Relic of the Holy Cross Pilgrimage

Earlier this evening I watched the livestream of the opening liturgy of the Latin Mass Society’s Jubilee Year Pilgrimage of the Relic of the Holy Cross. This was at the exquisitely restored shrine church of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane.

Following Stations of the Cross there was a Solemn Procession and Benediction of the Holy Cross, followed by individual veneration. The relic will then travel northwards and visit cities, towns, villages and traditional pilgrimage  sites through the year. This national pilgrimage is taking place as the Latin Mass Society celebrates its sixtieth anniversary. The principal intentions are for the good estate of the Catholic Church and for the conversion of England and Wales.

Details of the route and liturgies can be seen on the official website holycross2025.org

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...)

LMS Dominican Rite Pilgrimage in Oxford

Today was the Latin Mass Society's Oxford Pilgrimage in honour of the four martyrs of 1589 - the two priests Bl. George Nichols and Bl. Richard Yaxley, and the two laymen Bl. Thomas Belson and Bl. Humphrey Pritchard.

The well attended Mass was celebrated at Blackfriars according to the traditional Dominican Rite by Fr Oliver Keenan OP and the sermon was given by Fr Richard Conrad OP who also served as Deacon.

It was a great pleasure to meet up with my old friend, and indeed my sponsor when I was received as a Catholic in 2005, Br.Andrew from the Birmingham Oratory and some friends of his from the congregation there and to have lunch with them afterwards. I was then able to help Andrew show them around Oxford, concentrating especially on the life here of Bl. John Henry Newman. Being an Oriel man I was fortunately able to show them more of the college than they might otherwise have seen and to talk about Newman where he once lived.

Br. Andrew once paid me the compliment - the great compliment - in  saying he thought I was like Newman in my pursuit of truth, indeed Truth, and which I found a very moving observation.

It was also a pleasure to see Fr Hunwicke and talk to him briefly after the Mass. Although we live in the same city our paths cross far too infrequently.

Another Pilgrimage to Holywell

Yesterday I went again on the annual LMS pilgrimage to Holywell. This was my third such pilgrimage, having done so in 2012, and about which I posted in Pilgrimage to Holywell and in Pictures of the Holywell Pilgrimage, and last year, which I wrote about in A Pilgrimage to Holywell.

I travelled up with a friend who drove us, his Mini filled for much of the journey with the sound of Gregorian chant from his CD player.

We arrived in a heavy rain storm, with part of the Irish Sea being dumped upon us as we climbed up by ourselves from the car park to the church - but, well, when it comes to stereotypical images what better represents Wales on a Sunday afternoon - a viewpoint which is, I know from past experience of holidays in the Principality, grossly unfair.

The celebrant at the High Mass in the very handsome and beautifully cared for parish church was Fr Richard Bailey Cong.Orat. from Manchester. I was particularly struck by the beauty of the liturgy and the calm efficiency with which it was performed.

Following the Mass there was the usual procession saying the rosary down to the eponymous Holy Well of St Winefride itself. This lies at the bottom of the hill on which the church and town centre stands. It is a quite remarkable place, set in the complex and exquisite well chamber built about 1500. It is striking to think that the site has been a place of pilgrimage since, apparently, the seventh century. Amongst famous pilgrims of the past there was, almost exactly six centuries ago in 1415 King Henry V on the eve of the Agincourt campaign.

We stood around the Well, recited the litany of St Winefride, venerated the relic of her, lit candles, and I dipped my rosary in the pool.

There was, inevitably, a trip to the sizeable Shrine shop to buy cards and medals for oneself and for friends in my prayers

For our return - and now the weather was warm and sunny - we had Mozart's Vespers on the CD player, though I felt we should be in a great Austrian Baroque church rather than my friend's mini to get the full effect.

