Prayers for the Ordinariates

UPDATED

While there is a longer set of suggested prayers for the Ordinariates (drawn up by Bp Elliott, I believe – see this link), I prefer simply to add the following after the Angelus:

V/. Pray for them, O holy Mother of God.

R/. That they may be one in the Church of thy Son.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for them.

Our Lady of the Atonement, pray for them.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross, pray for them.
St Joseph, pray for them.
St John the Baptist, pray for them.

St Peter, pray for them.

St Augustine of Canterbury, pray for them.

Bl John Henry Newman, pray for them.

The versicle is intended to pray for all the incoming "groups of Anglicans", while the six invocations are intended as prayers for the nascent Ordinariates three, invoking the titulars and the patrons of each – but, as the U.S. Ordinariate has Our Lady of Walsingham as patroness, after whom the U.K. Ordinariate is named, and as historically U.S. Anglicans came into Catholic unity under the patronage of Our Lady of the Atonement, I prefer to invoke Our Lady under these three titles, rather than twice under the same one.

NB I have just added St Joseph – patron of Canada – and the Baptist to the list of intercessors, since (as of 7th December 2012) a distinct Canadian Deanery, under the latter's patronage, of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter (whose territory has been extended to Canada) has been erected for incoming Anglicans there.  Hopefully in due season it will be constituted a distinct Canadian Ordinariate.

This little addition is short enough to be doable, I feel, each time I say the Angelus.

May Our Lady and all the saints intercede for all incoming Anglicans, that drawn by the Spirit indeed they may be made one in Holy Church united, and made worthy of Christ's promises, to the glory of God the Father.

Forward the Australian Ordinariate

Good news reported over at The Anglo-Catholic – the Australian Ordinariate for incoming Anglicans will be up and running within months, and an official Implementation Committee has been formed.  Prayers please, for this great work of Christian Unity, for which Our Lord Himself did pray.

The Five Bishops

English history recalls "the Seven Bishops" of the Church of England imprisoned and tried for seditious libel under James II; and the nine English nonjuring bishops – five of them from among the Seven – who refused to break their oaths to the same James II when he was driven from his throne, thus refusing to swear allegiance to the new monarchs William and Mary.

Now, we may celebrate five bishops, who have announced their resignation from the Church of England and their resolve to enter the Catholic Church under the provisions of Anglicanorum cœtibus:

• the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet;
• the Rt Rev Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough;
• the Rt Rev John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham;
• the Rt Rev Edwin Barnes, emeritus Bishop of Richborough;
• the Rt Rev David Silk, an emeritus assistant bishop of Exeter. 

Of these, four are or were so-called "flying bishops", Provincial Episcopal Visitors, ministering to congregations opposed to the pretended ordination of women; while the last is a surprising late entry, and a former Anglican Bishop of Ballarat (1993-2003).  The Diocese of Ballarat is known to be very High – a late friend of mine told me that, as there was no Benediction at the Catholic Cathedral, he went to Benediction at the Anglican one instead!

God speed the Ordinariates to be established in England (and in the rest of the U.K., above all in Scotland, where a faithful remnant of the Scottish Episcopalians, themselves descendents of the Nonjurors, has made application to come in), in Canada, in the U.S.A., and here in Australia – including the Torres Strait.

Morning Prayer: Judith

Thinking to pray with and for those Anglicans and Catholics (in both senses) who, God willing, will decide to enter the Ordinariates soon to be set up, I read Morning Prayer from my copy of the Book of Divine Worship, which is the already-existing first draft of the Anglican Use.  In its lectionary, I noted that there are alternative readings for this, the week of the Sunday closest to the 21st of September: either from Esther, or Judith.  Going on a hunch, remembering that to-day the 24th is kept in memory of Our Lady of Ransom, I chose Judith as an apt type of Our Lady: for in hewing off Holofernes' head, she foreshadowed Holy Mary treading Satan underfoot, as the Protoëvangelium long ago first predicted.

