The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

On the Feast of St. Peter's Chair...

Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

On 22nd February we celebrate the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. This feast day is our opportunity to thank God again for the primacy of the Pope as chief shepherd of Christ's flock. It is our opportunity to affirm our belief in the full, supreme, universal and immediate jurisdiction of His Holiness the Pope over each and every single one of the faithful. Christ Himself is the Head of the Church, and He chose St.Peter and his successors to share and mediate that headship and its primacy, as servant of the servants of God.

We are told that a number of Anglicans are in the process of considering their position in the light of the Holy Father's extraordinarily generous offer to them in his recent Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which makes canonical provision for personal ordinariates for Anglicans who leave the Church of England and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. It has also been said that a number of them are hoping to make a decision by the feast of the Chair of St.Peter this year. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to guide them in their response to the Holy Father...

Read the rest at the web site of the Brompton Oratory.

Hat tip to David Clayton.

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