Saturday, March 09, 2024

Walsingham Pilgrimage Volunteers needed, 5: First Aiders and photographers

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A photo by a professional photographer, John Aron.
See what he's done with the depth of field?

Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which takes place from Thursday 22nd August to Sunday 25th August. But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. This is the last of these appeals, for two more categories of volunteers: First Aiders and photographers.

First Aiders need (at least) a certificate showing they have done a short course about it. These courses can be done in a single day and if you do one specially then the LMS will repay you the cost of the fee. (We'll pay for a First Aid bag for you as well of course.) Courses are done by St John's Ambulance and others and certificates last for three years. This is an opportunity to learn something useful and make yourself useful on the pilgrimage, and we'll even waive the pilgrimage fee.

We waive the fee because being a First Aider will change your pilgrimage experience. In breaks and at the end, your time is not your own: you'll have to make yourself available to the needs of others. On the road you may need to drop out to minister to a twisted ankle or a pilgrim with sun stroke. We'll get you a lift back to the column of course, but you will have a duty to your fellow-pilgrims first and foremost. It is a burden, and also a privilege.

Very few First Aid needs on the pilgrimage go beyond the very basic -- stinging nettles, blisters and (when it is hot) sun stroke cover about 90% of them -- but we absolutely need to have people to help with these, and less experienced First Aiders will be backed up by more experienced as required, with the support drivers available to get injured pilgrims to where they need to be.

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Taken by me.

On photography, if we are to promote the pilgrimage from year to year we need photographs of it. We have a system of pilgrims' snaps being gathered up for social media but we do also need someone with a proper camera willing to take time out at regular intervals to take high-quality photos. This makes a huge difference to public perceptions of the event.

You might think: who cares what people can or can't see online? Actually, it is important. We walk down lanes and through villages, and passers' by see us, bearing witness to the Faith and to the significance of Walsingham as a sacred place. Photography magnifies this witness and extends it to people who are not physically there at 9am or whatever in some tiny Norfolk village. Photography is part of the apostolate.

So if you have a decent digital camera and know how to use it; if you are fit enough to get ahead of the column from time to time; if you understand the liturgy enough to get decent photographs of that: then let us know and we'll give you a big discount on your booking fee. And you can make some beautiful images of a truly remarkable event.

If you wish to be considered for these roles, please email walsinghampilgrimage@lms.org.uk

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Another by John Aron.

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Friday, March 08, 2024

Walsingham Pilgrimage volunteers needed, 4: marshals and campsite volunteers

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Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which takes place from Thursday 22nd August to Sunday 25th August. But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. Today I appeasing for two more categories of volunteers: marshals for the walking part of the pilgrimage, and volunteers to assemble and dismantle things like gazebos at the campsites.

Being a marshal is an unglamorous role, and it can also be quite solitary, since you walk between, behind, or ahead of the chapters. It is nevertheless essential. First, for road safety, managing cars passing sometimes on quite narrow roads. Secondly, to assist pilgrims who need to drop out.

We prefer to have as marshals people who have walked the pilgrimage at least once before. An obvious qualification is being sufficiently fit to do the walk!

Thursday, March 07, 2024

Walsingham Pilgrimage volunteers wanted, 3: singers

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Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which takes place from Thursday 22nd August to Sunday 25th August. But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. We need volunteers! Today I am going to talk about singers.

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Good Music, along with good food, may be said to power the pilgrimage in its natural aspect. But unlike the food, however good, the music has a significance at the supernatural level as well, because it can also be prayer.

It will be no surprise for readers to hear that a lot of prayers are said on the pilgrimage. Pilgrims are divided into 'chapters' which are small enough for people to hear instructions from the front to the back, with the help of megaphones, and also for collective prayer. When we say the Rosary, we sing it: we have settings of the Hail Mary in English, Latin, and French. We also sing the Litanies of Our Lady, of the Saints, of St Joseph, and of the Sacred Heart. In addition, we sing many popular chants, such as the O filii et filiae (though we sing it better than the guys in the link), vernacular hymns, and when the going gets tough, even some patriotic songs.

We believe the singing is very important and go to a lot of trouble over it. We have a book of all the chants and hymns, often with the music (and other useful prayers and information), the Vademecum Peregrini, which everyone has, and every chapter has a cantor.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Walsingham Pilgrimage Volunteers wanted 2: drivers

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Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which takes place from Thursday 22nd August to Sunday 25th August. But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. We need volunteers! Today I am going to talk about drivers.

The Pilgrimage has always had 'support drivers', and these have been becoming more and more numerous in recent years. For this year, we are in particular need of a van driver, as we need to have two luggage vans, and not just one. We can't get a lorry down the country lanes, so we hire an 'extra long' Mercedes Sprinter, or the the equivalent.

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Walsingham Pilgrimage Volunteers needed, 1: cooks and cleaners

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Booking is now open for the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, which takes place from Thursday 22nd August to Sunday 25th August. But before we can welcome 200+ pilgrims, we need to be able to look after them. We need volunteers who give up their chance to walk in order to do some quite unglamourous jobs, such as cooking and cleaning.