How to deal with unwelcome brutes

Herewith, the first lesson: Judith 13:1-20 (the whole chapter), which is the climax of the book, as herein shrewd Judith, having rendered Holofernes dead drunk, now strikes him dead with his own sword, and returns in triumph to her people, the Israelites beseiged at Bethulia, whereupon she wins their highest praise for saving them all (I quote from the R.S.V., which is what I use with the B.D.W., as closest to the K.J.V. and also being approved for Catholic use):

When evening came, his [Holofernes'] slaves quickly withdrew, and Bagoas closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master's presence; and they went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted long. So Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched out on his bed, for he was overcome with wine. 

Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did every day; for she said she would be going out for her prayers. And she had said the same thing to Bagoas. So every one went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, "O Lord God of all might, look in this hour upon the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to help thy inheritance, and to carry out my undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us." 

She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, "Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel!" And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed it from his body. Then she tumbled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts; after a moment she went out, and gave Holofernes' head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag.

Then the two of them went out together, as they were accustomed to go for prayer; and they passed through the camp and circled around the valley and went up the mountain to Bethulia and came to its gates. Judith called out from afar to the watchmen at the gates, "Open, open the gate! God, our God, is still with us, to show his power in Israel, and his strength against our enemies, even as he has done this day!"

When the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the city gate and called together the elders of the city. They all ran together, both small and great, for it was unbelievable that she had returned; they opened the gate and admitted them, and they kindled a fire for light, and gathered around them. Then she said to them with a loud voice, "Praise God, O praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night!"

Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it to them, and said, "See, here is the head of Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor. The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman. As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the way I went, it was my face that tricked him to his destruction, and yet he committed no act of sin with me, to defile and shame me."

All the people were greatly astonished, and bowed down and worshiped God, and said with one accord, "Blessed art thou, our God, who hast brought into contempt this day the enemies of thy people."

And Uzziah said to her, "O daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies. Your hope will never depart from the hearts of men, as they remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you, and may he visit you with blessings, because you did not spare your own life when our nation was brought low, but have avenged our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God." And all the people said, "So be it, so be it!"

(Comparing the K.J.V. rendering, I find the R.S.V. to be just that, a revision; the only interesting textual difference is in verse 11, where the K.J.V. has "Jerusalem", not "Israel".  Two other differences are merely interesting: instead of the common word "sword", "fauchion" - more commonly, "falchion" - which is a curved broadsword, similar to a scimitar; and Uzziah is instead called Ozias.

(By comparison, the Douay has more phrasal differences, albeit none of any great consequence, encompassing the same tale in 26 verses.)

May the Anglicans coming into full communion with the Church, the new Jerusalem, likewise prove not to have been shamed by their dallying with Holofernes (or Henry VIII) - but rather to have taken up the sword of the spirit, the word of God, and with it confounded the enemy who entrapped them, before hieing themselves back to the camp of the true Israel.  Amen, amen.

Our Lady of Ransom

Yes, to-day is Ember Friday – but don't forget to pray to Our Lady of Ransom for the conversion of England, and, in a special sense, for the UK Anglicans who are holding meetings yester-day, to-day and to-morrow in order to decide on whether to enter the Ordinariate proposed by good Pope Benedict.

Pray, too, for the similar groups of Anglicans in Canada, the U.S.A., and here in Australia.

Pray for them, O Holy Mother of God,

That they may be one in the Church of thy Son.

Roll On, Australian Ordinariate!

Australians all, let us rejoice!  The recent Synod - thanks to The Anglo-Catholic for this news! - of the local province of the Traditional Anglican Communion, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia (27th-30th July), passed the following resolutions:

• That this National Synod endorses the action of its Archbishop and Bishops in requesting the establishment of an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, and that the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, in the words of the Apostolic Constitution, desires to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner*, thereby achieving the status of an Anglican Ordinariate.
• That this National Synod welcomes with joy the partnership of Forward in Faith Australia and all other Anglican clergy and people who desire to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner* through the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia.
• That this National Synod strongly endorses the application of the Bishop of the Torres Strait to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for an Ordinariate of the Torres Strait.
• That this National Synod requests the Primate to communicate to the Holy Father its gratitude for his Apostolic Constitution, ands warmly thanks him for his continued protection of faithful Anglicans and their tradition, and assures him of our prayers at every celebration of the Eucharist for his ministry of “caring for all the churches”.

