The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints

Having sung through "The Church's One Foundation", I was minded to look to Thomas Ken's devotional expansion and meditation upon the Apostles' Creed, seeing what insights he had into belief in "The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints".  

Indeed, what that saintly Anglican wrote is quite acceptable and praiseworthy insofar as it goes; a Catholic would wish only to name his own diocese or perhaps rite as the "particular church" to which he belongs; by church "of England" a Catholic would intend to name, not "Rowan's C. of E. so frayed / That withers like a flower decayed", but the local church in communion with Christ's Vicar.  

And that, of course, is the chief ecclesiological omission – reference, not just to pastors having the keys of governance, but to Peter's successor, the chief shepherd of Our Lord's earthly flock.  As far as Ken goes in his mention of saints, he is correct, but we would want to specify that we not only praise them and study their good examples, who pray for us, but add that we indeed rightly pray them to intercede for us.  We would also wish to pray for our dear dead.

Thus far myself; now, the pious words of Thomas Ken, in meditation upon the 9th article of the Apostles' Creed:

The Holy Catholic Church.

I believe, O blessed and adorable Mediator, that the church is a society of persons, founded by thy love to sinners, (Matt. xvi. 18; Eph. v. 25.) united into one body, of which thou art the head, (Col. i. 18.) initiated by baptism, (Matt, xxviii. 19.) nourished by the eucharist, (Matt. xxvi. 26.) governed by pastors commissioned by thee, and endowed with the power of the keys, (Matt, xviii. 18; John xx. 22, 23.) professing the doctrine taught by thee, (Acts ii. 41, 42.) and delivered to the saints, (Jude iii.) and devoted to praise and to love thee.

I believe, O holy Jesus, that thy church is holy like thee, its author; holy by the original design of its institution, (2 Tim. i. 9.) holy by baptismal dedication, holy in all its administrations which tend to produce holiness; (2 Tim. ii. 19.) and though there will be always a mixture of good and bad in it in this world, (Matt. xiii. 24.) yet it has always many real saints in it; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, Lord, this church to be catholic, or universal, made up of the collection of all particular churches; I believe it to be catholic in respect of time, comprehending all ages to the world’s end, to which it is to endure; (Matt. xvi. 18; xxviii. 20.) catholic in respect of all places, out of which believers are to be gathered; (Matt, xxviii. 19.) catholic in respect of all saving faith, of which this creed contains the substance, which shall in it always be taught; (John xvi. 13.) catholic in respect of all graces, which shall in it be practised; and catholic in respect of that catholic war it is to wage against all its ghostly enemies, for which it is called militant: O preserve me always a true member of thy catholic church, that I may always inseparably adhere to thee, that I may always devoutly praise and love thee.

Glory be to thee, O Lord my God, who hast made me a member of the particular church of England [sic], whose faith, and government, and worship are holy, and catholic, and apostolic, and free from the extremes of irreverence or superstition, and which I firmly believe to be a sound part of thy church universal, and which teaches me charity to those who dissent from me; and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

O my God, give me grace to continue stedfast in her bosom, to improve all those helps to true piety, all those means of grace, all those incentives of thy love, thou hast mercifully indulged me in her communion, that I may with primitive affections and fervour praise and love thee.

The Communion of Saints.

I believe, O King of Saints, that among the saints on earth, whether real, or in outward profession only, there ought to be a mutual catholic participation of all good things, (1 John i. 7.) which is the immediate effect of catholic love. Thou, O God of Love, restore it to thy church.

I believe, O thou God of Love, that all the saints on earth by profession ought to communicate one with another in evangelical worship, and the same holy sacraments in the same divine and apostolical faith, (Acts ii. 42, 46.) in all offices of corporal (Gal. vi. 10.) and spiritual charity, (Romans xii. 9, &c. 1 Thess. v. 14; Heb. x. 25.) in reciprocal delight in each other’s salvation, and in tender sympathy as members of one and the same body, (1 Cor. xii. 13, 26.) O God of Peace, restore in thy good time this catholic communion, that with one heart and one mouth we may all praise and love thee.

O my God, amidst the deplorable divisions of thy church, O let me never widen its breaches, but give me catholic charity to all that are baptized in thy name, and catholic communion with all Christians in desire. O deliver me from the sins and errors, from the schisms and heresies of the age. O give me grace to pray daily for the peace of thy church, (Psalm cxxii. 6.) and earnestly to seek it, and to excite all I can to praise and to love thee.

I believe, O most holy Jesus, that thy saints here below have communion with thy saints above, (Heb. xii. 22.) that they pray for us in heaven, while we celebrate their memories, congratulate their bliss, give thee thanks for their labours of love, and imitate their example; for which all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, O gracious Redeemer, that thy saints here on earth have communion with the holy angels above; that they are ministering spirits (Heb. i. 14.) sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, and watch over us, (Psalm xxxiv. 7.) and we give thanks to thee for their protection, and emulate their incessant praises and ready obedience; for which all love, all glory be to thee.

I believe, O my Lord and my God, that the saints in this life have communion with the three persons of the most adorable Trinity, (1 John i. 3; Phil. ii. 1.) in the same most benign influences of love, in which all three conspire; for which all love, all glory be to thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, world without end.

Glory be to thee, O goodness infinitely diffusive, for all the graces and blessings in which the saints communicate, for breathing thy love into thy mystical body, as the very soul that informs it, that all that believe in thee may love one another, and all join in loving thee.

