Easter and Triduum Reports 5: Sacred Heart Church, Moreton, Wirral, Cheshire
Change of Celebrant for Old Rite Confirmations
Easter and Triduum Reports 4: Leeds University Chaplaincy
Easter and Triduum Reports 3: Church of St William of York, Upper Redlands Road, Reading, Berkshire
May 2011 Edition of Mass of Ages Magazine Available to Buy Online
Easter and Triduum Reports 2: St Mary Moorfields, Eldon Street, London EC2
Easter and Triduum Reports 1: St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Canning Town, London E16
Sacred Triduum and Easter 2011
Juventutem Retreat at Douai Abbey in September Announced - Bookings Being Taken - Limited Places
Palm Sunday with Pope Benedict
It’s Easy If You Try...
Important Conference on Summorum Pontificum in Rome, 13-15 May, Open to Public
Solesmes Choirmaster to Give Chant Workshop at St James's, Spanish Place
Musical Feast for LMS's Annual Mass at Downside
St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat and Gregorian Chant Course Great Successes
New Juventutem Group Starts in Bristol
LMS Membership Vote for New Constitution By Overwhelming Majority
We Knew It All Along!
Further News of the Instruction
Anthony Sibert writes:
Due to various choir problems there had been no sung Masses in the latter part of 2010 at Sacred Heart Church, Moreton. At the beginning of 2011, the prospect of a full sung Sacred Triduum in 2011 looked very bleak. Then, by chance, we received an offer to organise singing at our monthly Masses at St Vincent, Altrincham. This progressed to a full sung Mass after a few months and due to its success, I asked the choir leader, Christian Spence, if he would like to organise the singing in Holy Week at Sacred Heart, Moreton.
With singers coming from Salford, Holywell and Wirral, all the Sacred Triduum was sung with Gregorian Chant. Servers also came from Salford, Holywell and Wirral.
Attendances were good, averaging about 80 each day. A number of people said they were very pleased with the way the Easter services had been offered. We are very grateful to our celebrants, Canon Kunkel ICKSP and Canon Hoban.
We now plan to have a sung Mass on the first Sunday of each month, beginning in June.
It was announced on 19 April that the Rt Rev. George Stack, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, is to be the next Archbishop of Cardiff, a post which had been vacant for a year following the appointment of the previous archbishop, the Most Rev. Peter Smith, to Southwark. The Latin Mass Society offers its congratulations and best wishes for his new task to Bishop Stack.
It had already been announced that Bishop Stack, for the fourth year running, was to confer Confirmations in the Traditional Latin Rite in the annual ceremony organised by the LMS at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London W1.
This year’s ceremony will take place on Saturday 12 November, beginning at 11.30 am.
The LMS is pleased to announce that the Rt Rev. Alan Hopes, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, will now be the celebrant on this occasion. Bishop Hopes previously officiated at the LMS’s Confirmations ceremony in November 2006 and has also celebrated High Masses for the LMS in Westminster Cathedral.
Anyone interested in receiving Confirmation in the Traditional Rite for their children or themselves should contact the LMS office to register their interest. Given the importance of proper preparation, it is helpful if you make contact as soon as possible.
Telephone the LMS office on 020 7404 7284 or email: info@lms.org.uk
A little history:
Traditional Rite Confirmations were first conferred in May 2003 by Bishop Fernando Areas Rifan of Campos, Brazil during a visit to England and Wales. The ceremony took place at St Bede’s Church, Clapham, London, by permission of the then Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev. Michael Bowen.
Subsequently, the LMS asked the then Archbishop of Westminster, H.E. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, for permission for Confirmations in Westminster archdiocese. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was happy to give permission and asked Bishop James O’Brien, RIP, a Westminster auxiliary, to officiate. The ceremony took place at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London W1 in November 2004, thus beginning an annual tradition which continues to this day.
In December 2005 the celebrant was Bishop Bernard Longley (now Archbishop of Birmingham). In November 2006, Bishop Alan Hopes officiated. In November 2007 the Celebrant was Bishop John Arnold and in November 2008, 2009 and 2010 the celebrant was Bishop Stack.
