Prayers Answered!

St. Luke's Parish in Bladensburg, MD (just down the road from where I live) announced last week that they will be joining a forthcoming personal ordinariate for Anglican use in the Washington, D.C. area. They will be receiving instruction in the Catholic faith, while their rector prepares to be ordained a Catholic priest. They will retain their church building, as well as their liturgical traditions. St. Luke's is the first parish in the United States to come over.

It is most fitting that it would be a parish in the D.C. area, as Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, has been put in charge of implementing Anglicanorum coetibus here in the U.S.

In addition to St. Luke's, the Hollywood, CA parish of St. Mary of the Angels has also voted to join the Ordinariate.

The outreach of our Pope, and the good will of the faithful people of the Anglican communion are truly bringing about a marvelous reunification of the Church, and are proving to be answers to my prayers.

In his efforts to reconcile the Anglicans to the Church, in addition to his working with the Society of St. Pius X, are bringing about renewal throughout Holy Church. In this effort to bring about reunification, Pope Benedict XVI reminds me a bit of the marvelous story of Hezekiah, King of Judah who sends for the people of the Northern Kingdom and invites them to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem as one people, once again. He is rightfully called a Pope of Christian Unity.

Please pray for him, and for the people of St. Luke's parish and St. Mary of the Angels as they prepare to join us.