A Bishop for the Ordinariate & Advent News!

Dear friends - 
To paraphrase the Holy Angels, I bring you good news of two great joys! And some important liturgical notes, as well, so please read below!
I wish each of you a happy and blessed (and well-fed!) Thanksgiving - enjoy!
Faithfully in Christ,
Fr. Allen

Great Joy #1

Pope Francis has appointed Monsignor Steven Lopes as the first Bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter! Bishop-elect Lopes, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has served for more than ten years as an official in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, and has worked on the Ordinariate "project" since its inception, including guiding the commission tasked with incorporating classically Anglican liturgies into Catholic worship. I've had the pleasure of meeting Bishop-elect Lopes and hearing him speak on two occasions, including when he led the Ordinariate's clergy retreat two years ago. I could not be more pleased and encouraged by the appointment. Bishop-elect Lopes will be ordained in Houston on Candlemas (2/2). I will be sending you more news soon, but in the meantime, you can read all about Bishop-elect Lopes and the significance of his appointment here:

“With this appointment, Pope Francis affirms and amplifies Pope Benedict’s vision for Christian unity, in which diverse expressions of one faith are joined together in the Church. By naming Bishop-elect Lopes, the Pope has confirmed that the Ordinariate is a permanent, enduring part of the Catholic Church, like any other diocese — one that is now given a bishop so that it may deepen its contribution to the life of the Church and the world.”
— http://ordinariate.net/press-release

Great Joy #2

Our second bit of good news is that this Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, the Missal created for the use of the Ordinariates goes into use (finally!). Divine Worship: The Missal is a beautifully produced work, truly "a treasure to be shared" with the whole Church. (Our friend Fr James Bradley has some beautiful photographs of the Missal - take a look!)

The arrival of our Missal heralds some changes to the celebration of our liturgy, and Advent itself brings a few changes. So that you may enter fully and actively into worship, please read though these notes:

  • Divine Worship allows Ordinariate communities to say either "Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost." In keeping with the language of the Book of Common Prayer tradition, we will say "Holy Ghost" in nearly all instances.
  • The temporary Missal we have been using directed that the response "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed" be repeated three times. Beginning this Sunday, and as allowed by the new Missal, we will say that formula one time only. 
  • Rather than the "Pew Missals" we have been using, we will have a simple Mass Card which will provide all the responses and texts required by the congregation. Due to the short time allowed for the production of these cards, a temporary version will be used this Sunday, with a more sturdy edition soon to follow. (Hand missals with complete texts of the Mass and other devotions will be produced and made available for purchase.)
  • We will begin singing from a hymnal (The Hymnal 1982, commonly used in Episcopal/Anglican parishes), rather than printing hymns in a bulletin.
  • On the first Sunday of Advent, Mass will begin with The Great Litany.
  • As last year, during Advent we will sing the simple Greek/Latin chants of the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Sanctus & Benedictus, Agnus Dei). You can see and hear those chants here. Please do take a look, listen, and practice!

My goal is to make entering in to our particular form of the Mass as simple as possible for visitors and “regulars” alike, and to produce a minimum of paper to be thrown away each week. Of course, “simple” will have to wait till after this Sunday, due to the Litany and temporary cards.
 
This is an exciting time for the Ordinariate, and I believe that in God’s Providence, the advent of our Missal and the appointment of a Bishop will mark a maturation in our life and turning point in our joyful work of evangelism. Bishop-elect Lopes has taken as his episcopal motto Magna Opera Domini – “Great are the works of the Lord.” Great indeed is God’s goodness to us in Jesus Christ and in drawing us into the fullness of faith in Christ within the Catholic Church. The true “good news of a great joy” is God’s gift of himself to us Jesus Christ. Let us go with gladness and gratitude to the Altar of the Lord and share our good news in all the world!

-PSA

November Indulgences: Help the Poor Souls in Purgatory!

The Church provides a great opportunity to help the departed by performing acts of devotion, repentance and charity. These acts provide remission from temporal punishment and are called indulgences. During the Octave of All Saints, (November 1-8) the Church gives us a special opportunity to gain indulgences for the departed.

