Celebrating Corpus Christi

Twice yesterday in Oxford I was able to attend celebrations according to the Extraordinary Form of the Feast of Corpus Christi on its traditional day.

At 12.15 I attended the Low Mass at the Oxford Oratory celebrated by the Provost Fr Daniel Seward. He was wearing a particularly fine golden chasuble, in a Roman cut but with orphreys bearing embroidered figures of saints in the  late medieval style. I do not think I have seen this vestment in use before at the Oratory - it is certainly a handsome addition to the collection.

The Mass attracted a reasonable number in the congrgation, with wide selectioon of ages, toddlers through to the elderly, although I think numbers were reduced by the fact of there being the evening Mass at SS Gregory and Augustine, which I was also due to attend.

After a session in the Oratory lodge and shop as a porter, a voluntary activity I always enjoy, I went with a friend for afternoon tea at a nearby restaurant - a civilised way of celebrating the feast we thought.

Thus replenished we got the bus up to SS Gregory and Augustine in north Oxford in good time for the 6pm Mass, to be celebrated by Fr John Saward, and at which I was due to serve.

This, it emerged was to be a Missa cantata, and indeed a Mass in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament Exposed. Much work had been in preparation, with the cghurch handsomely decorated with flowere in the style the church usually adopts - an emphasis on small scale, country flower arrangements. My eye was especially caught, as was no doubt it was intended to be, by the ears of wheat flanking the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament, and above it a crown of thones decorated with tiny red flowers. In front of the altar there was a carpet of flowers representing a host and chalice, and one which managed to survive surprisingly well the passage of the celebrant's feet.

There was a good congregation, making for well filled church, drawn from the parish and from wider afield, and fine music sung from the west gallery.

I was a torch bearer at the Mass and for the procession. The  weather was kind, and so,  unlike last year, we were able to process around part of the grounds of the church, with a station at an altarino set up in the baptistry at the west end.

Oriel was well represented with a member of the SCR as an acolyte, myself from the MCR as a torch bearer and a JCR member as thurifer - a fairly unusual coincidence I should think.

Afterwards there was a reception in the parish hall and an opportunity to catch up on news from friends, before agroup of us returned to the city centre for coffee and further refreshment and talk. All round a very good celebration of this feast day.

The parish website has some pictures of the Mass:

'Ecce Agnus Dei'

Rather unfortunately the Clever Boy is all too prominent on this other photograph, but ignore me and admire the carpet of flowers:

The carpet of flowers for Corpus Christi, and the newly painted Altar Frontal.

Image: SS Gregory and Augustine website

For more photos of the Mass and Procession click here.

There are three Extraordinary Form Masses this coming week at SS Gregory and Augustine: Wednesday June 5th and Friday June 7th at 6 p.m. as usual, and the First Thursday Votive of Our Lord Eternal High Priest at 12 noon on June 6th.  The latter, inspired by the teaching of Pope Pius XI, gives a monthly opportunity to pray for priests.

The following Sunday, June 9th, (this month the second rather than third Sunday) there will be a Sung Extraordinary Form Mass at 12 noon. 

New Year, new beginnings

This morning eleven sisters from the Anglican Community of St Mary the Virgin at Wantage were received into the Ordinariate at the Oxford Oratory by the Ordinary, Mgr. Newton, and, together with a Sister from Walsingham who was received earlier, will form the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Unfortunately, being away from Oxford, I was unable to attend the Mass, but here are two posts from the Oxford Oratory website about the morning's events, including the sermon by the Provost, Fr Daniel Seward Cong.Orat., and a series of photographs which can be seen at The Reception into full Communion with the Catholic Church of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary and at More pictures from the Reception of the Sisters .

Ordinariate Evensong

Here, thanks to the Ordinariate on line mailing, is a picture of Fr Daniel Seward Cong. Orat., the Provost of the Oxford Oratory,preaching at the  Solemn Evensong and Benediction in St James', Spanish Place on Sunday. The text of his excellent sermon can be read here.

Celebrating the Jubilee at the Oxford Oratory

Yesterday morning we held our celebration of the Diamond Jubilee at the Oxford Oratory.

The Mass setting was Mozart's Coronation Mass (composed, as I understand it, for the coronation of a statue of Our Lady and not for that of one of the Habsburgs), the offertory anthem was Parry's I Was Glad, composed for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and the organist played Walton's Crown Imperial from 1937 as the voluntary at the conclusion, following the Domine Salvam Fac Reginam - a new setting of the piece by Edward de Rivera, the Director of Music.

There was a really splendid sermon about the Queen and vocation given by the Provost, Fr Daniel Seward, and following the Mass we joined with St Giles church for a joint parish party in their hall across on the other side of Woodstock Road. It was a good occasion to celebrate the ties we all had in common. Over the quiche and sausage rolls, not to mention the meringues, I found myself talking to a French student I know here in Oxford about the relative claims and merits of King Henri VII and King Louis XX to tbe the occupant of the throne of France. Well, I would, would n't I?

There is a report and some pictures of the party as well as the text of Fr Daniel's sermon in the post Diamond Jubilee Celebrations from the Oratory website.