The Roman Forum: LMS Sponsored places

More information and booking here. The dates are 30 June-11 July, 2014

Dr John Rao at the LMS One-Day Conference 2012

The Roman Forum Summer Symposium is a 11-day residential conference with a range of speakers on a coordinated set of topics. This year they are considering the last hundred years, in light of the centenary of the start of the Great War.

The Roman Forum is inspired by the ideals of Dietrich von Hildebrand, one of the founders of the Traditional Catholic movement. It is accompanied by the daily celebration of the Traditional Mass. The chief organiser is Dr John Rao, who spoke at the LMS One Day Conference in 2012.

The headline price is €2,100. The Latin Mass Society is offering two bursaries of £500 each (currently worth €608), and the Roman Forum may be able to offer one of their own reduced-price places to complement this.

We are looking for two young people from England and Wales who would benefit from this conference: a unique Catholic insight into recent history, in the context of the Traditional Catholic liturgy.

Chartres Pilgrimage 2014: LMS sponsored places

High Mass in a field on the way.

More information and booking form here.

The dates are 6-10 June 2014. 

The usual cost of £260 is reduced by £100 for each of fifteen places sponsored by the Latin Mass Society.

The British contingent gather in London on Friday 6th, for an early morning Mass in Westminster Cathedral crypt and a coach and ferry journey to France. The whole pilgrimage comes together on Saturday morning in Notre Dame and sets off. There are two nights under canvas, and the big final Mass is in the early afternoon on Monday. The British pilgrims spend a night in Chartres in a hotel and return on Tuesday.

It is possible to join the pilgrimage on Saturday morning and head home immediately after Mass on the Monday, for those short of time. The group journey out is recommended, however, especially for those new to the pilgrimage.



The Chartres Pilgrimage is an unforgettable experience. There is nothing like it in the Catholic world: approximately 10,000 people walking together the 78 miles from Paris to Chartres, united in prayer and intention.



The two times I have done it it has been hot; other years it rains. There is no escaping the fact that it is tough: significantly more demanding than the LMS Pilgrimage to Walsingham. If you can't continue to walk you will, of course, be looked after, by the amazing Order of Malta first aid teams who set up at intervals along the way.

The Children's Chapter: they have a shortened route.

One of the highlights of the pilgrimage is Benediction and Exposition on the second night. You are conscious of the intensity of the prayer: people take big intentions to Chartres!

Benediction and Exposition, at the second campsite

It is, above all, a joyous experience. It is impossible to describe the effect of the prayers and songs, the camaraderie and sense of purpose, over three days. We also walk through some lovely French countryside. The sight of Chartres Cathedral on the last day, appearing on the horizon and growing gradually larger, is quite something. This is, of course, perhaps the greatest achievement of Medieval architecture in the world.



Pluck up your courage and come to Chartres!

Journey's end: standard bearers processing out of Chartres Cathedral

These photos are from 2010; see the full set here.

LMS One-Day Conference is back! 24th May 2014

Bishop Schneider giving an unforgettable after-dinner speech at the LMS Priest Training
Conference at Downside, 2010: his last visit

In 2012 we held a one-day conference in the Regent Hall, the Salvation Army hall in Oxford Street in London. It was a huge success, and I promised to do more, but not every year: to keep the standard of speakers high, we decided to do them on alternate years. So this is the 2014 line-up. (More info and booking here.)
The theme is The Traditional Mass and Evangelisation.

Pearce and his recently published
autobiography - we'll have copies
to buy at the conference.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider from Kazakhstan. Bishop Schneider is well known as the author of Dominus Est - It is the Lord! - a defence of the traditional manner of receiving Communion.

Joseph Pearce is the critically acclaimed author of several biographies of Catholic literary figures, including Chesterton, Belloc, Tolkien and Oscar Wilde, as well as Literary Converts - the conversion stories of a string of early 20th century English writers who were received into the Catholic Church.He has recently written his autobiography Race with the Devil - the story of his conversion from a Catholic-hating member of the National Front to a devout Catholic.

Fr Michael Mary is the superior of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Transalpine Redemptorists), based in Golgotha Monastery on the Orkney island of Papa Stronsay. A completely Traditional Order, their canonical status was regularised after having reconciled with the Holy See following Summorum Pontificum, having previously worked for many years with the SSPX.

Christopher Hodkinson is the director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, one of the leading influences in the revival of Gregorian Chant in England in recent years.

Professor Thomas Pink lectures at King's College, London, and is known for his work on the fraught topic of religious liberty. 

Fr Michael Mary F.SS.R, photograph by the Benedictine Oblate

All of them are excellent speakers and I am delighted that they all agreed to come.

Tickets are £20. Book here.

Add £5 for lunch, deduct £5 if you are an LMS member!

Booking for Walsingham Pilgrimage open!

Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium: “Journeying together to shrines and taking part in other manifestations of popular piety, also by taking one’s children or inviting others, is in itself an evangelizing gesture”. Let us not stifle or presume to control this missionary power!
(Internal quotation from the Latin American Bishops' Aparecida Document)

 

The Walsingham Pilgrimage, a walking pilgrimage from Ely to Walsingham over three days, is the most exciting new event of recent years. Please book sooner rather than later, to assist our planning!

The dates: pilgrims gather in Ely on the evening of Thursday 21st August, and walk Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (24th) morning, when we have a High Mass in the Shrine at 2pm. For those staying an extra night, there is another Mass, in the Slipper Chapel, on Monday morning.

All our Masses are of course open to the public. The High Mass in the Shrine on Sunday is always joined by many pilgrims in cars, and a coach organised by the LMS comes from London. This is followed by a procession to the site of the Holy House in the town of Walsingham.

More info and booking here.

The Pilgrimage is for the Conversion of England. And how England needs it!

Loads of photos of last year's pilgrimage can be seen here.

LMS Priest and Server Training Conference 2014: Belmont Abbey

The Latin Mass Society has got some great events planned for this calendar year, and I shall be posting about them here. First: a priest training conference. These have also been attracting many servers in recent years, who are also vital to the celebration of the Traditional Mass; we also welcome deacons, permanent and transitory, and seminarians. Since 2007 the Latin Mass Society has organised the training of more than 100 priests. All training of clerics is done by experienced priests. Thus year we have another lovely venue: the Benedictive Abbey of Belmont in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border.

LMS Priest and Server Training Conference:

Belmont Abbey, Hereford,

29th April to 2nd May 2014 (Low Week)

Application forms can be downloaded here: Word   PDF

Booking page here

The Latin Mass Society will be organising a residential training conference for priests wishing to learn to celebrate Mass in the usus antiquior.

It will be held at Belmont Abbey, Hereford, HR2 9RZ.

Tuition, which will be given by experienced priests, will be tailored to suit the needs of each priest. The conference will also be open for servers who wish to learn or improve their skills with the older form of the Mass.

Training begins on the afternoon of Tuesday, 29 April and will end on the morning of Friday, 2 May. Meals are included in the price (including Friday lunch), which is heavily subsidised by the LMS.

COST:

The following prices are inclusive of board and lodging at Hedley Lodge, which is adjacent to the abbey.

Regular fee: £100

Full-time students: £50

Seminarians in their final two years at seminary can attend for free.

Tuesday lunch supplement: £5

Map showing Belmont Abbey