Prayers, Please

Please pray that the correct choice be made in a very important decision. I will most appreciate any and all prayers for this particular intention.

Return of the Rudd-bot

So poor hapless Gillard is gone, three years and two days after she took over the Prime Ministership from her dysfunctional predecessor, now spurned by the same fickle Caucus that promoted her in the first place – and smirking self-righteous Rudd is back from the dead to lead Labor again, like some Lazarus lookalike (but surely, "by this time he stinketh" – John xi, 39).

Roll on a vote of no-confidence in the House to-morrow, and an early election. Let the people decide!

Vacant Sees

Counting vacant Latin rite dioceses alone (omitting sundry eparchies, territorial prelatures and so forth), the Holy Father has well over a hundred appointments to make just to catch up on filling the many sees without bishops; as of today, the number of such widowed dioceses is as follows:

39 since start of 2013;

57 since start of 2012 to end of 2012;

18 since start of 2011 to end of 2011;

4 since start of 2010 to end of 2010;

5 since start of 2009 to end of 2009;

2 since start of 2008 to end of 2008.

Here in Australia, Wilcannia-Forbes has been vacant for over four years now (why Cardinal Ouellet didn't decide to suppress it I cannot tell), Canberra-Goulburn has been a year without an archbishop, and three dioceses – Lismore, Rockhampton and Hobart – have ordinaries who have passed retirement age; in the case of Hobart, my own archdiocese, poor Archbishop Doyle has been waiting for a successor for more than eighteen months.

I recall another prelate saying to me over a decade ago, "Where will the next generation of bishops come from?", meaning that those priests in the usual age range for promotion were by and large formed in the worst years of the postconciliar chaos, prior to the reform of seminary life carried out during the nineties and more recently. We don't need any more men like Morris, late of Toowoomba, who was damnably described by Benedict XVI as lacking the theological acumen necessary for a bishop (a polite way of characterizing his gormless heterodoxy).

Pray for good and holy priests to be appointed, and that the Holy Ghost grace them to become yet holier as bishops yet.

Liturgical Calendar of the Australian Ordinariate

In between reading up on Byzantine Rite liturgiology (I have been making my way through Taft, as well as sundry liturgical works), I have noticed that Australia's Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross has published its official liturgical calendar.

UPDATE:
Note that the Ordinariate of course observes all celebrations proper to the Calendar for the Latin Rite dioceses of Australia, such the Solemnities of St Patrick, Our Lady Help of Christians, and St Mary of the Cross (Mackillop).

Herewith, my transcription of the celebrations proper to the Ordinariate itself, first noting that it includes 32 optional memorials (1 downgraded from memorial), 4 memorials (3 upgraded from optional), 2 feasts (one upgraded from memorial) and 1 solemnity:

12 January - St. Benedict Biscop, abbot - optional memorial

13 January - St. Kentigern (Mungo), bishop - optional memorial

19 January - St. Wulfstan, bishop - optional memorial

1 February - St. Brigid of Kildare, abbess - optional memorial

4 February - St. Gilbert of Sempringham, religious - optional memorial

1 March - St. David, bishop - optional memorial

16 April - St. Magnus of Orkney, martyr - optional memorial

19 April - St. Alphege, bishop and martyr - optional memorial

21 April - St. Anselm of Canterbury, bishop and doctor of the Church - memorial

23 April - St George, martyr – memorial

4 May - The English Martyrs - optional memorial

19 May - St. Dunstan, bishop - optional memorial

27 May - St Augustine of Canterbury, bishop and Patron – feast

8 June - St William of York, bishop – optional memorial

9 June - St. Columba, abbot - optional memorial

15 June - [Anniversary of the erection of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, by Pope Benedict XVI, 2012] – optional memorial [sic]

16 June - St. Richard of Chichester, bishop - optional memorial

20 June - St. Alban, martyr - optional memorial

22 June - St. John Fisher, bishop, and St. Thomas More, martyrs - memorial

23 June - St. Etheldreda (Audrey), virgin - optional memorial

1 July - St. Oliver Plunkett, bishop and martyr - optional memorial

15 July - St. Swithun, bishop - optional memorial

30 August - St. Margaret Clitherow, St. Anne Line and St. Margaret Ward, martyrs - optional memorial

31 August - St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, bishop, and Saints of Lindisfarne - optional memorial