A plenary or full indulgence, applicable only to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,

1. On any and each day from November 1 to 8, devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, if only mentally, for the departed; or
2. On All Soul’s Day, devoutly visit a church or oratory and recite an Our Father and Creed.

A partial indulgence, applicable only to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful who,
1. Devoutly visit a cemetery and at least mentally pray for the dead; or
2. Devoutly recite lauds and vespers from the Office for the Dead or the prayer:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord and let the perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.

It is also necessary to fulfill the following conditions for the plenary indulgence,
1. Make a sacramental confession; and
2. Receive Holy Communion; and
3. Pray for the intention of the Holy Father (no particular prayers are prescribed for the intention of the Holy Father, an Our Father and a Hail Mary are appropriate).

These conditions may be fulfilled several days before or after the visit to the Church. A plenary indulgence can only be acquired once in the course of the day; it is, however, fitting that Holy Communion be received and the prayer for the intention of the Holy Father be said on the same day the work is performed.

Prayers for the dead, especially offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for their eternal repose, rests securely on this truth expressed so eloquently by St. Paul: “Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:9).

(via charlestoncathedral.com)

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Today in the Ordinariates is the Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, Anglican priest and progenitor of the Oxford...

Posted by Corpus Christi Catholic Community on Friday, October 9, 2015

Rowan Williams on "Laudato Si"

Rowan Williams, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Emeritus, has written a characteristically insightful appreciation of and commentary on the Holy Father's recent encyclical, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home:

Perhaps the first thing that needs to be said about Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment is that it is an entirely natural development not only of the theology of Evangelii gaudium but also—as the extensive citations show—of the theology of Pope Benedict, especially as found in Caritas in veritate. Both the pope’s critics and his supporters have often missed the point: Benedict’s Christian humanism, his consistent theology of the dignity of the human person, his concern for a culture in which there is no longer a viable understanding of any given order independent of human will—all this is reiterated with force and clarity by Pope Francis. This encyclical is emphatically not charting a new course in papal theology, and those who speak as if this were the case have not been reading either pope with attention. What is uncomfortable for some is that a number of points clearly but briefly made by the previous pontiff have been drawn out in unmistakable terms. The fact that we live in a culture tone-deaf to any sense of natural law is here starkly illustrated by the persistent tendency of modern human agents to act as though the naked fact of personal desire for unlimited acquisition were the only “given” in the universe, so that ordinary calculations of prudence must be ignored. Measureless acquisition, consumption, or economic growth in a finite environment is a literally nonsensical idea; yet the imperative of growth remains unassailable, as though we did not really inhabit a material world.

(Read on)

Ordinariate Priest on Concelebrating Mass with the Pope.

After a full day of events and meetings on Wednesday, Pope Francis made his way to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the canonization Mass of Junipero Serra, which he celebrated with 275 bishops, almost 1,000 priests, 200 deacons and over 27,000 lay faithful and religious.

One of the priests in attendance was Rev. Albert Scharbach, an Ordinariate priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who is married with eight children. He was ordained in 2013 and now serves as pastor of Mount Calvary Church in the heart of the city.

The Ordinariate was established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 to enable groups of Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church while retaining aspects of their patrimony that can in turn be shared with the broader Catholic world. 

Fr. Scharbach, you concelebrated the Mass with the Holy Father; what was the highlight for you? 

Simply being there. In a profound way, I saw myself as the pope’s priest — connected to the Holy Father. As an Anglican priest, when I would go to the hospital and someone would say, ‘Are you a Catholic priest?’ and I had to say ‘no,’ it became painfully apparent that something was lacking there. When, by conscience, I had to become Catholic, I had to lay down my priesthood not knowing if I’d ever be able to pick it up again; I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to make that visceral desire a reality again. After 5 years of being laicized, it was gratifying beyond words to be able to say Mass with my local bishop after I was ordained a Catholic priest, knowing he is connected to the Holy Father. But now to say Mass with the pope himself, really confirms that reality for me — that I am his priest, connected to the center of the Church, to that authority in an organic way...

