Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Anglicanorum Coetibus


Check out this blog post for a good synopsis (I think) on what ponderings one might expect in the minds of those Anglicans considering Anglicanorum Coetibus

Here is a quote from said blog:
“An Anglican entering the Roman Catholic Church today has to make peace with living in a world where there are others whose Masses are higher than his and where an entire television network and a legion of periodicals and blogs flank him to the theological right. The reasons for the pride that may have sustained him in recent years are greatly diminished on this side of the water, even if we have our own extensive muddy patches. He must lay down his claim to being his own Holy Office and play sheep to its former head. He must give up politicking global alliances and reconcile himself to being a small if colorful fish in a very large pond where his customs are only one set among many. He must live in a world where, should his experiment fail, external factors will be harder to blame than they are today. Though undoubtedly the members of the ordinariates will suffer their share of unwarranted indignities, those who have often felt themselves to be the victim are now being offered the opportunity to show their skill at being the vinekeeper.

It is a fearful task that requires ongoing striving for a fundamental transformation of the self. The ordinariates will be judged a success not to the degree that their members show they embrace the Catechism, that's rather easy, but to the extent they show they have converted their hearts, that fundamental thing that the Father asks of us all. Converting the heart is a hard business, but it is in this internal struggle rather than the battlefields of the culture wars where saints are most likely to be made and it is in showing success at this where the Anglican ordinariates will give a greater gift to the wider Church than any text or tune by offering many of us who are a bit too pleased with ourselves a necessary corrective and good example.”

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