Marylebone Ordinariate Group: Bid Thou our sad divisions cease

Saturday 22 December 2012

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease

In these final days before we celebrate the Nativity of the Lord, Holy Church provides us with the Great 'O' Antiphons at vespers with which to recall and meditate upon the mystery of the coming of the Christ. Those who follow us on Facebook will have been listening to Charpentier's setting of these wonderful verses.

This evening we give praise to the Lord Who is King of the Gentiles.

Veni, Veni, Rex gentium,

veni, Redemptor omnium,

Ut salvas tuos famulos

Peccati sibi conscios.

In John Mason Neale's English adaptation of this verse, we make a solemn prayer for unity and for the coming of the Kingdom on Earth.

O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,

And be Thyself our King of Peace.

How appropriate this petition is for the Ordinariate which, formed in the heart of the Holy Father as in the Sacred Heart of Christ Himself, proclaims at one and the same time the command of unity and peace, but also that such unity must have as its source obedience to the "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace".

Let us pray, therefore, with great urgency in these final days of expectation for the coming of His Kingdom which shall know no end, that we may not indulge our laziness and apprehension in proclaiming the truth that Christ teaches us through His Church, rather becoming bold in this Year of Faith to hold fast to that which we have received.

We include a recording below from the Paderborn Cathedral Choir singing Veni, Veni Emmanuel. Let it never be said we do not appreciate the universality of the Church and seek only our own small corner. Do enjoy the German Latin.

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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!

Saturday 22 December 2012

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease

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