St. Louis, Validity, and Legitimacy

 I am often given to poking fun at those in the Independent Sacramental Movement who seem a bit too obsessed with validity of orders and legitimacy of ministries, but today’s feast of St. Louis of France reminded me that far loftier personages can be bitten by the same bug.

In the French spa town of Vichy stands a beautiful Romanesque Revival church dedicated to St. Louis, built by the Emperor Napoleon III, who took the waters there with his family. The church links Bonapart insecurity to Louis IX, saint, king, and the ideal of Capetian legitimacy.

In later years, an apse mural and a fine statue were added portraying Louis IX as ideal monarch.

The Feast of St. Bartholomew

The Tomb of St. Bartholomew, San Bartolomeo all'Isola, Rome.

 And Philip found Nathanael, and told him, We have discovered who it was Moses wrote of in his law, and the prophets too; it is Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth. When Nathanael asked him, Can anything that is good come from Nazareth? Philip said, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, and said of him, Here comes one who belongs to the true Israel; there is no falsehood in him. How do you know me? Nathanael asked; and Jesus answered him, I saw you when you were under the fig-tree, before Philip called you. Then Nathanael answered him, You, Master, are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Jesus answered, What, believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig-tree? You shall see greater things than that. And he said to him Believe me when I tell you this; you will see heaven opening, and the angels of God going up and coming down upon the Son of Man. John 1:45-51

The eternal gifts of Christ the King,
The apostles’ glory, let us sing,
Ad all, with hearts of gladness, raise
Due hymns of thankful love and praise.

For they the Church’s princes are,
Triumphant leaders in the war,
In heavenly courts a warrior band,
True lights to lighten every land.

Theirs is the steadfast faith of saints,
And hope that never yields nor faints;
And love of Christ in perfect glow
That lays the prince of this world low.

In them the Father’s glory shone,
In them the will of God the Son,
In them exults the Holy Ghost,
Through them rejoice the heavenly host.

To thee, Redeemer, now we cry,
That thou wouldst join to them on high
Thy servants, who this grace implore,
For ever and for evermore. Amen.

Aeterna Christi Munera (The Eternal gifts of Christ the King)
Hymn for Vigils of an Apostle

A Compendium of Recent Posts on the ISM

The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church.

As there have been a number of new readers in the last two days, I thought that it might be useful to go back and pull out out a set of links to some of the pieces here that have dealt specifically with the Independent Sacramental Movement.

Saltwater or Sanctification: Inclusion, Relevance, and the Good News

Towards a Taxonomy of the Independent Sacramental Movement

More Thoughts on the ISM, Cultural Relevance, and Inclusion

Mass Media:  Using Social Media to Pray

Sarabites, Schisms, and Finding Fellowship in the ISM

Evangelism: Looking out the Window Versus in the Mirror

Independent Sacramental Movement Family Reunion 2013

Joseph René Vilatte.

Yesterday tentative dates were announced for an Independent Sacramental Movement Family Reunion, which dovetails nicely with the post from a couple weeks ago on finding fellowship in the ISM. 

Some of us from fairly diverse corners of the movement gave the idea of creating some unstructured space to get to know one another a test run over my ordination weekend and found we liked it.  John Plummer, known to many of you as the popularizer of the term ISM, suggested that we try it on a bigger scale.

You'll find full information on an invitation page on Facebook. 

You might think of the proposed weekend as being closer to Burning Man than to a church convention.  There will be no central organization or official events.  People are invited to come to Asheville, North Carolina over the July 4 weekend and organize worship, social time, and interest groups either before hand or on the spur of the moment.  The purpose is simply to strengthen the bonds of fellowship, not to conduct business or make grand proposals.

Here's a bit more information from the Facebook page:

Where:  Asheville, North Carolina
When: Friday, July 5, - Monday, July 8, 2013 -- Or thereabouts. Come and go as you wish!


* The Independent Sacramental Movement (or Independent Catholicism, Old Catholicism, Autocephalous/Non-canonical Orthodoxy, Free Sacramentalism, Alternative Anglicanism, the world of the Wandering Bishops, etc.) is a big, complicated, and sometimes dysfunctional family – and we love it! Despite our considerable differences, we are related to each other, sharing a history and a devotion to sacramental practice. Some of us thought it would be fun to vacation in the same place with the intent of hanging out together. The best opportunities for support and collaboration often arise from friendship, regardless of jurisdictional membership or theology.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

The Virgin feeds St. Bernard from her breast.

