Parishioners at St. Alban's strive to know, love, and serve God according to the guidelines for Catholic life that are afforded by the Ordinariate. We aim to cultivate good people in ourselves and our children: trusting in God, humble, patient, strong, responsible, trustworthy, virtuous, self-possessed, fulfilled, satisfied, peaceful, resilient, and happy.
We try to limit the temptations to sin. We aim to enjoy freedom from sin, death, and the unnecessary burdens of the difficulties, stress, and anxiety they cause. Jesus gave us this opportunity to live well. Among our ambitions, we strive to do the greatest good that God intended for us to do with each of our individual lives—that is, we strive to truly flourish as human beings. Consequently, we do good in the world as an extension of being good people.
This page shares the most important guides we use for our personal development and good living. Here we list the most influential tenets that we believe and selected prayers that we pray all the time. We try to live by these every day and expect our children to do the same.
The authoritative source of our faith is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is reprinted and cited in books of the Ordinariate. Derived from the Catechism, most of our guidelines are considered duties of Christian life, listed on pages 11-19 of the global Ordinariates' main devotional book, St. Gregory's Prayer Book. The guidelines as they are presented here use traditional church English rather than the modern English that all other English-speaking Roman Catholics use in their devotionals and missals today.
The list includes:
What we believe: the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds
What we hope: The Lord's Prayer
What we do: The Ten Commandments
The environment for our faith: The sacraments define the framework of our Catholic environment.
The penitential prayer is taken from Morning and Evening Prayer and the 1928 Prayer Book Psalter, devotions which have been adapted from the Anglican tradition for the global Ordinariates.
The remaining prayers can be found in Divine Worship: The Missal, St. Gregory's Prayer Book, and in Morning and Evening Prayer.
Remember, Christian soul
that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life:These readings are taken from The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Feast of St. Alban:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come;I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods but me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
Honour they father and thy mother.
Thou shalt do no murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor any thing that is his.
Sources: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 11-12; Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21; Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2052-2550; Divine Worship: The Missal.
Hear what the Lord Jesus Christ saith:
Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hand all the Law and the Prophets.Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Baptism
Confirmation
The Holy Eucharist
Penance and Reconciliation (Confession)
Anointing of the Sick
Matrimony
Holy Orders
More information about the Sacraments is available here.
Source: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 13-14; Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1210-1666.Theological Virtues
Wisdom
Understanding
Counsel
Fortitude
Knowledge
Piety
Fear of the Lord
Sources: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 14; Isaiah 11:1-3; Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1830-1831.
Charity / Love
Joy
Peace
Patience / Longsuffering
Kindness
Goodness
Generosity
Gentleness
Faithfulness
Modesty
Temperance / Continence
Chastity
Source: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 14-15; Galatians 5:22-23; Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1832.
To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To shelter the homeless
To visit the sick
To help the imprisoned
To bury the dead
Source: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 15; Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2447.
To counsel the doubtful
To instruct the ignorant
To admonish sinners
To comfort the afflicted
To forgive offences
To bear wrongs patiently
To pray for the living and the dead
Sources: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 15; Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2447.
Capital Sins — Godly Virtues
Death
Judgment
Heaven
Hell
Sources: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 16; Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1020-1060.
To attend Mass on Sundays and other holy days of obligation and to refrain from work and activities which could impede the sanctification of those days;
To confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once each year;
To receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season;
To abstain from eating meat on the prescribed days and to observe the days of fasting established by the Church;
To help to provide for the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.
Sources: St. Gregory's Prayer Book, 16; Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2041-2043.
Prayed during morning and evening prayer
Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women andGlory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.