On the first Sunday of Advent, former Anglicans who are now Catholics belonging to the three personal ordinariates will celebrate according to their own new liturgical book, “Divine Worship: The Missal.”
“It is a new moment in history,” said Father Timothy Perkins, the liturgy director for North America’s Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter (POCSP) in an interview from Arlington, Tex. “Never before has there been a document from the Vatican that allowed for inclusion of elements from separated ecclesial communities, incorporated into the Eucharistic celebration of the Church.”
“It really is unique, and it clarifies in some sense the seriousness of the desire of Holy Church to welcome those who’ve been in separation into the fullness of communion within the Catholic Church,” he said.
The missal will unify the liturgy in all three ordinariates, including the POCSP, the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom, and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia.
“This missal is now recognized by the Church as standing side by side with the Roman Missal,” said POCSP Ordinary Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson in a Q&A posted on the ordinariate’s website. Msgr. Steenson, a former Episcopalian bishop, stressed the missal “fits firmly and squarely in the Latin rite.”
More on the story here.
I wonder if the great Fr. Rutler is kicking himself in the pants now? I know I am.
The new Missal is an impressive achievement in its content and in the features of the calendar which it includes. When I got to view a copy this week, I was happy to see pre-Lent, Ember Days, and Passion Week in its pages.
Incidentally, here is Abp. DiNoia's September 2015 talk about the Missal to a UK Ordinariate audience: https://vimeo.com/140197319
It will be interesting to see what happens on 24 January (Septuagesima Sunday) since the Ordinariate will be using the Novus Ordo's Lectionary and calendar, which gives it as the 3rd in Ordinary Time, Year C. What happens to the Alleluia, for instance?