First Blessing from a Norbertine priest

Yesterday the Oxford Oratory welcomed as its celebrant and preacher at the 11am High Mass for the feast of SS Peter and Paul Fr Stephen Morrison, O.Præm.from  the Norbertine Priory in Chelmsford.

Fr Stephen preached on the gift of Romanitas that we have received as part of our Catholic heritage, including suggesting carbon-neutral methods of Papal transport - i.e. restore the Sede gestatoria. 

After Mass, Fr Stephen gave first blessings to the congregation.

Fr Stephen was an undergraduate at Oriel College, where he read French and where I got to know him. in those years he was a regular attender at the Oratory. He joined the Norbertines when he finished in Oxford and was ordained priest last December on the feast of St Nicholas.

Images: Oxford Oratory

I was very disappointed last December not to be able to attend Fr Stephen's ordination, so it was a great pleasure not only to attend a Mass he celebrated but also to be able to receve one of his first blessings during his first year of priesthood.

Praise for the Norbertines - and others

Fr Blake has an illustrated account on his blog of what was clearly a very successful Passiontide retreat at his parish in Brighton. He is full of praise for the two Norbertines who conducted it - Fr Stephen Morrison and Br Gregory Davies. 

I commented on his post that they are young men I know well - Fr Stephen was at Oriel, and Br Gregory assists at the Oratory in Oxford in term time whilst he studies at Blackfriars. I would agree that they are excellent men, and good indicators of the vitality of their community in Chelmsford.

I also added the point that St Mary Magdalen's Brighton is a splendid parish - and a splendid church too I should add - and, most importantly, that it has an equally splendid parish priest in Fr Blake himself. 

His post can be seen at Hope.

My own visits to both Brighton and Chelmsford have indeed filled me with hope for the pastoral and liturgical life of the Church, and I pray that both communities continue to be blessed by such faithful ministry.

Norbertine Priest celebrates his first EF Mass

Earlier this month, on St Nicholas Day, December 6th, my friend and fellow Orielensis, Fr Stephen Morrison O.Praem. was ordained priest by the Bishop of Brentwood at the Premonstratensian parish of Our Lady Immaculate, which is served by the Order's Priory of St Philip in Chelmsford. Very unfortunately I was not, despite earlier hopes and plans to do so, able to attend on the day. Since then no photographs have appeared on the internet until I spotted a post from Mark Lambert of De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

This specifically refers to Fr Stephen's first celebration in the Extraordinary Form on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception two days after his Ordination. It has some excellent photographs of the liturgy and a general introduction to this lively and positive parish, and can be viewed at Father Stephen Morrison's First EF.