Married & Monastic

We weren't able to get to the Service of Remembrance that the school held in St Martin's (antenatal appointment at the hospital). Pity though as Toby read out IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE SCHOOL, A POEM HE HAD WRITTEN HIMSELF!!!!!

Dom Augustin Guillerand O.Cart on prayer:

St John Damascene's definition of prayer is well know. "Prayer," he says, "is asking God for what is fitting."

What is "fitting", what we must ask God for, is Himself; to be united with Him, to be transformed in Him; to possess Him and to be possessed by Him. We should ask to enter, by His grace, into such intimate relations with Him as unite us to Him; to become His sons by a communication as complete as possible of His Spirit of Love; to share in that joy and in that life which is His joy and life.

Toby now has a young lady called Kelly as his one to one worker at school. She sat next to him on the bus for today's school trip to The Deep in Hull. We have an update with Julie (SENCO) and Kelly on Monday. Toby has seemed relatively ok this week, but he was in full Aspergers mode earlier this evening.

Sally has an appointment to see her consultant on Wednesday, so there may be some progress on that front. We should know afterwards if Junior can be born by VBAC or will have to be a planned c-section.

Faith is thankfully better than she has been.

Or, to give today it's alternative title: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.esence

Today, we pray for those faithful departed who await admittance to the Divine Presence in a state of purgation.

"May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace".

Well, owing to ickle Faith being poorly, attendance at church this morning was limited to yours truly attending Mass at Saint Joseph's.

Now that the church has been refurbished, with new lighting and a new sound system, it's great. Sadly, the lowered ceiling has a bit of a deadening effect on the accoustics. Great hymns and Mass setting though.

Pope Benedict is to publish, we understand, an Apostolic Constitution which would provide for Anglicans to be received into the Roman Catholic Church, whilst keeping some aspects of their Anglican identity and allowing married Anglican clergy to be ordained in the RC Church.

From memory, I understand that John Paul II extended the same sort of facility for individual Anglicans, rather than whole parishes or groups.

From a personal perspective, the ordination of women to the priesthood in the C of E began my thought processes which has led me to Rome. There is a fundamental question of authority in the Church and whether a Church which claims to be both Protestant and Catholic could legimately act in this manner. The answer I came to, was no.

Women bishops? This is where the C of E should have started the debate over women's ordaination in the first place, rather than starting with deacons, then priests and now bishops. As Bishops hold the fullness of Holy Orders, it would have made sense I believe.

As for the personal ordinariate: converting Anglicans will have to make a profession of faith, accepting the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. As Pope Leo declared Anglican orders utterly null and void, Anglican clergy are going to have a difficult time with their consciences accepting that their previous sacramental ministry was not valid.

Having said all this, if there was a Roman Catholic Church (Anglican Ordinariate) parish near here, I would be quite happy going.

Simon’s Testimony

 

I was born on the 14^th October 1971 in Sharoe Green Hospital in Preston, Lancashire. My Mum was a diabetic and had been since the age of 4, so it was decided that I would be baptised in the Church of England as soon as I was born. I have my Baptism Certificate somewhere: ‘Date of Birth 14/10/1971, Date of Baptism 14/10/1971’.

 

Right from the start then, I had been dedicated to Christ the Lord and received the grace of this holy Sacrament.

 

We didn’t really settle into church properly until we moved to Penrith in the late 1970’s. I attended the Sunday school at Saint Andrew’s and my parents went to the main service. From Penrith, we had a brief stint in Egremont, where I went to Sunday school at Saint Michael’s.

 

Moving onto Gosforth, here is where my spiritual development truly moved up a gear. Saint Mary’s and the Methodist Chapel shared the Sunday school, which was held on a Sunday morning in the Chapel School-room. I was 9 or 10 at the time and becoming increasingly fed up of singing cringe-worthy songs and colouring in religious pictures. Was a serious child – now I know where my eldest son gets it from. Anyway, one morning there, I decided to draw a scene of Our Lord’s Crucifixion. I asked one of the teachers what order the letters on the notice above Jesus’ head were: INRI or IRNI. She couldn’t answer me, which perplexed me.

