Please pray for us.

The Most Rev Honesto Ongtioco DD, Roman Catholic bishop of Cubao will host a meeting for the Anglican Use Society of the Philippines on the feast of the Black Nazarene, January 9 so we can plan our future directions. Please pray for the meeting's success.

Our Lady under the titles of Walsingham and Piat, pray for us!
Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us!
Saint Lorenzo de Manila and Blessed Pedro Calungsod, lay catechists and martrys, pray for us!
Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, pray for us!
Saint Elizabeth Seton, pray for us!
Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!
Blessed Pope John XXIII, pray for us!
Blessed Pope John Paul II, pray for us!

Asking for your prayers...

The provincial office of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines recently announced that the Most Rev. Edward Malecdan, Prime Bishop has been diagnosed with colon cancer and will undergo radiation therapy for one month.

Please include the Most Rev. Malecdan in your prayers. May the Divine Physician restore him to health that he may witness the Gospel for more years to come.

A Prayer for the Ordinariates from the Ordinariate Portal

Eternal Father, we place before you the project of forming the Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.

We thank you for this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, and we ask that, through the Holy Spirit,
the Ordinariates may become:
families of charity, peace and the service of the poor, centres for Christian unity and reconciliation, communities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness, celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence and maintaining a distinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.

Drawing on that heritage we pray:

Go before us, O Lord,
in all our doings
with thy most gracious favour,
and further us
with thy continual help;
that in all our works, begun,
continued and ended in thee,
we may glorify thy holy name,
and finally by thy mercy
obtain everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Our Lady of Walsingham:
Pray for us as we claim
your motherly care.

Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus:
Pray for us as we place this
work under your patronage.

Blessed John Henry Newman:
Pray that Christ’s Heart
may speak unto our hearts.

Saints & Martyrs of England,
Wales, Scotland & Ireland:
Pray for us and accompany
us on our pilgrim way.

_____________________________

And we in the Philippines seek the intercession of

Blessed Pope John XXIII, Blessed Pope John Paul II, Bishop Charles Henry Brent, Father John Staunton, 

Pray for us to God! 

Newman's Collect

Blessed John Henry Newman as an Anglican priest

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's best known prayer is a hymn "Lead Kindly Light". During my college days at UP, we had a Catholic priest who was a fan of Newman and he always sang this hymn after the Mass had ended.

However there is a collect for Evening Prayer written by Newman years before he even contemplated becoming a Roman Catholic which has been largely forgotten in the Philippines and virtually unheard of in the Catholic Church in the Philippines

And here it is

Support us all day long

"O LORD, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done. Then, Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."


This prayer was once said during Evensong at Brent School, according to Dr Rafael B Rodriguez, former President of Trinity College (now Trinity University of Asia) in Quezon City. However over the years as Dr Rodriguez told me, the prayer has been relegated to the sidelines. 




This is unfortunate for it is one of the best, night time prayers I have ever said. My grandfather has  
it written down longhand probably from memory in his wartime (1942-1945) diary. It provided him with the comfort and peace of God during those troubled times.


John Henry Newman lived up to his calling as a cardo, Latin for hinge, that links the Anglican and Roman Catholic faith together.




Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, pray for us to God!

A collect for Blessed Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II and Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Robert Runcie bless the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in 1982

From Father Zulhsdorf's blog the Latin collect for John Paul II

Deus, dives in misericordia,
qui beatum Ioannem Paulum, papam,
universae Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti,
praesta, quaesumus, ut, eius institutis edocti,
corda nostra salutiferae gratiae Christi,
unius redemptoris hominis, fidenter aperiamus.

Which he translated into English as

O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that the Blessed John Paul II
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind.
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.....


Which we could "Cranmerize" as

O God, thou art rich in mercy
and who hast willed that the Blessed  Pope John Paul II
should preside as Pope over thy universal Church.
grant and we beseech thee, that edified by his teaching
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the only Redeemer of men
Who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and fore ever more, Amen.

Pray! Pray! Pray!