We cam back through Hope (nice looking late medieval church tower), the edge of Wrexham, with a distant view of the great tower of the church there, round the edge of Oswestry with its memories of the death of St Oswald and the edge of Shrewsbury, with its signs to the Battlefield Enterpise Park, recalling the battle of 1403.

The traffic was snarling up, so we re-routed and ate fish and chips, washed down with a mug of Yorkshire tea from a Harry Ramsden's at a service station - very ethnic cuisine.

A splendid and holy day out, and a spiritual and physical tonic.

Forthcoming EF Masses in the Oxford area

I have received information from the Chairman of The Latin Mass Society about celebrations in the Traditional rite in the Oxford area.

In addition to these celebrations I would add that there are regular 8am Masses on Sunday at the Oxford Oratory, and at 6pm on Wednesdays and Fridays and also at 12.30 on first Thursdays at SS Gregory and Augustine.

The clergy of FSSP at St William of York in Reading offer a full pattern of services with a Sung High Mass every Sunday at 11am.

Our Lady of Caversham

Image:ourladyandstanne.org.uk

The main additional event coming up for the LMS is their annual Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham, coinciding with the Ember Saturday of Lent, 28th February, at 11:30am. This impressive Mass with extra readings and chants is an ideal liturgical preparation for Lent and Easter. It will be accompanied by the Schola Abelis of Oxford with polyphony provided by Cantus Mangus of London. Caversham is in the outskirts of Reading, and is the Marian Shrine of the Birmingham Archdiocese. it is at 2 South View Avenue, Caversham, RG4 5AB. The LMS encourages peopel to support this event if you can. As i have opined before the Shrine is delightful and a wonderful example of restablishing devotion in aplace celebrate din the medieval period as a place of pilgrimage.

 The Shrine of Our Lady of Caversham

Image:ourladyandstanne.org.uk

This Sunday there is a Missa Cantata in SS Gregory and Augustine's in Oxford at 12 noon. This is part of their regular pattern of an EF Mass at noon on the third Sunday of each month.

On Ash Wednesday there will be Low Mass with ashes at 12.15pm at the Oxford Oratory and a Sung Mass with distribution of ashes in SS Gregory and Augustine's at 6pm.

There will be a Sung High Mass for the Annunciation at the Oxford Oratory on March 25th at 6pm.

Sunday Masses at the church of Holy Trinity, Hethe, near Bicester, continue at 12 noon; that on the 2nd Sunday of each month is Sung. Hethe also now has Low Masses at 12 noon on Saturdays in the church.

Holy Trinity, Hethe

Image:Wikimedia/Geograph

There is also another new venue for the Extraordinary Form at Holy Rood, in Abingdon Road, Oxford. Throughout Lent there will be Low Mass on Fridays at 12:30pm. This has been organised in conjunction with the Ordinariate who use this church.  The address is Folly Bridge, Oxford, OX1 4LD. 

For those who love and appreciate the usus antiquior there is somethimg of an embarassment of riches in this area, unlike some parts of the country, or indeed the world.

A Pilgrimage to Holywell

Yesterday I went with a friend to the Latin Mass Society's annual Pilgrimage to Holywell in North Wales. The two of us made the same excursion in 2012, as I recounted in Pilgrimage to Holywell and there are links to pictures of that occasion in Pictures of the Holywell Pilgrimage. I have also written about the shrine in my post St Winefride from 2010.

The journey to and from Holywell necessitated a twelve hours round trip, with a lot of driving for my friend, but leabving Oxford at about 9.30 in the morning we managed very well. We looped round and through Chester before getting over the river Dee and onto the road into North Wales - the landscape of the Dee estuary is now very much a casualty of refining and related industries, and the roads misled us at one point so we had to backtrack to get on back the right road. Nonetheless we got to Holywell in decent time for the Mass which was celebrated at 2.30 in the nineteenth century Catholic parish church. Outside it is a somewhat austere and awkward looking building, but the interior is handsome and well furnished and decorated. There is an account of the church here, and of Fr Beauclerk (a descendent of King Charles II), the parish priest who in the 1890s particularly developed the pilgrimage tradition at Holywell, here. There is an online account of the focus of the pilgrimage, St Winefride's Well here.

