A Treasure To Be Shared

And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.  | 1 John 5:3-5 Advent is a time to pause and refocus our hearts on God. It’s a season to seek His grace and stay aware of the promise of Jesus Christ’s return. Advent is an opportunity to reflect on our spiritual lives, looking to the example of the saints and Christ Himself, so we can welcome Him with a pure heart, mind, body, and soul. But first - Christ the King! Who is Jesus? What is Jesus' identity? He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is 'I am', God. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Bread of Life. He is... the King of the Universe! He wants us to share in his identity. Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” St Matthew 16:16 For th...

God's Action The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word, the Divine Logos, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man,... O Sapientia (O Wisdom) Isaiah 11:2-3 O Adonai (O Lord or Ruler) 11:4-5 and 33:22 O Radix (O Root of Jesse) 11:1 O Clavis (O Key of David) 22:22 O Oriens (O Radiant Dawn) 9:1 O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) 2:4 O Emmanuel (O God with Us) 7:14 ... was born for our salvation. The Lord God made His home among men.  The Word-Made-Flesh is received in the Holy Eucharist. He makes His home in us. We, the baptized, are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Jesus lives in us.  That being the case, how do we keep our household, the household of our lives, hospitable for Jesus? The Lord invites us into communion with Him and provides the grace - His very life, His Presence - to facilitate movement into a deepening communion with Him. The Mass The Liturgy of the Word.  The  Word of God purifies our minds and prepares us to receive Jes...

Dogmatic and moral truths come from and lead to God.  The truth banishes error, especially idolatry, because all truth is found in the Word made flesh.  What is true is good and beautiful because it unites us to the good and beautiful God. He created us so that we may know Him by knowing the truth that He is. —Fr. Gerald E. Murray When we hear a phrase sung, we hear it differently.  A chant resounds.  Its very voice lingers, if you will, in the echo, particularly in an empty church.  And, from ancient times, it was not enough just to read a text, but to proclaim them aloud, even to sing them, to let the word itself play in rhythm and in pitch.  As St. Augustine would say, it plays to the ear of the heart.  All of this is because Christian faith, the biblical faith that we profess, is incarnational.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father.  We know Him, we recogniz...

Advent encompasses several key themes that guide the faithful in their preparation for the celebration of Christmas and the anticipation of Christ's Second Coming. 1. Preparation and Expectation Advent is a period of preparation marked by a twofold expectation: the expectancy of Christ's Second Coming at the end of time; the memory of His First Coming in Bethlehem. Believers are encouraged to take stock of their life during this time and to renew their embrace of the Lord. According to the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year , Advent is a season of "devout and expectant delight," during which the faithful are urged to reflect on Christ's lowly beginnings and anticipate His majestic second coming. 2. Hope and Joy Christians are urged to hold fast to the joyful hope that Christ's work of salvation will be fully realized.  Advent is a season of joyful hope and waiting, when believers are reminded of the grace of God and the promises of faith, according to the ...

  Take care of the little things (even when you're exhausted): do the dishes; clean the bathroom; sweep the floor; tidy the living room; clean your bedroom. Practice charity at home, toward your wife and kids, toward siblings and parents, toward a roommate, toward a landlord. Give to the poor: donate food and/or cash to a food bank. Volunteer at a food bank; pray silently - or if opportunity presents itself, pray with others - for the needs of each person you encounter. Accompany every task with prayer; give thanks to God for the opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters. Reach out to a coworker who is difficult to get along with. Acknowledge something good, however seemingly insignificant that something might be. Ask them what interests them; listen carefully. Go for a walk and acknowledge passersby: catch their eye and say 'hello', or just smile and nod. Remember: the people you encounter are created in the image and likeness of God. Give thanks to God for the miserab...

Go to confession and daily Mass . Receive Holy Communion on the tongue. Read the Bible: start with the  Gospel of Saint Luke  and the  Acts of the Apostles . Pray the Rosary daily . Ask Mary to pray that you may acquire a deep reverence for the Holy Eucharist. Surround yourself with faithful Catholics who take your salvation seriously. Take your own salvation seriously. Practice the  Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy . Model your life on the saints and encourage others to draw closer to Jesus Christ. Stop reading the National Catholic Reporter. Start reading the National Catholic Register and The Catholic Thing . and... trust in Jesus always!

