Reception at Littlemore

This evening I attended the reception of two friends from my Pusey House days into the Catholic Church and the Ordinariate at the church of Bl. Dominic Barberi at Littlemore. Daniel and Alexandra Lloyd were received by Fr Andrew Burnham, who had performed their wedding the other year. Daniel was briefly the assistant curate at Stony Stratford, having been ordained as an Anglican deacon last summer.

It was a great pleasure to join with other friends and the regular congregation at the Saturday vigil Mass to welcome them into full peace and communion, and in the context of their reception and being at Littlemore all the more moving to sing the hymns The Church's one foundation and Firmly I believe and truly. In his homily Fr Andrew stressed the historic significance of the event, this being one of the very first receptions of members into the Ordinariate, and how appropriate it was to do so at Littlemore.

At the reception afterwards I was able to ask Fr Burnham for his First Blessing, which I had been unable to receive at Fr Burnham's First Mass

The evening was a good indicator of the vitality of support for the Ordinariate, which plans to establish a group in Oxford with the Lenten catechetical period leading to other receptions at Easter.

Please pray for Daniel and Alex and all those preparing to be received into the Ordinariate, and for the Ordinary and his clergy.

Bl.Dominic Barberi greeting Newman. Bl.Dominic Barberi has just come in from the wet and cold. It is late at night on October 8th 1845 and he is trying to dry himself in front of the fire at the College in Littlemore. Newman is on one knee requesting of Dominic Barberi that he be received into the Church. A relief by Faith Tolkien in the Church of Bl.Dominic Barberi Image: Communigate