The Mass was celebrated by the Abbot of Belmont, the Rt. Rev. Paul Stonham OSB. He entered the church in rochet and mantelleta, and was vested at the faldstool, and similarly divested, after the celebration. In his sermon he drew attention to that fact that in aland of so many saints, St Winefride was unusual amongst Welsh saints in having sucha widespread devotion, far beyond the Principality.

Following the Mass there was a Rosary procession along the old route down to the well. This path goes to the historic parish church and then to the well house which lies to one side and further down the slope.  The Abbot led us , bearing a relic of St Winefride - one of the few to survive the destruction of her shrine at Shrewsbury abbey at the dissolution, and we were able to venerate it individually in the well chamber:

The procession turns down to New Road, the eighteenth or nineteenth century by-pass:

Here it can be seen approaching the well:

Pilgrims gather outside the Well and its chapel:

Once again I was struck by the exquisite delicacy of the design of the Well house, dating to round about 1500. It is renminiscent of structures like King Henry VII's chapel at Westminster in its uses of angles, and relate to other structures of the period in north-east Wales, such as the churches at Wrexham and Gresford.
 This was followed by Benediction back in the church, although many of us did not get back to that final part of the devotions.

Images; lmschairman.org

There are more photographs of the pilgrimage in an album on Flickr here.

Whilst at the Well I dipped my new rosary in the pool to take something of this holy place with me. Holywell has been a place of pilgrimage for over a thousand years, if not in fact since the mid-seventh century and the times of St Winefride and her uncle St Beuno.

Before we left we looked in the old parish church of St James, which adjoins the Well chapel. Apard from its plain late-medieval tower from the outside it appears a rather dour eighteenth century building, but onc einsdie we found it has a fine interior, with very handsome collanaded galleries  from when the town was a growing industrial town with metalworking industries. This was an extra treat for us, as well as looking at the outside of the upper part of the Well chapel, now in the care of Cadw.

Our return journey took us back round the outskirts of Chester and then across Shropshire. This is not a county I know well, and I was intriguesd to skirt the edge of Newport. That was because I have Oxgord friend s who come from it, and from their description of the town some of us are incline dto wonder if it really exists. I can now say I have seen the sign posts, but not yet been into it. Does it really exist - or is it apolite fantasy? The question remains. We also passed the signs for  Lilleshall abbey and Boscobel,of Royal Oak fame, and I had aglimpse of the splendid medieval church at Tong, which I have visited many years ago, just before we joined the M56. using that and other motorwatys we were back in Oxford for supper.

I am very grateful to my friend for taking me to Holywell again, and for providing such an excellent day out. I would urge anyone intersted to go to Holywell - a rare and precious survival, a living link to the past, a living place of pilgrimage today.

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.

St Augustine Sodality

A friend has drawn my attention to this new initiative from the Latin Mass Society, which I shall sign up to - I am copying the LMS website piece about it:

THE LMS SODALITY OF ST AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

"...pro se orare necessitas cogit, pro altero autem, caritas fraternitatis hortatur. Dulcior autem ante Deum est oratio, non quam necessitas transmittit, sed quam caritas fraternitatis commendat."
"Necessity makes us pray for ourselves, fraternal charity urges us to pray for others. But sweeter before God is prayer which is not sent from necessity, but commended by fraternal charity."
Summa Theologica II, Q88 a.7 c. (St Thomas Aquinas)

