The Daily Office; beginning with the Portal Magazine's essay on the Ordinariate Use liturgy

In the June 2014 issue of the Portal Magazine, Msgr. Andrew Burnham has a very comprehensive, yet concise, article on the Ordinariate Liturgy. He begins his essay with this story.

There is a story about Mgr Graham Leonard, formerly Anglican Bishop of London, being asked by Cardinal Hume what he valued in the worship of the Church of England and would miss as a Catholic. He replied that it would be the Prayer Book Offices of Matins and Evensong, and in particular the psalms in course, following the Coverdale Psalter, as set in the Book of Common Prayer.

There is no doubt that the daily services are the jewel in the crown and, when both Pope Paul VI and Pope Benedict XVI expressed their admiration for Anglican worship, it was the public celebration of the Offices that they had most clearly in mind. Small wonder then that the Ordinariate clergy in the United Kingdom particularly value the availability to them, as Catholics, of Morning and Evening Prayer in the Prayer Book tradition, as distilled in the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham.

There is a wealth of material in the Customary, which I've been reading through again in recent weeks. And while Msgr. Burnham does not focus exclusively on the Daily Office in his essay (which you should go and read for all that it contains), I think that greater emphasis needs to be placed on the Daily Office as a truly daily experience of prayer in the life of Catholics, and particularly for those of the Anglican Use, for whom this is a particular heritage and tradition.

A recent post on the blog Gerry Lynch's Thoughts... asks "Why is Cathedral Evensong Growing and What Does It Mean?", and one of his answers is that he sees "weekday Evensong as ecumenical, interfaith and vital for a growing, healthy, Church." Evensong is ecumenical and interfaith, because anyone can participate, even those not yet baptized. While the Mass is undoubtedly important for evangelization, it also necessarily excludes some people from what, to many, will seem the central rite of the Eucharist, the Communion. But there is no part of Evensong (or Mattins) that I, as a confirmed, baptized Catholic, can do as a member of the congregation, that an unchurched seeker cannot do; whatever barriers there are to participation will be wholly interior, but that removes a modern complaint about erecting barriers; because in this service, we erect none.

And yet, as the author goes on to note: "Evensong is not necessarily undemanding. It gives tremendous space for daily study of Scripture, and disciplined prayer sustaining a life of Christian service."

For both reasons, evangelization and growth in Christian discipleship (and more), the Daily Office should be a key element of every parish, and particularly, every Ordinariate and Pastoral Provision's life.

‘Bring people to Christ,’ new society is told

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, speaks with Father Ernie Davis,
administrator of St. Therese Little Flower Parish, and Jim Carlyle, Jan. 25 after Msgr. Steenson
 formally inaugurated the Our Lady of Hope Society into the ordinariate.(Kevin Kelly/Key photo)

By Kevin Kelly

Feb.7,2014
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI — It was as simple has handing over a stack of some 20 signed applications.

On Jan. 25, following an Anglican Use High Mass, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson personally received the applications from Father Ernie Davis and accepted the Our Lady of Hope Society as part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

“You might wonder why we do this. It’s because the Pope says so,” Msgr. Steenson said, further explaining that the Vatican wants the ordinariate to have on file the documents from each member seeking full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican established the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter two years ago to receive in full communion former members of the Anglican Communion who also desired to retain their own prayers and forms of liturgy as full members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI first announced the structure of the “personal ordinariate” which might, though not quite precisely, resemble a “diocese” covering all of the United States and Canada, for receiving former members of the Anglican Communion in 2009 in the apostolic constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Pope Bendict also appointed Msgr. Steenson as the founding “ordinary”, and elevated him to the rank of protonotary apostolic, the highest rank of monsignor.

Because he is married — “Happily married for 40 years” — he could not be ordained as a bishop, although he is a full member of the both the United States and Canadian conferences of bishops.

