LMS Annual Requiem

Yesterday afternoon, the Latin Mass Society held its annual Requiem Mass. Fr Conlon was celebrant, I was deacon and Fr Hayward was subdeacon. The Cathedral choir's rendition of the familiar chants filled the Cathedral with a sense of the numinous as we prayed for the holy souls.

I was particularly pleased that five of the servers were from my own parish (thurifer, acolytes, holy water bearer, and second MC). Mass was preceded by the laying of a wreath on at the grave of Cardinal Heenan who, in 1971, obtained the indult from Pope Paul VI to allow the older form of the Mass in England and Wales. The petition requesting this was signed by, among others, Agatha Christia, Graham Greene, Rober Graves, F R Leavis, Yehudi Menuin, and Iris Murdoch. At the Latin Mass Society website, you can read an interesting "Recollection of the 1971 Indult" by Alfred Marnau whom I knew when I was a young student at Oxford.

Of course, Pope Benedict has now said that the usus antiquior "was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted." How times change!

Many thanks to Mac (Mulier Fortis) for taking my camera and getting some photographs of the Mass.

Lavabo:

Ecce agnus Dei:


Procession to the catafalque:


Procession to the sacristy:

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