Introduction
The purpose of the Sodality is to unite the prayers of members for the conversion of those dear to them. There can be few Catholics today who do not have family members or close friends who have either lapsed from the practice of the Faith, or never had it; it is a particular source of grief when parents see children and grandchildren living without the support of the Sacraments. We take heart from the example of St Augustine, converted at last by the prayers and tears of his mother St Monica, and wish to demonstrate our fellowship with others in the same position, by praying not only for our own dear ones, but for those of others who will do the same for ours.
Duties of Sodality Members
Sodality members undertake to say every day the prayer Pro devotis amicis, taken from the Roman Missal, for the Sodality’s intention; members who are priests undertake to say one Mass a month for this intention. The intention is the conversion or return to the Faith of family and friends of Sodality members. The intended beneficiaries of our prayers are not listed, except in the hearts of Sodality members. The Latin Mass Society, to which the Sodality is affiliated, will arrange and announce in advance at least one public, Traditional Sung (or Solemn) Mass for the Sodality’s intentions a year. Please note that the undertaking, by members, to pray for the conversion of others does not bind under pain of sin.

 

Additional ways in which Sodality Members can help the Apostolate
Sodality members, both lay and clerical, may add other Masses, prayers, and devotions, for the Sodality’s intention, and are encouraged to do so. In particular, members will be asked annually if they wish to make a contribution to the costs of the Sodality’s public Mass or Masses, and whether they would like to make a Mass offering for an additional Mass or Masses to be said for the Sodality’s intention, which the Latin Mass Society will arrange, to be celebrated according to the Extraordinary Form. (The customary Mass Offering is £10.)
You can make an offering towards an annual Mass or towards an additional Mass at the bottom of this page.
Joining the Sodality
Membership of the Sodality is free and open to all; members sign up by email. Please provide your name, address, email address, and phone number. (It would help us if you would inform us of any
change in your contact details so that we can continue to inform you about Masses offered for the intentions of the Sodality.)

The Sodality Prayer
Pro devotis amicis (which may be said in Latin or any other language):

Deus, qui caritátis dona per grátiam Sancti Spíritus tuórum fidélium córdibus infudísti : da fámulis et famulábus tuis, pro quibus tuam deprecámur cleméntiam, salútem mentis et córporis ; ut te tota virtúte díligant, et quæ tibi plácita sunt, tota dilectióne perfíciant. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte eiúsdem Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia saecula sæculórum. Amen.

O God, who, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, hast poured the gifts of charity in the hearts of thy faithful, grant to thy servants and handmaids, for whom we entreat thy mercy, health of mind and body; that they may love thee with all their strength and, by perfect love, may do what is pleasing to thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Masses for the intention of the Sodality should include, when possible, the Commemoration ‘Pro Devotis Amicis’ (Collect, Secret and Postcommunion) found in the Roman Missal. Adding such a Commemoration is possible in the 1962 Missal on Fourth Class Feasts at Low Mass, where no more than one Commemoration is demanded by the Ordo.

Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Oxford - October 20th

The annual Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Oxford will take place on Saturday October 20th.

The Solemn Mass will, as last year, be offered in the traditional Dominican Rite  at Blackfriars at 11. This is a particularly beautiful form of the Mass, and close to the Use of Sarum in its structure and ceremonial.

The Kyrie and Gloria at last year's Pilgrimage Mass
Image: Dominican Liturgy blogspot

 

There are more pictures from last year's Mass here. 

 

After lunch there will be the usual procession commemorating the Catholic Martyrs of Oxford at 2 and there will be Benediction at 3.

Bishop Rifan celebrates Mass at Southwark cathedral

On Saturday I went up to London to attend the Pontifical Mass celebrated by Bishop Rifan in St George's Cathedral Southwark for the Latin Mass Society's AGM.

This was my first visit inside the cathedral, which is more impressive inside than it is outside - very unfortunately the upper stages of the tower and the spire designed by Pugin were never built - a project for the future perhaps? In recent years we have witnessed the construction of the central tower of St Edmundsbury cathedral and, in Australia, the completion of the spires on the western towers of the Catholic cathedral in Sydney, not to mention Sagrada familia in Barcelona.