I posted this at the Pinoy Episcopalians Facebook group


"I would like to know if my Episcopalian friends here would be willing to join three Anglican Roman Catholics and Roman Catholics for Evening Prayer in the Anglican Use at the University of the Philippines. With our country and people facing very trying times in the coming months, we have a strong reason to pray together! May God bless us all here in this FB group."




It was 1:45 PM when I posted this. At 1:46 PM, the Japan earthquake struck.


Please pray for Japan and our country and the world.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. This year it falls on my birthday, March 9!  In the Western Church it is the Wednesday after Quinquagesima Sunday or the Sunday fifty days before Easter day. The ashes used in the rite comes from the burning of the palms from last Palm Sunday. Thus the continuity of the remembrance of Jesus' passion.

Now with the loss of Latinity in the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, the meaning of Quinquagesima will be met by an unexpressed but polite "duh" among most Catholics. However the last generation of Filipino Catholics to know what that means were your grandparents, who knew what the Latin Mass was all about. During Quinquagesima Sunday, the priest wore violet vestments as the liturgical colour was violet.

In the earliest Catholic tradition, this Sunday marks the beginning of the Lenten fast. In Medieval England, the pious English trooped to the churches to say their confessions to the priest. The English being not that rowdy compared to the Latins, called that Sunday "Shrove Sunday" and the following Tuesday, "Shrove Tuesday", Shrove is a old English word meaning "repent". Now on these days, it was customary to make pancakes and in the USA the day is called "pancake Tuesday". Among the Latins, it is known as "Fat Tuesday" and this is day of the Mardi Gras, which means the same thing! The consumption of animal products is prohibited in Lent and this included pancakes which have eggs!

All these are almost lost to a secular world except perhaps in New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro. In many cities Mardi Gras has taken a "gay" reputation as sort of coming out, when the original idea was to get inside one's conscience, examine it for sins and make a confession!

Fortunately the Anglican Church for the benefit of the whole Catholic Church (which has almost lost its sense of Latin!) has preserved much of the original meanings of these days. The Book of Common Prayer still emphasizes the fasting and penitence aspect. Thus the collect for the day is

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou has made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

The 1928 BCP readings and Gospel are identical to that in the old Roman Missal for Ash Wednesday ( Joel 2:12 and St Matthew 7: 16). The collect's meaning is really taken from the Gospels and the Epistle for the day.

The ashes are imposed by the priest as the Sign of the Cross saying the traditional Genesis 3: 19 "Remember man, that thou art dust and into dust shall you return". The Roman Rite reforms give the priest an option taken from St Mark 1:15 "Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel" In the Philippines, a properly deputized extraordinary minister of Holy Communion ofter administers the ashes. But this is contrary to the old tradition even if the ashes are not a sacrament but a sacramental. The Anglican Church still uses the traditional Genesis verse which is a strong reminder of a man's mortality.

The question is how long must one wear the ashes. While the Gospel of the day suggests that one must wash it after leaving the church, Christ's directive must be taken in its proper context for he was really referring about the hypocritical wearing of signs of devotion.  While the Church does not have a rule about it, it is sensible to wear it until it fades away on that Wednesday. This is the only time the Christian is to wear the Sign of the Cross visible to all. People have died for the Sign of the Cross, in ancient Rome and even to this day! The wearing of "dirt" on the head is a minor inconvenience!

As it falls on my birthday, Ash Wednesday is an apt reminder that only God knows the length of my days and I must live these days in charity and service for others.

Also this Ash Wednesday is when our good friend Fr Joe Frary has a date with the surgeon. I will pray for him too.

Religious things you can do with a tablet computer

PC World says that laptops are on the way out and tablet computers are in. In fact this year expect the market to be flooded with all sorts of tablets.

Part of the marketing strategy to ensure more people get tablets are the downloadable applet freebies. The freebies especially on Android range from GPS navigation, teach yourself partial differential equations to  Bible and Mass readings.

The Bible is now available via an applet. For Catholics the Mass Reading applet is of supreme practicality since you can download

1) the Mass readings for the day
2) the traditional Catholic prayers
3) the Stations of the Cross
4) the Liturgy of the Hours.
5) the Order of the Mass
6) the Bible in its Catholic edition
7) facts about the day's Patron Saint

Since a tablet is incongruous compared to a laptop, you can bring it to Mass instead of a thick prayer book tome.

