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.

A Norbertine Deacon

The other day a friend pointed out to me the report on Norbertine Vocations of the conferring of the diaconate on my friend and fellow Orielensis Br Stephen Morrison, who is at St Philip's Priory in Chelmsford. His ordination took place on Epiphany Sunday and the Bishop of East Anglia was the ordaining prelate. The illustrated report can be seen here.

I extend my prayers and good wishes to Br Stephen for his ministry, and to the whole Norbertine community at Chelmsford.

Solemn Profession in Chelmsford

Yesterday afternoon and evening I went over to Chelmsford for the Solemn Profession of Br Stephen Morrison as a Norbertine. This took place, very suitably, on the Feast of the founder of all Canons Regular, St Augustine of Hippo.

Br Stephen was a student at Oriel which is where I got to know him as well as meeting him at the Oxford Oratory - in those days he was still Alexander Morrison.

The parish church of Our Lady Immaculate was once again packed out with clergy, family, friends and parishioners - there is clearly plenty of support in the parish as well as from those who had travel to support these Norbertines at their profession or ordination. This was my third such viist in about a year and on each occasion the church has been full to the porch doors and beyond.

The well conducted liturgy was celebrated by the Prior of St Philip's Fr Hugh Allan - resplendent in white pom-pomed birtetta and white scull cap (clearly not something exclusive to the Holy Father) -  and he gave an extremely elegant sermon which balanced theology and the importance of the occasion and its solemn promises with a leaven of humour and what might be described as relevant digressions. He quoted what he had said to Br Stephen's parents three years ago at his Simple Profession - that they were not so much losing a son as gaining a monastery - and pointed out the presence last night of many parents of the members of the community.

Afterwards there was a reception in the parish hall - once again a splendid affair in its own right, which suggests the measure of support from the parishioners. It was an opportunity to congratulate Br Stephen and to catch up with many friends and acquaintances who were there. Essentially there were most of the usual suspects, of which I suppose I have now become one, plus others whom I had met over recent years. It was very good to catch up with Fr Andrew Southwell and Fr Bede Rowe - himself an Orielensis, and now chaplain of Br Stephen's old school in France -  as well as Fr Matthew Bemand of the Brentwood diocese, and once a sacristan at Pusey House. There were many former Oxford students there whom I know - Francis Murphy, David Howell, Michael Ryan, Richard Pickett, Patrick Milner, and Serennedd James - and Dr Shaw and his wife from the Latin Mass Society - Mrs Shaw had made the celebratory cake for the occasion

So much time was spent talking that I, with several others, ended up on the last train out of Chelmsford for London and, being late into Liverpool Street, ended up missing the last train from Paddington, so I had to travel by coach and was back even later than I had expected. Nonetheless it was a good occasion, and I was pleased to have been able to attend.

I commend the Norbertines of Chelmsford to the prayers of my readers and look forward to future visits.

There are pictures of the evening from the LMS Chairman's Blog at Solemn Profession in Chelmsford.

Chelmsford Norbertines

Laurence, "The Bones" England from Brighton, has a good post on his blog about the Norbertine community at St Philip's Priory in Chelmsford following on a visit he made there recently. It can be read at Norbertine Community in Chelmsford.

Having visited the Priory twice last year, and hoping to go again later on this summer, I heartily endorse what he writes about the community there - several of whom I knew as undergraduates in Oxford. St Philip's is an impressive outfit, with enthusiastic young men joining the Order and a vigorous parish life.

St Norbert

Today is the feast of St Norbert, founder of the Norbertines or Premonstratensian canons who died in 1134. There is an online account of his life here and another one here.