Neil Walker writes:
Our Sacred Triduum went very smoothly and was offered with all the dignity and reverence one would expect. Many thanks to our celebrant Fr Hall, to the Catholic Chaplain to the Leeds Universities, Fr Kravos, who also attended in choro on Holy Thursday; our choir Messrs Forbester and Burton and our servers, Messrs O’Dowd and Janko and the Walker boys.
Numbers were up on our last Triduum with an average attendance of about 38 at each event. The weather was very good and the wonderful ambience of the chapel did much to add to the solemnity of the ceremonial. The magnificent Harry Clarke windows depicting the Litany of Loreto in a haze of natural blue light made for an atmospheric rendering of the events of Good Friday without need for electric light, and allowed us to enter into a dark church, illuminated only by the light of the Paschal candle, on Holy Saturday.
Following the Triduum, our Missa Cantata on Easter Sunday was sung by Fr Wiley and the choir, Messrs Murphy and Burton, at St Joseph’s, Castleford. It brought the weekend to a fine conclusion.
Doctor Joseph Shaw writes:
We had a very splendid Mass for Maundy Thursday at the Church of St William of York, Reading with the Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP). An FSSP seminarian, Rev. James Mawdsley, joined us, making High Mass possible.
Father Armand de Malleray was Celebrant, Fr Simon Leworthy, Deacon, and the Rev James Mawdsley, Sub-deacon. The Mass was very well attended; numbers have clearly increased over the years. After processing the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose and the Stripping of the Altars, Compline was sung by Frs de Malleray, Leworthy and Rev. Mawdsley. The Good Friday liturgy was again with Priest, Deacon and Sub-deacon: Fr Simon Leworthy was Celebrant, Fr Armand de Malleray, Deacon and the Rev. James Mawdsley, Sub-deacon. For the Vigil on Holy Saturday, Fr de Malleray was Celebrant, Fr Leworthy, Deacon and the Rev. Mawdsley, Sub-deacon.
The Rev. James Mawdsley is a second-year seminarian at the FSSP’s Wigratzbad seminary. He is part-sponsored by the LMS, as are the other English and Welsh students at the seminary.
The numbers attending throughout the Sacred Triduum were good -between 70 and 90 each day. The schola was composed of local people with extra voices coming in from some way away – including Neville McNally of the Schola Sancti Nicholae from Portsmouth. The schola was led by Martin Martinez. Tenebrae was celebrated on every day of the Triduum. The MC was Thomas O'Sullivan from Oxford.
The latest copy of the LMS's Mass of Ages magazine is now available to buy online. UK and overseas shipping options.
Not sure? Read some taster articles from the new edition for free. Go here to download them.
For many years the LMS’s main London celebration of the Sacred Triduum has been at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden WC2. However, this year the new parish priest instituted certain changes which made it impossible for the LMS to arrange the ceremonies there. Fortunately, we were made welcome at St Mary Moorfields by Fr Peter Newby, the parish priest, to whom the LMS extends its grateful thanks. Numbers on Maundy Thursday were significantly up compared to last year. However, numbers on Good Friday and Holy Saturday were down, which may have been due to a combination of the hottest Easter weather in 60 years, increased numbers of people taking advantage of two consecutive long weekends to spend Easter away, and a slightly less favourable position with regards to transport.
On Maundy Thursday, Fr Newby himself offered the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and preached. This was a combined parish and LMS celebration with a congregation of well over 200, many of them office workers who delayed their departure for home. The Deacon was Fr Michael Cullinan and the Sub-deacon was Fr Patrick Hayward. We were able to have the ceremony of the Washing of Feet and there was Watching at the Altar of Repose.
Gordon Dimon, the LMS’s senior MC, was MC throughout the Triduum and music – both plain chant and polyphony – was provided on each day by Cantores Missae Choir under the direction of Charles Finch.
On Good Friday the celebrant was Fr Michael Cullinan with Fr Anthony Logan as Deacon and Fr Hayward as Sub-deacon. Father Peter Newby sat in choir and preached. A congregation of about 90 assisted.
