Commemorating Fr Faber

Today is the the 150th anniversary of the death of Fr F.W. Faber C.O. He was 49, and had been in poor health for some time before his death. Nonetheless he had established the London Oratory and been a prolific writer of devotional books as well as of hymns.

The New Liturgical Movement website has the text of a recent address by Fr Anthony Symondson SJ to mark the anniversary.  It can be read at A Tribute to Fr. Frederick William Faber.

Fr Faber as a young man
This is a rather different image than in the surviving photographs of him in his last years

 Image:nunraw.blogspot

The present Provost of the London Oratory, Fr Julian Large C.O., has also been writing about Fr Faber and the commemoation of his death. His excellent letter to the parishioners on the subject of his great predecessor can be read here. 

Given Fr Faber's devotion to St Wilfrid, which I have written about before in St Wilfrid and Fr Faber, it seems very appropriate that Oratorians from Oxford, the University where Faber was a student, should be about to take on the administration of the church of St Wilfrid in York, in the county where he was born.

The Rosary Crusade in London

I took time off from the Forty Hours at the Oxford Oratory to go up to London to participate in the Rosary Crusade this afternoon. I thought we were going to be in for rain as there was sharp shower just before the coach stopped but in fact the afternoon proved dry and sunny at times. I was anxious to go this year, having been unable to do so last year, to remember Fr Hugh Thwaites S.J., the founder of the Crusade who died at the age of 95 in the late summer. As it was also the 95th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun on this day in 1917 there was an additional cause for commemoration.

I had just arrived in Ambrosden Avenue beside Westminster Cathedral when I was greeted by a friend who is a seminarian at Allen Hall, and we kept company throughout the procession to Brompton. The numbers participating were again impressive, and we seemed as a procession to keep together in recitation of the Mysteries than on some previous occasions. At the appropriate points as we sang the Aves in various hymns most of us waved our hymn sheets in the approved Fatima fashion.

As usual on this occasion I was struck by the friendliness of Saturday afternoon shoppers as we passed by - when we are so often told there is such hostility to religion, here was renewed evidence of tolerance and, indeed, benevolence towards what we were doing.

At the Oratory itself those who had processed from Westminster and others who had awaited our arrival filled the church - as usual on these occasions I ended up standing in a side chapel. We had a forceful sermon from the Provost of the London Oratory, Fr Julian Large C.O., on the way in which Marian dogmas and devotion counteract heresy, and applying it to the observance of the Year of Faith. More so than in the past the devotions, including the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, spoke to me as an individual, making me all the more pleased to have made the effort to go. Benediction at the High Altar and the Salve Regina at the Lady Altar closed the devotions. A good way to spend the afternoon - next year's Crusade is scheduled for Saturday October 12th.

Afterwards I met up with two sisters, friends from their student days in Oxford, and their parents. We exchanged news and information about mutual friends before I set off back up Brompton Road and Park Lane to Marble Arch and the coach back to Oxford.

Rosary Crusade - October 13th

On October 13th there will be the annual Rosary Crusade of Reparation from Westminster Cathedral to the Brompton Oratory.

It is not only the feast of St Edward the Confessor, one of the patron saints of the cathedral, but it will also be the 95th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima in 1917, and the procession is always one escorting the image of Our Lady of Fatima. 

Image:Rosary Crusade blogspot

There are more pictures from last year here.

The procession starts from the cathedral at 1.45, proceeds at Brompton for devotions in the Oratory church and concludes with Benediction and enrollment in the Scapular.

This is always an impressive act of witness through the heart of west central London, and draws many pilgrims - why not join them  to begin the Year of Faith?

Processions of witness in London

Due to other commitments I cannot join in either of these two events, but I would urge anyone who can to do so on the next two Saturdays.

Saturday October 1st
There will be a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving for the State Visit last year of the Pope and for the beatification of Cardinal Newman starting from Westminster Cathedral at 1.15pm. The route will be crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge and the procession will conclude at St George's Cathedral in Southwark with Benediction at 2.30pm.

Saturday October 8th
The annual Rosary Crusade will depart from Westminster cathedral at, I assume, the usual time of 1.45pm and proceed to the Brompton Oratory escorting the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The procession will be led by Mgr. Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our lady of Walsingham. The devotions at the Oratory conclude with Benediction and enrollment with the Brown Scapular.

I am very sorry that I shall not be able to participate in either of these events - I really enjoy such processions, and they are a very striking and effective act of witness in the capital city.