Saturday, March 26, 2016

Glorious to be Catholic proclaims Anglican and Episcopal parishioners and clergy; they came home to the one True Church

“Glorious to be Catholic”: Anglican Ordinariate's First Chrism Mass Makes History

03/26/2016                                                                      
(Photo Credit: Jim Holmes)
Many Catholics go their whole lives long without ever once witnessing a Chrism Mass, the yearly Mass at which bishop blesses the holy oils to be used during the year, and the priests of his diocese renew their promises. This is a pity, since the Chrism Mass is a beautiful experience that every Catholic should have.
I was blown away last week by the Chrism Mass at my parish. Into the bargain, it was a truly historic event—the first Chrism Mass celebrated by a bishop appointed by Rome to lead a group of Christians who were formerly separated by the Protestant Reformation and yet are now happily and fully returned to Holy Mother Church. We are a parish of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, as the Ordinariate for the U.S. and Canada is designated.
Excitement had been building in our parish, St. Luke's at Immaculate Conception (in downtown Washington, D.C.), since our pastor Father Mark Lewis announced to us that our new bishop, the Most Reverend Steven J. Lopes, had chosen St. Luke's as the site of his first Chrism Mass. The bishop is headquartered in Houston so we felt quite pleased. Until the bishop made known his intention, I must confess that, despite being one of the members of my parish who came into the Church decades ago, I had not known what a Chrism Mass is.
A Chrism Mass is an ancient ritual of the Church, noted in the Gelasian Sacramentary, the second oldest liturgical book in the Western Church. It is generally celebrated on Maundy Thursday (as we Ordinariate types like to call Holy Thursday), though it can be moved to another date in Lent, as our bishop did this year.
For a parish with plenty of relatively new Catholics, word that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, would be present only added to the intense anticipation. The happiness at finally being aboard a seaworthy barque is almost palpable at St. Luke's, and the presence of the nuncio only added to the overwhelming sense that we are, as our liturgy states it, "very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people."      
The liturgy began as twenty-five Ordinariate priests—men who had begun as Episcopal clergy—joined by a number of visiting Roman Rite priests from the Archdiocese of Washington and other places, progressed up the aisle singing "When the Patriarch Was Returning," a hymn about the priesthood of Christ. Bishop Lopes preached on the reading from Isaiah, in which the prophet speaks of "being anointed" to "bring good tidings to the afflicted" and to "bind up the brokenhearted" and spoke on the theme of "great are the works of the Lord," his episcopal motto.  He spoke of the roots of the ritual of anointing in the Old Testament but stressed that in Catholic liturgy it has actual efficacy.
All the Ordinariate priests present had previously attended Chrism Masses (and obtained their holy oils for the coming year) in the geographic dioceses in which they reside. But this was something new: this year they were making their priestly promises to their own bishop. Father Albert Scharbach, pastor of Mount Calvary Church in Baltimore, commented later at the reception how much this meant to him. "It makes all the more palpable our connection with our bishop as his priests," said Father Scharbach, who stressed that the ultimate connection is with the Holy Father. (The Ordinariate previously had an Ordinary who, not being a bishop, did not celebrate the Chrism Mass.)
After the renewal of the priestly promises, the oils were brought in procession to blessed by Bishop Lopes. Maybe you already knew this, but I never realized that the three kinds of holy oils—the oil of the catechumens (oleum catechumenorum), oil of the sick (oleum infirmorum), and the oil of the Chrism (sacrum chrisma)—are blessed separately. A memorable moment came when Bishop Lopes consecrated the oil of Chrism—to be used in ordinations: Bishop Lopes breathed upon it—just as Christ breathed upon the disciples when he gave the authority to remit or retain sins. The oils were then carried out of the church in three veiled urns, to be sent to Ordinariate parishes, where they will be used to anoint babies as yet unborn and the frail at the other end of the journey. At the end of the Mass, the priests, these men who had been Protestant clergymen, stood outside, facing the church and singing "O, Redeemer, take the tribute of the song we raise to thee."
Music is very important in our parish, and the music throughout the Chrism Mass was exquisite. We had both our choir and our schola, both excellent and unusual for such a small parish. The Mass setting was by Charles Wood, who taught Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Many of us took special pleasure in singing "Thou, who at thy First Eucharist," a hymn many of us had know all our lives, in a Catholic context. I have to say: the Chrism Mass lived up to the advance excitement. I'm told that Chrism Masses are unusually beautiful everywhere and so I urge you to attend one as soon as you possibly can.
Bishop Lopes was the celebrant for the 8:30am Mass next day, and a lot of us wouldn't have missed being there. It was the Feast of St. Mary in Passiontide, a feast that had fallen into disuse but has been restored in the Ordinariate calendar. The bishop reminded us that St. John, the youngest of the Apostles, was the only one who made it to the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Virgin. We also got to see Bishop Lopes install Mark Arbeen, our candidate for the permanent diaconate, to the office of Lector. Then the bishop bestowed upon Gary Schenk, who has been the loyal sacristan at St. Luke's for three decades, the office of Head Sacristran for Life.
Gathering in the vestibule before the morning Mass, we had to admit it: we'd been so keyed up by the previous evening that we had barely slept a wink. Isn't it glorious to be Catholic?


Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/charlottehays/glorious-to-be-catholic-anglican-ordinariates-first-chrism-mass-makes-histo/#ixzz444fY8uoe

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