The Consecration of Westminster Cathedral

Today is the Feast of The Precious Blood, which is one of the patronal feasts of Westminster Cathedral and to mark the day Gregory DiPippo at New Liturgical Movement has a fine post about  The Consecration of Westminster Cathedral which comes from The Tablet in July 1910- it is perhaps a bit different in tone from what we would expect from the Bitter Pill these days.

Oratory Pilgrimage to Westminster Abbey

Yesterday I joined a group from the Oxford Oratory on a pilgrimage to Westminster Abbey. There we had the privilege of celebrating Mass at the tomb of St Edward the Confessor. Fr Daniel, the Provost was celebrant, and it was a remarkable experience kneeling surrounded by so many English monarchs - English Catholic monarchs - at the shrine of St Edward and so close to the site of the coronation ceremonies

I can be seen here centre right- when I knelt down I was at the side of the tomb of King Richard II who died in my home town at the castle and whose story influenced my choice of later medieval history as a particular academic interest. There were certainly souls to call to mind to pray for.

 

Having seen the thre-part series on the life of the abbey on television the other year and the work of the Dean to present the complex to the public I was interested to see how much the interior has improved in terms of access and visibility from previous visits twent odd years ago. Although the abbey was very busy the crowds flowed rather than stagnated and you were not sent round in on elong column the visitor has time to look and reflect on the vast number of things to see and appreciate. You get much more out of your visit I think than you used to and the whole building looks cleaner and better  kept - it did not necessarily do so in the late 1980s and early 1990s. If you have not been for awhile do go and look, and even if you do know the abbey well, go and look again - it is a constant revelation of past art and achievements.

We lunched in the excellent new restaurant anmd after time to look around the cloisters and Chapter House - again more accessible than previously - and, dodging a cloudburst, rejoined our coach in Broad Sanctuary. 

In the afternoon we went to Westminster Cathedral, where we were able to process through the Holy Jubilee Door of Mercy. If the calligraphy looks familiar, it is because, like our own Holy Door, it has been painted by Mrs Freddie Quartley, who is an Oratory parishioner:

Images: Oxford Oratory website

We concluded the afternoon by saying Vespers in the cathedral Lady Chapel.

This was a splendid day out both as apilgrimage and as an opportunity to see Westminster Abbey - there is so much of our national history there that it can at times almost overwhelm, yet still remains surprisingly intimate.

An evening in London

Yesterday afternoon I went up to London and arrived there in good time for my dinner engagement. This gave me the opportunity to call in at Westminster Cathedral so as to be able to renew in a Catholic church my baptismal promises on the anniversary of my christening. This I did just before the cathedral closed.

I then walked through the modern development opposite the cathedral piazza and came out on Buckingham Palace Road. After looking at the rather appealing items on sale in the window of the Buckingham Palace Shop I walked past the palace and into The Mall, and past Clarence House round and across Friary Court and past the Queen's Chapel into Pall Mall. There is still, despite the armed police at the Palace gates, something very relaxed and informal about the setting of these royal residences. At the same time they emanate a sense of continuity and stability far removed from the bustling comings and goings of politicians at Westmisnter and Downing Street. These are historic places, but the history is living.

My destination was the Oxford and Cambridge Club where I met up with a friend for dinner. This was, as I expected it to be, an eminently agreeable occasion, catching up on one another's news and having good food and wine. The O&C has very fine rooms, and is beautifully maintained and clearly popular. Inevitably we ran into another acquaintance from Oxford, before setting off homewards, arriving back in Oxford at 2.10 am, with the prospect of a meeting at 10am - which I made.



 

Diaconal Ordination at Westminster Cathedral

Today I travelled with a friend, who is the Rector of the Brothers of the Oxford Oratory, to attend the diaconal ordination at Westminster Cathedral of a young man who used to attend our meetings when he was studying in Oxford at Blackfriars.

This necessitated an early start, and delays with the traffic, taking us on a long detour from Hillingdon to Hammersmith and back to Shepherds Bush, meant we arrived in the cathedral during the Gloria.

Our friend Kevin Athaide was ordained alongside Cyril Chiaha and David Lucuy, who are from the diocese of Westminster and studying with him at Allen Hall. In the current vacancy of the see of Nottingham, which is his sponsoring diocese, Kevin's ordination was conducted along with theirs by Bishop John Arnold as an auxiliary bishop of Westminster.vi

As befitted the occasion and setting this was a dignified liturgy, and it conveyed - as it should of course - a sense of the Church as a whole doing something significant in ordaining these three men.

Afterwards we were able to congratulate Kevin, and catch up on news as well as to see Fr Richard Duffield C.O.from York. We talked with him about developments there at St Wilfrid's, all of which sounded very promising.

