A Bridge is being Built for Christian Unity

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

Anglican Ordinariate: 'We Don't Have to Swim the Tiber; A Bridge is being Built' - Living Faith - Home and Family - Catholic Online

The following excerpt is from Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier

LONDON, UK (Catholic Online) - I received a response to an article we published on the "Becoming One" gathering of those coming into full communion through the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States. It was from an Anglican priest who identified himself as "Father Luke". He wrote, "I am still in san Antonio. I wait for the plane back to Reno. My EMC (Episcopal Missionary Church) parish has voted to enter the Ordinariate, and I am pleased to have gotten together with my fellow travelers here in San Antonio. We do not have to swim the Tiber; a bridge is being built."

The imagery is apropos. This historic overture toward Anglican Christians is prophetic. A bridge is indeed being built and Pilgrims are crossing over and coming home. The implications have only begun to be realized; not only within the Anglican and Episcopal world, but within the Catholic Church. I am convinced this a part of an unfolding movement of the Holy Spirit which is fostering restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches as well as the healing of the divisions occasioned by the Protestant reformation in the West. Pope Benedict XVI is the Pope of Christian Unity. We should not underestimate the significance of what is occurring in this pregnant moment in Church history.

I have followed the movement of Anglican Clergy and lay faithful toward the safe harbor that is found in the Bark of Peter and written extensively about it. I have grieved along with many Anglicans as their own Christian community was torn asunder by the rejection of both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It is my conviction that the influx of these Anglican Christians into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Anglican Ordinariate is a work of the Holy Spirit, a gift to the Catholic Church and marks the beginning of the coming full communion of the whole Church.

This is the beginning of a new chapter in Church history. Pope Benedict XVI is the "Pope of Christian Unity" and the new chapter has only just begun to be written as the Third Millennium begins.

Read More: Christian Unity

Unity between Orthodox and Catholic Church Draws Near

Orthodox and Catholic participants at the historic meeting in Vienna.

 

Sister Churches: Communion between Orthodox and Catholic Draws Near - Living Faith - Home and Family - Catholic Online

The photograph and following excerpt is published on Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier

A form of restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is near.

Participants in the 12th Session of the "Joint Theological Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches" prayed together and discussed the relationship between the two Churches. They did so with humility and a desire to heal the division which has existed in the Body of Christ for over a millennium. This meeting points us in the direction of where this dialogue is headed, a restored communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Read More: Signs of Christian Unity

Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini: Signs of Christian Unity

Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, of Moscow,
and Pope Benedict XVI

Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini: May the Two Become One - International News - Catholic Online

The photograph and following excerpt is from Catholic Online:

By Deacon Keith Fournier

Full communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is being prompted by the Holy Spirit. It is the most important development of the Third Christian Millennium and has implications for the whole world at this critical time in history. This coming communion between the Orthodox and Catholic Church will mark the beginning of the re-Christianizing of the West and a new missionary age.

Read More: Orthodox and Catholic Embrace in Rimini

Why is this Week Called Holy?

The Garden of Gethsemane

Photograph by Loci B. Lenar

The following article by Deacon Keith Fournier appeared on Catholic Online:

Catholic Online - Lent Story

Why is this Week Called Holy?
Take This Cup

By Deacon Keith Fournier

We all experience "Gethsemanes" in our own lives; times of difficulty, deep sorrow, loss, distress, fear and anguish.

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - "Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not undergo the test." After withdrawing about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done."

(And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.) When he rose from prayer -and returned to his disciples- he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test." (Luke 22: 39-42)

This Sunday we enter into Holy Week. Christians will gather in sanctuaries throughout the world and wave Palm branches in imitation of those who lined the streets at Jesus´ triumphal entry. We will follow the path of His struggle, the way of His rejection and we will be invited to climb the mountain of His great saving act of unmerited selfless Divine love.

During this week we are invited to enter into His pattern of surrendered love; to walk this way with Jesus, who, in His Sacred humanity, teaches us the path to our own transformation. The agony in that garden called Gethsemane shows us a very human Jesus.

Yes, He was Divine and, because of that, He alone could do for us what we could not do for ourselves, restoring through His passion and death the broken relationship between God and the people whom He fashioned for love and communion. With His outstretched arms, He bridged the gap between heaven and earth. In His triumph over death he defeated the last enemy and began the new creation.

In His Sacred humanity this man Jesus shows each of us how to live differently. We are invited to greet and embrace even that which we do not want as the very means of transformation. We have been given the grace to accept difficulties, which, when embraced in love, can actually become a path to our redemption.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin." (Hebrews 14:15)

The Christian tradition insists that even undeserved and unmerited suffering, when joined in love to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, can produce extraordinary fruit within us and around us. This is the mystery of suffering in the Christian life.

Saint Jose Maria Escriva once wrote "The great Christian revolution has been to convert pain into fruitful suffering and to turn a bad thing into something good. We have deprived the devil of this weapon; and with it we can conquer eternity."

How do we treat those circumstances that cause us to struggle? How do we deal with what we find unpleasant? Do we practice an "adult" form of avoidance and run, acting as if it will all just go away like when children cover their eyes? Or do we believe that even unpleasant things and "difficult" people can actually be gifts from the hands of a loving God who invites us to walk in the way of His Son?

