The Sodality of the Five Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ will be meeting at Blackfen on Friday 16 March at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen. There will be a Missa Cantata at 8pm (or shortly after - we have Stations of the Cross at 7.30pm to which all are, of course, welcome.)
The Mass will be a Votive Mass of the Five Holy Wounds and will be offered for the intentions of all members of the Sodality. Everyone is welcome to come. There will be tea, coffee and other refreshments afterwards in our Small Hall.
I have taken on the role of Spiritual Director to the Sodality after consulting with Fr Southwell who has stepped down from this role. After the Mass, we will discuss possible future events and activities for the Sodality. Devotion to the Five Holy Wounds is a very English thing, popular among our martyrs and others who suffered during penal times. I look forward to taking a role in this Sodality.
The above picture is the new logo, designed by Catholic illustrator and artist, Daniel Mitsui.
3 comments:
We look forward to it too!
Dear Father Finigan,
Is this the same votive Mass that Eamon Duffy mentions in The Stripping Of the Altars as popular before the Protestant Rebellion in England for the repose of the souls of the deceased?
Not finding them in my US St. Joseph's Daily Missal, 1959, I searched the internet for the propers for this Mass, and came up blank. Finally, I asked Professor Duffy, and he replied that if might not any longer be licit if it wasn't in a 1962 Missal. I am sure you are a far better judge of that than he is, as learned as he is on matters of history.
I am interested as I wished to have that Mass said for my own family members now deceased.
Thank you so much, Father.
Dear Thomas
I read your comment with much interest.
These Masses would appear to be the same, even though Professor Duffy does not list the Propers. The Mass finds it way through to modern times in the section "pro aliquibus locis" ("for some places"), at the back of some missals until the 1962 edition.
With due respect to the opinion of Professor Duffy, which you report, it is not the case that when feasts are "suppressed" the celebration of them becomes illicit.
I base this view on the instruction De calendaribiis particularibus (1961), Chapter 5 ("De quibusdam festis particularibus in specie" ["Of Holydays in particular"], section B ("De festis quae communiter « devotionis » vocantur" ["Of Holydays commonly called devotional"]). The full text can be website of the Holy See at: http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS%2053%20%5B1961%5D%20-%20ocr.pdf
Section 33 of this document specifically allows fourteen named feasts to be retained in places that had a special link with the feast: "Huiusmodi vero festa retineri possunt si cum aliquo loco speciali necessitudine connectuntur" ("These feast can, however, still be observed if they have a special connexion with a particular place.")
Such places would clearly include, as you identify, England, and in fact one of our members has an English (Roman) missal with this feast already indicated specifically for England.
The fact is further underlined by the statement, following, that "Festum autem S. Philumenae V. et M. (11 augusti) e quolibet calendario expungatur" ("However, the feast of Saint Philomena Virgin and Martyr (11 August) is to be expunged from any calendar whatever".
Here, we might moreover consider, and give thanks for, the solicitude of the Holy Father, expressed in Summorum Pontificum: "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place."
If you are further interested, there is also an informative article about it here: http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/five-wounds-pro-aliquibus-locis.html
If you would like to join the Sodality, please let us know. In due course, and not to be morbid, this feast will be observed for the benefit of deceased members, with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross being observed for those living.
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