Thursday, May 28, 2009

St Augustine of Canterbury

By my schedule, I will be driving to Queenstown soon...

The Church bids us celebrate the feast of St Augustine (but not that wonderful Father and Doctor, that loving and lovable saint, beloved of the Middle Ages, by too many to-day rejected as cold) - the feast of St Augustine of Canterbury, sent to Kent by Pope St Gregory the Great, the Apostle of the English, and there received with joy by King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha; as the Pope commanded him, he converted the pagan Angles and Saxons (among them my ancestors) to Christianity, and established bishoprics to care for them, among them the metropolitical see of Canterbury, the capital of the Kingdom of Kent, of which he was the first shepherd.
As is too well known, some thousand years passed, and wicked kings and queens (all too likely, it is feared, thus to have perished in hell) dragged England away from true Christian belief into a perverted Erastian cult, whose chief marks are confusion in doctrine and practice, love of pretence (with purported priests, priestesses and even an Archdruid of Canterbury) and a misguided pride in itself - whereas, as St Edmund Campion made plain to the raw Anglicans of his day, all their fathers, bishops, saints and men of old do testify against them that they were loyal sons of Rome, rejoicing in the truth, and no Protestant mob, deceived and deceiving.
Pray for illumination of the intellect and inspiration of the will by the Holy Ghost, at the intercession of St Augustine of Canterbury, of all Saints of England, and of Our Lady of Walsingham, ut unum sint.
(I would blog on the Collect of to-day, but have not time now: it too recalls God's making use of St Augustine to bring the pagan English the light of true faith, and prays that all who wander in error may be reunited in one Church.)
Since I'm in N.Z., and here Anglicanism was brought also, pray likewise for these folk who strive to follow the Gospel such as they know it - I saw in the newspaper a few days ago some foolish man describing himself as a "Christian agnostic" - and he was a retired Anglican cleric of some standing! He had been speaking at the graduation ceremony of the University of Otago, telling the graduands to query all, and accept no Bible, Koran or Pope as sure judge of truth: what a vile liberal madness, complete with anti-Catholic jibe. Pray for him!
And after the example of his great namesake, Augustine of Hippo, let us pray Christ to stir up love and true charity in our hearts, that we be rekindled, and rekindle the flame of fire in others.

4 comments:

matthias said...

100 years later the Erastian cult "whose chief marks are confusion in doctrine and practice, love of pretence ",yes some features of Anglicanism I have noticed when ever I have occasionally worshiped in Anglican Church ,although my Mum was a sydney anglican,she would be saying ICHABOD if she saw how some sections of the Anglican church were carrying on,if she were here.
hope your Mum is well Joshua

Joshua said...

Dear Matthias,

Yes, praise God, Mum tells me she's recovering nicely.

Remind me - what does Ichabod mean again? Is it something like "the glory has departed"?

I myself share the opinion of Dryden in his "The Panther and the Hind" - if only the Panther (the C. of E.) could lose his spots and be as milkwhite and pure as the Hind (the true Church)...

matthias said...

Exactly THE GLORY has departed.
I attended my current place of worship last night and had mixed feelings.
a.Singing-again the repeating of songs until,well ...repeating
b. good Bible study however when we were asked to think about the meaning of a passage in John that referred to redemption from sin,one woman when asked ,said "oh i do not like calling it sin,it is too negative" or words to that effect.I was gob smacked and the minister had no comeback but just nodded in assent .
c. I wondered if the songs that were being sung last night would have the same lifespan as the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Rite ,that i was privileged to attend last Friday.
d There was reference in the Bible Study to the fact that when we accept Christ we donot sit on our hands but we are meant to be working to help in the new creation of the world.umm!!
As I said mixed feelings

Joshua said...

Your comments are very apt: indeed, what of our modern worship songs is fit to stand beside the great hymns of old - consider the Gloria at Mass for example!