Anglican Prayers in Time of Pestilence

The liturgical and spiritual patrimony possessed by those former Anglicans who have entered into full communion with the Catholic Church is, as Pope Benedict XVI stated (would that he were still gloriously reigning!), a gift to be shared with the whole Church. 

For this reason, during the current coronavirus pandemic, it is appropriate to suggest the use of some of the more suitable Anglican prayers long ago drawn up for use “In the time of any common Plague or Sickness”.

The Scottish Book of Common Prayer of 1929 supplies a short collect, as follows:

O ALMIGHTY and merciful God, with whom are the issues of life and death: Grant us, we beseech thee, help and deliverance in this time of grievous sickness and mortality, and sanctify to us this affliction, that in our sore distress we may turn our hearts unto thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The English Book of Common Prayer of 1552 contained another suitable prayer, revised and enlarged for the standard 1662 version as follows:

O ALMIGHTY God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also, in the time of king David, didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet, remembering thy mercy, didst save the rest: Have pity upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sickness and mortality; that, like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying angel to cease from punishing, so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sickness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It will be evident why the main addition made at the time of the Restoration was to insert the phrase “didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wilderness, for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron; and also”, lest the prayer seem somewhat too anti-royalist.

The Irish Book of Common Prayer of 1926 supplies the following intercession:

O ALMIGHTY God, the Lord of life and death, of health and sickness: Have pity upon us miserable sinners, now visited with great sickness [and mortality]. Withdraw from us this grievous affliction. Sanctify to us, we beseech thee, this thy fatherly correction. Enlarge our charity to relieve those who need our help. Bless the remedies applied to assist them. Give us prudence to see, and vigour to use, those means which thy providence affords, for preventing and alleviating such calamities. And, above all, teach us to know how frail and uncertain our condition is, and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting; through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thine only Son our Lord. Amen. 

Finally, from the special prayers appointed to be said at the time of the Great Plague of London in 1665 comes this magnificently lengthy and Scripture-laden effusion:

O Most gratious God, Father of Mercies, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down upon us, we beseech thee, in much pity, and compassion, and behold our great misery, and trouble. For there is wrath gone out against us, and the Plague is begun. That dreadful Arrow of thine sticks fast in our flesh, and the Venime thereof fires our bloud, and drinks up our spirits; And shouldst thou suffer it to bring us all to the dust of Death, yet must we still acknowledge, that Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgements. For our Transgressions multiplied against thee, as the sand on the Sea-shore, might justly bring over us a Deluge of thy Wrath. The cry of our sins, that hath pierc’t the very Heavens, might well return with showers of Vengeance upon our Heads. While our Earth is defiled under the Inhabitants thereof, what wonder; if thou commandest an evil Angel to pour out his Vial into our Air, to fill it with Infection, and the noisome Pestilence, and so to turn the vary breath of our Life into the savour of Death unto us all! But yet we beseech thee, O our God, forget not thou to be gracious: neither shut thou up thy loving kindnesse in Displeasure. For his sake, who himselfe took our Infirmities, and bare our Sicknesses, have mercy upon us; and say to the destroying Angel, It is enough. O let that bloud of sprinkling, which speaks better things then that of Abel, be upon the Lintel, and the two side posts in all our Dwellings, that the Destroyer may passe by. Let the sweet Odour of thy blessed Son’s all-sufficient Sacrifice, and Intercession (infinitely more prevalent then the typicall Incense of Aaron) interpose between the living and the dead, and be our full, and perfect Atonement, ever acceptable with thee, that the Plague may be stayed. O let us live and we will praise thy Name; and these thy judgments shall teach us to look every Man into the plague of his own heart: that being cleansed from all our sins, we may serve thee with pure hearts all our dayes, perfecting holinesse in thy fear, till we come at last, where there is no more Sicknesse, nor Death, through thy tender Mercies in him alone, who is our Life, and our Health, and our Salvation, Jesus Christ, our ever blessed Saviour, and Redeemer. Amen[.]

UPDATE: And here is another prayer from the same order of service, perhaps less well-put but still pertinent:

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, whose Judgments are most severe, and terrible against obstinate offenders; but thy Mercies infinite to all, that with hearty Repentance, and true Faith turn unto thee: We, the sinful people of this land, whom for our iniquities, and manifold transgressions thou hast in many places most justly visited with the noisom Plague, and Pestilence, come now before the Throne of thy grace in the Name of thy dear Son, in whom thou art well pleased; and in confidence of that Atonement which he hath made for us, most humbly beseech thee to pardon, & forgive us all our sins in thought, word, or deed committed against thy Divine Majesty; to work in us dayly more and more a true, hearty, and unfeigned Sorrow, and Repentance for the same; to plant in our hearts a sincere and setled Resolution, by the assistance of thy Grace, to lead the rest of our lives in careful Obedience to thy holy Will in all things; and so to remove from us this Plague, and grievous Sickness, that we be not utterly consumed by means of thy heavy hand. To this end, grant us, good Lord of thy grace & mercy, all things conducing hereunto; Seasonable Weather, and good Air, and wholsom Food, & powerful Medicines, and whatever else thou seest to be good, and profitable for us; together with a due Care, and Conscience in using of the same; that we neither presume, nor tempt thy Majesty by neglecting the Means, which thou hast appointed, nor yet despair of thy Blessing in the diligent use of them, nor in any event repine, or murmure at thy Providence, what portion soever it allots us: But that submitting our selves to thy good pleasure in all things, we may commit the keeping of our Souls to thee in well-doing, as unto a faithfull Creatour; with compassionate pity, and charity (as we are able) succouring the sick, and preserving the whole, and praying fervently for All: and finally, that depending entirely upon thy Goodness, we may wait the hour of thy gracious Deliverance in Faith and Hope, and constant Patience, with perfect Resignation to thy wise, and just Appointment in all things; To the which we betake our selves, and the whole Nation, and what ever concerns us. Be mercifull unto us, O God be mercifull unto us, for our souls trust only in thee, and under the shadow of thy Wings shall be our refuge, till this Calamity be overpast [cf. Ps. 57. 1.]; which we beseech thee speedily to remove, if it be thy will, O Lord God of Mercies, and Father of Compassions, and to restore the voice of Joy, and Health once more into our Dwellings, for the alone Merits sake of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, our only Mediatour, and Advocate. Amen.