Inside the design of the cathedral appears strongly influenced by the choir of York Minster - designed in the late fourteenth century - and the interior of the cathedral has a grandeur worthy of its status.

I managed to meet up by chance with an old friend who once lived in Oxford and sat with him and another aquaintance for the Mass.


 

Bishop Rifan enters the cathedral in procession

Image: LMS Chairman's Blog

There are more photographs taken by Dr Shaw, the Chairman of the LMS, on his post LMS AGM 2012.

After Mass I went off to meet another friend and we had an enjoyable time exploring parts of the South Bank, having lunch and then walking across the Millenium Bridge to the area round St Pauls, before making our way westwards, and, in my case, back to Oxford. Given a summer Saturday in London one thing struck me - I am glad I shall not be there when the Olympics are on, as the city is already crowded to near bursting.

Pictures of the Holywell Pilgrimage

There are some pictures of the Latin Mass Society's Holywell Pilgrimage, about which I posted recently, on the LMS Chairman's blog at the following two posts Bishop Rifan in Holywell and Bishop Rifan in Holywell: more pictures.

Pilgrimage to Holywell

Yesterday I travelled with my friend David Forster to attend the Latin Mass Society's Pilgrimage to St Winefride's Well at Holywell in Flintshire.

Last time I visited Holywell it was as child  in 1958, when the reigning Sovereign Pontiff was Pope Pius XII, and all I have as memory of that occasion is of standing by the well in what seemed a somewhat dank chamber. Other than that I know the shrine from photographs and by its historical significance as the one continuous place of pilgrinmage to survive from before the reformation, and as a remarkable piece of late medieval architecture.

There is an introduction to the history of the shrine here  and there is both pilgrimage information and more pictures from the Shrine's own website here.

Thomas Charles-Edwards life of St Winefride from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography can be read here.

Pilgrims over the centuries have included King Henry V, King Edward IV, Fr Garnett and the wive sof the Gunpowder Plotters and King James II and Queen Mary Beatrice. An early nineteenth century visitor, if not actually apilgrim, was the future Queen Victoria. The beautiful shrine chapel and well chamber dates from the years afrter 1500 and is ascribed to either, or both, Lady Margaret Beaufort, who had estates in the area, and to Abbot Thomas Pennant of Basingwerk abbey, which controlled the shrine, and was a Cistercian house just below the shrine on the coast.

   

The shrine chapel and well with the ancient parish church above and to the left.
The buildings to the left and on the right of the foreground are nineteenth century

Image: holywell-town.gov.uk

St Winefride's Well and the vaulted chamber

Image : Wikipedia




The Holy Well, looking towards the outer pool

Image:northwales today.com

A pilgim bathes her feet in the pool in front of the well

Image: andybullmultimedia.webs.com

We made good speed on the journey and had plenty of time before the Pilgrinage Mass to visit the Well, light candles, look at the excellent Shrine information display and at the shop befre walking up the hill to the nineteenth century Catholic church to begin our formal devotions. The celebrant at the Mass was Bishop Rifan from Campos in Brazil, and the Mass itself was that of the Precious Blood.

There was a large congregation which filled the church - devotion to St Winefride is clearly still strong in the area and region - and there were several familiar faces from Oxford amongst the schola.

The Catholic church in Holywell where the Pilgrimage Mass was celebrated

Image: maggieclitheroe-dontknowwhatimdoing.blogspot .com

After the Mass we formed up as a Rosary procession to walk dowm to the Shrine for the hymn and prayers to St Winefride, to venerate her surviving relic - part of a finger bone -and to be blessed by it, and to be individually greeted by Bishop Rifan.

The Relic of St Winefride in its silver monstrance.

Image:stwinefridewell.com

I am very grateful to David for suggesting our Pilgrimage, and for driving us both there and back safely. I think we both hope to return to this really quite remarkable place. If you have not visited, or still better, been as a pilgrim to Holywell, may I urge you to do so.

