Oxford Ordinariate meeting

At teatime today I went along as a friend and supporter to the first of the catechetical meetings of the Oxford group of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham which was led by Fr Andrew Burnham and held at the Oxford Oratory.

It was a pleasure to see a group with a wide age range and which included several old friends who are undertaking this process of preparation for reception on the Wednesday of Holy Week, and to join with other convert friends in helping to extend the hand of welcome and support.

The group was greeted by Fr Daniel, the Provost of the Oxford Oratory, who spoke about St Philip Neri and the Oratorian tradition, before Fr Burnham spoke about the role of the three historic Creeds in the worshipping life of the Church.

I hope to attend other of these meetings, and commend to readers prayers all those who are planning to enter the Ordinariate. Some friends have asked me if I would join it. Having been received almost six years ago into full peace and communion with the Catholic Church, and having quickly settled therein I shall not be seeking a move, but I would be very happy to attend the Masses offered within the Ordinariate and to help in any way I could.

Eternal Father, we place before you
the project of forming the Personal Ordinariates
for Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.
Web rthank you for this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI,
and we ask that, through the Holy Spirit,
the Ordinariates may become
families of charity, peace and the service of the poor,
centres for Christian unity and reconciliation,
coomunities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness,
celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence
and maintaining adistinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.

Drawing on that heritage we pray

Go before us, O Lord,
in all our doings
with thy most gracious favour,
and further us
with thy continual help;
that in all our works, begun, continued and ended in thess,
we may glorify thy holy name,
and finally by thy mercy
obtain everlasting life:
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Our Lady of Walsingham:
Pray for us as we claim your motherly care.

Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus:
Pray for us as we place this work under your patronage.

Blessed John Henry Newman:
Pray that Christ's Heart may speak unto our hearts.

Saints and Martyrs of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland:
Pray for us and accompany us on our pilgrim way.

A prayer distributed at the meeting.

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

Fr Burnham's first Mass at the Oxford Oratory

So, it has finally come into being, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham under the patronage of Bl. John Henry Newman. I like the way it speaks both of the restoration of ancient devotion to Our Lady under that title and of the achievement of the Oxford Movement, linking those two strands of Catholic and Anglican patrimony.

Not only was it announced yesterday, but here today was tangible evidence in a Mass sheet with that heading for the first celebration of Mass by Fr Andrew Burnham following his ordination by the Archbishop of Westminster yesterday.

He celebrated a Missa Cantata for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time at the Oxford Oratory, The substantial congregation was drawn from a wide cross section of friends and supporters representing both Catholics and Anglicans. As someone who has known Fr Burnham in his previous persona as Bishop of Ebbsfleet for several years there was something slightly strange initially in hearing his familiar tones as celebrant in the Oratory church. The Provost of the Oxford Oratory, Fr Robert Byrne, acted as Priest Assistant in cope, and there was an impressive array frawn from the local Oratorians, Dominicans, diocesan clergy, Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta sitting in choir, with other clergy and the Sisters of the Work from Littlemore in the congregation.

By a happy coincidence the readings of the day were very appropriate, with their theme of drawing together the nations in Christ and of His universal Kingdom, and in His baptism of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The sermon by Fr Aidan Nichols drew on quotations from Newman which highlighted the concept of an Anglican patrimony that can be shared with the wider Church and the great reference to having a work to do in England. For Fr Burnham that is going in particular to be in connection with the liturgical life of the Ordinariate.

Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P., delivers the Homily

Given Fr Andrew's background as a musician the music was impressive, starting with a spirited congregational rendering of that marvellous hymn Hail to the Lord's Anointed, and for the liturgy Byrd's Mass for Four Voices - a reminder of the cross-ecclesial links of the composer's own life - and the Sanctus and Benedictus sung to overlay the Canon Missae.

The Communion motet was pertinent:

Andreas Christi famulus, dignus Dei Apostolus, germanus Petri,

et in passione socius Sante Andrea, ora pro nobis.

Andrew, the servant of Christ, worthy Apostle of God, was Peter's brother

and partaker of his passion. Saint Andrew, pray for us.

There was a genuine and moving sense of seeing history being made, both personally for Fr Andrew, and for the wider Church. It is easy to describe something as being historic, and very often it is said of things that are not really very significant , but the events of the last few days are important. One was privileged, in the proper sense of the term, to be present. There was also the real sense that Our Lady of Walsingham and Bl.John Henry were looking down from Heaven on what was happening. We are witnessing, and witnessing to, remarkable events. In that sense at least this is not Ordinary Time.

May Our Lady of Walsingham and Bl.John Henry Newman pray with us, and together with St Andrew, for Fr Burnham, Fr Newton the new Ordinary and Fr Broadhurst, and for the Ordinariate.

Photographs of the Mass from New Liturgical Movement and the Ordinariate Portal.

There are pictures of the Westminster Ordinations yesterday on the New Liturgical Movement  website and they can be seen here.

Fr Burnham's First Mass

The first Mass celebrated by Fr Andrew Burnham following his ordination as a Catholic priest tomorrow will be at the Oxford Oratory this Sunday at 1pm. The preacher will be Fr Aidan Nichols OP. This would be a good occasion upon which to welcome Fr Andrew and to show support for the Ordinariate and its members.

Incidentally I see that the article on Fr Burnham's on Wikipedia has already been updated. You can read it here.

Please keep him and his fellow ordinands in your prayers.