That precious sanctuary light

I recently visited the Boston area to bury my mother, who passed away in October.  On the Sunday morning of her memorial reception, I attended Mass in a suburb.

When I went to the parish nearest where I was staying, I could not find the tabernacle.  I had no idea in what direction to genuflect when I took my seat.  It was only after the Consecration, when someone went into a darkened chapel along the side to get some of the reserved Sacrament, that I saw where it He was.

At the end of Mass, I went to the darkened chapel to pray the Rosary before the Tabernacle and poured out my gratitude for Christ’s physical presence there.

Second miracle confirmed for Blessed Cardinal Newman –Catholic Herald

You can read more about it here:

Another source with knowledge of the Cause told the Herald that panels of both the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had judged the healing of a woman to be miraculous. The canonisation is likely to take place after Easter 2019.

The Archdiocese of Chicago had investigated the inexplicable healing of a woman who prayed for Newman’s intercession after suffering with with a “life-threatening pregnancy”. Doctors who treated her reported that they had no explanation for her sudden recovery.

Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the most prominent converts to Catholicism from Anglicanism of the 19th century.

Good news!

Christians did not co-opt pagan festival for Christmas says William Tighe

William Tighe, who is a historian and a member of the board of the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society, has an article in Touchstone Magazine that disputes the popular idea that Christians co-opted a pagan festival by making Christmas happen on Dec. 25.

In fact, he argues it is the reverse:

Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.

Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance.

For his arguments, head on over to Touchstone Magazine for the full article.

St. Edmund Campion, Martyr (AD 1540 – 1581)

[#13 in the series This Week in English Catholic History: Week of November 25 – December 1]

 

HIS week, on December 1, the day of his martyrdom, we celebrate St. Edmund Campion. St. Edmund Campion was the son of a Catholic bookseller whose family converted to Anglicanism. He attended Oxford University. Queen Elizabeth I offered to make him a deacon in the Church of England, but he refused, fled to the Continent, and later converted and joined the Jesuits. He was ordained in 1578.

He worked for a few years in Bohemia before returning to London as part of a Jesuit mission, disguised as a jewel merchant. In London, he worked with his fellow Jesuit St. Nicholas Owen.

Evensong in Kitchener, Ontario on Sunday

Full EWTN: Great Britain Interview with the Ordinaries of the Three Ordinariates of Anglicanorum cœtibus

In an unprecedented 48 minute interview with EWTN: Great Britain, reporter James McCullough speaks with the Three Ordinaries Bishop Steven Lopes (my own bishop) of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in North America, Monsignor Harry Entwistle of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in the West Pacific, and Monsignor Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom:

King St. Edmund, Martyr (c. AD 841 – 869)

[#12 in the series This Week in English Catholic History: Week of November 18 – 24]

 

HIS week, on November 20, the Ordinariates honor King St. Edmund, Martyr. St. Edmund was born in Nuremburg, Germany in 841. He was crowned the King of East Anglia on Christmas Day, 855 at the age of 14 by Bishop St. Humbert of Elmham. He was a model king who treated his subjects with justice. He spent an entire year memorizing all 150 Psalms by heart. He was martyred by the Vikings when they invaded East Anglia in 869.

Update on the Nov. 2019 Symposium

I had posted earlier about plans for a Symposium in Rome Nov. 4-8, 2019 in Rome to mark the 10th Anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus.

Plans have changed.

There is a strong likelihood Blessed John Henry Newman will be canonized next year—there has been a second miracle I hear—but we will not know for sure until June and, if it happens, it is likely he will be canonized in October 2019.    October in Rome is a lot nicer than November, but the late notice in June would give little opportunity to plan anything large scale.

The Ordinaries will be discussing an alternative plan, perhaps something like a pilgrimage in the spring of 2020 that would possibly include spots in England as well as  a trip to Rome.

 

This is the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica where we had hoped to celebrate one of three Divine Worship liturgies during that week.

I apologize for posting on this earlier, then taking the post down, as some key people had not been notified yet of the decision, thus my posting here was precipitous.

I do not know much yet, but I will keep you posted as I learn more.

St. Hugh of Lincoln (c. AD 1135 – 1200)

[#11 in the series This Week in English Catholic History: Week of November 11 – 17]

 

AINT Hugh was actually born in Avalon, France, to a wealthy noble named William, Lord of Avalon, and his wife Anna. His English connections come later. He was the first canonized Carthusian. His feast day is November 17th.

Hugh’s mother died when Hugh was only eight years old. After Anna’s death, William retired from the world to a monastery and brought his son Hugh with him. Hugh’s older brother, also named William, carried on the affairs of the family while father and son sought God in holy contemplation as professed religious. Hugh made his perpetual vows at the age of fifteen.

University of Vienna announces new research focus on Anglican liturgy in the Catholic Church

The Anglican liturgy in the Catholic Church is to be the subject of a new research focus of the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Vienna, it was announced this week.

The academic project will be led by Professor Hans-Jürgen Feulner, a specialist in liturgy who has long had a great interest in the Anglican tradition. Prof. Feulner was a member of the Holy See’s Anglicanae Traditiones Commission that compiled the Divine Worship missal and has been further integrating the Anglican tradition into the liturgical life of the Catholic Church.

While this prestigious and ancient university’s deepening focus on our Anglican liturgy is of interest to all Catholics of the Anglican tradition, such academic interest in our rite will prove of particular importance to our priests. In fact, multiple priests from the various ordinariates are just now beginning doctoral-level studies as part of this new program.

It is only fitting that a new academic interest in the Anglican form of the Western Rite kicks off with a liturgical celebration in that rite, and so an Anglican Use Mass will be held this Sunday, November 11th, at 5:30pm in the Vienna Minoritenkirche.

An Austrian Catholic media outlet has reported on the news (German-language), a simple online-translated English version of which can be read below.