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Showing posts with the label Feast days

Happy Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving Day is one of those things that really illustrates the difference between Britain and the USA. It also shows me each year the way that social networking can make us aware of important occasions that others celebrate: it would have passed me by completely had I not just seen various tweets about it. The Curt Jester has a good article pointing out that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in St Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565. It was the first community act of religion in the first permanent European settlement in the land: it also included both Spanish and natives. See: The actual First Thanksgiving in America Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my readers in the USA and I hope you enjoy the turkey. God bless your families and God bless America!
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Happy St Philomena's day!

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Today is St Philomena's Day so happy feast day to all those named after her and to all those who have a special devotion to her. In the Year of the Priest it is appropriate to remember the great love that St John Vianney had for St Philomena. Here is a Litany to St Philomena composed by the Curé of Ars. For many people, the only thing they know about St Philomena is that she "didn't exist", and therefore how silly it is to have devotion to her. The relatively recent scientific report shows that those who had the courage to doubt the blanket of doubt had good reason, and those who had devotion to her were not so foolish after all. As well as St John Vianney, these devotees include Bl Pope Pius IX, St Pius X, Bl Bartolomo Longo, and, of course, Ven Pauline Jaricot, founder of the APF . See: The Saint Philomena Question Answered .
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Singulare Ingenium

Have a look at the blog Singulare Ingenium written by Patricius. The title refers to J R R Tolkien's remarkable mind and the blog focuses particularly on Tolkien, although Patricius also writes on the Sacred Liturgy. For an example of his writing, which is of a particularly high quality, see his post today on the feast of Pentecost: Veni Creator Spiritus and the Eucatastrophe .
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Feast of St Joseph at New Malden

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Last night I travelled into Waterloo and out again to New Malden for the celebration of the feast of St Joseph. The Parish Priest, Fr Peter Edwards, generously recognises the pastoral potential of the usus antiquior , and the assistant priest, Fr Richard Whinder, is happy to arrange occasional Masses. I was invited to be celebrant for the Mass with Fr Nicholas Schofield as Deacon, and Fr Richard Whinder as Subdeacon. Fr Whinder preached an excellent sermon on St Joseph.
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Belated St George's Day pictures

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Mulier Fortis took some photos at our Mass for the feast of St George and I have only just had time to select some and edit them. She has posted some on her blog as well as some photos from the Rogation Procession and Mass . For St George's Day, I was celebrant for the Mass, assisted by Rev John Harrison (Deacon) and Fr Charles Briggs (Subdeacon). It is always good to be able to use our magnificent red set which is a 19th century French High Mass set made in velvet with gold braid. the chasuble has needlepoint embroidery with a large Agnus Dei in the centre. After Mass, we had Benediction. Three very keen young lads who are making their first Holy Communion on Saturday are not allowed to serve Mass until then but I have allowed them to be torchbearers for Benediction. They are looking forward to joining the team of servers at Mass next Sunday. The statue of St George was fetched from the Parish Social Club to be venerated in the Church. Sadly, St George has lost his sword on acc...
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Feast of the Annunciation

Prayers and good wishes to you all on the Feast of the Annunciation. On this feast day, I am always reminded of the parish Church I belonged to for the first 18 years of my life at Addiscombe. The new Church was built in 1964 and I have some childhood memories of the old Church and the High Mass which was the one my family used to go to. I was ordained at Addiscombe on 28 July 1984 and so this year is my silver jubilee. (Details of the celebration to follow soon.) Today at Blackfen, we have our English Mass in the morning at 10am and a Missa Cantata in the evening at 7.30pm. The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate are coming to sing for us.
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Snowy Candlemas

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When I visited Helsinki last March, there was a dump of several feet of snow overnight and the locals were worried that the highly efficient public transport system might be affected - the buses might be a minute or two late. On Sunday evening we had a snowfall of rather more modest proportions but notable by English standards. Hence today there are no buses, no trains into London from SE England, the schools are all closed and everything has ground to a shuddering halt. I'm hoping that tomorrow someone might realise that the roads need to be gritted. Nevertheless, the parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen were unfazed by all this. Some hardy souls turned out for the English Mass this morning and we had a full complement of servers for the Procession and Missa Cantata this evening.
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Missa Cantata for the Feast of the Precious Blood

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After the seminar for the publication of Dr Hemming's new book, Fr Ignatius Harrison, the Provost of the London Oratory, celebrated a Missa Cantata in the Little Oratory downstairs. The Oratory Choir sang as ever with consummate skill and we were all able to come before the Lord, asking Him to bring us into His presence. The Mass was for the feast of the Precious Blood. This was the feast day on which I was born. The feast was originally instituted by Blessed Pope Pius IX to the Friday after the 4th Sunday of Lent, then later to the first Sunday in July. (Was that Pius XI or Pius XII? I forget.) Fr Andrew Wadsworth preached an excellent sermon on the Precious Blood which has prompted me to take up Fr Faber's book on the subject and to preach on this theme in the parish this weekend. (I know that Fr Wadsworth's sermon has been published on the internet but have lost the link. If you can post it in the combox here, I will update the post.)
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Happy Thanksgiving!

