THE P RTAL


February 2011


Page 6


ONE STROLL AROUND the supermarket will tell you that the very best produce, or at least the most valuable, is organic - that which is grown naturally and arrives on our shelves without having been manipulated by man or coerced against its own nature. People feel reassured by organic produce. It seems sound and healthy when things are allowed to grow naturally and in accordance with God’s will, and it is this ‘feel good factor’ associated with organic produce which allows the shops to deliver it with heſty surcharge. People will sacrifice for that which is wholesome.


Freshest Expression of Catholic Faith


Reflecting on the notion of a ‘feel


good factor’ turns minds to the English Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. What authentic heartfelt joy flowed through Westminster Cathedral when this freshest expression of Catholic faith burst into


existence. As the new Catholic Ordinary and priests leſt the Cathedral, spontaneous cheers erupted and smiles spread across the faces of this eclectic


congregation. It was


an historic moment! But what impressed Snapdragon, above all else, was the natural feel of proceedings. It felt healthy, logical, right. Or put another way - so terribly organic!


‘Coming Home’ It is the oldest cliché in the book


for the Anglo-Catholic entering Catholicism to proclaim that it feels like ‘coming home’. But clichés


are born from truth


and experience, leading me to suggest that history will prove the erection of this Ordinariate as a pivotal moment, when Anglo-Catholicism, Newman’s legacy, found its collective way home. Te Catholic movement within the Church of England reaches its destination and beckons our nation to follow.


The Rock From Which They Were Hewn Long have individuals rejoiced at personal


submission. But now their mono voice becomes stereo as countless cries resound as one. A spiritual exodus begins, a journey leading all Catholic minded Anglicans to the rock from which they were hewn. And far from being an awkward or embarrassing moment, as some might have feared, it was gentle, inspiring and


wholesome. An organic movement which, like the choicest fruit in supermarkets, grew naturally, without manipulation and in accordance with God’s will.


That the Church May Be One Anyone doubting need only reflect on its patronage.


Te Ordinariate was dedicated to John Henry Newman. How fitting that his beatification should be followed by the reunion of his Anglo-Catholic movement. We move, in the words of the collect for his feast, out of the shadows and into the fullness of Catholic truth! It is a journey to inspire in others that the Church may be one.


The Place Favoured by Her Many Miracles


It is this prayer for the


conversion of England which leads to our other patron, Our Lady of Walsingham. Is there an Anglo-Catholic anywhere whose heart does not beat with love for her?


Have any failed to be touched


by her holy Shrine in Norfolk? Here is the very heart of our Anglo-Catholic movement! And here too, in this place favoured by her many miracles, is our signpost to the past and our prayer for the future.


‘Our Lady’s Dowry’ For Walsingham points us


to a time before the sacking of monasteries, when Catholicism in this nation truly flourished. A time when the reformation divide had not wreaked havoc and when England was famed throughout the globe as the most Catholic of nations, ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’.


If the Ordinariate remains organic then what will


be its fruit? My prayer is nothing less than an end to division through the re-Catholicisation of this once Christian land. May Blessed John Henry Newman and Our Lady of Walsingham pray for us in our first fragile year of life.


Snapdragon


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