(Read on)

Archbishop Di Noia on the Liturgy and Mission of the Ordinariates. (UPDATED)

On Saturday, 19 September, Archbishop Augustine Di Noia OP, Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Chairman of the Interdicasterial Working Group, Anglicanae Traditiones, spoke at the annual Ordinariate Festival in London. The title of his paper was "Divine Worship and the Liturgical Vitality of the Church". Listen to his address, and to pray that his encouraging words may become a true roadmap for the growth and development of this important project in the Church.

UPDATE: Commentary from Fr. James Bradley:

As Archbishop Di Noia points out, “The institutional importance ofDivine Worship for the ordinariates is considerable. More than simply giving the ordinariates an outward distinctiveness that creates a profile for their parishes in a sea of Catholic parochial life, Divine Worship gives voice to the faith and tradition of prayer that has nourished the Catholic identity of the Anglican tradition”. In other words, whilst other elements of the Anglican tradition are by no means insignificant, it is only possible to make sense of these if first we have attended to the liturgical life given us. If the liturgical life of an ecclesial structure “uniquely expresses its inner life”, how can it make sense, on the one hand, to downplay the proper liturgical rites attributed to the personal ordinariates whilst, on the other hand, seek to promote other elements of the Anglican patrimony? The liturgical rites and texts are a priority. Divine Worship is an essential element. (Read on)

Where's the Pope!?

image via Huffington Post

Here is the schedule for Pope Francis' September 2015 Apostolic Journey to the United States of America as released by the Vatican on June 30, 2015.  All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time. And from the USCCB, "Ten Ways to Participate in Pope Francis' U.S. Visit"

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 (WASHINGTON, DC)

  • 4:00 p.m.    Arrival from Cuba at Joint Base Andrews

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 (WASHINGTON, DC)

  • 9:15a.m.  Welcome ceremony and meeting with President Obama at the White House
  • 11:00 a.m.  Papal Parade along the Ellipse and the National Mall (time approximate)
  • 11:30 a.m. Midday Prayer with the bishops of the United States, St. Matthew's Cathedral
  • 4:15p.m.  Mass of Canonization of Junipero Serra, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 (WASHINGTON, DC, NEW YORK CITY)

  • 9:20a.m.  Address to Joint Meeting of the United States Congress 
  • 11:15 a.m. Visit to St. Patrick in the City and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
  • 4:00 p.m.   Depart from Joint Base Andrews
  • 5:00 p.m.   Arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport
  • 6:45 p.m.   Evening Prayer (Vespers) at St. Patrick's Cathedral 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (NEW YORK CITY)

  • 8:30a.m. Visit to the United Nations and Address to the United Nations General Assembly
  • 11:30 a.m. Multi-religious service at 9/11 Memorial and Museum, World Trade Center 
  • 4:00p.m.  Visit to Our Lady Queen of Angels School, East Harlem
  • 5:00p.m.   Procession through Central Park (time approximate)
  • 6:00p.m.  Mass at Madison Square Garden

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 (NEW YORK CITY, PHILADELPHIA)

  • 8:40a.m.  Departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport
  • 9:30a.m.  Arrival at Atlantic Aviation, Philadelphia 
  • 10:30 a.m. Mass at Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia 
  • 4:45p.m.  Visit to Independence Mall
  • 7:30p.m.  Visit to the Festival of Families Benjamin Franklin Parkway

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 (PHILADELPHIA)

  • 9:15   a.m.  Meeting with bishops at St. Martin's Chapel, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary 
  • 11:00a.m. Visit to Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility 
  • 4:00p.m.   Mass for the conclusion of the World Meeting of Families, Benjamin Franklin Parkway 
  • 7:00   p.m.  Visit with organizers, volunteers and benefactors of the World Meeting of Families, Atlantic Aviation 
  • 8:00   p.m.  Departure for Rome