20 Saturday Feb 2021
Posted in Uncategorized
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This week I contributed to the new podcast of The Portal Magazine, the monthly online magazine of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, speaking about the forthcoming Divine Worship: Daily Office (Commonwealth Edition), which will be published by The Catholic Truth Society later this year.
15 Monday Jun 2020
Posted in Ordinariate
I was recently interviewed on The Cordial Catholic Podcast on my own journey to the Catholic Church and the role and purpose of the personal ordinariates. K. Albert Little, the presenter of The Cordial Catholic, is himself a former Protestant who came into the Catholic Church around the time of Anglicanorum cœtibus.
12 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in Ordinariate
Here is a recent interview with Pierpaolo Finaldi, CEO and Publisher of the Catholic Truth Society, on the life and mission of the personal ordinariates. The CTS publishes Divine Worship: The Missal, Divine Worship: Occasional Services, and Divine Worship: Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying. They are currently working on the Divine Office for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.
05 Tuesday Jul 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
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anglicanorum coetibus, BSDW, Cardinal Sarah, Divine Worship, inculturation, liturgy, ordinariate
Cardinal Robert Sarah at Sacra Liturgia (Photo: Sacra Liturgia)
Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has this evening delivered the opening address of the 2016 Sacra Liturgia conference in London. His Eminence made many important and significant points concerning the celebration of the sacred liturgy, and indeed the particular reforms and liturgical renewal that took place at, and following, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. He also made a number of practical suggestions – what he described as “possible ways of moving towards ‘the right way of celebrating the liturgy inwardly and outwardly,’ which was of course the desire expressed by Cardinal Ratzinger at the beginning of his great work, The Spirit of the Liturgy.”
21 Thursday Apr 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
Tags
BSDW, Divine Worship, liturgy, ordinariate, ordination, priesthood
The anniversary of my own ordination to the priesthood provides an occasion to offer a short post about the propers in Divine Worship: The Missal for one of the Masses for Various Necessities and Occasions designated For the Priest himself. This Mass formulary is given the additional title, in parentheses: “especially on the anniversary of ordination.” The majority of the propers for this Mass come from the Mass In Any Necessity, but the Introit, Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Postcommunion are proper to this formulary in Divine Worship. In the catalogue of masses in this section of the missal, this follows those For the Pope or Bishop and For the Election of the Pope.
01 Friday Apr 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
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baptism, BSDW, Divine Worship, easter, liturgy, octave, ordinariate
Holy Water, the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston TX
The days of the Easter Octave retain a special character throughout the Roman Rite. This is true of both the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form, and also of Divine Worship: The Missal, which preserves this sacred time in accordance with ancient practice, whilst also making use of certain Anglican translations and practices.
Overview of the Easter Octave
If the Paschal Vigil is “the mother of all vigils,” then the Easter Octave is to be considered the mother of all octaves. Its origins predate even those of the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord, of the Epiphany, and of Pentecost, and of course those of later feasts such as Corpus Christi. Blessed Ildefonso Schuster goes so far as to say that the octave “was characteristic of the Easter festivities.” Dom Prosper Guéranger says, with equal eloquence, “So ample and so profound is the mystery of the glorious Pasch, that an entire week may well be spent in its meditation.” With an overview of its associated practices, we can see how right they are.
16 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in Ordinariate
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anglicanorum coetibus, BSDW, Divine Worship, ember days, lent, liturgy, ordinariate, ordination, patrimony
Ordination of a Priest, Saint Mary’s Seminary, Houston TX
Having already discussed the general origin and development of Ember Days in their context in the season of Advent, this article will consider the second set of Ember Days in the liturgical year, those of the first full week of Lent, as they appear in Divine Worship: The Missal.