* Anglicanorum cœtibus, Introduction, Paragraph 5

("...this Apostolic Constitution provides the general normative structure for regulating the institution and life of Personal Ordinariates for those Anglican faithful who desire to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church in a corporate manner.")

Let us sing Te Deum and Non nobis – but neither let us count chickens before they're hatched: it being August in Rome, the very dog days, no work whatsoever will be done for the next weeks at least, and the establishment of the Ordinariates, for Australia, for the Torres Strait, and overseas in Canada, the USA, the UK and so forth, is likely to take a good deal of time (different people have opined that the first could come as early as Advent this year or as late as Advent next year, but perhaps Pentecost 2011 would be the fairest guess).

The T.A.C. in Australia has the special assistance of Bp Peter Elliott, himself an ex-Anglican, who is the Delegate of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference in this matter, a helpful, prudent and understanding go-between, as Bp Robarts has kindly said.  Incoming Anglicans have many completely reasonable worries and concerns, many perfectly serious matters still to discuss and study and work through, and of course need more details from Rome and competent authorities in order to best see how the putative Ordinariate will come to be established.  The whole matter is most complex and sensitive.

Such wise delay is in fact all for the good: festina lente, hasten slowly, is the sage advice that not only the Curia, but the whole Church in her patient shepherding of Christ's flock takes to heart.  Again, "Gather up the fragments that none be lost" – to plunge too soon into establishing Ordinariates could frighten souls still wavering between hope and fear.

It took quite some courage for traditionalist, Catholic-minded Anglicans to break away from the liberal mainstream and set up the T.A.C.; it will take still greater courage to cross the Tiber, even on the elegant bridge, the Ponte Benedetto, that the Supreme Pontiff has erected for them.  The true pastoral concern is paramount: to shepherd all Christ's flock into the one fold.  Here in Australia we value the alert sheepdog who can round 'em up, be they ever so scattered!

I try and pray daily, with the Angelus, the following versicle for this intention (remembering that my local friends in the T.A.C., Bp Robarts, Bruce, and the rest, constitute the Parish of the Annunciation), invoking Our Lady particularly as Our Lady of Walsingham:

V/.  Pray for them, O Holy Mother of God.

R/.  That they may be one in the Church of thy Son.

V/.  Ora pro eis, sancta Dei Genetrix.

R/.  Ut unum sint in Ecclesia Filii tui.

O Canada

One's own worries are very small in the scheme of things; good is vastly greater than evil; God's in His heaven, all's right with the world.  Grace abounds...  

The latest signal instance of this is the just-released petition from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (part of the Traditional Anglican Communion), addressing Cardinal Levada as head of the competent dicastery, that of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and humbly asking the Holy See to establish an Anglican Personal Ordinariate in Canada, to set up an interim governing council, and to permit that council to submit a terna of names to the Holy Father, that he may appoint the first Ordinary thereof.

Perhaps British North America will see the first fruits of Anglicanorum cœtibus so very soon.

Let there be sung Te Deum laudamus (see my earlier posting of this)! - I certainly will be.

Scottish Incomers

What good news, just in time for my upcoming trip to Scotland, whence came my forebears five generations ago...

According to that useful blog, The Anglo-Catholic, the Cardinal Archbishop of Edinburgh has granted a place of refuge to traditional Scottish Episcopalians in his city, by giving them a place to worship in the chapel of St Catharine at the Convent of Mercy in Tollcross, not far at all from the middle of town. (Not very far either from where I'll be staying, only about a mile and a half - amusingly, it turned out I booked to stay not 100 metres from the Catholic Cathedral!)