1 September - Our Lady of the Southern Cross, titular celebration of the Australian Ordinariate - solemnity

4 September - St. Cuthbert, bishop - optional memorial

19 September - St. Theodore of Canterbury, bishop - optional memorial

24 September - Our Lady of Walsingham – feast

3 October - St. Thomas of Hereford, bishop - optional memorial

8 October – [optional memorials transferred from 9 October]

9 October - Bl John Henry Newman, priest – memorial

10 October - St. Paulinus of York, bishop - optional memorial

12 October - St. Wilfrid, bishop - optional memorial

13 October - St. Edward the Confessor - optional memorial

19 October - St. Frideswide, abbess - optional memorial

26 October – St. Chad and St. Cedd, bishops - optional memorial

7 November - St. Willibrord, bishop - optional memorial

17 November - St. Elizabeth of Hungary, religious, or St. Hilda, abbess, or St. Hugh of Lincoln, bishop - optional memorials

20 November - St. Edmund, martyr - optional memorial

1 December - St. Edmund Campion, priest and martyr - optional memorial

The Ordinariate, now just over a year old, has thirteen priests (with an upcoming diaconal ordination in early July); and doubtless (no figures are available) a small but goodly number of lay members. One trusts that God will grant the increase. Forward the Ordinariate!

Sunday of the Blind Man: Vespers and Divine Liturgy

Being in marvellous Melbourne, I betook myself to the Russian Catholic Church of Holy Trinity–St Nicholas, for Vespers on Saturday and Divine Liturgy on Sunday. I'd not been to Byzantine Rite Vespers before; luckily for me (since I can't understand Church Slavonic), Vespers was almost wholly sung in English, to settings drawn from the ancient znamenny chants: including None (which is customarily chanted before Vespers), the service took a little over an hour – apparently the only element that in a parish might otherwise be included was a litia or procession, since in parishes the chanting of the first kathisma of the psalter (Psalms 1 to 8) is much abbreviated, and only fully carried out in monasteries. It was an atmospheric setting: only the many icon lamps shone out to begin, with the chandeliers lit midway through the Hour. A particularly touching aspect of the service was the sight of the deacon's young son happily playing with a children's book - which he took and propped on the singer's bookstand, alongside the horologion and all the other books needed for the service (I counted eight or ten!)...

Driving over from Essendon to East St Kilda (and avoiding toll roads) meant that I only arrived on Sunday morning five minutes before the notional service time of half ten; Terce was being chanted, then Sext; then the Divine Liturgy began. I would say that the majority of the service was in English (the deacon alternated - one litany in English, one not), as was the excellent sermon, but the choir chanted a good deal in Church Slavonic, as several of the older members of the parish joined in the singing. The Liturgy took two hours, concluding with the Prayers of Thanksgiving after Holy Communion read aloud by the subdeacon. (I should mention that, according to the Julian Calendar, Russian Easter fell very late this year, and this Sunday was the Sunday of the Man Born Blind, the last Sunday before the Ascension.)

Afterwards, I enjoyed breakfast with the Russian Catholic community; I am envious of Chris, who flew to Moscow for Holy Week this year, and attended some very grand liturgies there. God willing – I suggested to several friends there, including Subdeacon Justin and his wife – a party of us ought go do the Trans-Siberian in a few years' time, and visit the far-flung sanctuaries of Holy Russia. After an even later lunch, I travelled to Philip Island at the invitation of David Schütz, he of blogging fame; I stayed with his family on Sunday night, and motored back to Melbourne, before flying home to Tasmania, on Monday.

Mass in Hobart, Holy Hour in Launceston

After a good sleep-in, I M.C.'d our Missa cantata – and well attended it was too, with fifty in the congregation; we also celebrated one young fellow's First Holy Communion, and welcomed a new server into the altar party. Since the choir had prepared for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, Father celebrated that Mass, rather than the external solemnity of Corpus Christi (and as a commenter noted on the last post, this Sunday's Proper is actually very apposite indeed); unfortunately the family who made and bring with them the vestments had thought we would do Corpus Christi, so Father wore white... ah well, call it very pale green...

Mass, which began late owing to many coming for confessions beforehand, finished just before one o'clock; I quickly changed out of cassock and surplice and jumped behind the wheel, so as to return to Launceston in time for our parish's special four o'clock Holy Hour in union with the Holy Father in Rome – a few stops later, I arrived with ten minutes to spare, and ended up serving as thurifer. Unfortunately my right knee (injured years ago) played up rather – thank you, Lord, for this penance!

