Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Ascendens Christus in Altum Alleluia

Thursday 17 May 2012

Ascendens Christus in Altum Alleluia

Having been used to a pattern of feasts based on the BCP kalendar (for example, our friends at Bourne St mark the Ascension tonight), one of the little adjustments we have had to make as new Catholics is the keeping of solemnities such as today on the following Sunday.

This caused a little confusion amongst us this morning as we sorted out plans for when to attend an Ascension mass, it being a Holy Day of Obligation, even if that obligation is transferred in England and Wales to next Sunday.

Just to cause a little extra complexity, I had travelled this morning from Paris, where it is a French public holiday, marking indeed the Ascension. On this Solemnity last year, while still an Anglican, I attended mass at my Paris parish church, S Pierre de Chaillot, mentioned before on this blog in respect of this year's Ash Wednesday liturgy. Yet, this year, I was speeding on the Eurostar over to a country where the obligation had been transferred, and could not make the 11am Extraordinary Form Mass being celebrated at St James's..... Sunday it will have to be.

Whenever you mark the Ascension, a most blessed feast day to you. Two pieces of music to help you celebrate today, the first a setting by Victoria of Ascendens Christus in Altum, the last Responsorium of the Second Nocturn of Matins for the Ascension; the second some well known Anglican Patrimony, a staple of Anglican cathedrals and colleges, the Finzi setting of God is gone up, the text coming from a meditation by Edward Taylor. My search for a top quality recording on youtube of the Philips setting of Ascendit Deus continues: last year I had hoped to find one for the St Mary's Bourne St Facebook page, but to no avail, and no success this year either. Let's hope for something for next year.

Ascendens Christus in altum, alleluia.
Captivam duxit captivitatem, alleluia.
Dedit dona hominibus, alleluia.
Ascendit Deus in jubilatione,
et Dominus in voce tubae, alleluia.
Dedit dona hominibus, alleluia.

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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!

Thursday 17 May 2012

Ascendens Christus in Altum Alleluia

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