Here is the relevant press release.

From what I can ascertain, this group of Anglicans (cœtus Anglicanorum) belongs to Forward in Faith Scotland - which, like Forward in Faith Australia, has been given precious little other than intolerance and persecution (why do liberals go on about being victims, when they always turn out to be such vicious bullies?) ever since the dark day fifteen years back when the Piskies dared to attempt to ordain women, thus overthrowing the nature of the sacrament.

Like its big brother south of the border, Forward in Faith UK (or rather, FiF England!), it is in full communion, as they say, with the Traditional Anglican Communion; just as here in Australia, Bp David Robarts (an excellent fellow whom I've met several times) is both a T.A.C. assistant bishop and an important figure in Forward in Faith Australia, by reason of still being licensed as an Anglican priest in the Diocese of the Murray. Isn't Anglican ecclesiology curious!

I am delighted to read that His Eminence has shewn such pastoral solicitude for those with whom, I trust, he will soon be in full communion...

And best of all, these folks no doubt use my preferred mode of Anglo-Catholic worship: the Scottish Prayer Book of 1929, suitably augmented with nice bits from the older editions of the Roman Missal!

As I shall be meeting up in Edinburgh with a local, Mark, who's himself a Tiber swimmer of recent years, now aiming at joining the F.S.S.P. (at whose local church I'll be hearing Mass for the Epiphany), I hope to have a chance to find out more about all this from him, and even perhaps to make an ecumenical visit in Tollcross.

Here is a prayer I've found on the FiF Scotland site; I think it sounds very Catholic indeed (right down to saying "you" and "your" as most Catholics have done since the Novus Ordo came in), and I shall certainly be saying it:

A Prayer for Scotland

Father,
you sent Saint Ninian and Saint Columba
to the people of Scotland
to proclaim the faith
delivered to Saint Peter and the Apostles.
May the work they began
be renewed in this [or that] land
and continue to prosper.

Lord,
those who are divided you unite,
and those who are united you support.
Help us to live up to the call
you have given us,
so that we may bear witness to the truth
and strive that all believers may be united
in the bond of peace and love.

Mary,
Mother of God and Mother of the Church;
Pray for us.

Saint Ninian, bringer of good tidings;
Pray for us.

Saint Columba, apostle of our land;
Pray for us.

Will ye no come back again?

Anglican Advent

While we keep watch for the Coming of the Lord, spare a thought for the Anglicans wavering between hope and fear as they ponder what to do with the Pope's generous offer - the very idea makes me wax poetic:

On Tiber’s bank T.A.C.’s cry

Announces that Reunion’s nigh:

Come Anglicans for Hepworth brings

Glad tidings of new Roman things!

Forward in faith run one and all

To answer Vaticana’s call;

Fly Rowan’s C. of E. so frayed

That withers like a flower decayed.

Retain your fair Patrimony

And gain your own new Ordin’ry

Chosen from out the reordain’d

From all fell Articles unchain’d.

Who asked a refuge of the Lord

His Vicar proffers such reward!

Your Latin brush up to peruse

Anglicanorum cœtibus.

All praise, Pope Benedict, to thee,

Restoring Christian Unity;

Ut unum sint we God implore

In Holy Church for evermore.

Anglican Use Thought for the Day

Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just, and you that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you are dug out.

– Isaias li, 1

It wasn't Lambeth Palace that lost a tile...

A Lesson

After Confession this morning, I read Mattins from my B.D.W. (hoping by this quixotic devotion to express my prayerful support for corporate reunion of Anglicans), and was struck by the end of the first Lesson:

The Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: "Let every one who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!" And he and his sons fled to the hills and left all that they had in the city.

I Maccabees 2:27-28

Surely this may be applied to those wetting their toes on Tiber's banks, having finally spurned the glamours and witchery of that false strumpet, the C of E? For in the days of the Maccabees, Israel had capitulated to the pressure of the pagan world, changing from faith in God to worship of demons, and from adhesion to the Law to the crass expediency that marked Gentile morals. All that was left to do was to fight and flee to a place of refuge...