How do we deal with unresolved conflicts or troubling relationships? Do we work toward resolution, making "love our aim" (1 Cor. 14:7), or do we avoid them, thinking they will just go away if we "pretend" they don´t exist?

Now is the time, during this week we call "Holy", to join the revolution of which this great saint writes. After all, why do we call this week "Holy"? I suggest two among many reasons.

First, the story of this week is the story of an all Holy God who showed the depth of His love through the complete emptying of Himself, in and through the Passion of His Son. Second, it is holy because we are invited into that life and way of holiness that Jesus demonstrated during all of the events that we will soon commemorate.

In the Old Testament the word often translated as "holy" literally meant- to be set aside, consecrated, for God. In Jesus Christ it now means even more. We who are baptized into Him are invited to live our lives now, in Him. To love as He loves; to pray as He prays, to walk as He walks, to suffer as He suffers; to confront evil the way He does.

All of us inevitably experience "Gethsemanes" in our own lives, times of difficulty, deep sorrow, loss, distress, fear and anguish. Friends may have betrayed us, or those whom we love may have rejected us. Maybe things about our lives are being exposed, brought into the light, and it is "uncomfortable".

It is often those times and circumstances that become the very path to holiness if we learn to love as He loves. Our Christian vocation is to live as He lives, to love as He loves and to thereby become "holy" as He is holy. We are invited to embrace the way of surrendered love.

"Take this cup". It is a very human request. What is the cup we are being asked to drink? Let us decide today to make the choice and drink, saying as we do "not my will but yours be done" When we live and love this way, the very people and circumstances that once seemed to be so difficult can become the path to freedom and we learn to walk the way of forgiving love with Him as His redemptive mission continues through time.

***

Deacon Keith Fournier asks that you join and help in this vital mission by sending this article to your family, friends, and neighbors and adding the link (www.catholic.org) to your own website, blog or social network. Let us broadcast, we are PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC!

Signs of Unity: Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic

The photograph and following article appeared on Catholic Online:

Forward in Faith Anglicans in Australia Unanimously Vote to Become Catholic - Catholic Online

They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

By Deacon Keith Fournier

SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) – It has been an historic week for the Church in Australia and around the world. The move of many Anglican Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church has taken a decided move forward.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bishop David Robarts OAM, the chairman of Forward in Faith Australia, explained that members of that Anglican association in Australia have decided they could no longer move forward in faith as a part of an Anglican Church in Australia which was not being faithful.

The Bishop explained that the Anglican Church was moving away from orthodox Christian belief and practice and leaving them behind: "In Australia we have tried for a quarter of a decade to get some form of episcopal oversight but we have failed… We're not really wanted any more, our conscience is not being respected."

The Bishop continued, "We're not shifting the furniture, we're simply saying that we have been faithful Anglicans upholding what Anglicans have always believed - and we're not wanting to change anything, but we have been marginalized by people who want to introduce innovations. We need to have bishops that believe what we believe."

So, on Sunday, February 13, 2010, Forward in Faith Australia voted unanimously to accept the invitation extended by Pope Benedict XVI in his historic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus. They will now take the next step in entering into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

The entire process of following the directions set forth in the Apostolic Constitution is being presided over by Catholic Bishop Peter Elliott. This Anglican group will now make Church history. They will come into full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining aspects of their liturgical distinctives and Anglican Ethos.

Bishop Elliott explained the process in a recent article he wrote for the publication of the Traditional Anglican Communion:

"The Pastor of the nations (Pope Benedict XVI) is reaching out to give you a special place within the Catholic Church. United in communion, but not absorbed – that sums up the unique and privileged status former Anglicans will enjoy in their Ordinariates.

"Catholics in full communion with the Successor of St Peter, you will be gathered in distinctive communities that preserve elements of Anglican worship, spirituality and culture that are compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Each Ordinariate will be an autonomous structure, like a diocese, but something between a Personal Prelature (as in Opus Dei, purely spiritual jurisdiction), or a Military Ordinariate (for the Armed Forces).

"In some ways, the Ordinariate will even be similar to a Rite (the Eastern Catholic Churches). You will enjoy your own liturgical "use" as Catholics of the Roman Rite. At the same time your Ordinaries, bishops or priests, will work alongside diocesan bishops of the Roman Rite and find their place within the Episcopal Conference in each nation or region."

These members of Forward in Faith, Australia, will be accompanied on the journey to full communion by members of the Traditional Anglican Communion and others from the Anglican Church in Australia.

They have established a "working group" which, under the supervision of Bishop Elliott and the direction of the Holy See, will establish the process of establishing an Anglican Ordinariate in Australia. It may become a prototype for similar Anglican Ordinariates in other parts of the world.

Bishop David Robarts told the Daily Telegraph, "I love my Anglican heritage, but I'm not going to lose it by taking this step."

After the release of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Anglican Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Richborough issued a call for a Day of Prayer and Discernment on Monday 22nd February. February 22d is the Feast of the Chair of Peter. These are historic times.