The Ordinariate Attraction

Over at Aleteia, Deborah Gyapong, a freelance journalist in Canada, writes about the Divine Worship of the Anglican Ordinariate:

Our liturgy is a Catholic Mass in the language of Shakespeare. We pray using sacral language forms of “thee” and “thou.” Though fully approved by the relevant Vatican congregations, our Mass is touched by the Reformation through the use of some of Archbishop Cranmer’s gorgeous English translations of Latin collects, the inclusion of the Comfortable Words of Scripture following our Penitential Rite and the beautiful Prayer of Humble Access before Holy Communion. Our liturgy also incorporates elements of pre-Reformation English Catholicism in its use of Sarum collects and chants.

The rubrics are similar to those of the Traditional Latin Mass—it is a ballet of genuflection, usually prayed ad orientem, but it has many of the hallmarks of the reform of the liturgy called for in the Second Vatican Council: it’s in the vernacular and in addition to traditional chanted introits and graduals we sing hymns (robustly, often in four-part harmony!).

What Pope Benedict XVI made possible was for us to bring the heirlooms of English Catholicism and the underpinning of the civilization of the English-speaking world into their pride of place in the Catholic Church, from which they developed.

Read the rest there.

The Prayer of Humble Access before Holy Communion:

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us. Amen.

The Comfortable Words are comforting words of forgiveness:

Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him.
Come unto me all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
So God loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that
all that believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Hear also what St Paul saith.
This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Hear also what St John saith.
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.

I hope to go to Mass at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Kansas City, the Ordinariate parish, yet this year during a visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum exhibition of Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium:

Artist Janet Cardiff’s contemporary sound installation emits polyphonic choral music written in the mid-1500s by Thomas Tallis. Called “Achingly beautiful” by the New Yorker and “Transcendent” by the New York Times, Forty-Part Motet is an immersive experience not to be missed.

The installation consists of 40 speakers arranged in a large oval turned inward. Sung in Latin and a cappella by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, one singer’s voice comes from each speaker. Visitors are invited to enter and move amongst the configuration of speakers to discover what the artist describes as “walking into a piece of music.” The first of its kind at the Nelson-Atkins, Forty-Part Motet is a new way for visitors to engage with contemporary art.

I wonder if they will have the exhibit in the Cloister at Nelson-Atkins?

The First Ordinariate Chrism Mass with Its Bishop

Since the Anglican/Episcopalian Ordinariate in North America, named for The Chair of St. Peter, now has an ordained Bishop as its ordinary, he will celebrate the first Chrism Mass for the Ordinariate this Holy Week:

On March 17 at 7 pm, Bishop Steven J. Lopes, the recently ordained first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will come to Washington, D.C. to celebrate a historic Chrism Mass.

The Chrism Mass will be at St. Luke’s at Immaculate Conception Church, an Ordinariate parish in downtown Washington. This is a historic event because Bishop Lopes will be celebrating the very first Chrism Mass for the Ordinariate.

The Most Reverend Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, will be in attendance. As the Holy Father’s personal representative to the U.S., Archbishop Viganò’s presence at the Ordinariate’s Chrism Mass is a powerful sign of the Holy See’s support and encouragement for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

A Chrism Mass is the Mass at which a bishop blesses the holy oils that will be used in his diocese throughout the year to baptize and confirm catechumens and for the sick. Since only a bishop can bless the holy oils, Ordinariate priests have until now obtained the oils used for anointing from the geographical dioceses in which they reside. During the Mass, the priests of the Ordinariate will renew their priestly promises, as well.

“It is an honor that Bishop Lopes has chosen to come to St. Luke’s for his first Chrism Mass, which is a landmark event in the life of the Ordinariate,” Father Mark Lewis, pastor of St. Luke’s, said.

A recent article in the U.K. Catholic Herald bore the headline, “Why You Should Attend A Chrism Mass at Least Once in Your Life.” The author was struck that many people, some as yet unborn, would be anointed with the oils blessed at that Mass. The Chrism Mass at St. Luke’s at Immaculate Conception will be additionally interesting because it will be the first Chrism Mass in the Catholic Church celebrated with Divine Worship: The Missal, the newly propagated Missal which blends language from the Anglican tradition with a fully Catholic Mass.

The Ordinaries of the Ordinariates in the U.K. and Australia are Monsignors, former Anglican ministers who are married and thus not eligible for the episcopate. In England, for example the Apostolic Nuncio, The Most Reverend Antonio Mennini, is the principal celebrant at the Chrism Mass, receiving the vows of obedience from the priests and deacons on behalf of the Pope.

More about St. Luke's at Immaculate Conception here.