calm disposition of the times, many of the Northumbrians, as well of the nobility as private persons, laying aside their weapons, rather incline to dedicate both themselves and their children to the tonsure and monastic vows, than to study martial discipline. What will be the end hereof, the next age will show. This is for the present the state of all Britain; in the year since the coming of the English into Britain about 285, but in the 731st year of the incarnation of our Lord, in whose reign may the earth ever rejoice; may Britain exult in the profession of his faith; and may many islands be glad, and sing praises in honor of his holiness!

    Mary our Mother

    Ordinariate Catholics carry on the legacy of love for our Lady, principally under her title of Our Lady of Walsingham. The story of Our Lady of Walsingham is worthy of an additional article, as much as all the tidbits herein contained deserve much more attention. In summary,
    Our Lady of Walsingham is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by Catholics and Anglicans associated with the Marian apparitions to Richeldis de Faverches, a pious English noblewoman, in 1061 in the village of Walsingham in Norfolk, England. Lady Richeldis had a structure built named "The Holy House" in Walsingham which later became a shrine and place of pilgrimage. [Wikipedia] [Read also: https://catholicinsight.com/our-lady-of-walsingham/]
    English Catholics so love(d) Mary that England became known as Our Lady's Dowry.
    The contemplation of the great mystery of the Incarnation has drawn all Christian nations to venerate (Our Lady) from whom come the first beginnings of our redemption. But we English, being the servants of her special inheritance and her own dowry, as we are commonly called, ought to surpass others in the fervour of our praises and devotions. 
    Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote (those) sentences in 1399 to the Bishop of London and the rest of his suffragan bishops.
    https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/o/our-ladys-dowry-england-as.php

    The first dedication of England as the Dowry of Mary was done by King Richard II in 1381. On March 29th of this year, England will be rededicated as the Dowry of Mary.


    Omnibus et Singulis

    Hospitality expands out into community, which is unity, a unity of communion. Let us return, if ever so briefly, to the subject of the One God in Three Persons with Whom we seek to enter into communion.
    The Introduction to the Apostolic Constitution (Anglicanorum Coetibus) lays out the ratio legis of the provision emphasising a number of things which it might be useful to point out: 
    The Church, which in its unity and diversity is modelled on the Most Holy Trinity, was instituted as “a sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people” (Lumen Gentium, 1). For this reason every division among the baptized wounds that which the Church is and that for which the Church exists, and constitutes, therefore, a scandal in that it contradicts the prayer of Jesus before his passion and death (cf. John 17:20-21).
    Dr. Michael Ramsey, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury who stood alongside Pope (now Saint) Paul VI, wrote in Unity, Truth and Holiness that
    (i)n talk and thought about Christian unity, appeal is frequently and rightly made to the prayer of our Lord in the seventeenth chapter of St. John. There it is recorded that our Lord prayed for the unity of His disciples. It is equally true, but not nearly so frequently mentioned, that in the same prayer our Lord prayed also for the sanctification of the disciples; and in particular for their sanctification in the truth, 'sanctify them in truth--thy word is truth'. The truth is the revelation of the Father's name which He has given to them, and the Lord sanctifies Himself to the death on Calvary that thereby the disciples may be sanctified in truth. It is a threefold cord--unity, sanctification, truth--and through the unity of the disciples in Christ whose truth indwells them and in whose self-consecration they share, the divine Glory will dwell in them in anticipation of their vision of the divine Glory with their eyes hereafter.
    Pope Saint John Paul II (the Great), echoing Dr. Ramsey's thoughts, wrote
    (t)he Christian way of life of these brethren is nourished by faith in Christ. It is strengthened by the grace of Baptism and the hearing of God's Word. This way of life expresses itself in private prayer, in meditation on the Bible, in Christian family life, and in services of worship offered by Communities assembled to praise God. Furthermore, their worship sometimes displays notable features of the ancient, common liturgy.
    Pope Saint John Paul (the Great), mindful of his role in the unity of the Church and mindful of the Holy Ghost's work among communities of the Reformation, said that
    it is absolutely clear that ecumenism, the movement promoting Christian unity, is not just some sort of "appendix" which is added to the Church's traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does; it must be like the fruit borne by a healthy and flourishing tree which grows to its full stature. 
    This is what Pope John XXIII believed about the unity of the Church and how he saw full Christian unity. With regard to other Christians, to the great Christian family, he observed: "What unites us is much greater than what divides us". The Second Vatican Council for its part exhorts "all Christ's faithful to remember that the more purely they strive to live according to the Gospel, the more they are fostering and even practising Christian unity. For they can achieve depth and ease in strengthening mutual brotherhood to the degree that they enjoy profound communion with the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit". 
    The primacy of prayer: 21. "This change of heart and holiness of life, along with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and can rightly be called 'spiritual ecumenism' "