Afterwards the two of us from Oxford went up to visit the exhibition of Cathedral Treasures in the lower part of the tower. After some comic difficulties negotiating the turnstile, we got in to see firstly the display about the building of the cathedral, and to look at the original model for the building. One thing I discovered was that the architect, J.F.Bentley, came from my father's home town of Doncaster.

The collection of treasures is very well worth seeing, and includes relics, altarplate and vestments. Here are some pictures of the display from the cathedral website:

The mitre was worn by Cardinal Wiseman at the dedication of St George's Southwark, and is a Pugin design.
The enormous monstrance was given by a nun as a thanksgiving for her accetance into her Community.

Image: westminstercathedral.org

Also on display is the amethyst encrusted cope morse traditionally worn for their enthronements by the Archbishops of Westminster, including the present one.

The Archiepiscopal morse

Image: heraldsgospelsinengland.blogspot

In another case was Cardinal Hume's Order of Merit, and relics of  St John Southworth, and a display about the survival of the relic of his body, which is enshrined in the cathedral.

The cathedral website has details about the exhibition which may be read here.

Before we left the cathedral precints we had a good look around the St Pauls Bookshop and that of the Catholic Truth Society in the piazza outside. 

An enjoyable day, and a significant one for the three deacons, whom I invite readers to join me in keeping them in our prayers.

Archiepiscopal Enthronements on archive film

The New Liturgical Movement has a post today about the availability on YouTube of two British Pathé newsreels of the enthronements of Dr John Carmel Heenan as Archbishop of Westminster in 1963 and of Archbishop Bernard Griffin in 1944. The post, and the videos, can be viewed at On film: the enthronements of two Archbishops of Westminster from 1944 & 1963.

The Rosary Crusade in London

I took time off from the Forty Hours at the Oxford Oratory to go up to London to participate in the Rosary Crusade this afternoon. I thought we were going to be in for rain as there was sharp shower just before the coach stopped but in fact the afternoon proved dry and sunny at times. I was anxious to go this year, having been unable to do so last year, to remember Fr Hugh Thwaites S.J., the founder of the Crusade who died at the age of 95 in the late summer. As it was also the 95th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun on this day in 1917 there was an additional cause for commemoration.

I had just arrived in Ambrosden Avenue beside Westminster Cathedral when I was greeted by a friend who is a seminarian at Allen Hall, and we kept company throughout the procession to Brompton. The numbers participating were again impressive, and we seemed as a procession to keep together in recitation of the Mysteries than on some previous occasions. At the appropriate points as we sang the Aves in various hymns most of us waved our hymn sheets in the approved Fatima fashion.

As usual on this occasion I was struck by the friendliness of Saturday afternoon shoppers as we passed by - when we are so often told there is such hostility to religion, here was renewed evidence of tolerance and, indeed, benevolence towards what we were doing.

At the Oratory itself those who had processed from Westminster and others who had awaited our arrival filled the church - as usual on these occasions I ended up standing in a side chapel. We had a forceful sermon from the Provost of the London Oratory, Fr Julian Large C.O., on the way in which Marian dogmas and devotion counteract heresy, and applying it to the observance of the Year of Faith. More so than in the past the devotions, including the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, spoke to me as an individual, making me all the more pleased to have made the effort to go. Benediction at the High Altar and the Salve Regina at the Lady Altar closed the devotions. A good way to spend the afternoon - next year's Crusade is scheduled for Saturday October 12th.

Afterwards I met up with two sisters, friends from their student days in Oxford, and their parents. We exchanged news and information about mutual friends before I set off back up Brompton Road and Park Lane to Marble Arch and the coach back to Oxford.

Rosary Crusade - October 13th

On October 13th there will be the annual Rosary Crusade of Reparation from Westminster Cathedral to the Brompton Oratory.

It is not only the feast of St Edward the Confessor, one of the patron saints of the cathedral, but it will also be the 95th anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima in 1917, and the procession is always one escorting the image of Our Lady of Fatima. 

Image:Rosary Crusade blogspot

There are more pictures from last year here.

The procession starts from the cathedral at 1.45, proceeds at Brompton for devotions in the Oratory church and concludes with Benediction and enrollment in the Scapular.

This is always an impressive act of witness through the heart of west central London, and draws many pilgrims - why not join them  to begin the Year of Faith?

Latin Mass Society Annual Requiem

On Saturday afternoon I went up to the LMS Requiem in Westminster Cathedral celebrated by Bishop Alan Hopes. There is an illustrated report by the LMS Chairman in his blog post Annual Requiem from which I have copied two photographs. In the report Dr Shaw has a link to his impressive Flickr set of images of the Mass.