On Holy Saturday Fr Cullinan was again the Celebrant with Frs Logan and Hayward as Deacon and Sub-deacon. Fr Logan sang the Exultet; Fr Cullinan preached. A congregation of about 100 assisted.
After Mass a number of congregants told the LMS how pleased they were that the Traditional Rite ceremonies had been offered at St Mary Moorfields. These congregants remembered the wonderful days at St Joseph’s, Bunhill Row, several minutes walk away, when Fr Antony Conlon, former LMS National Chaplain, had been parish priest there and built up an extremely active parish life centred around frequent celebrations of the Traditional Mass and devotions. Bunhill Row was now without its own resident priest and the Traditional Mass had not been celebrated there since Fr Conlon’s departure.
More photos: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
For the third year running, the complete Sacred Triduum was celebrated in the Diocese of Brentwood, this year for the first time in St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Canning Town, London E16. Over 120 people assisted at Mass on Maundy Thursday and at the Good Friday Liturgy. About 50 were present on Holy Saturday for the Vigil and First Mass of Easter. Unfortunately, a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain on Saturday evening probably thwarted a number of people in their desire to assist at the Vigil and Mass.
Nevertheless, the Sacred Triduum at St Margaret's Convent Chapel was a tremendous success and our thanks go to our celebrant, Fr Stewart Foster, our MC, Mark Johnson, the chant schola, our altar servers and everyone else who helped.
Highlights of the Triduum included keeping vigil with the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar Of Repose on Holy Thursday, in the near-darkness, until midnight – the silence in the church was profound; the Celebrant singing the third ‘Lumen Christi’ in the near-darkness on Holy Saturday; the impressive effect of the priest’s white and gold vestments against the marble of the high altar, also on Holy Saturday; the sound of Gregorian chant echoing off the church’s marble, filling out the sound; and perhaps most importantly, the sense of what a Mass can be, using only the ‘standard tools’: priest, vestments, candles, servers in cassock and cotta, incense, a schola, Gregorian chant and a beautiful church. A real effort was made at bringing Heaven to earth in the material as well as the spiritual sense, so that even an untutored soul would have had a sense that ‘something special is happening here’.
This was surely the most successful yet celebration of the Sacred Triduum in Brentwood Diocese and puts Brentwood LMS in good heart for the many Extraordinary Form celebrations planned for the rest of the year.
The Sacred Triduum in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite was celebrated in its entirety at 8 locations in England and Wales and in Edinburgh in Scotland.
Mass of Easter Sunday in the Extraordinary Form was celebrated at over 50 locations in England and Wales.
All the Sacred Triduum celebrations were organised and funded by volunteers giving of their time and effort freely. Similarly, the clergy involved often make superhuman efforts to be available and to offer the ceremonies in a dignified and uplifting way.
The Officers and Committee of the Latin Mass Society extend their deep appreciation and thanks to everyone who assisted in making the Easter ceremonies so widely available in the Extraordinary Form to the great edification of the increasing number of faithful who seek out these celebrations in the Traditional Rite. The number of families with young children who attend our celebrations continues to be a deep joy and a source of hope for the future.
Now that the ceremonies are over and our commitment to Christ and His Church has been strengthened for another year it is not surprising that many of our volunteers have paused to recoup their strength and to carry out their duties of state. Nevertheless, the LMS will be chasing them over the next few days to gather up reports and pictures of the ceremonies for posting on the website!
We can already report that the Sacred Triduum celebrated at our new London venue of St Mary Moorfields EC2 was a success. Pictures of the Maundy Thursday ceremonies are already on the LMS’s Flickr site, and a report and pictures of Good Friday and Holy Saturday will be posted shortly.
Pictures of the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday ceremonies at the Church of St William of York, Reading, Berks, taken by Dr Joseph Shaw, are on the LMS Flickr site, as are pictures of Good Friday at the same location by Dr Matthew Doyle.