May St Winefride continue to pray for us.

Doing Extraordinary things

I have attended two Extraordinary Form Masses in the last couple of days.

Last night the Oxford Oratory celebrated the feast of the English Martyrs with a Solemn High Mass according to the Missal of Bl. John XXIII. This was, as one would expect of the Oratory, a beautiful liturgy and well attended - considerably more people were present than the usual, good, congregation we are used to seeing on a weekday evening. In recent years this feast has become one on which it is normal for the Mass to be offered in this form at the Oratory - I assume on the basis that this was the Mass the Martyrs and their fellow Catholics knew at the time. This serves as an example of how the two strands in the Roman liturgy can be offered in a parish and appreciated by the people of God.

This afternoon I was asked to help serve at the Latin Mass Society's Pilgrimage Mass at Greyfriars in Oxford. The Pilgrimage was one on foot to Littlemore where they were to end the afternoon with Vespers and Benediction in Newman's chapel at the College.

The feast in the EF calendar was, very fittingly, that of St Pius V, about whom the celebrant, Fr Simon Leworthy FSSP spoke in his homily, and in which he drew attention to the obligations laid on all the succcessors to St Peter to defend the Church, and of our need and obligation as Catholics to pray for the Pope.

I was thurifer and think I managed to produce a fairly decent serving of smoke at the right times. The Scola Abellis provided the music for the Mass. The church at Greyfriars is, as I have observed previously, a handsome building which provides a fine setting for the liturgy, and it is always a pleasure to serve there.

LMS Conference - June 9th

I have been asked to publish details about the conference the Latin Mass Society will be holding on

The Traditional Mass and the Catholic Life

on

Saturday, 9 June 2012


Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ
(opposite BHS, less than 5 minutes' walk from Oxford Circus)

This is the first time that the LMS has organised such a one-day conference, and there are some excellent speakers lined up. Designed principally for ordinary LMS members, non-members are very welcome to join them in attending. 

Timetable for the day:
9am Low Mass at St James, Spanish Place.

10am Doors open - Registration until 11am. Stalls in the Conference Hall will be available to browse around


11am - 11.50am Dr John Rao (Roman Forum)
12 noon - 12.50pm  Stuart McCullough (Good Counsel Network)

Lunch

2pm - 2.50pm  Fr John Zuhlsdorf (Fr Z)
3pm - 3.50pm  Fr Tim Finigan (columnist and blogger)
4pm - 4.50pm  John Hunwicke (of the Ordinariate)

5pm - 6pm Panel discussion
6pm Close


BOOKING INFORMATION:
Admission is by ticket only.
Ticket prices:
LMS Members £15
Non-LMS Members £20
(includes morning and afternoon refreshments)
Optional: Buffet lunch, including drinks, £9 supplement


Tickets may be purchased by phoning the LMS office on 020 7404 7284, by sending a cheque (payable to 'LMS') to LMS, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH or online through the Latin Mass Society website.

Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage to Oxford on October 22nd

A fortnight today, on Saturday October 22nd, the Latin Mass Society will hold its annual Pilgrimage to Oxford.

The Mass will be celebrated at 11 am in the church of Blackfriars on St Giles, and we are promised the traditional Dominican Rite. This is a very welcome reassertion of rites and rights.

Lunch will be available in the local hostelries or through the numerous sandwich shops which adorn central Oxford.

At 2 pm there will be the procession with the rosary from the site of the Bocardo prison by the tower of St Michael at the Northgate to the site of the gallows at the far end of Holywell Street where the Oxford Martyrs of 1589 suffered, and are commemorated by a modern plaque, dedicated in 2008. The Pilgrimage is usually marked by the erection of a reconstruction of the gallows at this point to concentrate thoughts.

The Pilgrimage will conclude with Benediction in Blackfriars at 3 pm.