    Pope Saint John Paul II (the Great), who heralded the New Evangelization, also articulated the magnificence of the human family.
    The family’s mission is to actively participate in the sanctification of the temporal order. “The Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibly in the mission of the Church in a way that is original and specific, by placing itself, in what it is and what it does as an intimate community of life and love at the service of the Church and society” (FC 50). Families, of course, are very busy today, often swimming against the tide of a fast-paced culture that can be distracting and oppressive. How can the family begin to evangelize and build a civilization of love? By authentically living their vocation from the heart of the Church. John Paul notes that in order for the family to be a sign of Christ’s presence in the world and to take up its mission as evangelizing community, each member of the family, particularly the spouses, must end the reign of sin in their lives (cf. FC 63). You cannot bear fruit if you are severed from the vine, you cannot give what you do not have. In order for the family to participate in this task it has to be constantly nourished and sustained at the wellspring of grace in the Liturgy. Furthermore “the little domestic Church, like the greater Church, needs to be constantly and intensely evangelized: hence its duty regarding permanent education in faith” (FC 51)
    We members of the Ordinariate family are children of a loving mother, Mary most holy! His Excellency Steven J. Lopes, Bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, wrote in his letter Come, Holy Ghost, A Pastoral Letter on the Holy Spirit to the Clergy and Faithful of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter:
    At the center of the account of Pentecost stands the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the time came for the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples kept vigil and devoted themselves to prayer “together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:13-15). But of course she was present in the Upper Room, as her whole life was charged with the power of the Spirit! In her great and maternal care for us, Mary urged the Lord’s first miracle at Cana, telling those gathered for the wedding and also telling us, “do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5). She faithfully accompanied her Son’s earthly mission, even when that mission would lead her to witness firsthand the horror of Calvary. In receiving St. John into her motherly care at her crucified Son’s command, she enfolds in her mantle every disciple beloved by the Lord.
    Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis all have referred to Mary as the Star of the New Evangelization. Her fidelity and docility to the prompting of the Holy Spirit point out the way to a new flourishing for the Church and for our Ordinariate—a new Pentecost—in which the Spirit-filled proclamation of the Gospel calls new people into the adventure of discipleship and the joy of Catholic communion. In this, Mary is not only our model but also our powerful intercessor and guide.
    Because we enter into the hope of Mary, this particular (Ordinariate) family in the Catholic family designed by God cannot be smothered by the present darkness. The Church, this communion of human persons is, after all, an expression of the Divine Communion of Persons, the Holy Trinity. Nothing, no thing, no one, no darkness, can overcome the Light.

    The Ordinariate embraces the call to unity in the Truth. The Ordinariate embraces the New Evangelization because it, the Ordinariate created by Pope Benedict XVI, manifests well the intent and shape of the New Evangelization identified by Pope Saint John Paul II (the Great). The New Evangelization involves the entire Church family. She, Holy Mother Church, informed by the Holy Ghost, informs the entire human family.

    Israel according to the flesh, which wandered as an exile in the desert, was already called the Church of God. So likewise the new Israel which while living in this present age goes in search of a future and abiding city is called the Church of Christ. For He has bought it for Himself with His blood, has filled it with His Spirit and provided it with those means which befit it as a visible and social union. God gathered together as one all those who in faith look upon Jesus as the author of salvation and the source of unity and peace, and established them as the Church that for each and all it may be the visible sacrament of this saving unity. While it transcends all limits of time and confines of race, the Church is destined to extend to all regions of the earth and so enters into the history of mankind. Moving forward through trial and tribulation, the Church is strengthened by the power of God's grace, which was promised to her by the Lord, so that in the weakness of the flesh she may not waver from perfect fidelity, but remain a bride worthy of her Lord, and moved by the Holy Spirit may never cease to renew herself, until through the Cross she arrives at the light which knows no setting.
    To close this sketch of the Ordinariate, let us review a prayer said at Morning Prayer that often completes the service of Matins, in a most beautiful way, which may serve to orient the sincere seeker to God and His Church in a most spiritually profitable manner.
    To the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, to the crucified Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the fruitful Virginity of the blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, and to the whole company of the Saints, be everlasting praise, honour, power and glory from every creature, and unto the remission of all our sins for ever, world without end. Amen.

    End Note

    The preceding essay is a mere taste of the Ordinariate experience. Those seeking the Truth would do well by visiting with a Catholic priest, of the Ordinariate or otherwise, to investigate the Catholic Faith and enter into relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.

    Source Material
     Also: click on embedded links.
    1. Scripture: 1 John 4:19; Galatians 2:20; Matthew 18:2-4; John 17:21; Matthew 18:20; Luke 10: 38-42; Matthew 8:8; 1 John 4:7-21; 1 John 1:2-3; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; Ephesians 6:12; II Timothy 2:3; (John 17:20-21).
    2. Papal & Magisterial Documents: Catechism of the Catholic Church; Lumen Gentium; Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus; The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus by Fr. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J. Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University.
    3. Documents & Books: On the Inspiration of Scripture from The Nineteenth Century, Section 8, Vol. 15, No. 84 (Feb. 1884); Sykes, Stephen, and John E. Booty. The Study of Anglicanism. Philadelphia, Pa: SPCK/Fortress Press, 1988; p.176; Everyman's History of the Prayer Book by Percy Dearmer.
    Online Articles
    1. https://anglicanorumcoetibussociety.blog/2019/01/21/a-question-of-identity-for-catholics-of-anglican-tradition/#more-7776; 
    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onward,_Christian_Soldiers; 
    3. https://catholicinsight.com/our-lady-of-walsingham/; 
    4. https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/o/our-ladys-dowry-england-as.php; 
    5. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/bede-book1.asp; 
    6. https://catholicleader.com.au/news/why-the-ordinariate-is-the-living-form-of-the-second-vatican-councils-decree-on-ecumenism; 
    7. http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25051995_ut-unum-sint.html
    Resources

    Saint Peter Gradual

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