A Treasure To Be Shared

In the Ordinariates, we are fortunate to have clear guidance on the language of worship. Anyone who has attended Divine Worship will recognize the traditional ‘thee/thou’ language woven throughout the sacred Liturgy. This elevated style helps focus our hearts and minds on the worship of God, offering a tone that is both intimate and reverent, perfectly suited for communication between creature and Creator. Let's take a brief look at the instruction concerning the concluding doxology that accompanies prayers. Notice the respect given to the language used in the Roman Missal, the book of the typical diocesan or Ordinary Form liturgy. Notice, too, how the language of the Ordinariate Form liturgy complements the language of the Roman Missal. 5. Regarding “Ever One God” in the Divine Worship Collects In May 2020, the Congregation for Divine Worship wrote to the English-speaking conferences of bishops regarding the concluding doxology of the Collects in the Roman Missal. Specifically, th...

Joseph Rudyard Kipling 1865 - 1936 Language has been appropriated by the enemies of reason and civilization for nefarious and deadly purposes. As a weapon, relativism has been quite successful at wasting words in a way that has enabled innumerable distortions of reality to take hold of conversations to the serious detriment of human conversations, understanding, well-being, and community. Desperation brought on by language robbing and emptiness leads people to try to forge identities through social and political manipulation, which splits societies and results in many causalities. The negative consequences of language loss have long been felt by indigenous peoples. A group that loses its language weakens and loses its identity, making it more susceptible to manipulation. The Church will continue to fracture until Catholics recover the language, the poetry, of our patrimony. The Liturgical Dialect of the Ordinariate Familiarity with the Our Father or Lord's Prayer can guide the in...

Asperges : nothing to do with asparagus. Asperges refers to the rite of sprinkling the congregation and/or objects with holy water. The name comes from the first word of Psalm 51 in Latin (Asperges me) that is sung during the traditional form of the rite. Aspergillum : not to be confused with Aspirin, a painkiller. An aspergillum is an implement for sprinkling holy water. Curia : nothing to do with relief from disease. An an assembly, council, or court of church officials responsible for governance. Hypostatic : nothing to do with an electric charge built up when a priest walks across carpeting in the sanctuary. The Hypostatic Union refers to the union of the human and divine natures in Jesus Christ. Mantilla (man- tee -yuh): not for men, i.e., not a man -tilla. A traditional female liturgical lace or silk veil or shawl worn over the head and shoulders, often over a high hair ornament called a peineta. Nun . Not to be confused with 'none', i.e., someone who is religiously unaf...

Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius The word Alleluia holds deep significance in the Catholic Church. Origins and Meaning The word Alleluia originates from the Hebrew phrase " Hallelu Yah ", meaning "Praise the Lord". It was used in the Jewish liturgy and passed into the early Christian Church, where it took on a deeper spiritual meaning. The word is a "kind of acclamation and a form of ovation" expressing joy, thanksgiving, and triumph in the Lord. Liturgical Use The Alleluia has a prominent place in Catholic liturgy, particularly during the Easter season and in hymns of praise. It is a exclamation of joy and a climactic moment in the liturgy, such as before the Gospel reading. The repetition of "Alleluia" is seen as a continuous "breath of the soul" in praise of God. Spiritual Significance For Catholics, the Alleluia represents a profound expression of devotion and spiritual exaltation. St. Augustine described it as a "consolati...

Revelation 22:21 | The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 | As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. The word amen  echoes throughout the Mass. We are immersed in an unceasing refrain - the anthem of the Church Militant. 'Amen' is a golden thread woven through the Mass to bind us together in the truth, goodness and beauty of God. 'Amen' is the middle name of every Christian believer, received through Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion, a word through which the Eternal Logos, Jesus Christ,...

The Lesson [ Read time 8 minutes ] To many diocesan Catholics the idea of praying the Mass with 'thees' and 'thous' is somewhat silly. Yet, they harbour no such attitude when praying the Our Father of the Mass, or the Hail! Mary  of the Rosary. The information that follows is intended to give reason for the hope that is within those of us in the Ordinariate who are so very content to be immersed in a multitude of blessings given by the Lord for our salvation and joy. Sacral English From the OLSC Ordinariate, ed. by Gilbert. 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 encoun...

Our Father Who art in Heaven... . (St. Matthew 6:9-13) So-called Christian communities have taken it upon themselves to craft alternate versions of the Lord's Prayer . On Feb. 17 (1999), the Methodist Church in England introduced a new worship book that for the first time includes a prayer referring to God as "our Father and our Mother." - CS Monitor With the Church of England pondering the adoption of alternative language for worship, several sites are offering versions of the Lord's Prayer that might save the C of E some verbal legwork. One such site is Simon Says . https://simoncamilleri.com/the-lords-prayer-woke-edition/ And... an offering from here. Our non-gendered parent-force identical with our self-projections; acknowledged is a title of convenience. Our socialist utopia come; our collective will be done, on earth as it is in our own conceptual framework. Give us today our daily sustenance to which we are entitled, and forgive us our willingness to cooperate...

If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave. - The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen Language: Your words matter  - from an article at  Catholic East Texas According to St. Thomas Aquinas, language is an external tool meant to communicate truth, and as such it is governed by modesty. Our language is governed by modesty because it is “the virtue that moderates all the internal and external movements and appearance of a person according to his or her endowments, possessions, and station in life.”  Language is a beautiful and noble tool. Just like any tool, it can be misused and even abused. Language is not about manifesting our each and every emotion through self-consumed diatribes, expletives, complaints, and so forth, as society might have us believe. Rather, language is meant to communicate. If we are deliberate in our speech, we can find immense healing interiorly because words matter. Words have so much power, and the words we use greatly shape ...

All around the world, everywhere I go No one understands me No one knows what I'm trying to say Everywhere I go no one understands me They look at me when I talk to them And they scratch their head They go, "What's he trying to say?" But you… you speak my language But you… you speak my language Yeah! Yes! All around the world, everywhere I go No one understands me No one knows what I'm trying to say Even in my home town My friends make me write it down They look at me when I talk to them And they shrug their shoulders They go, "What's he talking about? But you… you speak my language... . - lyrics from You Speak My Language by Morphine At Thesaurus.com, a simple search for synonyms of the words 'liberal' and 'conservative' yields results that are telling, though not surprising. Of course, Thesaurus.com is not alone in its sin-onymic contortions. Other sites parrot the same newspeak. Under liberal, do note the synonym in position four in co...

CMHA Image Amy Banks, MD, at Psychology Today , has written a concise and balanced article entitled Social vs. Physical Distancing: Why It Matters . She writes: Social distancing, as it has been presented, can feel like that. In fact, in my work with trauma survivors during this time, I have heard people describe feeling trapped and threatened again. That is not sustainable. Becoming socially isolated may keep the majority of us alive, but not well. By naming the national strategy as physical distancing rather than social distancing and emphasizing the need for human connection, we can stay safe from the virus but also hold onto the heightened need we all have for one another right now. Dr. Banks acknowledges what this blogger and many others have shared: The few times I have ventured out to a grocery store or for a walk around my neighborhood, I've seen people not only keeping distant from one another but also seeming afraid. They pass each other on the stree...