Less is more: Exposition began in the usual manner with O salutaris hostia (in English), then Father led us in a few short prayers, before forty minutes of silent adoration. (I decided 'twere best to employ myself in the day hours, and managed to get from Lauds up to half-way through Vespers...) We then concluded in the usual manner with Tantum ergo (in English) &c., Benediction itself, the Divine Praises, and two favourite hymns to end: "Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all" at reposition, and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence" as recessional. We concluded at five o'clock.

Corpus Christi?

I haven't checked, but I assume that to-morrow's monthly Missa cantata in Hobart will be of the external solemnity of Corpus Christi (which in the EF Calendar fell on Thursday), rather than of the first [sorry! second*] Sunday after Pentecost – I will find out on Sunday morning!

Now, time to grab a few items, load up the car and drive down south... I will stay overnight and catch up with a dear friend, before acting as M.C. at the Mass. Directly afterward, however, I must head back north, since our parish is having Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 4 pm, and I need to be back in time to assist, as I promised.

Next weekend, a long weekend (given the Queen's Birthday holiday on Monday), I will be in marvellous Melbourne; I suppose I'll attend the Divine Liturgy in East St Kilda with my Russian Catholic friends, although all things being equal I wouldn't mind hearing High Mass at Caulfield; or I could go to the  nearby Ordinariate Mass (that part of Melbourne being a "liturgical triangle"). Decisions, decisions...

[* Thanks for the correction, Kate; luckily the sacristan at St Canice alerted me to this, after I'd already set the Missal on the altar, else it would have been a particularly embarrassing error for me to make as an M.C. with liturgical pretensions... in my defence, I was thinking of it being the first after Trinity...]

Sydney Ordinariate Parish UPDATE

I received the following kind email to-day:

Kevin said… 

I ran into this site by chance and am totally astounded at the detail, and capture of what we are about.  It is very good indeed. 

I have been with the Anglican Catholic movement since it hit Australia in the 1980s, and am the acolyte who served the Ordinariate Mass on that fourth Sunday of Lent – Simnel-cake disaster and all. 

For any visitor to this site, please note that, for good reasons, we have now moved to the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 76 Fiddens Wharf Road, Killara with the new style of Holy Cross Parish and celebrate Holy Mass at 11.00am on Sundays. 

Regretfully, for architectural reasons, we are forced to celebrate the Mass versus populum, but it is the same Anglican Use liturgy as at North Turramurra.  We are Catholics, former Anglicans, adjusting to a new environment and full of thanks for the hospitality of the Lindfield-Killara Catholic parish. 

We should now have quite a deal going for us, an unswerving devotion to Anglican usage, a comfortable Church, a convenient time of day - we are with friends, and no longer in the boondocks. We would very much like people to find us and help us grow.

Of your charity, dear reader, pray for the new Holy Cross Parish, and – if in Sydney – do pay them a visit, and "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness".

God in Three Persons

You, therefore, God the Father, by whom as Creator we live; you, Wisdom of the Father, by whom we have been made anew and taught to live wisely; you, Holy Spirit whom and in whom we love and so live happily, and are to live yet more so; you, who are Three in one Substance, the one God, from whom we are, by whom we are, in whom we are; you, from whom we departed by sinning, to whom we were made unlike, but away from whom we have not been allowed to perish; you the Beginning to whom we are returning, the Pattern we are following, the Grace by which we are reconciled: you we worship and bless! To you be glory forever! Amen.

— William of St Thierry

(A beautiful act of adoration from this Sunday's local parish bulletin. I haven't read William of St Thierry for years, but it reminds me to return to his holy words.)

Farewell Whitsuntide, Paschaltide, and Regina cæli

This week I have striven to say some of the Breviary Hours, thus participating in some degree in the liturgy of Whitsuntide, the Octave of Pentecost, the last echo of the Paschal season. Just as in the Extraordinary Form, the traditional, immemorial form of the Roman Rite, Lent is preceded by Septuagesimatide, beginning 63 days before Easter Sunday, so the Octave of Pentecost follows on and continues the celebration of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter, until the 56th day, Whit Saturday. (If, as is now common, Corpus Christi is kept on the Sunday after Trinity, the Solemnity of the Sacrament of the Altar falls on the 64th day, 63 days after Easter, exactly parallel to Septuagesima Sunday 63 days before Easter.)

At midday this Whit Saturday, walking back to my car after brunch, I prayed for the last time this year the Regina cæli, which I first repeated with the special Premonstratensian and Dominican forms:

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Spiritum misit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja. (O.Præm.) 

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja. (O.P.) 

