Letter from Fr. Allen: June 7, 2018

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+JMJ+

Dear friends,

I read some time ago that when Pope St John Paul made an apostolic journey to his native Poland, a Mass was planned for the parish in which he grew up, in the town of Wadowice. As Mass began, there was some confusion as the people and clergy realized the Pope was not in the procession! It turned out that as everyone moved forward down the aisle, John Paul took a hard left, and was to be seen in the small baptistry, where he knelt, embraced, and kissed the font where he on 20 June 1920 had died with Christ and been raised with him in the waters of Baptism.

This Sunday we will baptize our community's newest and youngest member, Logan West Miller. It will be an opportunity for all of us, even as we rejoice for Westy, to recall our own baptisms, and, as we are sprinkled with the baptismal water and the Asperges me is chanted, to give thanks (even if we may not embrace and kiss the fonts in which we were reborn) for the union with Christ effected there, and for the "glorious freedom of the children of God" which is ours.

I thank all of you who attended last Saturday's parish meeting. You will be hearing more soon about our discussions that day, and especially about next steps and opportunities to lend a hand as we move forward together in faith.

And thanks also for the lovely reception and your many generous gifts on the occasion of my fiftieth(!?) birthday! It was very much appreciated, and your friendship will help me ward off the ever-encroaching senescence and decrepitude!

See you Sunday, and God bless you, 
Fr Allen

Pope Saint John Paul II at his baptismal font image via @ChurchinPoland

Pope Saint John Paul II at his baptismal font 

image via @ChurchinPoland

Letter from Fr. Allen: June 1, 2018

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+JMJ+

Dear friends,

As you know - I hope! - this Sunday is our "Feast of Title," the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, more commonly known as "Corpus Christi." Further, it will be the fifth anniversary of our community's foundation. It was on this great feast when our original band of pilgrims was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church at the hands of Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, our first ordinary. 

As I recall that day five years ago, I recall that I had some ideas, even some confident ideas, about how things would unfold for our community from there. I was wrong in every respect! Just last week at Mass we heard St James warn us against being too certain in our future plans: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain'; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that' (James 4.12-15).

Well, God's plans are better than ours! His plans are for our sanctification, for our maturity, for our salvation. And while we may not know God's plans, we may be sure that he does. As he said by his prophet Jeremiah to Israel in their exile: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer 29.11,12). 

None of that means that we are to be passive or not to make plans. Not at all. Rather, it frees us to be faithful and bold, knowing that God cares for us, watches over us, and will lead us finally home to himself. This Saturday's parish meeting is precisely about being faithful and bold as we speak and pray together about next steps for our community and even make practical, concrete plans so that we may grow and this project to preserve and nourish the Anglican patrimony in the Catholic Church may be a means for many to discover the peace and joy of the Church's full communion. So please come! And if you cannot come, please pray!

And on Sunday afternoon, do not miss the Choral Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in celebration of our Fifth Anniversary! We will have a wonderful choir and the sacred music will be "Spoleto-worthy." A festive reception in the courtyard will follow. This will be the last of our monthly evensongs until September, so if you haven't yet attended, this your chance. Do come - and invite your friends!

See you Sunday, and God bless you, 
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen: May 24, 2018

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+JMJ+

Dear friends,

Last Sunday's Solemnity of Pentecost brought to a close the great feasts of our redemption - those mighty acts of God whereby we are redeemed. They are summed up starkly for us in the Great Litany: 

By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation....By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the Coming of the Holy Spirit, Good Lord, deliver us. 

And with the mystery of our redemption in Christ laid before us, the Church invites us to meditate on that redemption in a smaller cycle of feasts beginning this Sunday with Trinity Sunday, then Corpus Christi (our Feast of Title!) next Sunday, and then the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart on the following Friday. Of this sequence of feasts, Pope Benedict once said,
 
Each one of these liturgical events highlights a perspective by which the whole mystery of the Christian faith is embraced: and that is, respectively the reality of the Triune God, the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the divine and human centre of the Person of Christ. These are truly aspects of the one mystery of salvation which, in a certain sense, sum up the whole itinerary of the revelation of Jesus, from his Incarnation to his death and Resurrection and, finally, to his Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And so I urge you to be in Mass and give yourself over to this annual pattern of devotion, that the Holy Spirit may lead you "further up and further in" to the joy and freedom of our salvation in Christ.

As you know, Corpus Christi is a special celebration for us, and also an occasion to think and pray together about God's call to us as a community. Please do participate in the parish meeting on Saturday, June 2nd, and also do not neglect to give thanks, pray, and adore at Evensong & Benediction on Sunday the 3rd (festive wine and cheese reception to follow!). Also, your RSVP for the parish meeting would be a big help in our planning.

See you Sunday, and God bless you, 
Fr Allen

Letter from Fr. Allen: May 18, 2018

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+JMJ+

Dear friends,

Come, Holy Ghost!

This Sunday we keep the great solemnity of Pentecost, or "Whitsunday" as it is commonly called in the English tradition. We remember that on this day God the Holy Ghost, filled and empowered the infant Apostolic Church to give witness to the good news of Jesus "in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Pentecost has not been revoked! Still the Spirit fills, empowers, and guides the Church - you and me! - in the joyful work of the Gospel.

In the calendar of the Ordinariates the "octave" of Pentecost has been restored - the entire week, Sunday to Sunday, becomes one long and festive liturgical day. This octave, especially for a missionary enterprise like the Ordinariates, reminds us of the Spirit's continuing presence and power among us - again, precisely for the work of ministry. 

As we celebrate Whitsunday and as we approach the fifth anniversary of our community's founding on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (Sunday, June 3rd), I ask you to pray that we would have a renewed awareness of and reliance upon the Spirit's gifts to us, so that, like the Apostles on the morning of Pentecost, we too might give joyful and bold witness to the resurrection of Jesus, and that many might be added to our number of peaceful, happy Catholics.

To that end, and inseparably from it, I ask you - members and friends alike - to attend the parish meeting planned for Saturday, June 2nd, as we begin reasoning and praying together about the next steps in our community's life (which is to ask, where are we going? how may we give ourselves more fully to the Spirit's ministry of witness to Jesus?), and also to join with us for Evensong & Benediction in celebration our Fifth Anniversary on Corpus Christi, our "titular solemnity," on Sunday, June 3rd.

See you Sunday, and God bless you, 
Fr Allen