LMS Residential Latin Course 2023

I'm delighted to announce that booking is open for the Latin Mass Society's annual residential Latin and New Testament Greek course.

It will run Monday 14th August - Saturday 19th August 2023, 

at Park Place Pastoral Centre, Wickham, Fareham, Hampshire PO17 5HA.

Continental Synodal Reports and the TLM

The 'Continental Stage' of the Synod on Synodality has concluded, with the publication of the 'Continental Reports': they can be seen here.

Since the FIUV and the LMS asked people to contribute to the consultation process, it is interesting to see whether our voices have actually made it through to these reports. I discussed the national reports here.

The voice of Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass do emerge in two of the reports: not surprisingly, those of Europe and North America. This is not because Traditional Catholics are absent from Oceania, Asia, Africa, and South America, but because the bishops of those regions have been unwilling to allow celebrations or to acknowledge their point of view. It is worth reminding ourselves that the Traditional movement is well-established in Australia and New Zealand; there are many apostolates of the Traditional priestly institutes in Africa, notably the ICKSP in Gabon; and South America is home to the Apostolic Administration of St Jean Vianney in Campos, Brazil, the one place in the world where one can find a bishop exercising ordinary jurisdiction over a community of traditional faithful.

The reports are a reflection not only of the inputs, of course, but of the process of selection. The reports as a whole have very little to say about the liturgy.

This is what got through in the European and North American reports: emphasis mine.

Europe (pdf)

67. From a fundamental point of view, it is possible to detect the link between Church and liturgy, between ecclesiology and the theology of liturgy: The liturgical dimension in the Church is a place of strong tensions. These tensions are part of a deeper tension of an ecclesiological nature. Ecclesiological tension often arises from a vision of the Church based on one’s own expectations (Italian language working group). In this context, the tensions and sufferings concerning the ancient form of the Roman liturgy should be understood, with explicit references by France, England and Wales, and Nordic countries to the pre-conciliar liturgy according to the Missal of 1962.

North America (pdf)

27. Some participants in the synodal process reported on the profound sense of suffering of those prevented from receiving the Eucharist. While there are a variety of reasons for this reality, perhaps preeminent among them is Catholics who are divorced and remarried without an annulment, and others whose objective situation in life contradicts the beliefs and teachings of the Church. Additionally, some delegates spoke of those wounded by the limitations placed on the pre-conciliar Latin rite. Unfortunately, liturgy is not always experienced as unifying. “We could find our unity in common prayer, but liturgy is one of the things that is divisive in the Church and we must break through that” (Session X Group 18).

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Walsingham Pilgrimage: booking open

You can now book your place on the Latin Mass Society's annual walking pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham. The dates are 24-27 August (Thursday evening in Ely to Sunday afternoon in Walsingham). For those staying overnight there will be a Mass in the Slipper Chapel at the Catholic Shrine in Walsingham on the Monday.

For the first time, a limited number of places are available to walk on Thursday from Cambridge to Ely.

There is a 10% discount for early booking until the Ascension. Make sure you are a member of the LMS for a further discount: you can join while booking and still save money.

Note the new venue to meet on Thursday evening!

Easter Triduum Photos from St Mary Moorfields

This celebration of the Easter Triduum liturgy is organised by the Latin Mass Society. The services were celebrated by Fr Michael Cullinan, who was assisted by Fr Thomas Crean as deacon and, on Friday, by Fr Mark Elliot-Smith, and on Saturday by Fr John Hemer. Lovely music was provided by Cantores Missae directed by Charles Finch.

On Good Friday: for Catholic Answers

My latest for Catholic Answers. It begins:

One of the markers of the utter desolation of the Chosen People at certain points of their history was the cessation of the daily sacrifice in the Temple: when Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, when its replacement was defiled by the Seleucid Empire in the time of the Maccabees, and finally when it was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. The profound grief of these moments found expression in the biblical book of Jeremiah’s Lamentations.

A similar note of grief afflicts the Church in contemplating the crucifixion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, commemorated most solemnly on Good Friday. The Lamentations form a major element in the traditional services of Matins and Lauds celebrated over the Triduum, called Tenebrae.

We know that the story does not end there: Jesus rose again. Nevertheless, his death was real, and the grief of his mother and disciples was real. The grief of Our Lady was not based on a misunderstanding or a failure to accept God’s will. It was natural, and it was demanded by the occasion: the suffering and death of her Son. The sorrowful stage of the journey was a necessary one: Christ had to suffer through it, and Our Lady, our model, kept him company in that suffering. We must not succumb to the temptation of flipping the pages of the story too quickly to get to the happy ending.

Read it all there.

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Una Voce International: new edition of Gregorius Magnus magazine

Gregorius Magnus is the twice-yearly magazine of the FIUV, Una Voce International.

Gregorius Magnus 15, Summer 2023, is now available as a PDF. 

and on ISSUU, optimised for mobile devices.

This issue has two appreciations of Pope Benedict XVI and a report of the most recent Summorum Pontificum 'Ad Sedem Petri' Pilgrimage in Rome, and meeting of CIEL in Rome.

Would you like to advertise? Or to contribute to future editions? Click on the links.

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