A Day With Mary at a "fashionable" parish

Photo credit (all photos): Mulier Fortis

The Day With Mary is a spiritually powerful event in the parish. Not only does it give a boost to the faith and devotion of those present, it has the feeling of making a real contribution to the treasury of merits of the Church with the assistance of Our Blessed Lady and under her powerful protection.

Fortescue has a famous footnote about not genuflecting at the top of a ladder when retrieving the monstrance from a throne (I am grateful for his prudent advice) but he says little more about liturgical ladders. When I was crowning the statue of Our Lady, the assistants did well to retain hold of the cope without showing the orphreys.

Yesterday morning was fine and we took the Procession of Our Lady around the streets. Sung Mass followed.


The beautiful Marian vestment is currently on loan to the parish. It is shown well here at the Et Verbum caro factum est:


Here is a zoom of the back of the chasuble:


The afternoon procession of the Blessed Sacrament was a little more edgy owing to a fairly brisk wind which threatened to take the canopy and bearers skyward.


The afternoon was devoted as usual in the programme, to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, meditations on the Passion of Christ and prayers for the faithful departed. During the day twenty decades of the Rosary were said, and there was plenty of time for silent adoration. With several priests kindly hearing confessions, and the public recitation of prayers for the Pope, we can hope that many plenary indulgences were gained.

The day ends with the Fatima "Farewell" hymn at the "departure" of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. This year we had an even better turn-out than usual with plenty of children taking part - and plenty of men, as one lady commented to me.


Over the lunch and tea breaks I had some fun with the DWM Team. At the extensive bookstall I asked if they had any books advocating women priests and gay marriage: they were unable to help. At the piety stall, I enquired about yoga equipment but again, no luck. I was also unsuccessful in my search for DVDs of liturgical dance: all they had were lives of the saints and presentations of Catholic doctrine.

I'm obviously behind the times. The fashion among young people now, it seems, is to be addicted to the traditional liturgy and I am in a "with it" parish.

Seriously, the Day With Mary is a wonderful opportunity to be together with other Catholics singing enthusiastically, praying silently, processing with devotion, stocking up with good and spiritually enriching Catholic books and films, and chat with other enthusiastic Catholics. There were also sermons, of course. If you want to hear my two, here are the YouTube videos kindly uploaded by the Day with Mary Team:

Sermon at Mass:


Afternoon sermon:

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

Plenary indulgences not impossible

Dilexit Prior in Letters from a Young Catholic asked some useful questions today about indulgences. I thought it would be best to do a post here especially to cover the controversial question of detachment from venial sin. But first the other questions: The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence Pope Paul VI set down a number of norms relating to indulgences at the end of Indulgentiarum Doctrina . Norm 7 states: To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfil three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial, except for the provisions contained in n.11 for those who are “impeded.” It is worth reading the other norms bec
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

SPUC Clergy information day

Image
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
Read more