A Treasure To Be Shared

Jacopo Tintoretto | The Jews in the Desert The wandering of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) offers a striking biblical analogue to the post‑conciliar experience of the Catholic Church. In both cases, a people who had received extraordinary gifts from God found themselves disoriented, divided, and tempted by forms of worship and living that fell short of the covenantal ideal. Israel’s desert years reveal how God purifies His people after infidelity, and how He restores them to the holiness necessary to enter the Promised Land. Many Catholics today see a similar need for purification in the wake of liturgical disorder, moral laxity, and a widespread loss of faith that followed the decades after Vatican II. Humility - where wert thou? A quiet but consequential lack of humility marked many responses to the Second Vatican Council, as though renewal meant self‑authorization rather than deeper fidelity. In the rush to innovate, prudence was often set aside, opening the doo...

The Church’s struggle to preserve authenticity often intensifies in particular eras, and in recent decades has surfaced as a tension between so‑called “progressives” and “conservatives.” These labels, borrowed from secular political discourse, obscure the deeper question Newman identified: whether a given proposal represents a genuine development of doctrine or a corruption of it. Political categories shed little light on this discernment, for authentic development preserves the type, principles, and living continuity of the Faith, while corruption either breaks from the apostolic deposit or refuses the Spirit’s ongoing deepening of it. When debate is framed in partisan terms, each camp is tempted to caricature the other, seeking adherents through opposition rather than through the careful, Spirit‑guided evaluation Newman saw as essential to the Church’s growth in understanding. Both the “trad” and “rad” orientations remain firmly entrenched in a polarizing debate, fueled by stereotype...

Almighty and Ever‑living God, Who in Thy holy Word dost enlighten the humble and strengthen the weak: grant unto us the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, that He may open our hearts in silence and our minds in purity to receive Thy truth. And as we seek to walk in Thy will, vouchsafe that we may be filled with the knowledge of Thy love and mercy, and sustained by the quiet light of Thy wisdom, joy, and hope. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. + + + Sacred Scripture permeates every aspect of Divine Worship , with the Missal shaping the Ordinariate Mass not only through the proclaimed readings but also through its language, structure, and devotional character.  At its heart, Scripture functions as both revelation and anamnesis—God speaking to His people and the Church truly present to His saving deeds. This dynamic is emphasized in the Church’s teaching that “through the proclaimed biblical r...

Loose Canon Our Protestant brothers and sisters—Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist, etc.—follow the shorter Old Testament, so they have a 66-book Bible. Because Martin Luther disagreed with certain accepted apostolic teachings found in specific writings, he placed four New Testament books in an appendix, denying that they were divinely inspired: the E pistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of James  (which Luther referred to as "an epistle of straw", the Epistle of Jude, and the Revelation of John.  Even though Luther tried to remove said books from the canon, both Catholics and modern Protestants share the same collection of New Testament books. There are Protestant writers who insist the early Church relied solely on Saint Jerome's list of canonical books and attributed to him the principle that only books written in Hebrew were to be admitted into the official Canon of Holy Scripture. That is a half-truth. Saint Jerome initially had doubts about the deuterocanoni...

Thrones, also known as Ophanim (Hebrew: אוֹפַנִּים ʼōp̄annīm), meaning “wheels,” are described in Ezekiel’s vision of the merkabah (chariot) in Ezekiel 1:15–21. These wheels are connected to Daniel 7:9, where they are called galgal , often described as “the wheels of galgallin ” in a “fiery flame” and “burning fire.” They are shown as four eye-covered wheels, each formed from two nested wheels, moving together with the winged Cherubim beneath God’s throne. The wheels move in harmony with the Cherubim. The Celestial Hierarchy of Dionysius refers to the Thrones from the Old Testament description as the Third Order of the First Sphere, the other two superior orders being the First Order, the Seraphim, and the Second Order, the Cherubim. CHAPTER VII Of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, and their first Hierarchy The name of the most glorious and exalted Thrones denotes that which is exempt from and untainted by any base and earthly thing, and the supermundane ascent up the steep. Fo...

We Ordinariate Catholics are a small and determined community within the Church. The Personal Ordinariates, of which there are three at present, are like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade. St. Mark 4: 31-32 Those who share in the blessings of the Ordinariate tend to be confident Catholics because the identity that we share has its source and summit in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we call Divine Worship, the source and summit of the Christian life. The primary mission of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is evangelization. Through the reverence and beauty of our worship, study of sacred Scripture and charity for those in need, we desire to share the joy of being Roman Catholic! Our mission is particularly experienced in our (reverent ad orientem ) celebra...

[ Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes ] "Nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]," according to the Book of Revelation. (Revelation 21:27), which explains that only the pure are allowed to approach God's presence. We have faith that God, in his mercy, offers timely opportunity for that purification. “At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed” (CCC 1042). “Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, ‘new heavens and a new earth’” (CCC 1043). “The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just, sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ” (CCC 1047). “We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor...

A Family Saying Grace before a Meal | Anthuenis Claeissens (c.1536–1613) [ Read time: 7 minutes ] The emphasis on fellowship in the Personal Ordinariates is a gift of English Benedictine monastics who, through the centuries, gave strong witness to Gospel hospitality, to welcoming the stranger, to fostering a culture of hospitality in parochial life. That spiritual legacy was retained in Anglicanism and has passed into the culture of Ordinariate communities. A lived fellowship is a vital element in the Ordinariate charism. We exist to worship God in the triune majesty of the Blessed Trinity, drawing all men and women into deepest communion with him through his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and in the power and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. | Saint John Henry Newman, Victoria, BC Fellowship In Christ In the Ordinariate, the fellowship gathering after Mass, for example, is an extension and embodiment of our communion with Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This time of fellowship is...

Photo by Gilbert Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” A vacation can open one's mind to the possibilities. Fleeting encounters with helpful strangers on a bus, conversations with table servers at a favourite cafe or with a fellow traveller who invites you into sharing a picnic table at the beach, a disgruntled cashier at a convenience store who grunts the cost of groceries but smiles in appreciation when offered a kind remark...

The Catholic Church's teaching on the Filioque , the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, can be summarized as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (CCC 246). This is based on the Council of Florence in 1438, which explained that "the Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once ( simul ) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration". The Catholic Encyclopedia further clarifies that this "dogma of the double Procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son as one Principle is directly opposed to the error that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, not from the Son". This doctrine was first explicitly denied by heretics in the 7th century, but the Church has consistently affirmed the Filioque as part of its Trinitarian faith. The Catechism notes ...