Tuesday 17 January 2012

Sermon of the Ordinary


A sermon of Mgr Keith Newton at Solemn Evensong and Benediction on the first anniversary of the erection of the Ordinariate

In June 1848 our patron, the Blessed John Henry Newman, wrote a letter to the father of Francis Cardinal Bourne, sometime Archbishop of Westminster. Bourne’s father had been received into the Catholic Church some months before Newman but he had heard a rumour that Newman was unhappy. Newman wrote:


I can only say, if it is necessary to say it, that from the moment I became a Catholic, I have never had, through God’s grace, a single doubt or misgiving on my mind that I did wrong in becoming one. I have not had any feeling whatever but one of joy and gratitude that God called me out of an insecure state into one which is sure and safe, out of the war of tongues and into the realm of peace and assurance. This is my state of mind, and I would it could be brought home to all and every one, who, in default of real arguments for remaining Anglicans, amuse themselves with dreams and fancies.

Those thoughts could be expressed by many of us today though probably not so well. They reflect something of what those us who have been received into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham have experienced over the last twelve month. The sentiments of joy and thanksgiving, two great Christian words, are ones which should characterize our first anniversary celebration this evening which is a beautiful and appropriate expression of our Anglican patrimony.



For the rest of the sermon click here

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