July 7th

Today is the second anniversary of the publication of Summorum Pontificum. It also sees the publication of a new papal encyclical on social teaching, Caritas in Veritate. Today also marks the 67th birthday of our new bishop, Seamus Cunningham, with whom I concelebrated a Mass at my old parish of St Joseph`s, Gateshead held to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the church.

So quite a lot to celebrate for one day.

Norcia monks and the Extraordinary Form

You may have read elsewhere about the request of the Holy See to the young community of monks at Norcia in Italy, to celebrate the Roman rite in both forms. What caught my attention was this extract from the interview with Fr Cassian Folsom, the superior, regarding the nature of the two forms of the Roman rite:

The ordinary form stresses such elements as the participation of the faithful, the use of the vernacular, the ongoing development of the liturgy by the addition of new saints to the calendar, etc.: these are all very important. At the risk of oversimplifying, I would say that the ordinary form stresses rational understanding, speaking in prose, as it were. The extraordinary form provides rich food for the intellect also, but relies heavily on gesture, symbolism, intuition, silence, ritual action without words, speaking in poetry, you might say. Man knows both rationally and intuitively. He needs both prose and poetry. If the two usages, like two different cultures, can patiently live with each other over time, they can become friends.

More poetry please!

It will be interesting to see how the two forms will live side by side in the monastery. For more on the story of this foundation, here is the monastery`s website.

Dominus Est again

As I`ve probably mentioned, the next book for our parish reading group to digest is Dominus est by bishop Schneider of Kazakhstan, which concerms the method of receiving Holy Communion. Recently Leo Darroch, the president of Una Voce International, who lives in this diocese, told me he was going to Wigratzbad for the ordinations for the Fraternity of St Peter and as bishop Schneider was the celebrant he asked me if I would like to see if he could get the good bishop to sign my copy of his book. I was delighted and sent him the book. Here we see the bishop signing a copy of his book, as Leo and Joseph Shaw, LMS chairman, look on. Many thanks to Mark Miles for the photo. I`m looking forward to seeing what the parish reading group make of the book.

I see today Paix Liturgique reports that Cardinal Caffarra of Bologna is following the example of the Holy Father and has given instructions that communicants at his cathedral, in the basilica of St Petronius and the shrine of our Lady of St Luke, are to receive only on the tongue, to avoid grave abuses which have occurred. If you can follow Italian there is a video explaining this here. This video still shows people receiving on the hand and must pre-date the decree but it is interesting to see a Communion cloth being used.

The French version of the decreee states:

Dans tous les cas, étant donné la fréquence avec laquelle sont signalés des cas de comportements irrévérencieux dans l'acte de recevoir l'Eucharistie, nous disposons qu'à compter d'aujourd'hui dans l'église métropolitaine de S. Pietro,dans la basilique de S. Petronio et dans le sanctuaire de la B.V. de San Luca à Bologne les fidèles recevront le Pain Consacré uniquement des mains d'un ministre directement sur les lèvres.

The decree is dated the 27th April.

Maybe there will be more of this to come.

Longbenton Mass

In the end I would say it all went very well. There was a much better turnout than I had feared. with quite a number of people I didn`t recognise: I was told we had sixty people in the congregation. The ceremonies of the Mass went more smoothly than has sometimes been the case. The music was glorious with splendid contributions from the Schola and Cappella as well as our organist. Many of the choir and congregation stayed on for tea or wine afterwards. Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way. Now I`m being asked when the next big event will be!

Here are a few, somewhat fuzzy, photos. The vestments look brighter than they really are.

Solemn High Mass at Longbenton

Tonight there will be a Solemn High Mass at 7.30pm at SS Peter and Paul`s Longbenton to mark the closing of the year of St Paul. I`ve been meaning to organise something to celebrate our patronal feast for a long time and the Year of St Paul provided the spur to urge me on. I am delighted that the schola will be joined by the Cappella Novocastriensis who will sing Byrd`s four part Mass and Ave Verum.

I`m very grateful to the cathedral for making available a red high Mass set and for advertising this event on their bulletin and website. Also to Madame Evangelista for drawing my attention to this. I hope we get a good turnout. I`m also grateful to Frs Dickson and Phillips for giving their time to act as deacon and subdeacon. I hope will have a few photos to put on this site.

Back to Ushaw

It was a great privilege to be the celebrant at the opening High Mass at the LMS training conference at Ushaw in April. I never thought it was something I would ever do. Tomorrow will see me returning to Ushaw for the EF Mass for the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge`s conference. I was originally booked to be subdeacon at a High Requiem Mass but now it is a Missa Cantata and I`m to be celebrant. I`ll be taking my favourite black vestment with me and am looking forward to hearing the chant.

Mass is at 10.15. There is some uncertainty as to whether it is open to everyone to attend: they may need to sign in for `fire purposes` I`m told.

LMS AGM

I was wondering how the LMS AGM went given that it has been a controversial year for the Society with its chairman and chaplain resigning but all seems to have passed over without incident. Here are some pictures from the Mass and a LMS report on what went on.

25 June 2009

* Latin Mass Society AGM and High Mass at Westminster Cathedral

The Latin Mass Society held its AGM on Saturday morning, 20 June, at the Royal Horticultural Society Conference Centre, Victoria, London. The Secretary, Mr Paul Beardsmore, reported on another very busy year for the LMS and the Revd Martin Edwards, parish priest of St Mary Magdalen’s, Wandsworth, London gave a well received lecture on the introduction of the Extraordinary Form into parish life following Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio.

This was followed by a lunch for the Committee and Regional Representatives of the LMS and their clerical guests.

In the afternoon, at 2.00 pm, the Rt Revd John Arnold, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, celebrated the LMS’s AGM High Mass in the Extraordinary Form for Our Lady’s Saturday at the High Altar in Westminster Cathedral. He was assisted by a congregation of several hundred. Bishop Arnold’s Assistant Priest was the Revd Andrew Wadsworth, the Deacon was Deacon Alan MacDole and the Sub-deacon was the Revd Martin Edwards. The Lay Clerks of the Cathedral sang Maurice Duruflé’s setting of ‘Messe Cum Jubilo’.

Bishop Arnold preached a thoughtful sermon linking the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Doctor Joseph Shaw, LMS Chairman, said: ‘We are grateful to Archbishop Vincent Nichols for the help which his Westminster auxiliaries generously give to our arrangements for the Extraordinary Form, and especially to Bishop Arnold for the scrupulous and recollected way in which he celebrated for us. It is wonderful that the Extraordinary Form is now regarded as an integral part of diocesan life.’

. . . . ENDS . . . .

For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or James Murphy, LMS Office Manager, on (T) 020 7404 7284; (F) 020 7831 5585;
(E mail) thelatinmasssociety@snmail.co.uk

Shopping for the Year of the Priest

For the year of St Paul I bought an icon from Pauline Books and Media to display in the Church. I would like to find one of St John Vianney for the Year of the Priest. I would also like a copy of one of the famous photos of St Therese of Lisieux to display too to prepare for the coming of her relics. A prayer card with St Therese`s prayer for priests would also be useful at this time.

However I`m having no luck. I did find a place in the USA but postage was $62.95 which seemed a lot.

If anyone knows where any of these things can be bought in the UK or Europe I`d be glad of the info.

UPDATE: 11.20 I have just discovered the website of the Carmelite book service which looks as if it may be useful.