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June 29, 2016

The Ordinariate’s global appeal

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Something happened at the Acton Conference that really lifted my spirits. I was attending extraordinary form Mass, celebrated by the wonderful Father Z, when I spied, under the chair of the worshipper in front, a little blue book. Could it be? Yes, yes it most definitely was! How wonderful!

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It was a copy of the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham; office book of the Ordinariate. A sublime work steeped in English spirituality with wonderful readings from the lives of the English and Celtic saints. A spiritual resource I highly commend to anyone for the recitation of daily offices, but not a spiritual resource which I had imaged finding thousands of miles away from home. How wonderful to discover it is proving valuable not only to members of the Ordinariate but also to those interested in our mission.

Obviously, once Mass ended, I had to introduce myself to the owner. He turned out to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, an Englishman; a genial chap by the name of David Clayton who is expert in liturgy now living in America and a passionate supporter of the Ordinariate vision to boot. He too has blogged about our chance meeting on the excellent New Liturgical Movement blog. I shall be adding it to the blog roll. There he very kindly promotes the booklet I wrote for CTS concerning the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. If you haven’y yet ordered your copy then you can do so via this link.

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He wasn’t the only Ordinariate enthusiast I encountered amongst the many delegates. I met another actual member as well as many supportive friends. People who were fascinated to hear about the central vision to implement a robustly English spirituality on these shores; to enable us to preserve the Anglican (English) patrimony forged in the heart of a once proud Catholic nation but lost, in part, at the reformation.

The Ethiopians understood it better than most. Having experience of their own rite they quite get the need for having a liturgy that speaks in local dialect and cherishes a nation’s cultural heritage. Others were supportive because they discern that our valuing of tradition reflects what is important about the reform of the reform. Not for the first time I heard the lament that it couldn’t be celebrated by clergy outside of the Ordinariate itself. It is my hope and prayer that, one day, that restriction will be lifted. It is everything the Novus Ordo mass was meant to be. Reflective of the ceremonial and theology and deep Catholic spirituality of the traditional Rite but in the vernacular and accessible to the modern world.

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  • Fr Tomlinson, what parts of the liturgy of the hours are ordinariate clergy canonically bound to pray? I haven’t seen a copy of the customary so I’m uncertain if it contains more than just morning and evening prayer

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