Customary Litany

The first-fruits of Cranmer's liturgical revolution was his English Litany of 1544.  It was a transitional product, still including invocations of the Saints while praying against "the bishop of Rome". The mediæval English Church was fond of the use of the age-old Litany of the Saints in procession, and Anglican usage retained it, albeit as a devotion said kneeling after Morning Prayer, on all Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays; Cranmer first drastically shortened the invocations of the Saints, then abolished them, but retained the other goodly portions of the ancient Litany in general, while adopting into English many feature's of Luther's German recasting of the Litany. The Anglican Litany, in the form it reached by 1662, is generally uncontroversial (especially since that petition against the Roman Pontiff had long since been deleted); to adapt it for Catholic use in the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham was a simple matter.

The following adjustments have been made:

1. First, the restoration of Cranmer's telescoped invocations of the Saints (vide infra);
2. The insertion of a petition for the Pope and Ordinary (before that for all the clergy);
3. Moving the petition for all Bishops, Priests and Deacons to a position before that for the Queen (for the avoidance of any appearance of Erastianism);
4. Combining the three petitions for the Queen (rather overblown in their deference to the Royal Person as they are) into one, adding reference to "all set in authority under her" (omitting the two petitions for the Royal Family, and the "Lords of the Council, and all the Nobility" respectively);
5. Revision of that for the Magistrates for more explicitness, by deleting "bless and keep the" and adding instead "guide all Judges and";
6. Addition of the words "or air" (deleting "by") to the petition for all travellers;
7. A strange change (perhaps by mistake?) of the response to "Son of God: we beseech thee to hear us" from a repetition of those same words to the usual "We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord";
8. The insertion of two more petitions immediately before the Agnus Dei, praying for the intercession of the Saints (which seems an odd repetition of the initial invocations) and interceding for the souls of the faithful departed respectively.

Here are the additional texts of the Litany in the Customary, for ease of consultation – firstly, those invocations of the Saints:

Saint Mary, Mother of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, pray for us.

All holy angels and archangels, and all holy orders of blessed spirits, pray for us.

All holy patriarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins; and [1544: all*] the blessed company of heaven, pray for us.

*It would appear that the Customary has missed out "all" by mistake, as it evidently makes better sense. 

Next, those for the Pope and Ordinary, and for the Queen and all in authority (between which the petition for all the clergy is placed): 

That it may please thee to bless N., our Pope, and N., our Ordinary, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee so to rule the hearts of thy servant, Elizabeth our Queen, and all set in authority under her, that they may above all things seek thy honour and glory, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. 

Lastly, the two final added petitions for the Saints' prayers and the repose of faithful departed:

That it may please thee to grant that, by the intercession of (N. and of) all thy Saints, we may finally attain to thy heavenly kingdom, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.
That it may please thee to grant to all the faithful departed eternal rest and perpetual light. We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

Ordinariate Mattins and Evensong

Some notes of mine about the order for Mattins and Evensong found in the Customary:

The use of a Sentence of Scripture and Penitential Rite at the start of the Hour is allowed before Evensong only; the Penitential Rite consists of an Exhortation, a Confession and an Absolution (non-sacramental, of course): the Exhortation derives from Evensong, not Mattins, in the 1979 US BCP (this same passage was reused in the Book of Divine Worship); the particular form of the Confession also follows the US BCP and BDW in omitting the 1662 phrases "And there is no health in us", "O God", and "miserable offenders", as well as making slight changes in the use of personal pronouns from the more archaic "them which" and "them that", and also reading "Jesus" not "Jesu". Finally, the Absolution follows the BDW in adding "May" to make the subjunctive sense clear, and changing from the 1979 US BCP by reading "us" and "our", not "you" and "your": 

  

Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of Almighty God our heavenly Father, to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his holy Word, and to ask, for ourselves and on behalf of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy.

or

Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.

Almighty and most merciful Father,

we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,

we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,

we have offended against thy holy laws,

we have left undone those things which we ought to have done,

and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us,

spare thou those who confess their faults,

restore thou those who are penitent,

according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord;

and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,

that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,

to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant us absolution and remission of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. Amen. 

At Evening Prayer, the first versicle “O Lord, open…” is omitted (just as in the 1979 US BCP), unless traditional musical settings are used; and the same applies to the use of the 1662 versicle “Praise ye the Lord” at both Morning and Evening Prayer – following the US BCP and BDW, "Alleluia" is proposed for use instead (in this imitating the Roman Rite).

  

The Morning Prayer Invitatories are all but one (the first) based on those in the 1979 US BCP, as also used in the BDW, but updating the language ever so slightly, as by using "draws" not "draweth", etc. The  Invitatory Psalms suggested are either the traditional Ps 95 (not the US cento version), or one of Pss 24, 67, 100 (the last also in the BDW), or of course the Easter Anthems at their proper season.

As a parallel to the Invitatory, at Evensong there is an option to insert a Lucernarium: Ps 141:1-4b, 8 or Ps 134 or two hymn versions of the Phos hilaron may sung while candles are lit, and incense burned.  This seems a trifle contrived, I must say.

As is traditional in Anglican practice, an Office hymn may be sung either after the Invitatory Psalm (at Mattins) or before the "Mag." (at Evensong).

The Psalmody follows in the usual manner; and, next, the two Lessons, with a Canticle after each.

Oddly, no direction is given as how to announce the title of the Lessons.  Unlike in the 1662, allied BCP's, and the BDW, there is no provision to say at the close of each, "Here endeth the (First/Second) Lesson" but instead only "The Word of the Lord" with the usual Roman response may be used.

At Mattins, the appointed Canticles are: after the first Lesson, Benedicite or Benedictus es (ferial), or Te Deum (festal); and after the second, the Benedictus (daily) – however, the Customary gives three other canticles as optional alternatives to use after the first Lesson on Ash Wednesday (Deducant oculi, Jer 14:17-21), Good Friday (Domine audivi, Hab 3:2-4, 13a, 15-19) and Holy Saturday (Ego dixi, Is 38:10-14, 17-20, which may also be used on All Souls and in the Office for the Dead).

Similarly, at Evensong, the daily Canticles are the age-old "Mag. and Nunc" (or, if the latter is to be used at Compline, one of the modern Roman Vespers New Testament Canticles is to be substituted therefor).

