Busy Holy Week

Holy Week has been quite special this year. On Palm Sunday, in addition to our Saturday evening and two Sunday Masses in the newer form, we had our usual Mass in the usus antiquior but this year with the sung Passion. It took quite a while but was a great thing to be able to do. Another lengthy liturgical marathon was Tenebrae at Maiden Lane to which several parishioners came, including several boys who sat (and fidgeted a bit) in choir. The Gregorian chant was complemented by the responsories being sung by the Cantores Missae (Director Charles Finch) to the setting by Victoria. Afterwards, Charles kindly gave me a copy of their CD of music sung at a Mass in honour of St John Fisher and St Thomas More. this includes the Byrd 4-part Mass which is one of my favourites. They sing one voice to a part which gives a great clarity to the individual lines.

I have mentioned the Chrism Mass already. It was a good opportunity to catch up with people. Musically speaking it will have been nirvana for lovers of Marty Haugen but it was not the highlight of the week for me.

Having confessions after Mass on Tuesday and Wednesday and after Maundy Thursday Mass was certainly a good idea. Our (newer form) Maundy Thursday Mass began at 8pm and was over (including the stripping of the altar) by 9.15pm. I eventually came out of the confessional at twenty to eleven, leaving me time for a quick cup of tea before joining the last hour of adoration.

On Good Friday, we have Stations of the Cross for children at 10am. I encourage the children to bring a home-made cross or crucifix. They walk along with me in a procession that is probably as well-ordered as those in Jerusalem and at the end I give a little talk on the Passion. Above you can see a photo of a few of the families afterwards. Below you can see children playing a game which used to be called "He" when I was at school. Perhaps the PC crowd have been at children's games because they now laugh at me and say that it is called "It".

I also managed to get a nice photo of one of the more junior members of the congregation whom I baptised not too long ago:

After the children's Stations, we have the St Alphonsus Stations at 11am, followed by more confessions. Some of the children stayed for both; and some of them also came back for the Liturgy of the Passion in the afternoon to venerate the cross. More confessions and then a little bit of a break since there is no major liturgy until the Vigil tomorrow night. But there will be more confessions beforehand ...

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

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...
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

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Image
On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist. Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work”...
Read more

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Image
Gregorian Chant Hymns is a most helpful website that I mentioned in a post just over a year ago. As I said then, the site "[...] promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites." Work has continued at the site and there is now a section which makes available pdf (or .docx format) booklets for Vespers for every Sunday of the Year and a few major feasts. There is the basic booklet for ordinary Sunday Vespers which is supplemented by separate files for the Sundays after Pentecost which contain the Magnificat and Collect. Then there are booklets, for example for Advent and Lent, where the office is different from the regular Sunday Vespers with its antiphons. All of the booklets have texts and notation for Benediction and the Maria...
Read more