History of the Ember Days in Lent
To begin we must look at the specific purpose of the Ember Days in the season of Lent. Dom Prosper Guéranger notes that, in common with those in December, these Ember Days are oriented toward the bestowal of holy orders that traditionally took place on Ember Saturday, just before the Second Sunday of Lent. He comments that they are also “to offer to God the season of spring, and, by fasting and prayer, to draw down His blessing upon it.” The context of the Ember Days within the season of Lent is in fact a later development. Marking the natural season, rather than the liturgical season, the Ember Days began as celebrations of the season of spring in the first week of March, and were only fixed to days in Lent by Pope Saint Gregory VII in the eleventh century. Archdale King notes that the Ember Days in general “appear at the first to have no fixed date, the Pope announced their celebration some time in advance.” More than that, Josef Jungmann states that the idea of holding Ember Days in spring at all was, in fact, a comparatively late addition, introduced only after the development of those in summer, autumn, and winter. He writes: “We say quattuor tempora, but the most ancient sources of the Roman liturgy speak only of three such times … The fourth place, in spring, remained free, because there was already the great season of Quadragesima.” According to Jungmann, the adoption of the fourth set of Ember Days, in spring at first and then later specifically in Lent, may have brought about the transferral of the Mass formulary for the Ember Days in December to Lent, and the composition of new texts for the Ember Days in December with, as he puts it, “an Advent character”—an hypothesis he draws from the history of ordination practices in Rome.
06 Saturday Feb 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
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anglicanorum coetibus, BSDW, confession, Divine Worship, forty hours, lent, liturgy, ordinariate, pre-lent, septuagesima
The Cathedral Church of Saint Patrick, New York City, NY
The Sunday next before Lent, or Quinquagesima, is celebrated at the start of the week in which the Church keeps Ash Wednesday, and so begins her fasting preparation for Easter. Although the Eastern Churches mark this Sunday by further abstaining from dairy, in the Latin Church the character of the pre-Lent season continues to be articulated by a purely liturgical penitence. Due to this, the days that follow Quinquagesima are associated with celebrations such as Mardi Gras—the last moments of celebration before the rigours of Lent properly ensue. In England, particularly in the north, the Monday following Quinquagesima has historically been referred to as Collop Monday, because it saw the eating-up of leftover slices of meat, particularly bacon. The following day continues to be known as Shrove Tuesday, and aside from the eating of pancakes—a further means of enjoying the last moments before Ash Wednesday—the day is set aside for the practice of confession (shriving) before the start of Lent. In a sermon for Quinquagesima, Ælfric of Eynsham encourages his people in this practice, saying: “Now a pure and holy time draws near, in which we should atone for our neglect. Every Christian, therefore, should come to his confession and confess his hidden sins, and amend according to the guidance of his teacher.” Continue reading
30 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
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anglicanorum coetibus, BSDW, Divine Worship, ordinariate, pre-lent, Saint Paul, septuagesima, sexagesima
Saint Paul (Italy, ca. 1575-1600), The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
The Second Sunday before Lent is also known as Sexagesima, marking as it does the sixty days that remain before the celebration of Easter. With the pre-Lent season introduced last week, this Sunday continues our preparations for the start of Lent. In the Latin Church this follows the pattern of liturgical penitence established at Septuagesima, articulated by the suppression of the Gloria in excelsis and the Alleluia, and by the use of violet vestments. In the East, this Sunday is known as Dominica Carnisprivii, or Meat Fare Sunday, introducing as it does the first level of abstinence for the faithful (in this case, meat) in preparation for Great Lent.
25 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Liturgy, Ordinariate
Conversion of Saint Paul, Holy Comforter, Washington, D.C.
The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul provides an interesting insight into the textual sources of Divine Worship: The Missal. Two options are given for the Introit. The first, given in Divine Worship as Gaudeamus, is taken from the Missale Sarisburiense, or Sarum Missal. Here it is entitled Lætemur in omnes, and the translation given in Divine Worship appears to be that of the 1906 English Hymnal. Percy Dearmer, one of the editors of the hymnal, was amongst those seeking to preserve certain Sarum customs within Anglicanism, sometimes in opposition to a perceived Romanisation.