The reading at today's Office of Readings has been compiled using words given in quotation marks  taken from the biography of Saint Norbert, written by a Premonstratensian canon who was a contemporary of the saint. Pope Innocent II’s Apostolic Letter was issued under leaden bulla to Saint Norbert on June 5, 1133:

 

Norbert is deservedly numbered by historians among those who made an effective contribution to the reform movement under Pope Gregory VII. He established a clergy dedicated to the ideals of the Gospel and the apostolic Church. They were chaste and poor. They wore “the clothing and the symbols of the new man; that is to say, they wore the religious habit and exhibited the dignity proper to the priesthood.” Norbert asked them “to live according to the norms of the Scriptures with Christ as their model.” They were “to be clean in all matters pertaining to the altar and divine worship, to correct their faults and failings in their chapter meeting, and to care for and give shelter to the poor.”

  

The priests lived in community, where they continued the work of the apostles. Inspired by the practice of the early Church, Norbert exhorted the faithful to join the monastic life in some capacity. So many men and women responded to the invitation that many asserted that no man since the apostles themselves had inspired so many to embrace the monastic life.

 

When Norbert was appointed an archbishop [of Magdeburg in 1126], he urged his brothers to carry the faith to the lands of the Wends. In his own diocese he tried unsuccessfully to convince the clergy of the need for reform and was confronted with noisy protests both in the street and in the church.

 

One of the principal goals of Norbert’s life was to foster harmony between the Apostolic See and the German empire. At the same time he wanted to maintain Rome’s freedom in the matter of ecclesiastical appointments. Apparently his efforts were so successful that Pope Innocent II thanked him profusely in a letter in which he called him a “devoted son,” and Lothair made him chancellor of the realm.

 

Norbert did all these things with a steadfast faith: “Faith was the outstanding virtue of Norbert’s life, as charity had been the hallmark of Bernard of Clairvaux’s.” Affable and charming, amiable to one and all, “he was at ease in the company of the humble and the great alike.” Finally, he was a most eloquent preacher; after long meditation “he would preach the word of God, and with his fiery eloquence purged vices, refined virtues and filled souls of good will with the warmth of wisdom.” He spent many hours in contemplation of the divine mysteries and fearlessly spread the spiritual insights which were the fruit of his meditation.

Reading that it occurred to me that in not a few ways he can be said to resemble St Philip Neri in his methods of evangelization, and using communities of priests to minister to the faithful, although in medieval England the Premonstratensians teneded to settle in rural and often remote locations rather than as communities to work in the expanding towns of the twelfth century.

St Norbert, on the right, receives the rule for the life of canons from St Augustine of Hippo
From a manuscript of the Vita Sancti Norberti dated to 1140 now in Munich

Image: Wikipedia

I used to think of the Premonstratensians as being a matter for medievalists, not realising until recent years that they are very much alive and functioning as an Order, and I know several members of the thriving and successful community at St Philip's Priory in Chelmsford. On my two visits there last year for a profession and an Ordination I was impressed by what they are doing and offering to the Church.
I shall keep them especially in my prayers today.

Ordination in Chelmsford

Yesterday evening I went over to Chelmsford to attend the Ordination of a Norbertine friend from as a priest. I got to know him whilst he was a student here in Oxford. The service was held at the Church of Our Lady Immaculate, which is served by the Norbertine community from St Philip's Priory. Being a medievalist I always tend to refer to them by their other name as Premonstatenians, but that’s just me.

The Ordination was conducted by H.E.Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, and was attended by two mitred abbots, other Premonstratensians from England and Belgium and Australia, plus Oratorians, Dominicans, secular diocesan clergy and also nuns from the Ordinariate, and by many parishioners and friends of the candidate from Oxford - most of the usual suspects were there and some others - and from elsewhere, and, not least noteworthy, a uniformed Honour Guard armed with swords and their flag from a Fraternity to which he belonged whilst studying at the University of Louvain.

The Cardinal lays his hands on the candidate’s head in the Ordination rite

Image: Norbertine Vocations

A set of photographs of the Ordination on can be found on this Facebook page, and another set from his First Mass, which he celebrated this morning, can be seen on this Facebook page.