Day With Mary 09 at Blackfen

Climbing up a step-ladder in a cope is one of the more challenging liturgical feats but it was necessary today in order to crown the statue of Our Lady of Fatima brought by the "Day With Mary" team. After processing round the streets saying the Rosary, we returned to the Church for Mass.

The policy of the "Day With Mary" is to accept the direction of the local parish priest as to whichform the Mass is in - Saturday morning is one of our two regular weekly Masses in teh usus antiquior and the Sisters of the Immaculate were happy to sing the Salve Sancta Parens Mass together with the Missa cum Iubilo. We borrowed a fine set of Marian vestments for the day.

Fr Agnellus FI took care of the Blessed Sacrament Procession and Benediction in the afternoon - I assisted him for Benediction, climbing the step-ladder to fetch down the monstrance only without cope this time.

Today's Day With Mary was our best attended ever, with a full Church for much of the Day. It is a great blessing for the parish to have this powerful day of devotion and prayer and to renew the consecration of the parish to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Many thanks to the Mulier Fortis for the photos - there are more at her blog, together with her own account of the day.

At the breaks for lunch and tea, there is a large bookstall filled mainly with TAN books. Of these, I got a short life of St Catherine of Siena to read on the train tomorrow afternoon, a rather longer life of St Aloysius Gonzaga and Mgr George Moorman's "The Latin Mass Explained" which is an introduction to the Traditional Latin Mass. The title is slightly irritating (the typical edition of the newer form is Latin) but if we can let that go for the moment, it looks to be a very helpful book for those who want to find out more.

A booklet that I have passed over several times is Very Rev Joseph Simler's "Catechism of Mental Prayer." I read this over a cup of tea this afternoon and found it to be very good. I heartily recommend it to anyone who would like to begin the practice of mental prayer or meditation. It would also be very helpful to anyone whose spiritual formation neglected the common teaching of the saints and spiritual doctors. In a 62 page pamphlet, it gives a good, practical and accurate summary of what must otherwise be quarried from many different books.

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