Saturday, January 28, 2012

'Restore Comunion on the Tongue Alone'

A couple of Australian priests have started an online petition to the Holy Father for the restoration of the practice of receiving communion on the tongue for the whole Latin Church. They should be supported: why not go over there and sign up?

http://communiononthetongue.blogspot.com/

Bishop Athanasius Shneider and Cardinal Burke have already signed up! Bishop Shneider's book 'Dominus Est' is an excellent intriduction to the arguments.

Pope Paul VI allowed communion in the hand only as a concession, limited to places where the abuse was already established. It has become clear that the original arguments in favour of communion in the hand - historical, theological, pastoral - were spurious and it is time this permission was withdrawn.

We need also to make reparation for the countless acts of profanation of the Blessed Sacrament which have been facilitated by this practice.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

A welcome distraction

Yesterday evening another family member arrived, a little girl. Mother and baby are both very well.


Here she is with her big sister.

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

LMS Pilgrimage to Lourdes: 17-21st September.

Apologies to my readers for the slow posting. Term has started in Oxford, and the busy-ness of the Latin Mass Society, and other things, has reached a sort of crescendo for reasons too tedious to explain.

Here, however, is a project close to my heart which I can now announce: a traditional pilgrimage to Lourdes, with the sick, organised by the Latin Mass Society. We have actually booked the space on one of the tour-operators' schedules, so we have dates: 17-21st September 2012.

The LMS has had groups going to Lourdes before, but the point of Lourdes, more than of any other shrine, I think, is taking the sick, and we have never done that before. Our Lady commanded that people should come on pilgrimage 'with the sick', and created a spring in which they could be bathed. Many, many graces have been bestowed through this means over the century and a half which have elapsed since then, included a stream of extraordinary miracles of healing which have continued to this day.

If you haven't been to Lourdes, you must go. If you've been, then you'll want to come on this pilgrimage, where the liturgy and spirituality will be traditional: the traditional Mass, traditional devotions, and so on.

Lourdes is an extraordinary place. It is the most visited 'tourist' destination in France, and when you get there you will understand why. It is famous for its tacky shops but that is not why the visitors are there: they are there for Our Lady.

After my appeal in the Mass of Ages in the last issue, a number of very good people have come forward to volunteer to help organise it: lay people and clergy with considerable experience of Lourdes. We can now throw the thing open to all who would like to register an interest, both the hale and hearty and those who would come as 'malades', those needing medical care, help with mobility and so on. We can't take your money for booking at this stage but we'd like to hear from you.


The dates are 17-21st September (Monday to Friday). We'll be flying from Stanstead (unless you want to make your own way there) and the all-inclusive price will be in the region of £600.

Email us to register your interest, and let us know if you've been before:


info@lms.org.uk

Friday, January 13, 2012

Retreat and Chant Course

Updated: 

You can dowload an application form for both events here. 

You can book entirely online for the Retreat

and for the Chant Course.


We are on track for a lot of very exciting events this year, and here are some of the first: the regular St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat and (running in parallel) the Gregorian Chant Network Weekend Chant course, on Low Sunday weekend, after Easter, 13-15th April.

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The venue is the Oratory School in Oxfordshire, between Oxford and Reading and near Pangbourne railway station (link to map).

The Family Retreat is a unique event, with around 150 people, including children of all ages, on retreat with the Traditional Mass and devotions. Everyone is welcome - you don't have to be or have a family! - but we have activities for children of all ages to enable their parents to attend the spiritual conferences as easily as possible. This year we will have two priests, Fr Andrew Southwell and Fr Thomas Crean OP, and hope to have a seminarian as well.

2011 04 09_8862

Running alongside this is a Chant course. Again, everyone is welcome, with any level of experience. The course is led by Colin Mawby, the composer and former Director of Music at Wesminster Cathedral, and Christopher Hodkinson, of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge. Having two chant tutors will enable us to divide the group according to the experience of the singers, so everyone will get the most out of it. The singers accompany the Masses and devotions of the Retreat, so as well as theoretical work on the chant there is live singing with an audience.

You can dowload an application form for both events here. 

You can book entirely online for the Retreat

and for the Chant Course.


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

English FSSP Seminarian in the Catholic Herald

Ian Verrier, who I mentioned just the other day as a Fraternity seminarian visiting the FSSP apostolate in Reading, has given a interview in the current Catholic Herald. It's not on the CH website, but happily the interviewer, Mary O'Regan, has it on her own blog, The Path Less Taken.

And a very good interview it is too! Go over to her to read it.

The number of men from England and Wales joining the seminaries of Traditional orders - the Fraternity of St Peter, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, and the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer - is one of the great success stories of the Traditional Movement here. There will be a feature article about this phenomenon in the next Mass of Ages: don't miss it, you'll be able to get it here. Don't read it three weeks after everyone else like The Tablet does, get it delivered your door by joining!

The Latin Mass Society gives financial support to these courageous young men: you can make donations to our 'Seminarian Fund' which is spent on nothing else.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

A meatless Epiphany

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Friday was the first, and I think perhaps it will be the last, time that English Catholics will be required to abstain from flesh meat on 6th January, which is the Feast of the Epiphany in both the reformed Universal Calendar and the 1962 Calendar. We had a splendid candle-lit Mass in SS Gregory and Augustine to celebrate this important feast.

A good occasion for lobster and caviar, perhaps!  IMG_8633
The Church of SS Gregory & Augustine's looks quite well lit, but it is a trick of the camera. It was lit entirely by candles, except for the choir loft - we had a single electric bulb!
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The solemn proclamation of the moveable feasts of the year, after the Sermon: chanted in Latin. IMG_8663
The distribution of blessed chalk, at the end of Mass.
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A lovely occasion. Many thanks to Fr John Saward and the parish of SS Gregory & Augustine's in Oxford, and the Schola Abelis, who accompanied the Mass.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Solemn Mass and Chant Training in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, 11th February

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Solemn Mass St George's Cathedral, Southwark

Saturday 11 February 2012 10:30am

with Gregorian chant sung by the Cathedral Choir

Same day:  
Gregorian Chant Training Day with Nick Gale and Mark Johnson
(Gregorian Chant Network)

Schedule
11:45 Course begins, registration, plenary session with Nick Gale
 13:00 Lunch (bring packed lunch)
13:45 Chant Course afternoon sessions (Nick Gale and Mark Johnson)
15:30 Break 15:45 Rehearsal for Vespers
16:30 First Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday
17:00 Ends

Fee: £15; reduced to £10 for LMS members.

To register interest for the Gregorian Chant Training Day please email

lmssouthwarknorth AT gmail DOT com


Contact (replace AT with @ and DOT with .)

Sunday, January 01, 2012

New toy

I have a new toy - or rather, my Iphone has. It turns pictures like this -


Into pictures like this. A zoom lens.


Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP was celebrant.


We were joined today at Reading by another FSSP seminarian, Ian Verrier. His musical skills were much appreciated!


The advantage of this lens is that I can do better blog posts directly from the phone.

Happy Feast of the Circumcision! And what must be the shortest Gospel in the lectionary.

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