At first I thought the attendance was relatively small, but realised at communion that many of the places behind me had filled up to provide a good congregation. The sanctuary of the cathedral provided a fine setting for the liturgy with its sombre magnificence - although I did notice that someone at the cathedral had omitted to change the altar candles to unbleached wax.

It is a few years since I was able to attend the Requiem, and I was pleased to see that the absolutions at the catafalque are now performed as routine on this occasion, which did not happen last time I was there.

It was perhaps unfortunate that CIEL were having their annual Mass at midday, followed by a speaker meeting at Brompton on the same day. One of my friend managed to attend both Masses, but a bit more liason might well result in more people getting to both of these occasions and showing the extent of support for the Extraordinary Form.

Afterwards there was an opportunity to meet up with various friends and to go off for a drink and a meal before travelling back to our various homes.

Processions of witness in London

Due to other commitments I cannot join in either of these two events, but I would urge anyone who can to do so on the next two Saturdays.

Saturday October 1st
There will be a procession of the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving for the State Visit last year of the Pope and for the beatification of Cardinal Newman starting from Westminster Cathedral at 1.15pm. The route will be crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge and the procession will conclude at St George's Cathedral in Southwark with Benediction at 2.30pm.

Saturday October 8th
The annual Rosary Crusade will depart from Westminster cathedral at, I assume, the usual time of 1.45pm and proceed to the Brompton Oratory escorting the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The procession will be led by Mgr. Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our lady of Walsingham. The devotions at the Oratory conclude with Benediction and enrollment with the Brown Scapular.

I am very sorry that I shall not be able to participate in either of these events - I really enjoy such processions, and they are a very striking and effective act of witness in the capital city.

Richeldis 950

Having heard that there was to be the inaguration of six months of celebrations to mark the 950th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to Richeldis de Faverches at Walsingham in 1061 with a Mass in Westminster Cathedral last Saturday I thought this called for a day out in London. Walsingham has been an important place in my pilgrimage of faith over many years and I wanted to join in the celebrations.

The statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in the restored Slipper Chapel
at the Roman Catholic National Shrine

By a fortunate coincidence a good friend and fellow blogger was passing through Oxford and we arranged to meet up and travel up on the coach together to the cathedral. Thus the Last Knight and the Clever Boy set forth (which sounds a bit like something from Lewis Carroll, or "Childe Harold to the dark tower came" - or, methinks, shades of Cervantes...). Due to delays and demonstrations in London about government policies the coach was delayed and we did not arrive at the cathedral until the offertory. Nonetheless we were there, and able to participate in the occasion.

It was impressive to see the cathedral full and to see the presence of the Anglican Shrine Guardians escorting the statue from the Slipper Chapel in the procession at the end, along with Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and Knights of Malta, clergy from across the country, including the Ordinariate, a goodly numberr of diocesan and assistant bishops and the Archbishop of Westminster as principal celebrant.

Afterwards, as is usual on these occasions, there was the opportunity to meet up with other friends, and make new ones, on the cathedral piazza, before going off for a Lenten, non-alcoholic, drink in a pub and then a meal at an Italian restaurant before we went our seperate ways.

The Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and the altar
in the reconstructed Holy House at the Anglican Shrine

I am well nigh certain this is not the last post I shall put up about Walsingham this year, but I would say that anyone who has not visited this remarkable and holy place should do so. I once heard it described as graced, and that describes it well. Its qualities are indefineable, but there is no doubt when one is there that it is a special place. If you have not been, make this the year you go. If you have been, well you know you will want to go back to England's Nazareth to celebrate the anniversary.

Papal visit - Day III

Saturday morning and off to watch the Papal Mass from Westminster Cathedral on the big screen at the Oxford Oratory.

This I sensed was seen as the liturgical showpiece of the visit, and so it proved to be. Inter alia it helps make the case for restoring the Feast of the Precious Blood as a regular observance.

(Photographs from Papal visit)

What was very striking was the evident rapport of the Pope with young people in the meeting on the cathedral piazza.

(Photograph from Papal visit)

Unfortunately I had to miss the television coverage of the afternoon and evening events in order to get ready for the early start for the beatification in Birmingham. However I was rather taken with this picture of the Pope and Archbishop Smith of Southwark at St Peter's Vauxhall:

(Photograph from Papal visit)

I managed to get some sleep in the evening and woke up at 11pm to a text message from an Anglican friend "I went to see the Pope in The Mall - a very special moment."

(Photograph from Papal visit)

Other have commented subsequently about the effect of British and Vatican flags side by side - a vision of what might have been had history been different, but also a great sign of what has been achieved in recent decades.