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

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

In order for a new year or next year to be a good year or a better year, it is necessary to confront the inadequacies of the former calendar. That is, it is necessary to confront our own deficiencies and those obstacles we encountered around us. We must, to the best of our ability, and cautious not to descend into a haphazard and unfair critique - i.e., the nuclear option - and cognizant of the planks in our own eyes, proceed into the wilderness relying on the Church's guidance, the guidance of faithful pastors and the witness of the saints whose teaching disposes us to the influence of the Holy Ghost. Looking back for a moment, the Gospel according to St Matthew for the Second Sunday in Advent (2019) read in part (3:1-3): In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye ...

US Catholic Advent yields to Christmas. It's still a little early - only a little early - to plunge into the topic of Christmas. The Nativity is, of course, our destination, and it  is  fast approaching. Called out of every nation, we are gathering toward Bethlehem, called to a census not as Quirinius at the decree of Emperor Augustus provoked, but as the Lamb convokes, to wake us to God's love for us. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The approach to the Nativity of Our Lord quickens. The wait diminishes; our gait increases.  Hosanna in excelsis!  Perhaps those words, the words of the angels heralding the arrival of the Lord, the Hosanna of the  Gloria  of the Mass, will be sung or said with greater zeal at the return of the Gloria in the Liturgy during the Christmas s...

The Healey Willan Society https://www.healeywillansociety.com/ The Canadian Music Centre https://www.musiccentre.ca/node/4331 In June, 2011, Mary Willan Mason, the daughter of Healey Willan, assigned the responsibility of continuing the musical legacy of Healey Willan to the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago, Illinois, USA, by legally entrusting his musical estate to the Canons with Fr. Scott Haynes, SJC, as Trustee of the Estate. While Maestro Willan’s music is known and loved by church choirs, organists and instrumental ensembles, much of his music is no longer in print or has never been published. After Johann Sebastian Bach, Healey Willan is the most prolific composer of church music.    O Sapientia (completed 10 August 1957)     O Adonai (10 August 1957)    O Radix Jesse (12 August 1957)    O Clavis David (13 August 1957)    O Oriens (13 August 1957)    O Rex Gentium (15 August 1...

Deborah Mullan (2014) As the season of gift giving approaches, gifts which should remind us of the preeminent Gift of the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, let us recall, too, the gift of the Ordinariate and its form of the Mass, Divine Worship, wherein daily we encounter the same Christ Jesus, Who gives Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist for our salvation. https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/3059/documents/2016/3/2015_Di_Noia_Antiphon.pdf With the publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus , there is now a structure within the Catholic Church that both gives that English tradition concrete expression as well as fosters is growth. The Ordinariate, with its “catholicized” English liturgical patrimony, is being invited to be a guardian and promoter of its own long and varied tradition as a gift to be shared with the whole Church. The institutional importance of Divine Worship for the Ordinariates is...

SJHN Website Photo From the SJHN website:  http://www.victoriaordinariate.com/music.html 8 December (ADVENT II) Plainsong Mass (Kyrie, Sanctus-Benedictus & Agnus Dei) Missa Simplicior (Credo) (Merbecke) Offertory Motet: Alma Redemptoris Mater (Palestrina) Communion Motet: Jerusalem surge (Martini) During Communion: The Advent Prose Opening: The Advent of our King (St Thomas, BCP 59) Offertory: Hills of the North, rejoice (Little Cornard, BCP 282) Final: ‘Thy kingdom come’ – on bended knee (Irish, BCP 73) 15 December (GAUDETE SUNDAY) Mass for Four Voices (Kyrie, Sanctus-Benedictus & Agnus Dei) (Byrd) Missa Simplicior (Credo) (Merbecke) Offertory Motet: Lord, we beseech thee (Batten) Communion Motet: Rejoice in the Lord alway (Anon) During Communion: The Advent Prose Opening: Rejoice, the Lord is King (Gopsal, BCP 392) Offertory: Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (Crüger, BCP 396) Final: On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New, BCP 67) 22 Decem...