The blessing of the memorial plaque at Holywell by Bishop William Kenney on the 2008 LMS Pilgrimage.
A number of the usual suspects were there...

Image: Joe Shaw on Flickr

LMS Pilgrimage to York

Following on from my previous post with its reference to the recusant heritage of York and the recent Latin mass Society Pilgrimage there, which I commented on last month in Mass in York Minster there are two illustrated accounts of the Pilgrimage on the LMS Chairman's blog and they can be seen here and here. The pictures include not only the Mass itself but also the visit to the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in The Shambles.

Friends who were there commented on the beauty of the celebration in the Minster and how enjoyable the whole weekend had been.

Oxford LMS Pilgrimage

I have received the following from the Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, who is also the Oxford representative, Dr Joe Shaw:

Just a reminder about this Saturday, our annual local pilgrimage.

Mass will be at 11am (not 11.30 as has found its way into some places), in Blackfriars (in St Giles).

It will be a Solemn Mass in the presence of Archbishop Longley, accompanied with polyphony by the Schola Abelis.

There will be a procession from Carfax at the centre of Oxford starting at 2pm, led by the Archbishop. It will go to Oxford Castle where he will bless a plaque in honour of Bl George Napier, a priest who was executed in 1610. (The plaque is being installed this afternoon.)

The procession will return to Blackfriars, and the proceedings will conclude with Benediction, at 3pm or later (depending on how long the procession takes).

Please make your best effort to join us!

Masses in the Extraordinary Form in Oxford and the West Midlands

There will, according to the Oxford LMS blog, be Masses in the Extraordinary Form in the period from October to December in the Oxford area as follows:

Every Sunday
8am (Low Mass) Oxford Oratory

Every Wednesday
6pm (Low Mass) SS Gregory & Augustine

Every Thursday
9am (Low Mass) St Anthony of Padua

Every Saturday
9.30am (Low Mass) St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames

Every First Friday
6pm (usually Sung) SS Gregory & Augustine

Mass times given below are now complete and confirmed.

Friday October 1st, 6pm Low Mass: SS Gregory & Augustine (First Friday)

Thursday October 7th, 6pm Low Mass: SS Gregory & Augustine (First Thursday)

Friday October 22nd, 6pm: Solemn Mass, Oxford Oratory

Opening Mass of 40 Hours Devotion

Oxford Pilgrimage, Saturday October 23rd
Solemn Mass in the presence of His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham
11.30am Blackfriars
2pm Procession from Cornmarket to the site of the execution of Bl George Napier at Oxford Castle, where Archbishop Longley will bless a plaque
3pm: Benediction, Blackfriars

Saturday October 30th, 4pm (note unusual time): Sung Requiem,
St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames

Monday November 1st, All Saints: 12.15pm Low Mass Oxford Oratory

Tuesday November 2nd, All Souls
12.15pm Low Mass Oxford Oratory
6pm Sung Mass SS Gregory & Augustine

Thursday November 4th, 6pm Low Mass (First Thursday): SS Gregory & Augustine

Friday November 5th, Solemn Requiem, Oxford Oratory
Feast of the Holy Relics: 6pm Low Mass SS Gregory & Augustine

Saturday November 13th, 11.30, Sung Mass: St Didacus
Church of St Anthony of Padua, Headington

Saturday November 20th, 11.30am, Sung Mass, St Felix of Valois
Chapel of Mapledurham House, near Reading, RG4 7TR

Thursday December 2nd, 6pm Low Mass (First Thursday): SS Gregory & Augustine

Friday December 3rd, 6pm Low Mass SS Gregory & Augustine (First Friday)

Saturday December 4th, 11.30am Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Milton Manor House, near Abingdon, OX 14 4EN

Milton Manor was the last home of Bishop Challoner, who died there, and the house has a fine chapel in the Gothick style.

Masses in the West Midlands from November to January are listed on Matthew Doyle's Birmingham LMS blog here.