I did try to use my tablet during Sunday Mass (not to play frivolous games, but to use the Mass Readings applet) but people thought I was playing PSP 2!

So I had to turn it off. Nonetheless, the time will come when this would be more acceptable to a lot of people.  Parish priests complain of people using cell phones at Mass but will they complain about tablets? It depends on what the tablets are used for during Mass!

If you need an Icon for religious reflection, you can also download it together with the prayers! I haven't found the applet for the Book of Common Prayer but I suppose it is out there in cyberspace.

The age of religious applets has arrived! There are even ecumenical prayer applets which cater not only to Catholics but to non-Catholics as well. Non Christians have their own applets. Muslims have an applet about the Quran and Buddhists too about their prayer cycles. Now who was the one who said that the Singularity will erase faith?

A prayer request

The Rev. Father Joseph Frary of St Andrews Theological Seminary,  Episcopal Church in the Philippines is presently in St Luke's Hospital for surgery. May we ask readers of this blog to say a prayer for his quick and complete recovery?

Please remember him in your daily prayers.

Thank you.

A prayer for the Ordinariates

From the Ordinariateportal.wordpress.com blog.

PRAYER FOR THE ORDINARIATES

Eternal Father, we place before you the project of forming the Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.

We thank you for this initiative of Pope Benedict XVI, and we ask that, through the Holy Spirit, the Ordinariates may become: families of charity, peace and the service of the poor, centres for Christian unity and reconciliation, communities that welcome and evangelize, teaching the Faith in all its fullness, celebrating the liturgy and sacraments with prayerful reverence and maintaining a distinctive patrimony of Christian faith and culture.

Drawing on that heritage we pray:

Go before us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help;
that in all our works, begun, continued and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

V/ Our Lady of Walsingham.
R/ Pray for us as we claim your motherly care.
V/ Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus.
R/ Pray for us as we place this work under your patronage.
V/ Blessed John Henry Newman
R/ Pray that Christ’s Heart may speak unto our hearts.
V/ Saints and Martyrs of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
R/ Pray for us and accompany us on our pilgrim way.

Anglican Use begins!

Those who prayed from left to right, Mr Bruce Hall, Mr Noel Lumbre, Mrs Chie Lumbre, Mr Ren Aguila and Fr Joe Frary

In what may be considered as an important ecumenical milestone in the history of the Church in the Philippines, the first Anglican Use liturgy was prayed in a Philippine Catholic church. The Anglican Use may be said like the English Ordinariate slipped unnoticed into the water, but this like Christ's command to "put into deep water" begins an important mission. The Anglican Use Society Philippines recently said the Evening Prayer according to the Anglican Use of the Catholic Church at the pastoral center of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Participating at the prayer are Ren Aguila, Bruce Hall, Fr Joe Frary of the Central Diocese of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines and St Andrews Theological Seminary, Mr Noel and Chie Lumbre of the parish ministry for families and yours truly. While we were a bit late, we came from the office to say the Office. Thanks be to God!

For the prayers, the intention was about the Octave of Christian Unity which is most apt. We brought the image of Our Lady of Walsingham to the church. Mr Ren Aguila officiated the prayer splendidly. We prayed for our country, Our Holy Father Benedict XVI and all pastors, for missions and for the University of the Philippines so that the university receives the grace to seek the truth in learning. We thank the intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham for making this event a success. After the prayer we reflected on what Evening Prayer is and discussed the ecumenical importance of Our Lady of Walsingham, who is honored in the first Anglican Ordinariate in England and has worked miracles and continues to do so. We also thank the Parish priest Father Raymond Arre for graciously hosting us and the parish community for being supportive.

That we were able to say this prayer is a miracle in itself! It isn't the big miracle that most people expect but a miracle nonetheless. The intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham is indeed powerful. Despite the difficulties, she has helped us in bearing them. And when we said the Magnificat, this was on our minds.

The Evening Prayer we hope will be regularly said on the last Friday of each month at 7:30 PM. Later on we hope to have a more public liturgical celebration of the Prayer. Please keep logging into this blog for announcements.