After the Apostles' Creed, "The Lord be with you" (to be omitted if the person presiding is not a clergyman), "Let us pray", the threefold Kyrie (in English) and Lord's Prayer all follow. After the "Our Father" come the Suffrages, in three forms – the first set (A1) is the traditional English from the 1662 BCP; the second (A2) derives from the 1979 US BCP (via the BDW); the third (B), is also US in origin, at Mattins being the Te Deum’s third part, but at Evensong is Byzantine in origin.

The Collect of the Day is followed by the traditional Second and Third Collects; after these, the end of the service may include hymns or anthems, a sermon, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (at Evensong), and/or "Further Prayers" – among which are given: the General Thanksgiving (in traditional 1662 form), a Prayer for the Pope (an understandable insertion, with a text derived from the old Missale Romanum), a Prayer for the Clergy and People (1662 form, but with “Curates” changed to “Clergy”), a Prayer for the Queen and Royal Family (moved from before the prayer for the clergy to avoid any hint of Erastianism; again, not in the 1662 form, but with a text taken from the old Roman Missal's oratio pro Rege); and the famous Prayer of St Chrysostom (1662, derived from the Byzantine Divine Liturgy).

The whole service ends either with "The grace..." (1662) or with a more Roman conclusion: "The Lord be with you… Let us bless the Lord…" and either "The Lord bless us…" at Morning Prayer (derived from modern Roman Lauds and Vespers) or "May the souls of the faithful…" at Evening Prayer (from the traditional Roman Office).

Fit for Purpose? - II

Over at Deborah Gyapong's blog, Foolishness to the World, there has been some discussion (this being the latest) in posts arising out of my posting Fit for Purpose? (which concerned what parts of the classical Anglican Eucharistic service constitute an acceptable and orthodox Anglican Patrimony suitable to bring into the Catholic Church) which I wrote almost a month ago.  Here is my latest reply to the issues raised by a Canadian interlocutor there, whose name I know not, but whose scholarship I respect.

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Let us now establish what is at issue here.  Having opened the classical BCP – never mind that few now use it, whether here in Australia, or in the UK; and of course Canada has its own BCP (not that there it is used much either), and likewise for other corners of the Anglican Communion – I looked to see what of its Patrimony, as regards the Eucharist, was “fit for purpose” or, rather, doctrinally orthodox, and thus assimilable for use in the full communion of the Catholic Church in union with Peter.  I left aside High Church ceremonial, and all such considerations; I left aside all old attempts at fitting together the Holy Communion from the BCP with the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Mass; I looked at the BCP Communion Office, and (to my satisfaction at least) showed how virtually all of it could be suitably adapted for use as part of a variant of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Mass – which is confirmed by finding precisely that done in the already-existing Book of Divine Worship for use in the USA by Catholic parishes following the Anglican Use. But I did note that some parts of the BCP’s Eucharistic rite would not pass the test of orthodoxy: above all, the Prayer of Consecration; also, some phrases in other parts needing rewording or deleting (such as the second half of the words of administration of the Sacrament, which date from the notoriously Protestant 1552 BCP).

As I think I may have mentioned, if any Anglican liturgy were found acceptable in toto for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, it would be that found in the Scottish BCP of 1929; or again, that of the Nonjurors, as drawn up in 1718.  But to be frank, the latter was never used but by a tiny remnant for a generation three centuries ago; and the former is not so much used even among the tiny Scottish Episcopalian denomination any more (having been replaced in the main by odder more modern liturgies).

However, as the Prayer of Consecration in the 1662 BCP consists of a thankful remembrance of the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, followed by a prayer that those receiving the bread and wine would be partakers of His Body and Blood, and then a recital of the Institution Narrative, it is clearly insufficient to express Catholic doctrine about the Eucharist – instead, it well inculcates receptionism (Hooker’s new heresy) and the Protestant tenet that Christ’s Sacrifice is not made present here and now in the Eucharist, but was offered up once for all.  Whatever may be claimed, rather tongue-in-cheek it may seem, in Sæpius officio (wherein its Anglican authors had the bare-faced cheek to claim their mutilated remnant of a Eucharistic Prayer, being as it is derived from the Roman Canon, is somehow clearer in its exposition of Catholic doctrine than the hallowed and most ancient Canon itself – a rude claim, be it noted, that falls under a Tridentine anathema against any who would impugn the Canon of the Mass), the Prayer of Consecration in the 1662 BCP is manifestly heretical: indeed, how could it be otherwise, since it was specially designed to teach novel doctrines.  If a priest in valid orders pronounced it, it would of course serve to consecrate the Sacrament validly – but just as plainly it would be grievously sinful to use such a prayer.

The learned Canadian who has replied so courteously to my initial foray has, I think, mistaken me in a way: for he surely realizes that, while offering oneself up in union with Christ is excellent and holy, and to adore with all worship Christ as one receives the Sacrament is but our bounden duty, and to consider reading the Ten Commandments as a restatement of the Covenant (though that be pious), is still not to acknowledge that the 1662 BCP’s Prayer of Consecration is hardly a suitable Eucharistic Prayer: Taylor and Cosin and many other Anglican divines privately hoped for a better, as their drafts at the time of its imposition demonstrate: they and such worthies as Johnson, Vicar of Cranbrook, while defending the validity of the 1662 service and what they saw as its orthodoxy (an attempt I charitably seek to sympathize with, yet unquestionably reject), felt that the 1549 was arranged in the proper order, and had been mucked with in deference to Continental Protestants, and had not been returned to in 1662 only because of the hopes of reconciling Protestants to the newly-restored Church of England, hopes that proved abortive.  Their liturgical heirs, the English Nonjurors (who died out) and the Scottish Episcopalians (who survived persecution and still survive in small numbers), therefore restored the rightful order as they saw it to the Eucharistic Liturgy.

Quite frankly, to say that all the Anglican attempts to restore the older and more Catholic order of the Liturgy, by producing a fuller Eucharistic Prayer, are somehow lesser than Cranmer’s project, more ambiguous even, is to be manifestly contrarian and to oppose all serious liturgical scholarship.  Protestant Anglicans may be pleased by the 1662 BCP’s Eucharistic rite: Catholics will never be, and it is hardly ecumenical to put forward something that most Christians – the Catholics, the Orthodox, and members of other ancient Eastern churches – would see as not a true and proper Eucharist at all.

Even if the 1549 BCP’s arrangement of the Prayer for the Church, the Prayer of Consecration (including a rather more acceptable epiclesis, praying that the elements may “be unto us” Christ’s Body and Blood, which is capable of bearing the interpretation that the bread and wine not merely subjectively but objectively cease to be bread and wine, and truly and wholly become His Body and Blood) and then the Prayer of Memorial (i.e. Anamnesis) and Oblation were used, it would still constitute a Eucharistic Prayer that is mala sonans – suspect and disturbing, because it was Cranmer’s first chopping about of the immemorial Canon of the Mass.  The later Scottish tradition, drawing on the abortive 1637 BCP for Scotland, and refined throughout the first two-thirds of the eighteenth century, reaching its classic form in 1764 before being brought to final form in the 1929 Scottish BCP for the small Episcopalian body in that country, better orders and phrases the Eucharistic Prayer, by setting the Prayer of Consecration first (containing the Institution Narrative), then the Prayer of Memorial, Oblation and Invocation (putting a proper Epiclesis after the Words of the Lord, as done throughout the Christian East), and then the Prayer of Intercession, pleading the merits of the Lord’s Sacrifice for all the quick and the dead.  But even this most Catholic arrangement still may be taken as dangerously ambiguous, I am constrained to note; though a Catholic would of course read it in conformity with sound doctrine.  For the avoidance of all doubt, the only Anglican Eucharistic Prayer that evades Cranmer’s seductive phraseology (and thus repudiates his sophistry) is that of the Nonjurors, drawn up in 1718: for it replaces Cranmer’s Prayer of Consecration and Prayer of Oblation with extracts from the Liturgy of St James and that of the Apostolic Constitutions – needless to say, such is hardly Anglican Patrimony however, and it would be mad archæologism to ever propose its revival.

So, as to being “strictly BCP” in worship, of course the laudable Offices of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer are to be retained; but as to the Eucharist, the best that can be done is to combine all acceptable parts of the BCP’s Order for the Holy Communion with “the Secret and the Canon and the Dominus vobiscum” as a humorous poem puts it.  Such a combination, whether, like the various Anglican Missals of old, adding the best BCP bits into the matrix of the Traditional Mass, or doing the same with the modern Mass, as the first edition of the Book of Divine Worship has demonstrated can be done, is manifestly dignified, well-phrased and pleasing (we pray) to God and man, insofar as any imperfect human service may be said to be.

Fit for Purpose?

Anglicans now coming into full communion bring with them a rich Patrimony, one worthy to share with the wider Church, as the very Vicar of Christ has written in his invitation to them.  One aspect of this – and perhaps the most problematic – is their liturgical Patrimony; and in particular, the form of their Eucharistic liturgies.

I refer now, not to the style of these celebrations – though their solemn chanting, their fine vestments, their beautiful sacred music, their reverent posture and gestures, their eastward celebrations, their kneeling communions and so forth are all excellent and much to be imitated, just as once they developed those practices in holy imitation of Catholic worship in better days – but to the particular texts and prayers used therein.

Now, High Church Anglicans, especially Anglo-Catholics, have often pinched all manner of prayers, rites and rituals from Catholic sources (there are tales of nineteenth and early twentieth century vicars taking holidays in Belgium, scouting out the practices of the churches therein, and promptly putting them into practice back in their parishes, to the amazement of their parishioners); but I will not be commenting on that particular practice, especially as the NLM and the Anglo-Catholic have been discussing the pros and cons of adopting for official Catholic use what is essentially the old Latin Mass put into Cranmerian English – and which was never officially approved for Anglican use in any case, since Anglo-Catholics just did it without authorization.

Instead, I will rehash what I have discussed before, looking at the 1662 English BCP and its descendent, the 1978 (weirdly named) An Australian Prayer Book, to see what if any of their prayers for use at Holy Communion are fit for purpose, if transposed for use as part of a Catholic Mass.  It must be borne in mind that, unlike in Canada or the U.S. or Scotland, the Australian Anglican milieu was more Low Church overall, with the baleful influence of Sydney Evangelicalism outweighing whatever the High Church country dioceses may have wanted (and I have seen, at Wangaratta's Anglican Cathedral, a side altar complete with altar cards in English that were evidently put there for a celebration according to the English Missal, that is, the Latin Mass in English; just as a former Anglican priest, now a Catholic, once showed me his English Missal, which he used in Queensland many years ago).

Let us then turn to the Book of Common Prayer.

The 1662 BCP Holy Communion Service began with the Lord’s Prayer.  Then followed the Collect for Purity (Cranmer’s beautiful Englishing of the ancient Latin prayer Deus cui omne, used in the Sarum Rite and also found amongst the collects in the Preparation for Mass in the Roman Missal).  The Ten Commandments were recited next, with a response after each.  Then came the Collect for the Queen, before the Collect of the Day – it seems awfully Erastian to put her before such topics as the salvation of the world, but the reason that for the Sovereign precedes the prayer of the day is one of mere convenience, to avoid too many turnings to and fro in the service book.

What of any of this is Anglican Patrimony worthy of preservation?

More recent Anglican practice has been to drop the prefatory Our Father, but at all costs to retain the Collect for Purity – I was once in attendance at a Low Church Anglican service which began with that Collect, and then passed at once to the readings!  Reading the Commandments has become unpopular also (particularly given recent Anglican avoidance of the harder of them), except among the staunchest Low Churchmen.  Even in the nineteenth century it was observed that the number of times the Queen was prayed for at Anglican services was rather excessive, so few now read the Collect for her any more.  That leaves the Collect of the Day – Cranmer’s versions of the traditional Latin orations are generally excellent, though they would need correcting in places, and translations of collects left out by him or introduced after his day would need to be added.

As to the readings, maintaining the traditional Epistles and Gospels ought be an option; however, many if not all Australian Anglicans have moved to use some form of the modern three-year Lectionary in any case (including those Continuing Anglicans in the T.A.C., from what I have observed here in Tasmania).

After the Epistle and Gospel comes the Creed (its wording is acceptable if “Holy”, strangely omitted, be replaced as one of the adjectives describing the Church).  Then follow any relevant notices and the sermon or homily. 

The Offertory begins with the reading of one or more Sentences of Scripture, generally relating to the duty of almsgiving and the like.  I suspect those High enough to consider full communion with the Catholic Church omit that as rather too Protestant, not to say Pelagian, turning the Offertory into the oblation of the sons of men rather than the preparation of the Oblation of the Son of Man (as Dix trenchantly put it; Dearmer, too, remarked on the odious idolatry of elevating the alms-dish).  Obviously, if any Sentences ought be read, the old Offertory antiphons would be preferable; also better would be selected passages relating to the offering up of sacrifice.

Next comes the Prayer for the Church Militant.  The words “militant here in earth” would need to be deleted at the outset.  Likewise the antique cast of the petitions for “Christian Kings, Princes and Governors; and specially thy Servant ELIZABETH” would need editing, and – to avoid Erastianism – the petition for “all Bishops and Curates” would need to be placed first after that for the Universal Church, with the Pope included at the head of those clergy prayed for.  At the end, the thanksgiving for the faithful departed would need to be enlarged and changed into a prayer for the dead and a commemoration of the saints.  But all this has been done in various more recent Anglican adaptions of this prayer in any case, together with dividing it up into parts to each of which the people may give some such reply as “We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord” (as the Litany puts it).

The rarely-read Exhortations come next: if used at all, they would need to be reworded to make them fully Catholic in sentiment.

The Invitation, general Confession and Absolution follow.  Some light editing and rewording of these, and in particular the Absolution, changing it from the second to the first person plural (to avoid it sounding like sacramental absolution), would be required.  After these the Comfortable Words ensue: these are perfectly acceptable, though the Book of Divine Worship (containing the currently existing Catholic form of the Mass according to the Anglican Use) wisely extends the last “word” or quotation of I John 2:1 to broaden the context, reminding all that Christ is “the propitiation for our sins” – immediately adding, “and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.”

The BDW transposes the preparation of the bread and wine for use at the altar from before the Prayer for the Church to this point, where (somewhat awkwardly) it inserts the Novus Ordo offertory prayers, for some supplementation of the Anglican service is needed here.  Leaving aside the issue of whether or not to use the two modern prayers at the offering up the bread and wine (for all but that pair are in fact to be found also in the Extraordinary Form, more or less), at the very least the Orate fratres and the Secret ought be added – as High Church Anglicans often have in any case.

Next come the Sursum corda, Preface and Sanctus.  As has often been done by Anglicans, to this “The Lord be with you” should be prefaced, and the Sanctus extended with the Benedictus, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord…”.

Here the Anglican service’s greatest, grossest deficiencies manifest themselves: the Prayer of Humble Access – though devout and godly – is bizarrely placed before the Prayer of Consecration, rather than directly before Communion (since Cramner’s Zwinglian view of the Eucharist made him strive to sever any apparent connexion between eating and drinking Christ’s Body and Blood on the one hand, and the mere bread and wine on the other!).

Similarly, the Prayer of Consecration is gravely deficient from a Catholic viewpoint, being unfit for purpose as a proper Eucharistic Prayer.  Anglicans of a Catholic sensibility have historically adopted several methods of remedying the felt lacuna: to use the Roman Canon instead; to read all of the Roman Canon silently, but to omit the central part and substitute the Anglican form of the words of Consecration (the ugly “sandwich rite”); or to fiddle with the Prayer of Consecration by reverting to earlier forms thereof, combining it with the 1549 Anamnesis and Prayer of Oblation (found, truncated, after Communion in the 1662), as the American Episcopalians have long done, and even – as amongst the Scottish Episcopalians – with the Prayer for the Church at the end.  

I have previously argued that if any Anglican Eucharistic Prayer would be allowable, the Scottish version is the only one that comes close; but it is far more likely that none will be allowed, and at this point the Roman Canon (or, optionally, one of the other modern Roman Rite Eucharistic Prayers) will be prescribed instead.

Again most bizarrely, the 1662 BCP at once proceeds to the distribution of Communion, placing the Lord’s Prayer (with doxology) afterward!  This piece of Zwinglian excess committed by Cranmer (as also his addition of “Take and eat / drink this in remembrance…” to the words of administration, which is heretical and ought be deleted) must be reversed.

The BCP Holy Communion service offers either a truncated Prayer of Oblation, or a Prayer of Thanksgiving, to be said after (the Lord’s Prayer and) Communion.  The Prayer of Thanksgiving is usable with light editing.  To round out the service with praise, the 1552 BCP first moved the Gloria in excelsis from the first to the last part of the liturgy, and this the 1662 maintained.  However, I understand that most Anglicans long ago reversed this peculiar (though innocent and arguably fitting) usage.  The service then concludes with the blessing, “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding…” and this beautiful prayer – which in all essentials is already found as an option in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Mass these days – is indeed wholesome and worthy of retention.

So much for the 1662 BCP – now, to the awkwardly-named An Australian Prayer Book of 1978.  Its “First Order” for Holy Communion is a conservative revision of the 1662, with minor improvements: 

• allowing a psalm, hymn or anthem to be sung at the start of the service (as was commonly done anyway), or a Sentence of Scripture;
• starting with “The Lord be with you”, and using this at the Gospel also;
• providing the Summary of the Law as an alternative to the Ten Commandments (or the Kyrie, on weekdays);
• permitting a psalm, hymn or canticle to be sung between the readings, of which there may be three (as is the modern custom);
• allowing the sermon to be preached before the Creed (now including “holy”);
• including a few more fitting Offertory Sentences, plus permitting an offertory hymn;
• allowing different forms of the words of administration of the Holy Communion, including more Catholic phrases, and again allowing for hymn-singing and the reading of a relevant Sentence of Scripture (i.e. a Communion Antiphon).

As to the 1978 Second Order, it allows for the Kyrie and Gloria in excelsis to be sung at the start of the service, together with a general Confession and Absolution; it also provides other forms of intercession in place of the Prayer for the Church (though these new forms are hardly Patrimony, being closer and closer approximations to contemporary Roman intercessions ad lib.); likewise, a place for “The peace of the Lord be always with you” is provided, before the Eucharistic Prayer, and even a prayer for the presentation of “the gifts of the people”, transparently copied from the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, is provided.  Other changes are simply moves in the direction of the format of the modern Roman Mass, while remaining quite Protestant in character; none of its suggested “Thanksgivings” (Eucharistic Prayers) would be suitable for Catholic use, nor are they even specimens of traditional Anglican piety.

I pass over the still more recent revision of Australian Anglican liturgical worship, with its multitude of options, and its limited approximation to some Roman forms (including use of the Benedictus at last, the Agnus Dei and of a form of the Domine non sum dignus) – primarily because liturgy amongst Anglicans here has become more and more variable, disintegrating into a liberal Protestant mishmash; as mentioned, I once was constrained to be present at a very Low Church service, which seemed degenerate and incoherent even in comparison to the official Anglican forms I have just critiqued.

So, of all this, what remains as fit for purpose?

The Collect for Purity and the Prayer of Humble Access, above all.

For those who retained a greater amount of love and affection for Anglican forms, as opposed to an adoption more or less enthusiastically of either traditional or modern Roman ones, further items can be rescued and recycled:

• the Commandments or Summary of the Law, with response;
• the Anglican wording of the Kyrie and Gloria in excelsis;
• the Collects in traditional language;
• the traditional system of readings (for such as still use them);
• the Anglican wording of the Creed;
• the Prayer for the Church, amended;
• the Penitential Act, comprising a lightly edited Invitation, Confession and Absolution (non-sacramental, of course);
• the Anglican wording of the Sursum corda, Preface, Sanctus and Benedictus;
• the Catholic first half of the words of administration of the Sacrament (though this is all but identical to that found in the traditional Roman Mass);
• the long Prayer of Thanksgiving after Communion;
• the final blessing, “The Peace”.

Unsurprisingly, all this, barring the traditional one-year cycle of readings for such as want it, can already be found in the current Book of Divine Worship for the Anglican Use, albeit in the particular wording found in the U.S. Episcopalian tradition, drawing on the U.S. 1928 and 1979 B.C.P.’s.

The BDW incorporates all these elements into the general structure of the modern Roman Mass, with some more traditional features, such as "The Lord be with you" immediately before the Collect, not at the start of the Mass as in the Ordinary Form.

It is reported that the forthcoming new edition of the BDW will be updated to conform to the new translation of the Prayer over the Gifts (now called the Prayer over the Offerings) for each Mass, the Offertory prayers, the Memorial Acclamations, and above all the new phrasing of the words of consecration; this should take away that most unpleasant feature of the BDW, the clunky fashion in which the language used slips from sacral to banal and back again.

Finally, what portions of the BCP's Communion service, though theoretically desirable if thoroughly Catholicised, are unlikely to ever be permitted?  The problematic Prayer of Consecration and Prayer of Oblation, which are found conjoined in the Scottish and American Episcopalian traditions, but which have not been found worthy.

Commendatory Prayer

The 1662 B.C.P. contains this very apt prayer for the dead – or so I read this "commendatory Prayer for a sick person at the point of departure", from the Order for the Visitation of the Sick.  Really, it teaches the doctrine of purgatory admirably: "that whatsoever defilements... being purged and done away", the soul of the departing person "may be presented pure and without spot before" God, Whom we supplicate to "Wash it... in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that was slain to take away the sins of the world".  (Its last sentence is also a sober instruction for mourners.)  From this prayer I love to quote the words about "this miserable and naughty world": here "naughty" has its original, fuller, stronger sense of "bad and evil".

O ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered from their earthly prisons: We humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear brother, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most merciful Saviour; most humbly beseeching thee, that it may be precious in thy sight. Wash it, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that was slain to take away the sins of the world; that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty world, through the lusts of the flesh, or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away, it may be presented pure and without spot before thee. And teach us who survive, in this and other like daily spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen.

For Dad, his withered body had become indeed an unhappy tumbledown prison; may his soul find mercy, that – laved in Christ's precious Blood, cleansed of all spots incurred through human frailty – he may rest in peace.

(The photograph is the last one I have of him, from his 84th birthday just a week or so ago.)

Conversion of St Paul

This last week, perhaps because of jet-lag, I've slept a lot, and prayed little (hence my grumpiness?): the Office has been neglected, I'm sorry to say.

That said, I am continuing to use my small Dominican Diurnal: it presents some very interesting prayers and antiphons and so forth, being of Roman form but perhaps a tad more florid than the austerities of the Roman Breviary.

Take to-day at Lauds, for instance: Holy Church keeps a festival day in honour of the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Black Friars heed her call - here is the Benedictus anthem:

Celebremus Conversionem sancti Pauli Apostoli, quia hodie ex persecutore effectus est vas electionis: ideo gaudent Angeli, lætantur Archangeli et collaudant in cælis Filium Dei.

Let us celebrate the Conversion of St Paul the Apostle, for to-day from a persecutor he was made a vessel of election: therefore the Angels joy, the Archangels rejoice and together praise in the heavens the Son of God.

(This text is obviously based on the festal Introit originally for St Agnes, I think, that later was adapted for many Masses.)

The psalm antiphons are also different to the Roman ones.  Another little difference: unlike in the Roman books, the Dominicans have not the rule that every time there is a collect for St Paul, a collect for St Peter must be added (and vice versa), so there is only one collect for to-day.

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Here is the Anglican Collect for the Conversion of St Paul, based upon the Latin, but amplified and watered down in the end - so that instead of simply per ejus ad te exempla gradiamur (by his example may we mount up unto thee), which echoes his bold words, "Be ye imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (see how Protestant fears of seeming to encourage the veneration of saints here entails straying from Scripture), the BCP prayer states that "by following the holy doctrine which he taught" may our thankfulness be expressed (a much weaker sentiment than that of the original!):

O God, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may shew forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

T.A.C. B.C.P.?

Dominic, who is a T.A.C. member in Canada, commented on my post about the T.AC. at prayer; he wrote about my observation of the local T.A.C. liturgy that:

This is indeed curious. I'm a TAC member in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. If you can find the 1962 [Canadian] BCP online you will see what we use. The parish I attend just uses the BCP as is with chanted Introit and Gradual psalms (Willan's Plainsong Psalter settings and pointing). We too meet in a rented hall, but have somewhat more elaborate furniture to set up -altar rails, altar riser and footpace, etc etc - and we kneel to receive in both kinds, the priest uses the full version of the words to be said at the distribution repeating the whole thing over and over as he goes down the row. After the Sermon is the Preparation as the people sing a hymn, then that over, the priest turns to the people, announces his intentions and asks the people to remember those sickor what have you, then turns to back to face the altar and begins "Let us pray for Christ's holy catholic Church..etc" at which we kneel, and remain kneeling for the entire thing until we pray the prayer of Humble Access immediately followed by the Agnus Dei. We sit while the priest makes his communion, then he turns from the altar holding the paten in his hand and one of the hosts above it and says the "Ecce agnus Dei..." at which we go forward.

It is a bit spartan, but it is just a plain-jane Prayer Book Communion with no interpolations additions or deletions. It is my hope that the revised rites used in Ordinariate parishes will take what is good and necessary from the Tridentine forms.

When I read of the hybridisation of some anglo catholic ritual, such as the use of the Novus Ordo, it makes me cringe. Here in Canada, at least, we are Prayer Book worshippers. Mattins and Evensong too are straight up BCP in my experience. I think any movement towards contemporary English and such will be resisted by the laity.

I thank Dominic for letting me know how the T.A.C. in Canada worships: "all things decently and in order" would seem to be their motto. (I note that the T.A.C. in the U.S.A. has the appalling motto "We're formal, and we're friendly" - !!!)

Now, to make some commentary on the Canadian '62 B.C.P. (shades of my preferred rite, the Roman '62 (or earlier...)) and its projected reordering to entirely conform it to Catholic truth - I make no reference to ritual actions, since Anglo-Catholics usually do the ceremonial extremely well:

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The rite begins with the singing of an Introit, then an initial Lord's Prayer and Collect for Purity, followed by either the Decalogue or Our Lord's Summary of the Law (with response), and a threefold Kyrie may be added. All this, while very Anglican, seems entirely fitting and nowise contrary to Catholic faith. [Where's the Gloria in excelsis? See far below!]

(Even in the proposed 1928 English Prayer Book, provision was made for "a Devotion", which was the Roman Introibo with Psalm Judica me and all the rest; Anglo-Catholics would unblushingly add the Roman Confiteor with all the saints invoked therein, and go up to kiss the altar!)

Next, in English, Dominus vobiscum, Oremus, and the Collect of the day (plus any others appointed). The Collects, mainly good translations of the mediæval ones, are fine; obviously prayers for Catholic feasts such as the Immaculate Conception would have to be inserted, but they are all in the English Missal already, used by generations of Anglo-Catholics.

I note one thing that will have to be changed: before the Collect of the day, a Collect for the Queen may be read: it seems rather impertinently Erastian to read it first (though I suspect it is first simply for convenience, to avoid turning back and forth through the book), so it ought be moved to second place, and the fateful words "and Governor" (sc. of the Church of England) would have to be removed, as also probably "the whole Church", which smacks of the notion that Princes have authority over the Church. But obviously to pray for Her Majesty, Sovereign Liege Lady of Canada as of Australia and her other realms, is excellent and commendable piety toward she whom God hath pleased to set in power over us.

The Canadian B.C.P. then has the Epistle and Gospel (more or less as in the traditional Roman Missal, but slightly reordered, as in the Sarum Rite), with a Psalm or Hymn in between as desired - which is code for the Gradual and Alleluia, etc. Again, no worries here. Whereas in the 1980's Roman liturgists inflicted the Novus Ordo Lectionary on the U.S. Book of Divine Worship for Anglican Use Catholics, at the most this would now be made optional, not compulsory.

The Creed follows, then ecclesiastical announcements (e.g. what feast and fast days are coming up, not banal parish notices), and a sermon. Anglo-Catholic sermons are generally of admirable quality!

Offertory sentences are then provided to be read at the altar by the celebrant: several speaking of sacrifice, and various texts for the seasons of the Church year. Rubrics direct the collection to be taken up and presented (very Anglican this: solemnly offering up the monies given by the parish at the altar!), and also the bread and wine for the service may be brought up to the celebrant, if not with him already.

First important note: the Catholic Church will require that only unleavened bread be used, and that water must be mingled with the wine (with or without a prayer to accompany this action), as is the practice of all the Western Rites.

A formula (cf. I Chronicles 29:10,11,14) is provided as an offertory prayer for the bread and wine, which is frankly nobler and more pleasant than the Novus Ordo "Blessed are you..." boring bits:

BLESSED be thou, LORD God of Israel, for ever and ever.

All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine.

All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

However, here Catholic Rome would require some interpolations be made:

• the priest must wash his hands (with or without the usual psalm, Lavabo) as a gesture of purification;
• he must pray the In spiritu humilitatis, directing his intention to offer sacrifice;
• he will pray Orate fratres, and the people respond Suscipiat, involving all in the offering up of the great oblation;
• there will be a proper Secret (Prayer over the Oblations), matching with the Collect of the day, as throughout the Roman Rite.

If, as I think is likely given the present temper of Rome and the T.A.C., the adoption of the full Tridentine Offertory prayers is desired, so be it: I'd not object! (Many Anglo-Catholics would sotto voce insert all that anyway already: "We're strictly B.C.P." can mean many things...)

The Bidding and the general Intercession is next made - note that this is after, not before the Offertory. Perhaps this (and the Penitential Rite following) could be moved before the Offertory, but the order here is not materially important; the Eastern Rites have similar arrangements.

In the Intercession, improvements must be made:

• the prayer for the nations and the Queen and all in authority moved to after the petitions for the church and clergy and people, to avoid the impression of Erastianism;
• the Pope prayed for by name;
• the dead explicitly prayed for;
• the saints, especially St Mary the Virgin, explicitly commemorated.

(All this is as is done in the Book of Divine Worship.)

Next comes the Penitential Rite: Invitation, General Confession and Absolution (non-sacramental of course!), plus the Comfortable Words. All this is excellent; however, to avoid all confusion, the words "you" and "your" in the Absolution ought be changed to "us" and "our", as was done in the B.D.W.

The Preface dialogue and the Preface, with Sanctus, plus what must be made mandatory, the Benedictus, follows. Again, no trouble here.

THE CANON

Then the big issue - will Rome fix up the Anglican Prayer of Consecration? or substitute the Roman Canon? Having discussed this issue at some length, I believe that the Anglican text is fatally ambiguous, even if carefully amended. See my posts:

• The Interim Rite;
• Is the Interim Rite Recoverable? and
• The English Missal.

I must note that the redoubtable Anglo-Papalist Fr Hunwicke, hopefully to be lured to Rome, agrees with me on this.

The Book of Divine Worship supplies instead the Roman Canon in traditional language (foolishly, inserting ICEL's poor version of the words of consecration, now being revised at last, and also those annoying Memorial Acclamations). I suspect Rome to-day will simply insert the Canon, without such silly overzealous 'corrections'.

So long "Blessing and glory and thanksgiving be unto thee Almighty God, our heavenly Father..."; hello, "Most merciful Father, we humbly pray thee, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord...": the Canadian formula, though beautiful, may have to be sacrificed.