 

The next thing I knew, it was Harvest Festival at Saint Mary’s. Something touched me at the service and I persuaded my parents to let me join the church choir as a boy treble – the only boy treble. I faithfully went to Thursday evening practice (ditching the scouts at last!) and the 10am Sunday morning service.

 

In the course of time, I came to Confirmation (18^th November 1984), which was performed during Evensong by the Suffragan Bishop of Penrith, Rt Rev George Hacker. My Confirmation preparation was not at all memorable, but I was aware of the importance of the sacrament. I felt like I floated out of church afterwards.

 

The church’s altar server decided to call it a day soon after this and so I left the choir to serve at the altar of the Lord. Being an altar server has always been a great function which I love tremendously.

 

During the summer of 1985, we (St Mary’s) got a new Rector, Rev. David Bickersteth, a great man of God. He wanted to set up a youth fellowship, so a few of us went on a weekend away to a hostel. Over the course of the weekend we learned and prayed and worshipped together. It was then that my eyes were fully opened to the Gospel. The leader sent me a booklet called ‘Journey into Life’ by Norman Warren, and I prayed the prayer at the back in my bedroom a few days later.

 

If you ask me, when I became a Christian, I would answer, 14^th October 1971, but that my eyes and my heart were opened more fully to the Lord Jesus in 1985.

 

Since then various changes and developments have occurred and here are the bullet points:

 

-         started reading and serving at St Leonard’s, Penwortham c.1989

-         Christian Aid link person at St. Leonard’s c.1990

-         Huddersfield Uni 1990-2

-         Chalice administrator, PCC member, Deanery Synod member at Saint Leonard’s, 1992-1994

-         Turned down for ordination, Maundy Thursday, 1994

-         Visited Alton Abbey with the intention of joining, Summer 1994

-         Met Sally, Oct 1994

-         Married Sally, June 1996

-         Church Army One Year Evangelism Team member, Dewsbury Team Parish 1997-8

-         Turned down for ordination by Wakefield Diocese, 1998

-         Toby born Feb 1999

-         Appointed Churchwarden of Saint Martin’s, North Leverton, 1999?

-         Joseph born Feb 2002

-         Gave up pursuing ordination in the Church of England 2003?

-         Attended Poplars Church Worksop and was ‘dunked’ 2004

-         Diagnosed with severe depression Feb 2005

-         Started attending Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Retford – Palm Sunday 2005

-         Received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and confirmed by Father Bill Bergin (with Bishop’s Authority) October 2006

-         Faith born July 2007

Interesting day at work today. We were stuffing WorldShare's magazine and we had a large team of staff and volunteers. The different church backgrounds made for some interesting conversations. In no particular order, we had:

3 from Bessacarr Evangelical Church
4 from Bawtry Evangelical Free Church
2 from St Nicholas, Bawtry (Anglican)
1 from Rampton (Anglican)
1 Baptist

Plus me, whatever I am (Roman Catholic with deepy ingrained Anglicanism!).

Someone was asking about my 'testimony', so I think I might work on it and put on here.

We did church by the divide and conquer approach to child care today. Sally, Toby and Faith went to the Methodist Chapel in North Leverton whereas Joe and I went to Mass at Saint Joseph's.

Unfortunately the renovations at St J's weren't completed so the service was in the Church Hall again, but we got to have a look around church afterwards. Looks great. There's even a heater in the Confessional now!

Here's a knotty problem: do I continue with the Anglican Breviary, (which is basically an English translation of the Pius X Breviary and uses the same calendar as the Extra Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite - Latin Mass) or the Breviary as promulgated by Paul VI?

The Paul VI book follows the same calendar as we use at Mass at Saint Joseph's, but only has three Psalms at Lauds and Vespers. The AB is good, five psalms at L & V but uses a completely different calendar to that at church.

Will continue to ponder. Observations welcome.