Pictures of Good Friday and Holy Saturday at St Margaret’s Convent Chapel, Canning Town, London E16 are also on the LMS’s Flickr site.
As ever, in Rome our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, gave homilies of extraordinary depth, spiritual insight and cosmic scope. They are both a delight and a spiritual feast to read. Hence, whilst we gather our Sacred Triduum reports we link here to the Holy Father’s Homily for Maundy Thursday given at the Basilica of St John Lateran on 21 April, his Homily for Holy Saturday given at St Peter’s Basilica on 23 April and his Message to the City and the World, Urbi et Orbi, given from St Peter’s on Easter Sunday, 24 April. How fortunate we are in our present Holy Father: long may he reign!
During the weekend of the 9-11 September 2011, Young Catholic Adults (YCA), the national affiliate organisation for England and Wales of the international Juventutem movement, will be running a retreat at Douai Abbey near Reading in Berkshire. It will be led by Juventutem Ecclesiastical Assistant Fr de Malleray . The weekend will be full-board.
* YCA will have half of the retreat centre to itself
* There will be a Marian Procession, Rosaries, Sung Mass, Low Mass, Confession and socials
* Fr. de Malleray FSSP head of Juventutem will preach the retreat, Masses will be in the Extraordinary Form
Prices range from £5 to £51 per person per night . There are 3 options:
THE MAIN GUEST HOUSE
Friday, 9 September, registration from 4pm, to Sunday, 11 September (full board)* or Arrive Saturday morning till Sunday or day only
£51 full-board PER PERSON PER NIGHT
£25 for students/low waged/unwaged (or whatever you can afford) PER PERSON PER NIGHT
THE COTTAGES
£35 PER PERSON PER NIGHT (full board).
Self catering £25 per person per night (reductions for students:- or whatever you can afford).
SELF CATERING CAMPING
£5 PER PERSON PER NIGHT (or whatever you can afford - please bring your own tent and food ).
If you would like lunch on Sunday, 11 September, then it will be an extra £7 each.
HOW TO BOOK - limited places so please reserve your place early!
To reserve your place FOR THE WEEKEND (no deposit needed if you are coming for the day on Saturday), please contact the Guestmaster direct and send a £20 deposit (NON RETURNABLE) to:
Brother Christopher Greener OSB,
Douai Abbey,
Upper Woolhampton,
Reading,
Berks RG7 5TQ
(please make any cheques payable to 'Douai Abbey'). Please also mention how long you wish to stay and any special dietary requirements.
For general enquiries about the weekend, or any queries about the accommodation/location/lifts required, please ring Damian Barker on 07908 105787 or 01452 539503.
The LMS's Mass Listings for May to July inclusive are down available to download here.
You will find dozens of regular Masses up and down the country. In order to organise and promote these Masses, the LMS relies on the support of ordinary Catholics, so if you are not already a member of the LMS, please consider joining us. Here are some of many the things we do (not just organising Masses!).
Many have commented on the attractive mix which Pope Benedict brings to his sermons – wide learning, the ability to express complex notions in simple language, an awareness of the scientific and technological basis of modern culture, and an ability to show how it is incomplete without the spiritual fulfilment of Christ and His Church.
The Pope’s Palm Sunday sermon at St Peter’s Basilica was a striking example of this 84 year old man’s insight into the worries and hopes of the young. It is a challenge to us all , but especially both a challenge and a consolation to the young. As a preparation for the depths and heights of Holy Week we can do no better than post it here:
'Dear Brothers and Sisters, Dear young people!
'It is a moving experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus, towards the Temple, accompanying him on his ascent. On this day, throughout the world and across the centuries, young people and people of every age acclaim him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 'But what are we really doing when we join this procession as part of the throng which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King of Israel? Is this anything more than a ritual, a quaint custom? Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life and our world? To answer this, we must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually did. After Peter’s confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, in the northernmost part of the Holy Land, Jesus set out as a pilgrim towards Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. He was journeying towards the Temple in the Holy City, towards that place which for Israel ensured in a particular way God’s closeness to his people. He was making his way towards the common feast of Passover, the memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the sign of its hope of definitive liberation. He knew that what awaited him was a new Passover and that he himself would take the place of the sacrificial lambs by offering himself on the cross. He knew that in the mysterious gifts of bread and wine he would give himself for ever to his own, and that he would open to them the door to a new path of liberation, to fellowship with the living God. He was making his way to the heights of the Cross, to the moment of self-giving love. The ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those heights he wanted to lift every human being.
