Reflections on the upcoming Anglicanorum coetibus Conference

An excerpt from my post at The English Catholic:

Because it is Lent, and because the upcoming Anglicanorum coetibus Conference here in Canada is so important to those of us who hope to be part of a Personal Ordinariate in Canada, I have been spending a more time in prayer than in blogging.

I have made an effort to pray specifically and concertedly for the conference and all the participants and I, like probably the majority of the 150 or so delegates from across Canada, look forward to it with a mixture of joy, anticipation and perhaps a little trepidation. To say this has been a difficult year would be an understatement.

All I can say, is I wish I had taken this approach months ago instead of getting into the fray and I regret very much my hotheadedness and any lack of trust in either God or in Holy Mother Church that I have put on public display over the last several months.

I have been using the Rosary and the Mysteries of the day to guide my prayers, pausing to reflect and make a prayerful intention that is infused with the particular Mystery for each bead. Of course, prayer changes us, it does not change God! And I anticipate this conference is going to be an amazing, historic and life-changing experience.

Some of what God has been impressing upon me as I pray this way as been Mary’s attitude of “Be it unto me according to thy word,” or Jesus’ willingness to take the cup in the Garden of Gethsemane—”Not my will, but thine.” Or Mary’s saying, “Do what he tells you!” at the Wedding at Cana.

So, in myself, and for all of us who might be attending, I am praying that we might have the same kind of yieldedness to God’s will that Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary displayed. That all of us will examine what “non-negotiatiables” we are bringing with us that need to be offered up to the Lord.

I pray that everyone involved will have that mind that was in Christ Jesus—that the Catholic bishops who are entrusted with carrying out the Holy Father’s wishes in Anglicanorum coetibus will line up with Pope Benedict’s wishes as the Pope himself lines up with the will of Jesus that we may be One, as He and the Father are One—and that we Anglicans coming from various parts of the Anglican diaspora–will hear the Voice of the Lamb in these shepherds and any fear or distrust or reluctance will melt away on all sides.

More at the English Catholic. Please pray for us! The conference starts tomorrow in Mississauga.