And I recall what happens a bit further into the tale of the Maccabean revolt, in chapter eight of the first book of the Maccabees:

Now Judas [Maccabeus] heard of the fame of the Romans, that they were very strong and were well-disposed toward all who made an alliance with them, that the pledged friendship to those who came to them...

So Judas chose Eupolemus the son of John, son of Accos, and Jason the son of Eleazar, and sent them to Rome to establish friendship and alliance, and to free themselves from the yoke; for they saw that the kingdom of the Greeks was completely enslaving Israel. They went to Rome, a very long journey...

I Maccabees 8:1, 17-18a

It is and has been a very long journey to Rome: please God, journey's end is now at last in sight.

To escape the slavery of modernism - that is, complete surrender to the world - and to cast off its yoke, paradoxically it remains for Anglicans to seek Gospel liberty in the embrace of the Roman Pontiff: who, far from being the tyrant of Protestant legend or of the scoffing mob's derision, is as Christ's faithful Vicar, the true heir of SS Peter and Paul, attending to preaching the Good News to all, ever concerned for all the churches, and striving to guarantee the Lord's promises of a light burden, Christian service in perfect freedom, the tranquillity of order, and a peace that the world cannot deliver.

Anglican Re-Ordination Prayer

Apparently, since 1998, a special prayer is added to the Catholic ordination rite administered to Anglican convert clergy, by order of the CDF; it is said before the Litany, and does not replace the ordination prayer itself. I found this quoted over at Damian Thompson's blog by one of his commenters:

Oratio ad gratias agendas pro ministerio ab electo in Communione anglicana expleto

[Prayer for giving thanks for the former ministry of the ordinand in the Anglican Communion]

Deinde omnes surgunt. Epsicopus, deposita mitra, stans manibus iunctis versus ad electum dicit:

[Then all rise. The bishop, having doffed his mitre, standing with joined hands, facing toward the ordinand, says:]

N., the Holy Catholic Church recognizes that not a few of the sacred actions of the Christian religion as carried out in communities separated from her can truly engender a life of grace and can rightly be described as providing access to the community of salvation. And so we now pray.

Et omnes, per aliquod temporis spatium, silentio orant. Deinde, manus extensis, Episcopus orat dicens:

[And all, for a certain space of time, in silence pray. Then, with extended hands, the Bishop prays saying:]

Almighty Father, we give you thanks for the X years of faithful ministry of your servant N. in the Anglican Communion [vel: in the Church of England], whose fruitfulness for salvation has been derived from the very fullness of grace and truth

entrusted to the Catholic Church. As your servant has been received into full communion and now seeks to be ordained to the presbyterate in the Catholic Church, we beseech you to bring to fruition that for which we now pray. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Populus acclamat:

[The people acclaim:]

Amen.

Some Apposite Hymns

I've been thinking idly about what hymns would be good to sing to God at what one hopes may be joyful occasions soon to be seen: the reception of many Anglicans into full communion with the Holy See, in the unity of the Holy Catholic Church:

• "Firmly I believe and truly";
• "The Church's one foundation";
• "Thou, Who at Thy first Eucharist didst pray" (but to Gibbons' tune); and
• "Faith of our fathers".

I note these are all by Anglicans or Catholics who were Anglicans!

Any comments or suggestions?

Mary's Prayers

It is important to note that news of the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution to provide for corporate reunion of such Anglicans as may accept it, was published on the 20th of October, which is the day after the modern Calendar's feast of St Paul of the Cross, who ever prayed for the conversion of England and passed this devotion on to his sons the Passionists, especially Bl Dominic Barberi, whose joy it was to receive Newman into the Church.