'Our procession today is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the living God. This is the ascent that matters. This is the journey which Jesus invites us to make. But how can we keep pace with this ascent? Isn’t it beyond our ability? Certainly, it is beyond our own possibilities. From the beginning men and women have been filled – and this is as true today as ever – with a desire to “be like God”, to attain the heights of God by their own powers. All the inventions of the human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free. Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful. With the increase of our abilities there has been an increase not only of good. Our possibilities for evil have increased and appear like menacing storms above history. Our limitations have also remained: we need but think of the disasters which have caused so much suffering for humanity in recent months.
'The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down – towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us and grants us true freedom.
'Following the Liturgy of the Word, at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer where the Lord comes into our midst, the Church invites us to lift up our hearts: “Sursum corda!” In the language of the Bible and the thinking of the Fathers, the heart is the centre of man, where understanding, will and feeling, body and soul, all come together. The centre where spirit becomes body and body becomes spirit, where will, feeling and understanding become one in the knowledge and love of God. This is the “heart” which must be lifted up. But to repeat: of ourselves, we are too weak to lift up our hearts to the heights of God. We cannot do it. The very pride of thinking that we are able to do it on our own drags us down and estranges us from God. God himself must draw us up, and this is what Christ began to do on the cross. He descended to the depths of our human existence in order to draw us up to himself, to the living God. He humbled himself, as today’s second reading says. Only in this way could our pride be vanquished: God’s humility is the extreme form of his love, and this humble love draws us upwards.
'Psalm 24, which the Church proposes as the “song of ascent” to accompany our procession in today’s liturgy, indicates some concrete elements which are part of our ascent and without which we cannot be lifted upwards: clean hands, a pure heart, the rejection of falsehood, the quest for God’s face. The great achievements of technology are liberating and contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes – if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God and let ourselves be touched and challenged by his love. All these means of “ascent” are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God: he draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by his hands – by faith, in other words – sets us aright and gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of his love.
'The question of how man can attain the heights, becoming completely himself and completely like God, has always engaged mankind. It was passionately disputed by the Platonic philosophers of the third and fourth centuries. For them, the central issue was finding the means of purification which could free man from the heavy load weighing him down and thus enable him to ascend to the heights of his true being, to the heights of divinity. Saint Augustine, in his search for the right path, long sought guidance from those philosophies. But in the end he had to acknowledge that their answers were insufficient, their methods would not truly lead him to God. To those philosophers he said: recognize that human power and all these purifications are not enough to bring man in truth to the heights of the divine, to his own heights. And he added that he should have despaired of himself and human existence had he not found the One who accomplishes what we of ourselves cannot accomplish; the One who raises us up to the heights of God in spite of our wretchedness: Jesus Christ who from God came down to us and, in his crucified love, takes us by the hand and lifts us on high.
'We are on pilgrimage with the Lord to the heights. We are striving for pure hearts and clean hands, we are seeking truth, we are seeking the face of God. Let us show the Lord that we desire to be righteous, and let us ask him: Draw us upwards! Make us pure! Grant that the words which we sang in the processional psalm may also hold true for us; grant that we may be part of the generation which seeks God, “which seeks your face, O God of Jacob” (cf. Ps 24:6). Amen.'
Photo credit: Daylife
Since the publication of ‘Summorum Pontificum’ in July 2007 the Latin Mass Society and other Traditional organisations have succeeded in organising between 8 and 10 complete Old Rite Triduums each year in England, Wales and Scotland. Nearly all the work is carried out by unpaid volunteers. Priests, scholas and serving teams offer their services often at some expense to themselves. But the edification of the faithful makes it all worthwhile.
