NCRegister and Anglican Use Mass

While in KC yesterday, I received the daily update e-mail from the National Catholic Register and found out that the Managing Editor is just about finished reading Supremacy and Survival! He has it on his bedside table stack of books; it's second from the top. Tom Wehner has been reading it as background to the Pope's visit to the UK. I've had another reader tell me that he thought it was good preparation for one of the official pilgrimages to the Beatification and other Newman sites (all three English Oratories, the University of Oxford, etc!).


We felt wonderfully welcome at St. Therese Little Flower. Father Ernie Davis met us on the porch of the church as the previous Mass had just concluded. He set up a table for me at the back of the church and chatted. The congregation was pretty small, the organist excellent, and the liturgy beautiful. There were some photocopied and bound brochures with the order the Anglican Use Mass, and the readings were the same as the Roman Rite for this Sunday. One thing Mark and I both appreciated was that we received Holy Communion under both forms while kneeling at the step at the bottom of the sanctuary (there was no altar rail).


After Holy Communion there were a few announcements and then Father announced my presence and invited everyone to help me carry my books downstairs to coffee and donuts after Mass! There was more than coffee and donuts, however: some delicious hominy dish, hummus and crackers, a cookie pizza with fruit, and other sweet treats. Some parishioners came over and asked me some questions--and purchased copies of my book--and then Father Davis asked me to say a few words about Anglicanorum Coetibus in the context of the English Reformation. He told me afterwards that the ordinariate in that area will be based out of St. Therese the Little Flower. All in all, it was a wonderful experience.