Altar Servers at Aylesford

At Aylesford today, there was the annual rally of the Guild of St Stephen for altar servers. Mass was celebrated by Bishop Howard Tripp with about a dozen priests concelebrating. The altar servers who are being enrolled into the Guild of St Stephen receive their medal from the Bishop so it makes it a special occasion for them. There are always lots of families there and it is a good opportunity for the youngsters to visit the Priory Shop and buy rosaries, holy cards, and the brown scapular as well as all sorts of other bits and pieces that are small reminders of the faith and can be blessed afterwards.

The last two years, we have been glad to help out St Lawrence's, Sidcup, whose servers join us on our coach. There is something of a quid pro quo in that Brian, their MC, organises a barbecue with mountains of delicious food.

A five-a-side football tournament is organised for the afternoon. To my surprise, my altar servers formed a scratch team with two of our girls proving a match for some of the boys. They won their first game but were then outclassed by a strong team from ChristChurch.

On the way down, it poured with rain but, as so often happens, the sun came out for the day and it was a great family day out. All credit to the Guild and to their chaplain Fr Stephen Boyle.

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Blessing of the New Painting of St Bede at Clapham Park

Image
This morning, the parish priest at Clapham Park, Fr Marcus Holden, blessed a new picture of the parish's patron, Saint Bede, painted by James Tildsley. It is sited over a recently installed side altar near the rear of the Church. The altar itself was acquired from Antique Church Furnishings . The website gives the information that the altar was built and carved by a nun in a convent near Liverpool. It is a beautiful piece of work and it is always a joy when such works of art find a suitable and dignified home. The inscription on the gradine is AMANS AMATUS AMOR. The sellers translate this as “Loving is the object of love” which is a reasonable stab at “dynamic equivalence”. Today the parish's relic of St Bede was exposed for veneration in its distinctive brightly-coloured reliquary. After the blessing, there was High Mass with Fr Holden as celebrant, Fr Littleton deacon, and myself subdeacon. That gave me the enjoyable task of chant...
Read more

Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

Image
In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,...
Read more

Fr Ian Vane's Silver Jubilee

Image
I have known Fr Ian Vane since before we both went off to the seminary, he to Valladolid and me to Wonersh and then later Rome. We benefited from the kindness and wisdom of Fr Edward Holloway and have been involved with the Faith Movement since it was founded. It was a delight to join Father at his parish of the English Martyrs in Horley this evening for the celebration of his silver jubilee of ordination. A good number of priests joined the celebration, mainly from the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton although some of us Southwark interlopers were also on the sanctuary. Fr Roger Nesbitt preached with great sincerity and warmth on the priesthood, especially emphasising the priest as the disciple of Christ and one who loves Christ and desires to draw others to Him. You had to be there really: it was so obvious that he meant it. The parishioners of Horley put on a lovely spread for all the visitors, who included people from Father's previous appointments. It was good to see Bis...
Read more