Each day of the walk there is breakfast and an evening meal. We don't just give pilgrims a paper cup of coffee or an empty milk carton of instant soup (happy though these memories of Chartres are!). While the size of the pilgrimage makes it possible, our cooking team continues to provide real food: bread and jam, porridge and hard boiled eggs for breakfast, and a hot meal made from basic ingredients in the evening. 

There is plenty of penance to be had in getting up early to walk 20 miles or so, but our pilgrims don't set off with an empty stomach, and the evenings are convivial. It is another element of Catholic culture which we are aiming to restore, and a reflection of our respect for the walking pilgrims.

Quisquis enim potum dederit vobis calicem aquƦ in nomine meo, quia Christi estis : amen dico vobis, non perdet mercedem suam. Mark 9:41

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Westminster Diocese Triduum cancelled

Cardinal Nichols will not permit the celebration of the Vetus Ordo Triduum in St Mary Moorfields this year. Here is our press release.

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Traditional Latin Easter Triduum Services in the Archdiocese of Westminster cancelled

The Latin Mass Society is grieved to announce that the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, will not give permission for the celebration of the major services of the Sacred Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) according to the liturgical books in use before the Second Vatican Council: the Traditional Latin liturgy or Vetus Ordo.

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There has been a celebration of the Traditional Triduum in the Archdiocese, with the permission of successive Archbishops, since the 1990s: first in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, and then in St Mary Moorfields in the City of London. In recent years these services have been attended by up to 200 people.

His Eminence places this decision in the context of his ongoing dealings with the Dicastery for Divine Worship in Rome, writing ‘My approach to these matters is to be within the parameters laid down by the Holy See while waiting for the judgment of the Holy See on which, if any, parish church may be used for the celebration of Mass according to the Missal antecedent to the reform of 1970.’[1]

His decision, he explains, was made ‘for the sake of the wider provision’.

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Comment from the Latin Mass Society

The faithful attached to the Vetus Ordo, served by Sunday celebrations in St James Spanish Place, the London Oratory, and other locations, will now be denied the chance to attend the most important liturgical days of the year according to this liturgy within the Archdiocese of Westminster.

When Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter Traditionis custodes, which restricted the Vetus Ordo, was published in 2021, Cardinal Nichols summarised the Holy Father’s concerns, adding: ‘In my judgement, these concerns do not reflect the overall liturgical life of this diocese.’[2]

LMS Chairman Joseph Shaw comments: “In this decision, as in the earlier ending of the 50-year tradition of two annual Vetus Ordo Masses at the High Altar of Westminster Cathedral, and the 20-year practice of the Archdiocese providing the Sacrament of Confirmation according to the Vetus Ordo, it seems that Catholics attached to the older liturgy are being punished for misdemeanours that Cardinal Nichols believes they have not committed.

“We await with concern the decision of the Dicastery of Divine Worship concerning the current celebrations of the Vetus Ordo on Sundays and weekdays in the Archdiocese, which have enriched and consoled many hundreds of Catholics over the decades. This form of the Mass never ceased to be celebrated regularly in the Archdiocese, thanks to the pastoral solicitude of Pope Paul VI in 1971, and of successive Archbishops, in allowing it to continue. It is tragic to see that pastoral attitude now being put aside.

“At the same time, we can reassure Catholics attached to the ancient Latin liturgy that the Triduum will still be celebrated in London, outside Westminster Archdiocese, and that the Latin Mass Society will continue to support these and other celebrations of this venerable liturgy.”

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Notes for Editors

The Latin Mass Society was founded in 1965 to support the continued celebration of the Catholic liturgy in the form it took at the eve of the Second Vatican Council: the ‘1962 Missal’, the ‘antecedent Missal’, the Vetus Ordo or Traditional Mass.

The Greater London area is served by three Catholic dioceses: Westminster, Brentwood, and Southwark.

The “English Indult” granted by Pope Paul VI in 1971 allowed the Vetus Ordo to continue to be celebrated in England and Wales without a break, even while it was prohibited in the rest of the world.

Services of the Easter Triduum began to be celebrated in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, by the parish priest, Canon McDonald, in the early 1990s; the full set of major services were celebrated from 1999. Ten years later these moved to the larger church of St Mary Moorfields in the City of London. They were not celebrated in 2021 due to COVID restrictions.

Latin Mass Society

 

Press contacts:

Communications Officer, Portia Berry-Kilby portia@lms.org.uk

Chairman, Joseph Shaw oxford@lms.org.uk

 

Registered Office: 9 Mallow Street, London EC1Y 8RQ

020 7404 7284

info@lms.org.uk

 

Registered Charity Number: 248388



[1] In an email of 23rd February to Fr Michael Cullinan, who was to have been the principle celebrant of the Triduum services. Quoted with permission.

[2] See the website of the Archdiocese of Westminster https://rcdow.org.uk/cardinal/news/cardinals-message-to-clergy-about-traditionis-custodes/

[Photos from last year's services.]

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Friday, February 23, 2024

Guild of St Clare Sewing Retreat: photos

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Another successful Sewing Retreat was organised by the Guild of St Clare, for prayer, the traditional Mass, spiritual conferences, and the making and mending of vestments.

The retreat giver was Fr Edward van den Burgh of the London Oratory.

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