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

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Modified Liturgy Coming to Ordinariate Parishes in Advent


November 5, 2013
posted by CHARLOTTE HAYS

ARLINGTON, Texas — One of the most beloved prayers in the Anglican tradition is called the Prayer of Humble Access, but some cherished words were omitted from the Anglican-use Mass, the Vatican-approved liturgy that allowed former Episcopalians and Anglicans to bring elements of their liturgical tradition with them into the Catholic Church.
Come the First Sunday of Advent, however, the missing words of Humble Access will be included in the new ordinariate-use Mass, no doubt gladdening the hearts of many former Episcopalians who recently have become Catholics through the ordinariate.
Said by a kneeling congregation before going to Communion, the famous Prayer of Humble Access begins:
“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 …”
Humble Access — as it is colloquially known — was retained in the Anglican-use Mass, which was established by a 1980 Pastoral Provision for former Episcopalians and Anglicans by Blessed Pope John Paul II. Anglicanorum CoetibusBenedict XVI’s November 2009 apostolic constitution, provided for personal ordinariates to accommodate groups of Anglicans coming into full communion with the Catholic Church.
Leaving some former Episcopalians just a bit wistful, however, the initial Anglican-use version of Humble Access omitted the earnest words asking “that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood.” The Anglican-use text was based largely on the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which customarily omits that clause. 
The restoration of this evocative petition is just one of the changes ordinariate Catholics in the U.S. will notice when their revised liturgy debuts in the U.S. Most parishes will begin to use the new liturgy in Advent, though a few have started earlier. The term "ordinariate use" is now correct, superseding the term "Anglican use"...

Read the full story in The National Catholic Register.

I imagine that "Ordinariate Use" is just as much an unofficial term as "Anglican Use", with the added problem that it is not as accurate. After all, there are several Ordinariates in the Catholic Church, e.g., the Military Ordinariates. His Holiness Pope Francis himself, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was head of an Ordinariate, for Eastern Catholics of several rites in Argentina. There is also the issue of the handful of Pastoral Provision Communities of Common Identity who are not, as of yet, involved with the new liturgical rites. "Anglican Use" remains a more accurate and all-encompassing term, so I won't be changing the name of the blog just yet ;)

1 comment:

  1. I believe that the title is not "Ordinariate Use" or even "Anglican Use" but


    The Order of Mass
    For Use by the Ordinariates
    established under the Apostolic Constitution
    Anglicanorum coetibus

    ReplyDelete