What is notable about these events is the lack of involvement of the bishops. Some of them have been helpful in making premises available, others have followed a policy of benign neglect but none has been proactive in offering to celebrate any of our services or to be present at some of our other devotions if their new rite commitments make it impossible for them to celebrate an Old Rite Triduum.
However, it only takes one bishop willing to be generous in pastoral concern for those attached to the Extraordinary Form...
Last year, the Most Rev. Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, New Zealand, travelled to Melbourne, Australia to offer the complete Sacred Triduum in the Extraordinary Form. And this year he’s doing it again!
From the website of the Catholic Community of Bl. John Henry Newman, the chaplaincy for the "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite" in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, which worships at St. Aloysius Church (233 Balaclava Road Caulfield North, 3161, Melbourne):
'Pontifical Holy Week in Melbourne
'His Lordship, Most Rev Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of Christchurch, New Zealand returns to Melbourne to celebrate all the traditional Latin ceremonies of Holy Week.
'Palm Sunday (17th April) 10.30 am, Solemn Pontifical Mass, with blessing of palms and procession.
'Spy Wednesday (20th April) 8.00 pm: Tenebrae.
'Maundy Thursday (21st April) 8.00 pm, Solemn Pontifical Mass of the Lord's Supper, with adoration at the Altar of Repose until Midnight
'Good Friday (22nd April) 10.30 am Stations of the Cross, 3.00 pm Commemoration of the Passion and Death of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 8.00 pm Tenebrae
'Holy Saturday (23rd April) 8.00 pm Paschal Vigil and Solemn Pontifical Vigil Mass
'Easter Sunday (24th April) 10.30 am Solemn Pontifical Mass of Easter, 3.30pm Pontifical Vespers & Benediction
'Easter Monday (25th April) 10.30 am Solemn Pontifical Mass, followed by a picnic.'
Is there an English or Welsh bishop who might like to put a toe in the water? We suspect Archbishop Meeking would say, ‘Come on in, it’s lovely!’
H/T Rorate Caeli
present
The Third Conference on the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI
“Hope for the Entire Church”
Rome, 13-15 May 2011
The above very important conference in Rome is, as far as we can see, free and open to all who wish to attend. It takes place over the weekend of 13 to 15 May 2011. It is being organised by Fr Vincenzo Nuara, O.P. of the association Youth and Tradition and is being supported by officials of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, the FSSP, the ICRSP, and the Franciscans of the Immaculate.
Here are links to the official programme in Italian and a translation in English. Fr Nuara, O.P. has worked wonders in assembling such a programme, and the rich array of high profile speakers indicates the level of support for his conference.
The weekend's events culminate on Sunday morning in a Pontifical Mass at the Faldstool in St Peter’s Basilica, celebrated by His Eminence Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera.
Dom Yves-Marie Lelièvre, Choirmaster of the world-renowned Monastery of Solesmes, will be giving Chant workshops at St James's, Spanish Place next month.
Places are going fast. Full details from the Gregorian Chant Network blog here.
The annual Solemn High Mass at Downside Abbey near Bath is one of the highlights of the liturgical calendar. This year we are fortunate in having the Bath Festival Choir provide the music.
Here are the details:
| Saturday, 14 May 2011 |
| LMS Annual High Mass at Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Radstock, Somerset |
| Mass begins at 11am |
| Celebrant: Dom Boniface Hill, OSB |
| St John's Festival Choir, Bath, conducted by Elizabeth Bates |
| Missa Quinta Toni (Orlando Lassus) Laudibus in Sanctis (Byrd) (Offertory) "Ave Virgo Sanctissima (Byrd) (Communion) |
All are very welcome to attend this wonderful occasion.
The Annual Family Retreat organised by the St Catherine's Trust for Traditional Catholic Education took place at the weekend at the Oratory School near Reading and was a great success with everyone who attended. Running side by side with the Retreat was a Gregorian Chant course, tutored by Colin Mawby. Around 150 people attended the events. Both received financial support from the LMS. A full report on the two events will follow shortly, but in the meantime here are some photos of the Retreat.
