“The church is the body of Christ, the beginning of the kingdom, the family of God, and the way to salvation,” the cardinal said in his homily. “Today, as part of your faith journey, you come to the church to complete your initiation into the body of Christ.”
“The heart of our communion, our bonding, our spiritual life, is this altar,” Cardinal Wuerl said, adding, “Today, we will invite everyone (here) to that table of the Lord, to receive that Communion that bonds us with Christ and with one another.”
Mark Lewis, the former rector of the St. Luke community, who as an Episcopal priest shepherded his parishioners through the process of joining the Catholic Church, said after the Mass, “I’m so glad to be home.”
It was quite a service. The Processional was “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” and the Recessional was “Lift High the Cross” with “All Hail the Power of Jesus Name” during the Preparation of the Gifts. The SRO congregation actually sang all verses and even stood during the latter — as one of my fellow attendees put it “a little Anglican patrimony in action.” Also, unless I mis-heard it, Cardinal Wuerl, in an unscripted moment, even recited the BCP post-Eucharist prayer (… thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ…)
Many years!