Family Retreat and Chant Course

The St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat and the Gregorian Chant Network Weekend Chant Course, which run in parallel, took place last weekend; both are sponsored by the Latin Mass Society. It was a tremendous weekend, with nearly 150 participants of all ages. The Retreat was led by the LMS Chaplain Fr Andrew Southwell, and the Chant course by the well-known composer Colin Mawby.

One of the features of the Retreat is a procession through the grounds of our venue, the Oratory School, from the large modern chapel to the smaller old chapel. The latter was completely packed, with people standing at the back.


The weather was glorious, and it was as always a very uplifting event, something quite unique in the calendar of traditional Catholic events.


Fr Southwell blessing banners for the procession made by the children on the Retreat. Making these banners was one of the activities the younger children did with the volunteer staff, enabling their parents to attend Fr Southwell's spiritual conferences.


Here is one activity for children taking place (photo by Mat Doyle: see his set here). The older children had talks from three different speakers, including one about the English martyrs from me.


Blessing of the people with holy water at the end of Compline.


Bookstall on Saturday afternoon provided by St Philip's Books of Oxford.


Colin Mawby. For more on the Chant course see the Gregorian Chant Network blog.


Some of the younger retreatants.

For the full set of photos, see here.