Msgr. Steenson however reminded his newest community that they are attached to a parish which remains a parish of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and celebrates its 4 p.m. Saturday Anglican Use High Mass under the care of a former Episcopalian priest, Father Davis, who remains a priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, although the community itself is no longer a “personal parish” of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, but now a “community of the Ordinariate.”

“We’re plowing new ground,” he told the community. “Bishop (Robert W.) Finn is the bishop of this place, and that includes our community.”

Confusing? In his homily at the Mass of inauguration, Msgr. Steenson simplified for the community the task before them.

“Fly under the flag of evangelization,” he said. “We need to bring people to Christ.”...

Read the rest at: The Catholic Key

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

THE LITURGY AND THE ANGLICAN ORDINARIATES: AN EVANGELICAL OPPORTUNITY

...Whatever Thomas Cranmer became, at the time that he first translated the Latin Mass into English, drawing from Eastern sources as he did, he was a liturgical and linguistic genius. His pioneering creation, the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, was a work of beauty, and even subject to close analysis, Catholic understanding. His principal source for this work was, of course, the Sarum Rite, combined with a Benedictine spiritual worldview that he drew from the landscape of England itself. In saying so, I am in no way apologising for the theological, political, and historical travesty that led to the Prayer Book in the first place; I am only saying that, in spite of things, the resulting work could hardly have been surpassed. And it is this Book, together with its deeply flawed and wholly inadequate successor books that – for better or worse – spoke to, and for, the British people until at least the early twentieth century: from England to Wales and, to a lesser extent, Scotland...

Read the rest of this post that summarizes the liturgical roots of today's Ordinariate and the potential for the future at Symposium, the blog from a Ukranian Catholic priest in the UK.

The Ordinariate has finally arrived

By Damian Thompson  
Last updated: April 2nd, 2013

Here's a photo, taken by Lorna Muffat for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, that shows Mgr Keith Newton celebrating Easter Sunday Mass in the organisation's magnificent new London home, Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. And here's Mgr Newton with the priests and servers:

There's plenty of scepticism about the Ordinariate – especially since the careful circulation of a quote attributed to former Cardinal Bergoglio saying he didn't see the need for it. Well, we shall see. Pope Francis – who would never have encountered Anglicans in the Catholic tradition in Latin America – now finds himself head of the Ordinariate in three continents; his spokesman has said that this will be a permanent structure of the Catholic Church.

Will it be? That's up to the Ordinariate. Its leader in this country, Mgr Newton, has the jurisdiction if not the sacramental powers of a bishop – hence the mitre. The Warwick Street congregation is still small – the group didn't move into the church until Palm Sunday (and hasn't yet started using its own liturgy).
But there's an energy and sense of imagination here that promises great things. Essentially, the Ordinariate finds itself in the same position as most of the great orders and religious communities of the Church in their early days...

Read the rest of Mr. Thompson's post at The Telegraph's blogsite

A time for Christians to engage with the world

December 19, 2012 10:30 pm
By Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas is a time of great joy and an occasion for deep reflection, says Pope Benedict XVI

“Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” was the response of Jesus when asked about paying taxes. His questioners, of course, were laying a trap for him. They wanted to force him to take sides in the highly charged political debate about Roman rule in the land of Israel. Yet there was more at stake here: if Jesus really was the long-awaited Messiah, then surely he would oppose the Roman overlords. So the question was calculated to expose him either as a threat to the regime, or as a fraud.

Jesus’ answer deftly moves the argument to a higher plane, gently cautioning against both the politicisation of religion and the deification of temporal power, along with the relentless pursuit of wealth. His audience needed to be reminded that the Messiah was not Caesar, and Caesar was not God. The kingdom that Jesus came to establish was of an altogether higher order. As he told Pontius Pilate: “My kingship is not of this world.”...