A prayer for rain

The Anglican Church has always prayed for the seasons of nature for these are vital to our physical existence and well being. This prayer from the American 1928 Book of Common Prayer is most apt for these days.


A Prayer for Rain

"O God, heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised to all those who seek thy kingdom and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their bodily sustenance; Send us, we beseech thee, in our necessity such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth to our comfort, and to thy honour; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"

Te Deum Laudamus

It is quite rare to hear the Te Deum Laudamus sung in churches in Metro Manila these days. However the singing of the Te Deum figures in the history of the Filipino nation. When the Protestant Dutch ships were defeated by the few Spanish-Filipino galleons in La Naval in Manila Bay in 1646, a solemn Te Deum was sung in the Cathedral and the churches of Intramuros. When news of the martyrdom of Lorenzo Ruiz and companions reached Manila, the Te Deum was sung in the Cathedral. If the Dutch succeeded in conquering the Philippines, there wouldn't have been a Filipino nation. The Te Deum was sung not just for the defeat but for the salvation of the Philippines. The Te Deum is sung in thanksgiving for the consecration of bishops, ordination of priests, the election of the Pontiff, saint's feast days or the consecration of a church.  In the Roman Rite's Liturgy of the Hours the Te Deum is sung at the end of the Office of Readings. But in the Roman Church, the Office is mainly recited by the clergy and the religious and has fallen out of use by the laity.  However recent Popes beginning with Paul VI have encouraged the laity to say it especially in a parish setting. In the Anglican Communion, the Divine Office remains said by the laity in parish and private devotion. This preserved the monastic character of Anglican prayers.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear the Te Deum sung at Solemn Evensong at St Andrew's Seminary Chapel in Cathedral Heights to cap St Andrew's Day. Unfortunately I got stuck in traffic on the way to Cathedral Heights and I just barely made it to the singing of the Te Deum.

The Te Deum is a Latin Hymn attributed to St Ambrose and is part of the Anglican tradition in Church music and is in the Book of Common Prayer. In the Anglican Church the hymn is sung so often at Morning Prayer or Evensong that many Anglicans know it by heart. In the 19th Century there was a ship that floundered in the Atlantic during a storm and miraculously the passengers and crew were all saved. The Anglicans broke into the singing of the Te Deum but the Roman Catholics were hard pressed to find a hymn they knew. This was unfortunate because the Te Deum is a Catholic hymn!

Part of the things Anglican that can be brought back to the Roman Church is the Te Deum. If this is sung often at Church services then Catholics will have recovered a hymn that best celebrates salvation and deliverance. The Te Deum is another beautiful Roman and Anglican patrimony as they say! The Te Deum YouTube clip in this post is an early Anglican version by Orlando Gibbons.

Collect for All Saints' Day from the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer

O Almighty God, who has knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou has prepared for those who unfeignedly loved thee; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Pray for us!

The Anglican Use Chapter in the Philippines will very soon meet with the local Catholic ordinary to work out the details of organizational, pastoral, ecumenical and liturgical matters. We ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers. We also ask you to seek the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all  the saints who are the "crowning glory" of the English and Filipino churches, for our intentions

A Prayer for the Anglican Use in the Philippines

Father in heaven, you who first brought the Prayers in English to our land through the missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America and found hospitable ground in our  pine clad mountains and  palm fringed coasts, grant that strengthened by your Holy Spirit we continue to serve as missionaries without "building an altar over another" by strengthening the Anglican heritage in your Church in the Philippines, that we may all be one, in hope, charity and renewal, as we bring forth to our land and to far off shores the message of your salvation, we ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ to your glory, Amen.


Holy Mary ever Virgin, Our Lady in her various Filipino titles and of Walsingham

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila and Blessed Pedro Calungsod, laymen, catechists and martyrs.
Saints Thomas More and John Fisher
Saint Edmund Campion and the English Martyrs

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman
Saint Elizabeth Seton
Blessed Pope John XXXIII

Bishop Charles Henry Brent and Father John Staunton

Pray for Us to God