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Whatever of the Consecration in the Canadian '62 B.C.P., some rearrangement of its prayers before communion is necessary: currently, it postpones the Agnus Dei till communion time, and the Lord's Prayer till afterward, but here the Lord's Prayer must be put first, then the Pax Domini (already there) and the Agnus Dei next, with a rubric ordering the fraction of the Host (this is how the B.D.W. reorders things - note that the Roman embolism after the Lord's Prayer and the Prayer for peace are not inserted even there).

The Prayer of Humble Access, that moving and heartfelt devotion, precedes the actual communion. Here the Ecce Agnus Dei and Domine, non sum dignus should be interpolated - as it appears from Dominic's comment is already done.

Obviously, fitting hymns and anthems can be sung at the distribution of Communion. I would think, however, that the words "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life... The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life" are more than sufficient.

While susceptible of a Catholic interpretation, the additional sentences "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving" and "Drink this in remembrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee, and be thankful" are of notoriously Protestantizing origin, appearing in Edward VI's ultra-low B.C.P., and are perhaps best gracefully retired. That said, the Apostle himself says more or less the same about the Eucharist! Maybe just amending "by faith with thanksgiving" (Zwinglian?) to "with faith and thanksgiving" would square the circle.

As in all Anglican services, but most bizarrely and improperly to Catholic sensibilities, provision is made in the Canadian '62 for a second consecration of one (!!!) or both species, amounting to a second Sacrifice! This was inserted when needed because Reservation of the Sacrament was not permitted. Obviously this strange practice of supplementary consecration will not be permitted, because Reservation will be.

There is a single quite beautiful Postcommunion prayer provided, which by its appearance in the B.D.W. is surely Catholic and orthodox. (I suspect that the proper Roman postcommunion is sometimes or always added to or substituted for this already.) Oddly to Catholics, but quite logically, the Gloria in excelsis is thereupon sung in thanksgiving for Holy Communion: while modern Anglican books nearly all move this back to its original place, it seems unobjectionable and quite beautiful in fact.

Finally, the liturgy concludes with the Anglican formula of blessing: "The peace of God...". To this may opportunely be added the Ite missa est, as I guess is often done anyway.

The only remaining items to note are that a rubric for reservation needs to be added, and the present rubric about reverent consumption of any leftover elements be amended to reflect this; and of course the wicked and heretical Black Rubric - "...It is here declared, that thereby no Adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received, or unto any Corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood..." - must be utterly denounced and abolished.

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So, in short, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist according to the Canadian B.C.P. of 1962 could easily be tweaked and supplemented to make it fully Catholic: for that is a holy pastime undertaken by Anglicans since the days of the Oxford Movement!

I look forward to worshipping God after this manner, once the T.A.C. is in Holy Church united. Oremus ut unum sint!

A Pertinent Prayer

To-day is the feast of the Holy Apostles Simon and Jude; the Anglicans have a most pertinent prayer for this day (based on Eph. ii, 20-21 & iv, 3; I Pet. ii, 5 & iii, 8), which I suggest should be prayed for the coming reception of their faithful remnant into communion with the Apostolic See:

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone ; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(This is the official Collect of the Prayer Book Society.)

In the Catholic Anglican Use Book of Divine Worship, this Collect is appointed for use on the Sunday closest to the 29th of June - for obvious reasons...

This Miserable and Naughty World

To-day we celebrate him who named himself Peter the Sinner, Petrus Peccator.  Having gone to confession (myself certainly a sinner, all too allured by the deceits of sin), I appreciate more than before his Collect, and a curious parallel in the BCP, which see further below:

Concede nos, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: beati Petri Confessoris tui atque Pontificis monita et exempla sectari; ut per terrestrium rerum contemptum æterna gaudia consequamur. Per...

(Grant us, we beg, almighty God, to follow the admonitions and example of blessed Peter Thy Confessor and Pontiff, that by contempt of earthly things we may obtain eternal joys.  Through...)

Do recall, the Imitation notes that some persons are so wretched that they would, if they could, live ever on earth - even as vile beggars - and never long for heaven; and that the punishment of hell is everlasting precisely because unrepentant sinners would rather sin forever than give up sin and turn to the Lord or desire to come nigh unto Him, even though willy nilly they will at death face Him: and, God avert, if unrepentant themselves turn away into eternal perdition.  Anyone who has struggled with sin - that is, the entire human race - knows the enslaving effect and attraction of evil, of choosing an apparent or disordered good over or in contradiction to the Supreme Good, God.  Hence, we must mortify ourselves, subdue our unruly passions which would else drag us to destruction, and indeed have contempt for transient and terrene things, all which shall pass, and which in the last analysis are unworthy of and unable fully or eternally to satisfy us, who have immortal souls, whose very bodies shall one day rise to life forever - or ever to abide in eternal death.  No, we must not hate our bodies (as the world claims Christian fools do), but rather so treasure them that we preserve them from being one day consumed forever in hell, that they will instead be perfected and deified in Christ with Him in the heaven where the Trinity reigns world without end.

Hence my reference above to the second-last prayer in the 1662 B.C.P.'s Visitation of the Sick, which, interestingly enough - and I believe it's by Jeremy Taylor - would make an excellent prayer for the dead, even alluding to purgatorial purifications, if offered after the final falling asleep of a Christian:

A commendatory Prayer for a sick person at the point of departure.

ALMIGHTY God, with whom do live the spirits of just men made perfect, after they are delivered from their earthly prisons*: We humbly commend the soul of this thy servant, our dear brother, into thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most merciful Saviour; most humbly beseeching thee, that it may be precious in thy sight. Wash it, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that was slain to take away the sins of the world; that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty world, through the lusts of the flesh, or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away, it may be presented pure and without spot before thee. And teach us who survive, in this and other like daily spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen.

[* Cf. the same phrase, carnis ergastulo, in one of the O.P. hymns for the feast of St Dominic their Patriarch - it's not a denial nor devaluation of the flesh, but shews how in this fallen world it must be accorded only a relative and not an absolute worth, in line with Our Lord's own words that it is better to save the soul even if the body perish.]

Yes, Lord, "teach us... how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live... which may in the end bring us to life everlasting".  For this, we need a right and well-ordered contempt of worldly things - lest they fascinate, entrap us, and draw us away from the high road to heaven, through, with and in Him Who is our only Way, Truth and Life.