From the emperor cult of ancient Rome to the totalitarian regimes of the past century, Caesar has tried to take the place of God. When Christians refuse to bow down before the false gods proposed today, it is not because of an antiquated worldview. Rather, it is because they are free from the constraints of ideology and inspired by such a noble vision of human destiny that they cannot collude with anything that undermines it.

In Italy, many crib scenes feature the ruins of ancient Roman buildings in the background. This shows that the birth of the child Jesus marks the end of the old order, the pagan world, in which Caesar’s claims went virtually unchallenged. Now there is a new king, who relies not on the force of arms, but on the power of love...

Read the rest of Pope Benedict's editorial in The Financial Times

Compassionate Evangelization

Dr. Barbara Elliott of the Center for Cultural Renewal, lecturer for the Catherine of Siena Institute and author of Street Saints: Renewing American Cities and Equipping The Saints addressed the Anglican Use Society's annual conference on Friday evening. The topic of her address was "Compassionate Evangelization in 21st Century America".

"New Evangelisation" at a Local Level

New Evangelisation at a Local Level from UKOrdinariate on Vimeo.

Fr Ian Hellyer from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham speaks about the importance of the work of evangelisation at a local level.

A New Bridge across the Tiber

by Rev. Dwight Longenecker

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has now been established in England. By Easter this year, three bishops, sixty priests, and nearly one thousand lay people had left the Church of England to be received into the Catholic Church. Archbishop Donald Wuerl is working with interested parties to establish the ordinariate in the United States, and progress is being made in Canada and Australia for ordinariates to be erected there later this year.

What will be the future of this new ordinariate?

Read on as Fr. Longenecker explores the possibilities for the Anglican Ordinariates in Crisis magazine.

Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani minister who defended Asia Bibi, is assassinated

September 9, 1968 - March 2, 2011
Although not directly related to the Pastoral Provision, Anglican Use or Ordinariates, I commend to you this story of a fellow Catholic Christian, who stood up for the oppressed Christians and other minorities of his native Pakistan. This morning, this sole Christian member of the Pakistani government was gunned down in hatred for the faith, as was made clear by the notes left at the site of his murder.

Jesus warned us of persecution, as did the Apostles. And Jesus prayed for us as well, knowing the world into which he was sending his disciples:

That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)

Unity is central to mission; and if we would be evangelists, we must also seek unity.

March 2, 2010
by Jibran Khan

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - The Pakistani minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti was killed this morning by an armed commando. The attack was carried out in the I-8 / 3 neighbourhood by a group of masked men who ambushed the minister on the street. They pulled him out of his car and opened fire at point blank range before fleeing in a car.

The grandson of Shabhaz Bhatti was traveling with him when the attack took place. The terrorists continued to fire for about two minutes. There was no security guard with Bhatti when the attack occurred. The minister was immediately rushed to Shifa hospital, where, however, the doctors failed to save him. The killers left a note at the scene of the crime: "Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claims responsibility for the assassination of Bhatti for speaking out against the blasphemy law". Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan 'is an umbrella organization of various groups of Islamic militants...

Read in full at Asia News

Mr. Bhatti had recorded an interview several months ago predicting this end, but declared his faith in Christ and his determiniation to continue his struggle and witness, even at the risk of death. The BBC has a video of this interview.

I agree with commenters on Rorate Coeli that Mr. Bhatti is a martyr. May his prayers for the people of Pakistan and for the Church, and our prayers through him, be received in the Divine Presence.

See also this earlier story at Asia News on Bhatti.

Papal Speeches & Homilies in the United Kingdom

The Vatican has posted all the speeches and homilies of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI during his apostolic visit to the United Kingdom. Take the time to read them.

Address to Authorities at Holyrood House
Homily in Glasgow on Religion and Liberty
Address at Westminster Hall: The example of St. Thomas More
Homily at Mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood (Archdiocese of Westminster)
Homily on the eve of the beatification of Newman
Homily at the Mass of Beatification of John Henry Newman
Meeting with the Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales