THE
P RTAL
August 2015
Page 6
This Holy Desire
Antonia Lynn concludes her series
on Anglicanorum Cœtibus
I
n The Spirit of the Liturgy, Pope Benedict wrote of the ecstatic, outgoing movement
of God - the exitus and reditus - by which (in the words of a prayer many of us loved as Anglicans) he met
us in his Son and brought us home. He made the point that we experience this divine dynamic in liturgy,
our relationship with God of worship and praise. The people of the Exodus were searching not so much for a
territory to live in but for a place of worship - a meeting place with God. In other words, they wanted to come
home; they wanted a Ch urch.
I’m sure it was with something of this in mind
that Pope Benedict went on to offer Anglicanorum
Cœtibus to those seeking their own exodus and a new
home. The truth is that we are all caught up in this
divine movement: the ‘Biblical cycle’ (creation, exile,
incarnation, passion and resurrection) is the pattern
for the human journey in relationship with God.
We experience it throughout our lives, but perhaps
most strikingly in what some still call our ‘conversion’,
our journey into the Catholic Church. But of course,
as Cardinal Kasper has emphasised in his book on
mercy (you have read it?) we do not belong to a faith
which believes in cycles simply repeating themselves.
Our salvation in Christ is a once-and-for-all event,
and there are potential points of divergence along the the journey. In the early
path: choices to be made.
Church new Christians received their ‘mystagogic’
catechesis after their baptism: only then did they find
In my work, I use insights from contemporary out what they had let themselves in for.
transition psychology, which is the study of what
happens within us when we encounter change. It has
Today, the last part of the RCIA programme is known
struck me how often the models used in this discipline as the mystagogia, which J D Crichton called ‘the most
echo the Biblical dynamic (no surprise, really, since difficult of all the stages of the catechumenate.’ So,
both deal with the human person, made in the image the path into the Church still unfolds before us. Pope
of God).
Francis, of course, is constantly reminding us that it
leads out to the margins: ‘When the Church does not
There are cycles which move through a kind of come out of herself to evangelise, she becomes selfcrucifixion to resurrection: the person may travel from referential and then gets sick’; Jesus tells us to take
a happy honeymoon stage to fear (‘This is bigger than I nothing with us except a walking stick.
thought!’), guilt (‘What have I done?!’) and depression
(‘I don’t know who I am any more’) before gradual
I end my series on Anglicanorum Cœtibus with
acceptance and transformation. But… there are other this image of a journey only just begun. I’ve written
possibilities.
often of the pitfalls along the way, so here’s some
encouragement.
The path may sheer off into disillusionment (‘This
isn’t for me - I’m off!’) or hostility (‘This isn’t how I
Our desire for unity is a ‘holy desire’ - moved by the
thought it would be - and it’s all your/their fault!’). If Holy Spirit. And our Holy Father Benedict’s response
we find ourselves there, we may need help to turn back. was ‘mandated by the Lord Jesus’.
Do you recognise any of that from your own story? I
We have set off on a path marked out for us by the
do. Anglicanorum Cœtibus offers us a home, to be sure, Lord. Watch out for wrong turnings, but above all, as
but our reception into the Church is only the start of St Augustine said, ‘Keep on walking!’
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