The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small" - it is the prayers of the saints in the Church Militant, Penitent and Triumphant that has won from God the gift of this day, and in the first place we must attribute this grant of prodigal mercy to Holy Mary, whose Dowry merrie England was, and is, and shall be. "Faith of our Fathers, Mary's prayers / Shall win our country back to thee" sang Fr Faber, over a century ago; and he was right.

That it may please thee to bring to a happy fruition the provisions now being made for corporate reunion of Anglicans with the Holy See,

We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.

Our Lady of Ransom, pray for us.

St George, Patron of England, pray for us.

St Alban, Protomartyr of Britain, pray for us.

St Thomas à Becket, pray for us.

St John Fisher, pray for us.

St Thomas More, pray for us.

Holy Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us.

St Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English, pray for us.

All Saints of England and Wales, pray for us.

St Paul of the Cross, pray for us.

St Thérèse, pray for us.

Bl Dominic Barberi, pray for us.

John Henry Newman, pray for us.

Three Psalms for Anglicans

Pray for corporate reunion - now, on the eve of this hoped-for day, prayers are needed more than ever. It will not have escaped Satan's notice that his enemy, the Pope, is busy about the work of Christ - so the enemy of mankind will be redoubling his efforts to sow doubt and mistrust and fear, as once so successfully he deceived our First Parents.

I suggest the three following Psalms are highly suitable to pray for and with such Anglicans as are now choosing to prepare themselves to come as a body into the Holy Catholic Church. These Psalms I have carefully selected from the Fifteen Gradual Psalms, or Songs of Ascents, which once pilgrims sang as they journeyed to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in His Temple, which Christians have ever adopted as speaking of our spiritual ascent unto God, coming nigh unto Him, on earth, by finding Him in His Church: Suscepimus, Deus, misericordia tua in medio templi tui - "We have received, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy Temple".

Ant. THOU art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

PSALM 122. Laetatus sum.

I WAS glad when they said unto me, * We will go into the house of the Lord.

2 Our feet shall stand in thy gates, * O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem is built as a city * that is at unity in itself.

4 For thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, * to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord.

5 For there is the seat of judgment, * even the seat of the house of David.

6 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; * they shall prosper that love thee.

7 Peace be within thy walls, * and plenteousness within thy palaces.

8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, * I will wish thee prosperity.

9 Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, * I will seek to do thee good.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,* and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be*, world without end. Amen.

PSALM 126. In convertendo.

WHEN the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion, then were we like unto them that dream.

2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, * and our tongue with joy.

3 Then said they among the heathen, * The Lord hath done great things for them.

4 Yea, the Lord hath done great things for us already; * whereof we rejoice.

5 Turn our captivity, O Lord, * as the rivers in the south.

6 They that sow in tears * shall reap in joy.

7 He that now goeth on his way weeping, and beareth forth good seed, * shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,* and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be*, world without end. Amen.

PSALM 133. Ecce, quam bonum!

BEHOLD, how good and joyful a thing it is, * for brethren to dwell together in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down unto the beard, * even unto Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his clothing.

3 Like as the dew of Hermon, * which fell upon the hill of Sion.

4 For there the Lord promised his blessing, * and life for evermore.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,* and to the Holy Ghost:

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be*, world without end. Amen.

Ant. THOU art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (S. Matt. xvi, 18a)

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

OUR Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Are not these eminently suitable to pray for those who now come on a journey of hope mingled with fear, fear of the unknown? But this journey leads to the Temple of the Living God, the True Church: "They will go from strength to strength: and unto the God of gods appeareth every one of them in Sion." (Ps 84(85):7, Prayer Book Version.)

And this journey is associated inescapably with love for and respect for the office of Peter, Christ's appointed Vicar until He come again to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. No one can or should come to Rome, unless he can say in heartfelt devotion, "Thou art Peter" - upon thee, Christ hath built His Church, and the gates of hell never shall prevail against it; for where all others have failed, Rome alone shall stand. Hence the antiphon suggested.

To this, as is meet, a plea for mercy, and the Lord's Prayer are appended; and such Collects as may seem apposite can be attached.