Chairman's Blog interim report here.
It's been a hectic few months for Juventutem in England! The international youth group for 16 to 35 year olds attached to the Traditional Latin Mass has been regularly sprouting new groups since the end of last year. First in London, then Oxford and Reading and now, this week, in Bristol. The new Juventutem Bristol group has a blog.
Something very interesting is happening here - the young generation of Catholics, those who take their Faith seriously, some of whose parents abandoned the Faith following the disastrous liturgical and doctrinal experiments of the Seventies, are being drawn to... the Traditional Latin Mass. You can be young, cool and committed to the Catholic Faith, and they've discovered how.
Last month, the members of the Latin Mass Society were asked by their Committee to vote on whether or not they approved a new Constitution for the Society. The votes have been counted by independent auditors and have produced an overwhelming vote in favour.
The figures are as follows:
YES 1197 votes
NO 44 votes
Abstain/Spoilt 3 votes
The yes vote represents 96.2 per cent of those voting. The new constitution comes into effect at the conclusion of this year's Annual General Meeting on 2 July.
A vote on a new constitution may not seem the most exciting of things, but it is an important part of the process of reform and updating that the LMS has been undertaking over the past couple of years.
The new constitution will make the organisation and running of the Society clearer and more straightforward and will therefore help with the more effective functioning of the LMS in its work of promoting the Traditional Mass.
The LMS has received many comments from people who have discovered the Traditional Mass for the first time and been overwhelmed by its beauty and spiritual depth. However, it’s good to have these things corroborated by no less a figure than James MacMillan – the internationally-renowned Scottish composer. He is on record as having said some hard things about the ‘liturgical music establishment’ in the post-Vatican II Church and has previously been in friendly contact with those of us devoted to the Traditional Mass. Now, having experienced it for himself, he has recorded his thoughts in a very forthright way.
The LMS refrains from commenting on his views on the ordinary form – that is not our brief – but his comments on the Extraordinary Form simply reflect what we have heard time and time again from those, both young and old, who have been exposed to the Traditional Mass. These comments can be summed up in a single sentence: why on earth did the post-Vatican II Church ever try to abandon such a profound and life-transforming Rite?
James MacMillan is a Scottish composer whose symphonies, concertos, operas, sacred music and many orchestral and instrumental works are strongly influenced by his Catholic faith. His St John Passion was premiered by Sir Colin Davis and the LSO in 2008; his specially commissioned congregational Mass was performed when Pope Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal Newman during his visit to Britain in September. He and his wife are lay Dominicans and live in Glasgow. He also blogs at jamesmacmillaninscotland.com.
I was in Amsterdam last week, conducting at the Concertgebouw. I found out that the FSSP (Priestly Fraternity of St Peter) have a thriving parish there, in the Sint-Agneskerk. I went along on Sunday for their beautiful Extraordinary Form (EF) liturgy. The Dutch Church is a wasteland/joke/disaster area because of 30 years of liberalism. Basically there are no Catholics left here! Or so it seems sometimes, thanks to the usual rubbish. Thankfully there are some younger, faithful Catholics willing to swim against the tide.
I’m still a bit of a novice when it comes to the EF – Sunday’s was my third – but I am struck each time by just how devotional the atmosphere is, even on entering the church. Everything seems focused on the tabernacle. There is a palpable presence of God, which tends to be missing from a lot of churches now, which feel more like Glasgow Central station than a house of prayer.
In the FSSP’s Amsterdam church there was a veritable tsunami of mantillas on display! There is a liberal argument in Holland which is opposing the government’s crackdown on Islamic women wearing the hijab/niqab/burka. Those same liberals who would have a fit if they saw a mantilla in a Catholic church, no doubt!
I certainly got the impression that the people present on Sunday were being helped enormously in their faith, much of which has been swept away in Holland. Many ethnic/immigrant faces were in evidence. It reminded me of the Newman Beatification Mass at Cofton Park. Compared to this, the anti-Pope demonstrations in London looked terribly white and middle-class. Just like most opponents of Rome, outside and inside the Church.
