Fr. Mayer's Preaching & Teaching

Ordinariate? What's that?

January 17, 2022 Father Mayer
Fr. Mayer's Preaching & Teaching
Ordinariate? What's that?
Show Notes Transcript

Are you curious about this new and burgeoning missionary movement within the Catholic Church that uses sacred liturgy to restore reverence, community, and growth in holiness? Learn about the Ordinariate and how to describe it to others in celebration of the tenth anniversary of this new diocesan structure here in North America. This homily was given by Fr. Mayer on January 16, 2022.

Ten years ago this month, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church issued a decree of erecting the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, thus establishing what would become a new and flourishing missionary movement made up of Anglicans coming into the Church as well as lifelong Catholics with a heart for unity and community, and beautiful and reverent liturgy, bringing to fulfillment those words that you heard in today’s gospel reading from the steward of the wedding, “You have kept the good wine until now.” 

Bishop Lopes, who was appointed by Pope Francis to lead this thriving new diocese, recently wrote to me and the rest of his priests asking that we celebrate the occasion that took place ten years ago, in 2012, when the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was officially established here in North America, a non-geographic diocese that would cover all of the United States and Canada. I can think of no better Sunday than this Sunday, than today. In the first reading God describes his delight in his people like that as a groom rejoicing over his bride, the second which describes the various gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to the body of Christ, and the third, the Gospel reading reflecting the joy of a wedding and of the happiness of partaking of this wine produced by Christ. 

However, we have a problem. Not many people know about the Ordinariate. They don’t know about this new wine. Bishop Lopes says that he has countless people come up to him and say that they had no idea that the Catholic Church had such a treasure as the Ordiniariate and they are so excited to have discovered it. Not many people know that we are here and on top of that, those who do know about it, have a difficult time describing it. It’s like describing a fine wine. You know the taste, you love the taste, but attempting to describe it to someone else who has never experienced it, is difficult. 

So today, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, I would like to help you to get the word out about this treasure of the Church, to be able to describe what the Ordinariate is. I would ask you to listen close, because there is going to be a quiz. 

 

First is a missionary movement that uses REVERENCE, reverent worship, that is reverent liturgy as a way of showing our heartfelt love for the Lord. Well done liturgy is important within the Ordinariate. People are passionate about liturgy within the Ordinariate. Liturgy, if you are not familiar are the formal prayers, the ceremonies and rites that we do together as the people of God. It is our work, the sacrifice that we make on behalf of ourselves and others. 

-        Following the protestant reformation which took place about five hundred years ago, because of various political machinations, a large group of people were torn away from the Catholic Church, yet they continued to pray this liturgy and the liturgy, these prayers that we pray, were so powerful, that over the centuries, they begin to draw many people back to Holy Mother Church, to the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. And so, when the Holy Father was asked if we could bring this liturgy with us back into the Church, he said resoundingly yes, he said that it was a treasure to be shared. There was a great beauty and power for drawing into unity in spite of great challenges.

-        Because of its history, our liturgy is greatly valued and is done with as much reverence as possible. We like to use lot of symbols such as turning toward God together. The priest is not turning away from the people during his prayers, but he is facing God together with them, leading them into the presence of Christ, symbolized by facing the same direction together. Those who are able receive communion kneeling and on the tongue which are more ways to show reverence. Those who are able and willing, dress up for Mass, another way to show reverence of honoring the Lord in worship. We put great effort into producing beautiful music. In this liturgy we take our time to hear God’s word proclaimed, to sit in silence and to meditate on and spend time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. All of these are ways of being reverent in our worship of God. 

So, probably the first way to describe the Ordiniariate is that it is evangelization through reverence. We use liturgy done with as much reverence as possible. We value these prayers and we want to humbly give our all to God.  Remember the word reverence when describing the Ordinariate. What is the first word that we use to describe the Ordiniariate? ____________

 

The second word that I would offer, if someone asks you about the Ordinariate is COMMUNITY. Unlike some Catholic parishes in which people rush right out after Mass and there is no community, within the Ordinariate, community is an important value. 

-        When those first priests who were moved by the Holy Spirit, went to the Holy Father to ask about coming back into union with the Catholic Church, they said specifically that they wanted a structure where it would be possible to come into the Church while staying together in community. These were priests who were leading Protestant parishes, large groups of people, who loved and cared for each other and who wanted to come into the Catholic Church and to do so while staying together. This is one of the main reasons why the Ordinariate was created, was so that groups could corporately come into the Catholic Church. So, from the very beginning community was programmed into our DNA.

-        Bishop Lopes likes to tell a story about visiting an Ordinariate community that was meeting in a chapel that was owned by a law office. After Mass and the like, Bishop Lopes was obligated to go out to lunch with the person who owned the law office – a way of thanking him for allowing Ordinariate members to use his chapel. After the lunch the man dropped him back off at the chapel and Bishop Lopes figured that everyone would be gone by that time since it was like two hours later and yet, there was the pastor of the community standing there, with a glass in one hand and a cigar in the other and forty something other people and Bishop Lopes says to him, “You are still here?” and the pastor replied, “Of course, there is still wine.” 

Community is important in the Ordinariate. This is the whole reason why these groups came into the Church. They came in as communities and they came in to be in communion with the whole of the Catholic Church and now they are working to bring others into this community. Community is very important within the Ordinariate. 

 

Okay, so quick review, what is the first word that we use to describe the Ordinariate? _________ (Reverence) and the second word? __________ (community). This brings us to the third word which is GROWTH. The Ordiniariate is a place where you can grow in your knowledge of the faith, of the Scriptures, a place where you can grow as a person, where you can grow in holiness, grow closer to the Lord. 

-        Bishop Lopes like to point out that our confitier, that is the prayer in which we confess our sins, does not take place until the very end of the first part of the Mass. If you were to go to St. Joseph or one of the nearby parishes what you would notice is that there confession prayers is at the very beginning of Mass. Ours does not take place until after the readings and the homily. He says that the reason this is, is because there is a much stronger focus on the preaching and teaching of the word of God and that if the Scriptures are effectively taught and properly explained those listening will naturally want to turn to the Lord and confess their sins. So, it is expected within the Ordinariate that there is a strong teaching and preaching emphasis. Homilies in the Ordinariate tend to be a bit longer than in other forms of the Mass. 

-        You also see this teaching and learning component as a natural outgrowth that results from learning about and being shaped by the liturgy, learning about what all of these prayers and these movements mean. The liturgy, with all of its depth and richness and beauty, is meant to evoke questions, “Why do you do that.” That is how the liturgy works. Yes, the liturgy is worship, but it is also a dynamic teaching tool. How many people have you met who left the Catholic Church because they just didn’t get it? They never really got to the point of understanding why we do the things that we do. For those of us in the Ordiniariate we have something unique to offer as it comes to liturgy. Because we understand the importance of liturgy and how it can shape and mold a person, we take seriously the need to teach and convey and pass on the meaning and knowhow when it comes to these many rich traditions. 

So, the third description that I would offer of the Ordinariate is that it is a place of growth, growing in understanding, growth in prayer and liturgy, and as a result of all of this growth holiness.  

 

Today we celebrate ten years of this new wine in the church and it is my hope, on this joyous occasion that you today might become a bit of a wine connoisseur with the vocabulary to go along with it, yet instead of describing full-bodied, well-structured, complex oaky vanilla, earthy wine with a smoky finish, the three words that we use to describe the Ordinariate are ___________ ___________ ___________ May God be glorified as we joyously share this new wine with others. The best wine that he has saved until the last. Amen.