Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum

After yesterday's great celebration of those who are already with God, today we turn our attention to those who have not yet attained the beatific vision. This is what one might call a very "full faith" day in the Church's calendar, associated with specifically Catholic teaching, a day which is probably rather misunderstood in many places where it is marked outside the Catholic Church.

Today, we pray for those who have died and who are in Purgatory. Since we cannot know, other than in limited cases, who is already in Heaven with God, we must take up a mission of praying for all the departed, assuming that that they are in Purgatory, hoping that they are already in Heaven and that they are not damned. This we do through our prayers, especially throughout November, the month of the Holy Souls, and through the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the repose of the souls of the departed.

Perhaps the marking of today by those who would say that they do not believe in Purgatory is down to the confusion caused by the word "remember", ie "Lord, we remember those gone before us", a usage that became common in the Church of England after the First World War, where popular sentiment cried out for some way of including the millions of war dead in prayers, but mainstream Anglican teaching was awkward about praying for the dead. It always seems to me to be such a ridiculous word in the circumstances, implying that we are happy to tell God that we haven't forgotten about Great Aunt Mabel and poor Cousin Bert, but that's it, we're not actually saying any more than that.

The survival of this day outside the Catholic Church is possibly also indicative of a deep and innate knowledge in the human soul, an inextinguishable feeling that we must continue to pray for our departed brethren. This inner call to do so is something that neither the Reformation nor cleverly worded compromise formularies could stop.

At St James's, along with the rest of the congregation, members of the Marylebone Ordinariate Group have submitted names of departed family and friends that will be included in a list of the Holy Souls to be prayed for throughout this month at masses for the dead. No half measures from us.

As we pray for the Holy Souls, so we ask their prayers for us. They are already closer to God than we are, and are saved. May they pray for us as we pray for them.

It is fitting that for a day so associated with robust Catholic teaching, BBC Radio 3's weekly live broadcast of a church service should today be coming from Westminster Cathedral. At 1530 UK time, instead of the usual service of Choral Evensong from an Anglican Cathedral or an Oxbridge College Chapel, Mass will be broadcast live from the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The setting of the Ordinary of the Mass is the Victoria Requiem. Here is the Introit and Kyrie from that powerful piece of polyphony.

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Blessed John Henry Newman on the hope for Reunion

… I gather up and bear in memory those familiar affectionate companions and counsellors, who in Oxford were given to me, one after another, to be my daily solace and relief; and all those others, of great name and high example, who were my thorough friends, and showed me true attachment in times long past….

And I earnestly pray for this whole company, with a hope against hope, that all of us, who once were so united, and so happy in our union, may even now be brought at length, by the Power of the Divine Will, into One Fold and under One Shepherd.

Apologia pro Vita Sua

Blessed John Henry Newman's Prayer for Unity

O Lord Jesus Christ, who when Thou wast about to suffer didst pray for Thy disciples to the end of time that they might all be one, as Thou art in the Father and the Father in Thee, look down in pity on the manifold divisions among those who profess Thy faith and heal the many wounds which the pride of man and the craft of Satan have inflicted on Thy people.

Break down the walls of separation which divide one party and denomination of Christians from another. Look with compassion on the souls who have been born in one or other of these communions, which not Thou, but man, hath made.

Set free the prisoners from these unauthorised forms of worship, and bring them all to the one communion which Thou didst set up at the beginning – the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Teach all men that the See of Peter, the Holy Church of Rome, is the foundation, centre, and instrument of Unity. Open their hearts to the long forgotten truth that the Holy Father, the Pope, is Thy Vicar and representative; and that in obeying him in matters of religion they are obeying Thee, so that as there is but one company in heaven above, so likewise there may be one communion, confessing and glorifying Thy holy Name, here below. Amen

Fr Ignatius Harrison, the former Provost of the London Oratory, on Unity

Another of the Holy Father’s outstanding achievements is his inspiring work for Christian Unity in setting-up the Ordinariates for former Anglicans. What a brilliant way of cutting through the plethora of mealy-mouthed verbiage and foggy thinking that has characterized so much ecumenical activity in recent decades, verbiage and fogginess which may indeed have had the very best of intentions, but which nevertheless achieved so little in real terms.

Let us also pray with all our heart and mind and strength that our vitally important ecumenical journey with our Greek and Russian Orthodox brethren will continue apace, that our charitable and respectful dialogue with them will bear much fruit, so that the universal Church might once again breathe with two whole lungs, and so that soon there may be but one flock and one shepherd. Domine, ut sit!

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum

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