Today is the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the political and theological heavy-hitters of the Middle Ages, who counseled popes and kings and whose preaching and writing earned him the title of The Mellifluous Doctor. It is hard to know what to say of a saint so gifted and complex as St. Bernard, so I'll leave it to the older edition of the Cistercian Menology, where several other great saints of his era weigh in:

The feast of our very glorious Father St. Bernard, first Abbot of Clairvaux. Of noble birth, at the age of twenty-two, he succeeded in bringing to follow Christ thirty associates whom he led to Citeaux. In the Cloister his fasts, vigils and prayers were marvellous, and his life therein all heavenly. Soon, in spite of his youth, he was sent to Clairvaux. While assiduous about his own perfection, he labored zealously and successfully for the sanctification of those committed to his care. But circumstances compelled him to leave his solitude. He advises Popes, pacifices kings, converts the people, puts and end to the schism, crushes heresy, preaches the Crusades, refuses Bishoprics, works countless miracles, writes inestimable works, and when he dies at the age of 63, 160

Monday ISM Net Round Up

The AIHM Annual Chapter and Retreat in Philadelphia.

There was a good bit of Independent Sacramental Movement news over the last week or so.

The Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of the Independent Catholic Christian Church held their Annual Chapter and Retreat in Philadelphia.

The AIHM Facebook page also reposted an excellent reflection on St. Clare of Montefalco, whose feast is August 17 and Fr. Joseph Augustine wrote a moving editorial titled Mourning with the Sikh Community. and Finding Grace in Ordinary Time offered some very good advice on using Facebook to strengthen rather than strain relationships.

At Rumney Marsh Ruminations, Bishop David has a piece on reimagining ISM communities titled The Challenge of Thinking Differently.  Here's an excerpt:

The biggest problem seems to be—in my opinion at least—that we attract “hurting folks” who immediately want to remake our community into the image and likeness of the parish/community they just left.

We are trying to form something different—we are not trying to reinvent the wheel—we are trying to replace the wheel with something that may work better.   Alas, it is hard for many to grasp the meaning of that...

In the mainstream media, the Ogden Standard Examiner carried a long story on the recent synod of the North American Old Catholic Church.  Here's a quote from one of the attendees to give you a feel for the piece:

Our parishioners are folks on the margins, folks who have never found their home in other settings,” said Dexheimer Trujillo, who was raised in a “very establishment, Episcopalian” environment. “We are small but have created a marvelous mosaic. We are a very human group of people whose lives are changed by Christ. It is a beautiful encounter.

The Washington Blade carried a story on The Unique Parish of D.C.'s St. Damien of Molokai and, on the other end of the ISM spectrum, the UK's Catholic Herald reported on the Society of Pop Leo XIII's desire to be reunited with the Roman Catholic Church.

Also from the more traditional end of the spectrum in the UK, the Old Catholic Church of the Latin Rite launched Caritas et Traditio, its own news portal.

St. Bernard on Loving God

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church remembered as the Mellifluous Doctor and the Last of the Fathers.

The excerpt below is from his famous On Loving God, one of the greatest short works of the Middle Ages.

Love is a good and pleasant law; it is not only easy to bear, but it makes the laws of slaves and hirelings tolerable; not destroying but completing them; as the Lord saith: 'I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill' (Matt. 5:17). It tempers the fear of the slave, it regulates the desires of the hireling, it mitigates the severity of each. Love is never without fear, but it is godly fear. Love is never without desire, but it is lawful desire. So love perfects the law of service by infusing devotion; it perfects the law of wages by restraining covetousness. Devotion mixed with fear does not destroy it, but purges it. Then the burden of fear which was intolerable while it was only servile, becomes tolerable; and the fear itself remains ever pure and filial. For though we read: 'Perfect love casteth out fear' (I John 4:18), we understand by that the suffering which is never absent from servile fear, the cause being put for the effect, as often elsewhere. So, too, self-interest is restrained within due bounds when love supervenes; for then it rejects evil things altogether, prefers better things to those merely good, and cares for the good only on account of the better. In like manner, by God's grace, it will come about that man will love his body and all things pertaining to his body, for the sake of his soul. He will love his soul for God's sake; and he will love God for Himself alone.