A Prayer

“Fierce and Friendly Lord, we feel alone, but even here in school and in this class we discover friends we did not know we had. The discovery that we are not alone both gladdens and frightens us. Sharing life threatens loss of self. Give us the grace to learn that we have no life not shared. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make us in your image that we might be worthy witnesses of the joy that comes from your claiming us as friends. Amen.”[1]

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[1] Stanley Hauerwas, Prayers Plainly Spoken (InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 55.

Missale Anglicanum

I've blown my book budget this semester! But, I'm also now the proud owner of the Missale Anglicanum, The English Missal. This is a faithful translation of the Missale Romanum and tends to be popular amongst Anglo-Papists. Known as the "Knott Missal," the book has undergone several editions and now through Canterbury Press, one can order the most recent. Knott and Sons was the original publisher of the Missal.

I snagged a Third Edition of the Altar Missal published in 1934, complete in leather binding and with gilt-edged pages. It was sleeping in a small bookshop in England and will hopefully be airlifted to Sewanee in due time.

The Old Catholic Church has a comparison of the Ordinary of the Mass from two missals (Anglicanum and Romanum) on their website.

Didn't someone say blessed are the poor? I am now in that category...

Missale Romanum

Last night I ordered an old copy of the Missale Romanum, the Altar Missal for use with the Tridentine Rite Mass. No, I'm not swimming the Tiber--I've already done that and washed back up in the Thames. My fascination with Altar Missals began this summer whilst perusing the bookshops in Walsingham. It was in a smallish, but fantastic theological bookshop, where I came across a magnificent copy of the "Altar Missal," which was published in the late 1800s by the Society of Saint John the Evangelist. Complete with old leather tabs and gilded pages, the missal includes the Sarum Rite, the South African Rite, and parts of the Roman Canon. You should have seen how I traveled with it back to the States from England!

Now, I've added a few more altar missals to my collection: the 1928 Altar Services (The BCP), the 1979 Altar Book (current edition), and the Anglican Service Book Altar Missal (which I believe has since gone out of print).

So now, I'm adding one of the famous Benzinger Brothers edition, Pre-Vatican II Altar Missal to my collection. The etching above is one of the many illustrations to be found within the Missal. I cannot wait.......I'm a liturgy geek.

Old Mirfield

The College of the Resurrection at Mass.

Lower Church, The Monastery of the

Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield.

Needless to say, if you were to walk into "Lower Church" today at Mirfield, you would not find the worship space oriented in this direction. Much less, that crucifix, I believe, currently resides in the upstairs sacristry. The good old days....