Monday 27 August 2012

Do you sprinkle?

That may sound like a rather personal question but I ask in all innocence.

                                            Is this "Sprinkle" or "Asperges"?

You see the Ordinariate have a pilgrimage at Walsingham underway and, it appears that "sprinkling" is part of it.

See the programme from Tenow8 blog below:-


Noon – Angelus and Solemn Mass at the National Shrine
2:30pm – Holy Mile and Rosary Procession to the Anglican Shrine.
3:15pm – Sprinkling at the Anglican Shrine
Pilgrims are invited to bring a picnic lunch.
This pilgrimage will be led by Monsignor Keith Newton.
I have two questions. One, what are they doing at the Anglican Shrine?
And two, what is sprinkling? Do they mean "Asperges"?
I trust that it does not have a sinister meaning (?) and, I do not wish to pour water (aherm) on this pilgrimage but it would be good to have a clarification of sorts.
The nub of what I am trying very clumsily to say is that, if the Ordinariate members have converted to the Catholic Faith shouldn't Anglican language and customs be ditched in favour of Catholic ones?


10 comments:

  1. As I recall, the Anglican shrine is built around the original holy well, so you have to visit the Anglican shrine in order to be sprinkled. And I would imagine (though I may be wrong about this) that "asperges" refers principally to the liturgical act of sprinkling with blessed holy water at the start of Mass, and not to non-liturgical sprinkling with miraculous holy water.

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  2. The whole point of having the Ordinariate was to ensure that the Anglican patrimony was kept... things like language and so on!

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  3. Maybe they are planning to relieve themselves..... Of their Anglican patrimony.

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  4. Hmmmmm!I believe at first Hope Pattern thought it to be the original Holy well.But it was later found not to be so.He also thought that because of the well,(found when the anglilcan shrine was being built) he must have found the original site of the Holy House.Of course we now know that is not true.The original Holy House,and the Holy wells are over the road in the Abbey grounds.Excavated in 1961 I believe.Yes the sprinkling,is part of the Anglican pilgrimage experience,carried out from Hope Patterns well,in the shrine church.

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  5. Greetings,

    I just wanted to say that the Ordinariate were well and truly in the thick of it at the Catholic Shrine yesterday and played a big part in this wonderful day.

    There was lots of sprinkling at the beginning of the LMS Solemn Mass in the Chapel of Reconciliation as well.

    I have written a piece on it today which I believe is worth a read (click on the link below). I have been to events at Walsingham quite a few times now but yesterday was something very special. I think if all the Catholic bloggers had been given a free rein to organise an event then they would have probably come up with that which I witnessed at Walsingham yesterday. It really was a parade of the very best we have to offer.

    After the relics of St Therese came to Walsingham I thought it would be a long wait for another truly great day. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised. All the boxes were well and truly ticked.

    http://catholicgadfly.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/walsingham-bishop-mark-davies-mgs.html

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  6. Mac, even to the extent of holding a 'sprinkling' at the Anglican rather than the Catholic shrine?

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  7. Not casting aspersions I hope!

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  8. I don't live that far from Walsingham, relatively speaking, but i have to say that, although i would love to go there, i am slightly put off by the presence of an anglican shrine there. If the CofE really thinks of it as a holy place at which it is appropriate to have a shrine, are they not implying a recognition of the Church (and its legitimacy) that originally declared it a holy place? Are they not, therefore, advertising their own illegitimacy? And yet we have to share the place with them!

    I may have misunderstood the contemporary understanding of ecumenism...

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  9. I would recommend the CTS booklet on the Ordinariate to readers of this blog as it explains some aspects of the Anglican patrimony that the Holy Father wishes to see preserved.

    As for not going to Walsingham because of the presence of the Anglican shrine? Words fail me.

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  10. I feel i have to make it clear that the cost of petrol is probably the single biggest reason that i haven't yet made it to Walsingham, oh, and the fact that i actually no longer have a car! Money is tight and, in the absence of a really good reason to go to Walsingham (Patrons feast day, etc.), i feel that, although i would love to go there, i can't justify the expenditure. I don't understand why there is an Anglican shrine there, why it is permitted or why the anglican's would even want a shrine there (for the same reason that Hindus worshipped at Fatima? I don't know). While i find its presence, therefore, paradoxical and offensive it would not stop me going to Walsingham, for, When England returns to Our Lady of Walsingham, Our Lady will return to England.

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