Ember Saturday after Pentecost

This morning I attended the traditional Mass for the Ember Saturday following Pentecost at Holy Rood here in Oxford. This had been sponsored by the Latin Mass Society.

The Mass was celebrated by Fr Daniel Lloyd from the Ordinariate who is now parish priest of Holy Rood, and it was good to be able to attend so ancient a part of the liturgy in a modern church and celebrated by a young priest.

The texts for the Mass can be read in translation from Deacon John Giglio's blog here.

Afterwards a group of us, including the Chairman of the Latin Mass Society and his family, went off for a convivial pub lunch together at the Head of the River by Folly Bridge.

Dr Shaw has subsequently posted on his website pictures of the Mass with comments about the celebration of the traditional Rite in a modern church - Holy Rood was built during the pontificate of Pope John XXIII. His post can be viewed  here

The sharp-eyed amongst my readers may spot amongst the photos the Clever Boy who is sporting a sling to support his right forearm. This problem, some rheumatic condition related to gout, is on the mend, though the sling is something of a handicap ( no pun intended, but unintentionally appropriate...)

Ember Saturday at Caversham

Last Saturday I went with a friend to the Mass for the Saturday in the Ember Week at the Catholic church in Caversham. This is the present shrine church for devotion to Our Lady of Caversham, a revived and restored place of pilgrimage, which appears to have originated as such soon after the Norman Conquest.

I went in 2013 to this liturgy and it was a pleasure to be able to do so again. On this occasion the celebrant of the High Mass was Fr Anthony Conlon, assisted by Fr Ian Verrier FSSP as Deacon and Rev. Keith Crocker as Sub-Deacon.

Dr Joe Shaw's LMS Chairman blog has an illustrated account of the Mass at Pilgrimage to Caversham

The journey to and from Caversham as well as the Mass itself and the opportunity to pray at the Shrine of Our Lady madce this a most enjoyable way to spend part of Saturday.

The previous Wednesday I had been able to attend the Ember Day Mass at SS Gregory and Augustine in north Oxford.

There are online articles about the Ember Days and their historyfrom Wikipedia at Ember days
and from the Catholic Encyclopedia at Ember Days - New Advent


Such quarterly days of prayer and fasting, one for each of the seasons, and originating in the harvests of the Mediterranean world seem an eminently laudable practice.  The loss from the modern calendar of such ancient custom, a casualty of liturgical change, seems pointless. One might well ask why they were not retained as seasonal fasting days of prayer, and why they should not br reintroduced, rather than left to the EF Missal and groups such as the Ordinariate.

Embertide Pilgrimage to Caversham

Earlier today I went on the Latin Mass Society's Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Caversham.  I am very fond of this beautiful shrine, and there is an article from the local historical journal Oxoniensia about its history in the middle ages by Christopher Haigh and David Loades which can be viewed here. 

 

Our Lady of Caversham
 

The present statue is late medieval Flemish, with a crown blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1996

Image: ourladyandstanne.org.uk

The present shrine chapel was added in 1958 in an extraordinarily skillful design to the church of Our Lady and St Anne, which itself dates from 1896. The new chapel really does feel as though it were twelfth century - although I imagine if it were it would have been more colourful with wall paintings in the style of the period. It is both splendid and restrained - noble simplicity perhaps? The screen in particular reminds me of the decoration of the King Edward I chantry in the Anglican Shrine at Walsingham. There is more about the church and shrine at the parish website which can be viewed here. If you get the chance to go to the shrine at Caversham do go, it is quite delightful.

 

The exterior of the Shrine chapel

Image:karenblakeman on Flickr

It was also my first opportunity to attend the Extraordinary Form Mass for this Ember Saturday. I had been asked to act as thurifer, so it was a fairly early start to get the bus with a friend from outside Christ Church and travel on a cold day with snow flakes blowing in the wind down to Caversham. We arrived in good time and were able to join a good number of parishioners in Eucharistic Adoration before setting up for the Mass.

This was a beautiful liturgy with its distinctive sequence of Old Testament prophetic readings, each of them sung by members of the schola in front of the altar. In his sermon the celebrant, Fr Daniel Lloyd, drew out the harvest imagery in respect of the tradition of holding ordinations at the Ember Days as a sign of the fruitfulness of the Church in producing vocations to ministry and the fruits of Grace. I must admit that my rheumatics were playing up rather as I genuflected (or attempted to) at the usual places as well as the repeated Flectamus genua during the prophecies - I must remember to dose myself more heavily with anti-inflamatories next time...

The music was provided by the Scholas Abelis from the Latin Mass Society and by the Newman Consort, and we concluded by singing the Ave Regina Caelorum at the Shrine. Afterwards there was the usual lighting of individual candles there and pilgrims seeking the intercession of Our Lady of Caversham as they have for centuries in the vicinity - the original shrine was in a chapel upwards of amile to the east. I think that the site has now been quarried away for gravel.

 

 

The Shrine Chapel

Image: ourladyandstanne.org.uk

I came back with the MC and the other friend I had travelled with by car, stopping in Wallingford for a late lunch, and made a mental note to myself to go back when the weather is less cold and explore further this very historic Thameside town - what I have seen of it on a previous visit makes me realise its interest. The site of what once was a very impressive castle, virtually all of it reduced to earthworks, and the similar remains of the town defences indicate how important it once was.

After that we came back to Oxford and went to join the Pro-Life Witness I posted about earlier in the week. Having now come back to the city centre I am starting this post before going off to the Ordinariate Mass to round off a cold but eminently Catholic day.

Update:
The Chairman of the Latin Mass Society has very kindly send me the link to his set of photographs of the Mass at Caversham - they can be viewed here  and if clicked upon will enlarge. I hesitate to point out that I feature in several of the photographs, but don't mind me, appreciate the liturgy.

The recent Ember Saturday Mass in Oxford

Unfortunately I was not able to attend, or indeed, serve the recent Ember Saturday Mass here in Oxford at the church of St Antony of Padua in Headington, but Dr Joseph Shaw, the LMS Chairman, has a good report on the day and the specific liturgy of the day, together with a fine set of photographs, on his blog LMS Chairman and it can all be seen at Ember Saturday Mass at St Anthony's.

I have selected one of his photographs which illustrates the spaciousness of the church. Despite its rather angular design St Antony's serves as a fine setting for the usus antiquior as it provides plenty of space for the participants in the sanctuary and there is nothing to draw the eye away from the action at and around the altar. It is therefore a good place for worshippers to experience the way the traditional form of Mass works.

Image: LMS Chairman

Rorate Mass this coming Saturday

Today is the first of the December Ember days in the traditional practice of the Church, with their three seasonal Masses. A Mass with a similar introit and the same Gospel as that for today, Rorate, can be offered as a votive on other days at this time of year, and is devoted to the expectancy of Our Lady. It is celebrated by candlelight as dawn breaks. There is a background post here about the tradition.

In recent years the offering of this Extraordinary Form Mass has become a regular feature of the Advent calendar of the Oxford Oratory, and this year the Rorate Mass will be celebrated there at 7am on Saturday this week, December 17th. So if you are around Oxford and want a good start before the next bout of Christmas shopping you know where to go.

* Revised in the light of the first comment received - many thanks to the friend who put me right in this matter.