Fr Hunwicke's open letter to Fr Finigan

Many thanks to Fr Hunwicke for his friendly and extraordinarily perceptive open letter with an amusing story of the Vicar of Cury and Gunwalloe.

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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 .
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SPUC Clergy information day

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SPUC today held a Clergy Information Day. Unfortunately, because of an urgent meeting I had to be late for this so I missed the first half of the morning lecture by Fr John Fleming. I could catch up with most of it from his notes and look forward to the published version when it is available from SPUC. Fr Fleming was speaking about the rights of the unborn under international law, the pro-life battle at the UN and the nature of the early human embryo. As a lecture, it was certainly not "dumbed down". He presented some of the latest research on the biochemistry of the human embryo in relationship with the mother and then tied this in to the philosophical question of the status of the embryo, dealing with such hoary chestnuts as twinning and the differentiation of cells in the embryo. It was a most helpful and informative presentation: intellectually challenging but well put together. I think that the sheer quality of these presentations has been the important factor in the gr
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Day at St Cecilia's

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At St Cecilia's Abbey in Ryde, Isle of Wight, today, there was the celebration of Sr Claire's silver jubilee of profession. I was celebrant at Mass (Latin, newer form) chanted beautifully by the sisters for the feast of Sts John Fisher and Thomas More with Mass VI and all the chants from the Graduale Romanum . Sister's family were there except for her father who is ill at home. He was able to listen to the celebration via a telephone linkup. After Mass, the large parlour was open at various times during the day until Vespers and Benediction. After None, the sisters and the family took it in turns to sing songs and play various musical instruments at an extended recreation. It was great to be able to meet many of the sisters whom I have seen over the years in choir during various visits as well as recent newcomers to this thriving contemplative community. Some readers from the Netherlands will perhaps recognise the young lady in the centre of the photo above dressed in blue,
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Saint Gabriel

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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
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Ratzinger and Guéranger on the silent Canon

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One of the most noticeable differences between the new rite of Mass and the old rite, especially for those who attend the old rite for the first time, is that many of the prayers we are accustomed to hearing aloud, are said silently - particularly the Canon of the Mass. In The Spirit of the Liturgy (1999), the then Cardinal Ratzinger said: It really is not true that reciting the whole Eucharistic Prayer our loud and without interruptions is a prerequisite for the paricipation of everyone in this central act of the Mass. He had suggested, in 1978, that the priest might say the first words of the various prayers out loud so that each person could, in his silent prayer, bring his personal prayer into the communal prayer and the communal prayer into his personal prayer. (He notes that this suggestion annoyed many liturgists.) He went on to say, Anyone who has experienced a church united in the silent praying of the Canon will know what a really filled silence is. It is at once a loud and
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