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

("Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia, for He Whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia, hath sent the Spirit / now ascended / risen again, as He said, alleluia: pray for us to God, alleluia.")

Eastertide ends after None; first Vespers of the Holy Trinity marks the beginning of the long Sundays per annum. This year, Trinity Sunday falls on the feast of St Philip Neri, and he will not be marked by any commemoration because of this (except among his sons the Oratorians, who transfer his feast to Monday); he will I am sure be pleased by this coincidence, being one who preferred to hide his sanctity, and who has now been "hidden with Christ in God" for over four hundred years. "Eternity!" – such he once cried; and what must that be like?

I will be serving at the parish vigil Mass this evening, and will be asking St Philip's prayers – not least for the Oratorians throughout the world, and specially for those in process of establishing a new Oratory in Brisbane. 

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum

I believe in the Holy Ghost – He is the uncreated, perfect, animating, vivifying, enlivening Lord, Who moved upon the waters at Creation, Who is sent forth and makes and creates, Who is the spirit and ‘soul’ of the Holy Catholic Church; He is the Communion between the Father and the Son, proceeding from Them Both as from a single principle, worshipped and glorified together with Them in the Unity of the Trinity; He Who is true God with Them, equal in glory and majesty, eternal, infinite, almighty; He spoke in many and divers ways of old through the prophets, in the Law, in the Gospels and through the preaching and teaching of the Apostles and their rightful successors in the Church; He is the communion, the true bond of fellowship, between all the Saints, those elected and made holy by His divine indwelling grace, first imparted at Holy Baptism (the water thereof made holy by the secret admixture of His grace, as once He sanctified Jordan); He is invoked to illapse upon Holy Church's offerings, sanctifying and blessing them, transsubstantiating the elements into the Holy Gifts (for what is wonderfully accomplished by the words of the Second Person is at one and the same time accomplished by the blessing of the First and the epicletic overshadowing of the Third, since all works external to the Trinity are the common work of all Three), just as He by His overshadowing joined once for all Body and Blood to the Eternal Word, the very sacramental Gifts that are now in this time of grace given to make holy those who receive them, that they may become what they are (the second marvellous conversion, the sacred commerce of the sacrament), imparting the Fire of the Spirit to those christified by the Body and the Blood; He is Himself the Forgiveness of Sins (as one of the Whitsuntide Collects prays); He guarantees (as was shewn to the prophet Ezechiel) the resurrection of the flesh, and thus He imparts to this mortal flesh immortal vigour, that it may endure unto life eternal, world without end. Amen.

(From a synthesis of the Apostles’, Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, with respect also to the Armenian version of the Nicene: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints.”)

Pentecost Sunday is the anniversary of my baptism, confirmation and first Communion, now just over a quarter century ago – how strange that sounds... I suppose that Sunday Mass in my parish was at nine o'clock in the morning, the same time as it still is (though this year I have instead been to the vigil Mass at six in the evening, where I assisted with the singing of the Ordinary, appropriate hymns and the Latin Sequence): how appropriate, just as on that Whitsun morn 1,980 years ago St Peter's preaching drew the first harvest of souls to the waters of rebirth.

God the Holy Ghost, save and sanctify me a most unworthy sinner.

Pentecost Last Year

Last year, I began Pentecost Sunday, the 25th anniversary of my baptism &c., by serving Fr Rowe's Low Mass at a very early hour, alongside many other priests and servers saying Masses at temporary altars, in a tent in a field somewhere in France (for an image of a like scene from 2005, see this photo): for I was on the Chartres Pilgrimage. Having found the pace and the heat and the burden of the first day's march too much (nearly 40 km), I had resolved to cease and desist, realizing I wasn't up to the standard; so after Mass, I packed up and watched the great pilgrim host depart, before arranging to get to the local train station (thanks to the kindness of the French volunteers), and then heading on to Chartres via Paris (again, given directions thanks to a fellow pilgrim who was also unable to continue). Having arrived at Chartres somewhat after midday, I dragged myself to my accommodation, booked an extra night, at last had a shower! said my prayers, ate some of the rations I'd shouldered in my day pack, and turned in: I think I slept for eighteen hours. That was my Pentecost in 2012.

Being a little tired, and having this evening attended the vigil Mass, I think I shall sleep in tomorrow, as seems fitting...

Pray for the Chartres pilgrims: it is a very tough slog, and I can but salute them in their fervour and commitment. Pray too for France, once more cutting off her nose to spite her face. Christendom, awake!