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And thank God for the blogosphere since I now get reminded when Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a great feast of turkey and pumpkin pie. God bless your families and God bless America!
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Parish feast day

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Yesterday was the patronal feast day of our Parish. The Union of Catholic Mothers excelled themselves in decorating the Church with with floral displays and dressing the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary. Our principal Mass was sung in Latin, eastward-facing, with the usus antiquior "helping to inform" the celebration of the newer form. In the afternoon we had the Rosary, procession of the statue of Our Lady (with both the Lourdes and Fatima hymns), Litany of Loreto and Benediction. I preached on the various intentions that we should bring to Our Lady: those who have lapsed from the practice of the faith, our families, our young people: those who are called to the priesthood or the religious life and those who are called to marriage, and our own deepening of faith, and especially our preparation and thanksgiving for Holy Communion. I made the point that it is never a question of "either or"; either praying to Mary or to Jesus. Whenever we pray to our Lady, she bring...
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Corpus Christi Sunday on Saturday

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Following from Ascension Thursday Sunday, this weekend we have to celebrate Corpus Christi Sunday. I'm sorry but this does make me a bit grumpy. The party line is that if we celebrate this great feast on a Sunday, we can reach out to more people because they won't come if it is celebrated on a Thursday. Of course I am preaching this weekend about the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, about the proper dispositions for Holy Communion, and the importance of Eucharistic Adoration. But I do that quite often anyway. Corpus Christi offered us an additional opportunity to witness to this mystery. The only people who are really affected by the change are the practising Catholics who take the trouble to come to Mass on the Holydays. It is also annoying that we are consulted about all sorts of things but this decision was rushed through breathlessly as soon as the Catholic Herald announced that there would be some significant opposition to it. One consolation is the unintend...
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Oratory - a clarification

In the combox, it was suggested that the Votive Mass and procession at the Oratory for the feast of Corpus Christi was cancelled at the request of the Cardinal. This was not the case. All the decisions regarding arrangements for the liturgy for Corpus Christi were made by the Community. There was a Missa Cantata and Solemn Benediction in the Little Oratory.
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Adoremus in aeternum

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Today's feast is very dear to me. Frs Nesbitt and Holloway of the Faith Movement conveyed very effectively to us boys in the Faith Society at the John Fisher School the Church's teaching about the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and their own love for Christ in the Eucharist. This built on the firm foundation given to me by my parents who also gave great example in their love for the Mass and for the Blessed Sacrament. In God's providence, I ended up at Corpus Christi College in Oxford. With other Catholics, I used to reflect on the privilege of being able to celebrate what the College's name stood for. Here is the main quad of the College with its famous sundial surmounted by the Pelican: A friend of mine in those days, Peter, who was at Plater College (a Catholic College for mature students) gave me a statue of Pope Urban IV, hand-carved at Oberammergau. Pope Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. The Office for the feast was comp...
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Corpus Christi Masses

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As you know, the feast of Corpus Christi has been transferred to the following Sunday and so this Thursday is no longer a Holyday of Obligation in England and Wales but there are some opportunities to attend Mass for Corpus Christi on the traditional day - in the traditional Roman Rite London Oratory 8am Low Mass 6.30pm Missa Cantata in the Little Oratory. St Mary’s, Chislehurst 7.30pm Low Mass There are probably lots of other opportunities - do feel free to leave comments advertising old rite Corpus Christi Masses.
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More on the Ascension

Henry Dietrich posted on the moving of the feast of the Ascension back in 2003 and his post Ascension Sunday? is well worth reading.
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Ascension dissension

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At Blackfen this evening, we had a Low Mass in the Classical Roman Rite to celebrate the feast of the Ascension. (I'll also be celebrating the Novus Ordo on Sunday for the same feast.) For two young lads in my parish, this was their first chance to serve the Mass after lots of practice with me - they did a great job. They need a little more practice with the responses at the foot of the altar but they managed to get through them and serve the whole Mass with great reverence and enthusiasm. We had a good congregation of families and individuals from the parish, people from the Deanery Pastoral Council, and the Latin Mass Society. I reflected on the beauty of being able to celebrate the traditional Mass as something for the parish and the deanery together with those who have stuck to it through difficult times. The Curt Jester amusingly refers to today as the Feast of the Rant that today is not Ascension Thursday Joanna Bogle points up the disunity that has been brought about by th...
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Popular posts from this blog

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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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...
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Portiuncula indulgence tomorrow (and indulgences generally)

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Tomorrow, 2 August, you can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions ( see below ) by visiting a parish Church and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . This is called the Portiuncula indulgence and goes back to St Francis of Assisi. Fr Z has the details . Don't forget that you can also gain a plenary indulgence by visiting a Church on the day of the titular feast, and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . I made a list of other indulgences: please see the post Plenary indulgences for particular days which has a link to the list. The post has some background information which you may find helpful since indulgences are not well understood today - which is not surprising since indulgences are not included in most Catholic education curricula, and most priests never preach about them. Therefore many Catholics are left with whatever silly, half-baked, ill-informed nonsense about indulgences happens to be current. If you want to understand the theology...
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Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

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In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,...
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Blessing of the New Painting of St Bede at Clapham Park

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This morning, the parish priest at Clapham Park, Fr Marcus Holden, blessed a new picture of the parish's patron, Saint Bede, painted by James Tildsley. It is sited over a recently installed side altar near the rear of the Church. The altar itself was acquired from Antique Church Furnishings . The website gives the information that the altar was built and carved by a nun in a convent near Liverpool. It is a beautiful piece of work and it is always a joy when such works of art find a suitable and dignified home. The inscription on the gradine is AMANS AMATUS AMOR. The sellers translate this as “Loving is the object of love” which is a reasonable stab at “dynamic equivalence”. Today the parish's relic of St Bede was exposed for veneration in its distinctive brightly-coloured reliquary. After the blessing, there was High Mass with Fr Holden as celebrant, Fr Littleton deacon, and myself subdeacon. That gave me the enjoyable task of chant...
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