An Uplifting Hymn

For Peter, Patrick and Mary:

Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900) wrote the following well-known hymn, which interestingly enough formed part of his Lyra Fidelium; Twelve Hymns of the Twelve Articles of the Apostles’ Creed (1866).   

Given this fact, "The Church's One Foundation" is pretty obviously the hymn meant to correspond to the 9th article of the Apostles' Creed – "[I believe in] the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints" ([Credo in] sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem) – where "communion of saints" can be understood in two ways, since sanctorum in the Latin can mean both "holy people" and "holy things":

1. as referring to the fellowship we have with each other here and throughout the earth, and with the saints above, and with the faithful departed, "all the whole Church", the Body of Christ; 
2. and as our communion in Holy Things, that is, in the Holy Gifts of the Eucharist, "which makes the Church" as the saying is, since in receiving the Body we are knit together as Christ's Body.

The many Scriptural references in the hymn I will not pick out at this time; I will note the seldom-sung 3rd stanza (marked with asterisks) of the original, which in many ways even more starkly insists on the message of the 4th.  So, too, what is normally sung as the last stanza is in reality but the first half of the 6th joined to the first half of the 7th – again, I've marked the lines usually omitted with asterisks, and put a mark of juncture between the two stanzas.

The Church’s one foundation

Is Jesus Christ her Lord,

She is His new creation

By water and the Word.

From Heav’n He came and sought her

To be His holy bride;

With His own blood He bought her

And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,

Yet one o’er all the earth;

Her charter of salvation,

One Lord, one faith, one birth;

One holy Name she blesses,

Partakes one holy food,

And to one hope she presses,

With every grace endued.

*The Church shall never perish!

*Her dear Lord to defend,

*To guide, sustain, and cherish,

*Is with her to the end:

*Though there be those who hate her,

*And false sons in her pale,

*Against both foe or traitor

*She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder

Men see her sore oppressed,

By schisms rent asunder,

By heresies distressed:

Yet saints their watch are keeping,

Their cry goes up, “How long?”

And soon the night of weeping

Shall be the morn of song!

’Mid toil and tribulation,

And tumult of her war,

She waits the consummation

Of peace forevermore;

Till, with the vision glorious,

Her longing eyes are blest,

And the great Church victorious

Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union

With God the Three in One,

And mystic sweet communion

With those whose rest is won,

*With all her sons and daughters

*Who, by the Master’s hand

*Led through the deathly waters,

*Repose in Eden land.

(

O happy ones and holy!

Lord, give us grace that we

Like them, the meek and lowly,

On high may dwell with Thee:

*There, past the border mountains,

*Where in sweet vales the Bride

*With Thee by living fountains

*Forever shall abide!

(The tune for this is of course "Aurelia" (76.76.D), by Samuel Sebastian Wesley.)

Both Lungs

Theophan the Recluse (canonized by the Russian Orthodox in 1988) was a nineteenth century monk and bishop, who largely devoted himself to composing works of spiritual instruction - and while he fuelled the appetite of his countrymen for ghostly counsel by translating and editing the Philokalia (itself a Greek anthology of Patristic mystic texts), he also issued a book concerning the spiritual combat, which, as he happily stated, he drew from the writings of none other than St Alphonsus Liguori (whom he also imitated by relinquishing his diocese in order to pray, meditate, and labour as an evangelist via the printing press). Theophan was also notable for celebrating the Divine Liturgy each and every day - even in his hermitage! To the amazement of his contemporaries, he felt it right and salutary to offer the Holy Sacrifice daily, since he approved of the Western custom in this regard.

There are many more such unexpected crossovers between East and West - for instance, in Russian seminaries the training is not done by reading from the Fathers (despite Orthodox claims that they keep ever to their pure ancient teachings), but from manuals, which (but for such matters as the procession of the Holy Ghost and other famous points of disagreement) are most comparable to neo-scholastic manuals like those of Tanquerey et al.

I was just discussing all this and much else besides with my mate Justin this afternoon (using up a lot of mobile phone credit). It is vital to adhere to the Catholicity of the Fathers, to the Orthodoxy of the Fathers, seeing that the organic development of the Church over time must ever be true to its roots: for the Faith preached by Christ, by His Apostles, by the Fathers, by the Doctors, must be one and the same - after all, St Thomas Aquinas would have been horrified at the thought that he was an innovator: he would have described himself as an expositor of Sacred Doctrine, that is, of Holy Scripture, adhering to the teachings of Fathers; recall that his Summa was for beginners, and his commentaries on Scripture and on the sentences of the Fathers as arranged by Peter Lombard were his works for the proficient.

Nowadays, the Eastern Orthodox can appear trapped in their cultural milieu, even in ethnic chauvinism; but western Catholics merely imitate the anomie of their unchurched peers, alienated from their traditional cultures. While the Orthodox (without insult to their abiding in the Faith of the first millennium) can appear pre-modern in their attitudes, too often Catholics are contaminated by the post-modern retreat from reason into fuzzy-minded indecision, relativism, and indifference grading into unbelief. Orthodoxy is the desperate need of the west: we have it in Christ's Vicar, but all too often modern Catholics are ignorant of their religion, fearing and repulsed by Rome! The West must reacquaint itself with the Fathers (as Vatican II solemnly averred). We cannot expect the Orthodox to reunite with the Catholic Church, ending the age-old schism, if we remove not the beam from our own eye: our decadence, our dissent, our laxity, our abuses of the sacred liturgy - all of which the Orthodox abhor with horror and dismay.

As John Paul II said, the Church must breathe with both lungs.