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I have been very blessed in the last few days by being able to attend three beautiful and solemn Requiem Masses.
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First, for All Souls, in SS Gregory & Augustine's, Oxford, where we had a High Mass. It was the deacon's first outing in the Extraordinary Form; he is a Benedictine, studying in Oxford.
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Yesterday it the Latin Mass Society's Annual Requiem in Westminster Cathedral, celebrated by Bishop John Arnold (whose appointment as Bishop of Salford has recently been announced; he hasn't yet taken possession of his see).
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I never cease to be astonished by Westminster Cathedral. To see a Pontifical Requiem in this great church is truly wonderful.
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Today (Sunday) is Remembrance Sunday, and we had our first Sung EF Mass in Holy Trinity, Hethe, outside Oxford, where Fr Paul Lester, the Parish Priest, has established a weekly Sunday Mass at 12 noon.
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For overseas readers Remembrance Sunday is a peculiarity of England and Wales: by special permission, dating I think from 1918, we can have a Requiem Mass celebrated on the Sunday closest to 11th November. This is preceded, if it is the principal Mass on a Sunday, by the Asperges, and we have the Creed, which would never normally be recited at a Requiem.
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Remembrance Sunday services took place all over the country today, and of course is a very special year because of the centenary of start of the Great War.
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A local permanent deacon sang the Epistle, and we had the Absolutions at the Catafalque,with the chant Libera nos, a very moving ceremony in which the priest blesses an empty coffin, or simply a pall draped over a coffin stand, or just on the floor, representing the dead, with incense and holy water.
There will be more Requiems in November, of course, notably the annual Reuqiem I organise at St Benet's Hall (38 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LN), which will take place on Saturday 29th November at 11:30am.
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It's very neat to hear of a cleric assisting at a Missa Cantata to sing the Gospel.
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