“Ah, but we can’t go back to the past,” we hear the usual ageing handwringers cry. But the past is the past, and has no bearing any more on the new impetus to sort out the liturgy. Latin Mass can be in the EF and the Novus Ordo – that’s the beauty of Latin, and that’s why the Devil (let alone the Tabletistas) hates it!
“Oh but where is the active participation in the Latin Mass?” cry the liberal killjoys. But lay involvement is clearly possible to the fullest extent in the EF or Latin Novus Ordo. In the three EF liturgies I have attended in the last year, the assembly sang much, much more than one ever sees or hears in a Glasgow “Mass-for-Daily-Record-Man” or its depressing equivalent up and down the country. Everything from the Asperges Me, through the Kyrie, Sanctus and all the Dominus vobiscum/et cum spiritu tuos – sung by EVERYBODY. There is no point in using the past, pre-Vatican II practice as a weapon against the inevitable. None of the young Catholics now committed to good liturgy have any idea what the old curmudgeons are going on about when they moan about the bad old days. Their bad memories are irrelevant and have no bearing at all on the push for improvements. And these improvements will have a bearing on both forms the Mass, especially the English vernacular, I’m sure.
Even the readings – chanted in Latin – were understood by everyone, because we had the translations in Dutch and English in our bulletins. I have never felt so participatory. These “readings” were heightened and holier because they were sung, and in an elevated tongue. The whole experience was sublime – i.e., the way it should be every week in the Novus Ordo, and will be again once the Reform of the Reform has been won. Much better this than the usual lackadaisical mumbling and stumbling that we usually get, with all the right-on social/political messages thrown in for good measure. The only bit of the Mass I didn’t understand on Sunday was the homily, in the vernacular – Dutch.
H/T Telegraph Blogs
The long wait for the Holy Father’s Instruction on the application of the Motu Proprio, ‘Summorum Pontificum’ continues. It may be a little longer yet – the LMS hears from a source in Rome that there will be a delay in the publication of the Instruction. This was originally envisaged for early April, but more work on the translation needs to be done; this means that with Easter nearly upon us the publication has now been put back to early May.
Meanwhile, Messa in Latino and the Flemish Catholic news website Kerknet mention that the Holy See may have started sending the Instruction on the application of the Motu Proprio to dioceses around the world.
The known content includes what had already been reported here, to which the only really new information is that a mechanism of clear appeal to the Holy See (Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”) is established, including a right to further appeal, when needed, from the Commission to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura (headed by Cardinal Raymond Burke, known to be strongly supportive of the Extraordinary Form).
From the story on Messa in Latino:
1) The Instruction forbids restrictive or negative interpretations of the Motu Proprio.
2) It confirms the appropriateness of teaching the Extraordinary Form in the seminaries. There is no binding mechanism, however, i.e. the rule is likely to be a lex imperfecta (as the Romans defined laws devoid of binding effect); nevertheless the affirmation of the principle is very important and hopefully fruitful in the medium to long term.
3) It appears to be confirmed that the Motu Proprio does not mention the Ambrosian Rite, and also that permission will be needed for ordinations in the Old Rite other than those performed within the Traditional priestly communities.
4) The preamble refers to the reports submitted by the world episcopate after three years of application of the Motu Proprio.
5) Above all, a mechanism is established to ‘police’ the implementation of the Motu Proprio.
Art. 7 of the Motu Proprio states already: "If a group of lay faithful among those referred to in art. 5 § 1 has not obtained satisfaction from the pastor, they should inform the diocesan bishop. The Bishop is strongly requested to satisfy their wishes. If he does not want to arrange for such celebration to take place the matter should be referred to the Pontifical Commission, “Ecclesia Dei”.
This now becomes a real administrative appeal to the Commission, which will then be able to issue binding decisions.
A further appeal will be possible against the decision of “Ecclesia Dei”, to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
A definite procedure is therefore put in place which is a clear recognition of the fact that the Motu Proprio guarantees real rights.
The LMS recommends continuing prayer!