"Charism Of The Ordinariate"

A visitor sent me a link to a page with this title on the Vocations site of the Australian ordinariate. It's copyright 2017, so I assume it must have been put up under Msgr Entwhistle, though it seems to be very general, and I can't imagine that either Msgr Newton, Msgr Reid, or Bp Lopes would disagree with it -- nor, I imagine, would the Anglicsnorum Coetibus Society.

Let's revisit charism in a Catholic context. A Carmelite page entitled "What is a Charism?" says,

Here we will define it as a gift of the Holy Spirit given in a particular way to an individual or to a group to build up the Kingdom of God for the good of the Church.

. . . The Catechism of the Catholic Church in Article 799 states:

Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world.

I think the strong implication is that charisms are unique and identifiable, even if imperfectly developed. I may not be perfectly charitable, but I should work at tithing, for instance, and if I don't pledge at all, I'm not doing much with that charism. So if I say I have a charism of charity, I'm being more or less hypocritical if my charity is simply not identifiable at all. So this brings me to the list of charisms that appears on the Australian vocations site:

Some of the elements of the charism of the Ordinariate are:

• Call to community faith and devotion
• Evangelical charity
• Sacral English
• Reverence and beauty in Worship
• Music and Congregational hymn singing
• Gospel preaching
• English theological tradition

Each of these is elaborated in greater detail lower on the page. I won't discuss all of them here, but several stand out.

"Call to community faith and devotion". With reference to the US ordinariate, most of the communities are small and unstable. Wouldn't nearby diocesan parishes be strengthened by the pledges and participation of the sincere ordinariate members there, rather than isolated minimal efforts we actually see in the ordinariate?

"Evangelical charity".

We draw our inspiration from those such as the great Anglo-Catholic slum priests, who built their churches where no-one else would go because of the terrible poverty present.

Periodically I've tried to calculate approximate amounts an ordinariate community could potentially raise, given what we know of its membership and using available data on median income in its area. If each family tithed, the amounts for even modest communities would be far greater than what these groups appear to work with.

Beyond that, typical diocesan bishops' appeals go to sustain poorer parishes and schools, as well as other charitable causes. However, the North American ordiinariate's bishop's appeal goes entirely to support chancery budget, including the bishop's extensive travel, as well as the lifestyles of other chancery personnel, even though many basic tasks like communications or vocation direction are poorly done there.

"Sacral English". The site explains,

Since the liturgy is an encounter with God, the language we use should be appropriate to this encounter. We know from our own personal experience that we speak differently for different situations. The way we speak to our friends at a BBQ is different to how we would speak if we were giving a speech at a wedding. Put simply – when we speak to God we do not use day-to-day language, we use sacred language.

I'm not sure if the writer here understands diction clearly. Elevated diction isn't pretentious or overblown. When President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” this often comes off as somewhat pompous and phony, no matter how nobly expressed. To say,

Pray, brethren (brothers and sisters), that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.

means the same as

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God: that he may render our sacrifice acceptable in thy sight; who as on this day commanded his disciples, saying, Do this in remembrance of me; even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

but unlike the DW missal, it doesn't come off as overblown, circuitous, unctuous, or sanctimonious. I have an unofficial copy of the DW missal, and to tell the truth, I'm wondering if a side-to-side comparison of the Viennese professor's text with the OF English breviary would be instructive.

I have a vivid memory of a trip to Vienna in my student days. I went into a coffee bar and ordered a cup of coffee. The barista asked "Ohn' oder mit?" (With or without?) I returned a bewildered look. He repeated the question several times until he realized I just wasn't very Viennese. Then he shouted, "Ohn' oder mit SCHLAG! SCHLAG!" A Schlag is literally a hit, but pointing to the whipped cream dispenser, he made it clear that he was asking if I wanted a dab of whipped cream on my coffee.

Our Viennese professor has served us a prayer over the offerings with a Schlag.

Diction is a rhetorical technique by which a writer identifies his audience and addresses them at the appropriate level. I've got to say that the level of diction in the DW missal, in cases like this, can only foster the sort of weepy grandiosity we see in so much ordinariate social media.

Maybe I'll take up more comparison of the DW missal with the OF English mass at some point.