Icons of SS Peter and Paul

Just before Christmas Sr Petra Clare sent the icons for the church of  Ss Peter and Paul in Longbenton. Davey put them up a week past Thursday. What with snow and me forgetting to take my camera it has taken  a while to get some photos together.

I`m glad that the church now has icons of its patron saints.

Clergy retreat in Bavaria 15-19 April 2013,

Clergy retreat in Bavaria 15-19 April 2013,    led by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP.

Come and pray next door to one of the largest international seminaries in Europe (motherhouse of an institute admitting over 40 new seminarians each year) in Pope Benedict’s native Bavaria! What a grace to be supported during our retreat by the presence and prayer of 90 seminarians and priests from various European countries, singing in choir the peaceful Gregorian melodies 4 times a day. What a good deed in return to include them and every candidate to the priesthood in our prayer intentions. Wigratzbad is also a Marian shrine and we will ask the Mother of God to teach us how to better know, love and serve Her divine Son in the Most Holy Eucharist.

Theme: ‘The priest and the Eucharist in the recent magisterium of the Church’.

On the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of Pope John-Paul II’s celebrated encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), Fr de Malleray will give meditations on the centrality of the Most Holy Eucharist in the life of priests, developing in particular the notions of the Real Presence, the Sacrifice, the Adoration, the liturgy. In the context of the current ‘Year of Faith’, focusing here on priests, the conferences and table readings will includes quotes from Presbyterorum Ordinis, Sacrosanctum Concilium, Mysterium Fidei, Pastores dabo vobis and other magisterial teaching. Examples from the lives of holy priests and classical spirituality will also be used.

Programme: Silent retreat with a one-hour conference in the morning and another in the afternoon. Three daily meals taken in silence with table readings. Free time. Retreat-master available for confession and spiritual advice. Optional Lauds, community Mass, Sext, Vespers and Compline prayed in Latin with the seminarians and staff of the St Peter International Seminary. Daily hour of Eucharistic Adoration. The many altars will offer ample opportunity for private daily Mass (both EF and OF Missals can be used at the Shrine).

Arrival: Monday 15 April afternoon: landing at Memmingen Airport (direct Ryanair flights from London-Stansted, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin) and 40-minute drive to Wigratzbad.

Departure: Friday 19 April after lunch; landing in the UK by 4pm.

On option: stay on with us for one day of tourism: Lindau peninsula on Lake Constance, dinner in local ‘Gasthaus’ (restaurant) and colossal Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren – with take off from Memmingen on Saturday afternoon.

Cost: £220 (all inclusive for 4 days full board in single room with en-suite bathroom + transportation from the airport and back). Not included: return journey from your parish to Memmingen airport: for convenience, each priest will book his own flight (estimated cost of return flight with Ryanair: £120). Extra cost for the optional tourism day: add about £50 in total.

Booking: Please send us your full name, surname, address and contact details with your £100 deposit made payable to FSSP ENGLAND.

Info – Contact: Please contact Fr de Malleray if you have any questions: St John Fisher House, 17 Eastern Avenue, Reading RG1 5RU, England

Email:   malleray@fssp.org.                   Tel.:   0118  966  5284.

UK priests report:

Fr Simon Henry, P.P., Liverpool Archdiocese: “The Seminary is part of an extensive site that is a place of Marian pilgrimage. So successful has the seminary proved that an extension was opened in 2000 by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos to house the present number of 80 seminarians. I managed to sit in the Rector’s place in the refectory on the first day there, thus finding myself in pleasant conversation with the Superior General of the Fraternity, Fr John Berg – an urbane American. It was an example of the kindness and hospitality that is extended to all guests that the Rector, Fr Banauch, just sat to the other side of me and I remained in blissful ignorance of my blunder. The weather was lovely looking out through the windows”.

Fr Leon Pereira, OP, Subprior of St Dominic’s, London, and Professor at Oscott College: “I must say how impressed I am by the quality of the seminarians at Wigratzbad. Everywhere we were greeted warmly and courteously.

The seminarians struck me as pretty normal young men, prayerful without any false piety or affectation, and intellectually curious (that delighted me as a Dominican). I noticed how in their conversations, there was never any fixation with rubricism, even when they were unguarded and recreating. They asked me a lot about St Thomas, and clearly knew a lot themselves. And they expressed curiosity and an unfeigned fraternal solicitude for the seminarians I teach at Oscott. All very edifying indeed!”

Fr Barry Hughes, P.P., Southwark Archdiocese: “A memorable part of my travels was the hospitality of the seminary of the Fraternity of St Peter. I was astonished to learn that it was bursting at the seams with 80 students, taking the full course, but with especial focus on the Traditional Mass. While many ordinary seminaries have closed, or are half empty, this one has a constant supply of young men, mostly from France and Germany – we did find a Lancastrian among them. This was, after all, a pilgrimage, and a valued feature was a day of recollection, in silence, nourished by reflections from St John Vianney and Pope St Pius X.”

Fr Michael Brown, P.P., Hexham & Newcastle Diocese, reports on a clergy pilgrimage with Fr de Malleray: “On Wednesday we had a day of silent retreat in the house. Fr de Malleray gave us four conferences on the priestly life and we had readings at meals from St Pius X’s exhortation on the priestly life Haerent animo. Fr de Malleray recommended to us Bl. Columba Marmion’s Christ, the Life of the Priest as the best book he has read on the priesthood. I have had a copy for many years and intend to read it in this Year of the Priesthood. Father’s talks were both practical and challenging and gave me at least, much food for thought.”

A 400-strong priestly community serving in 110 dioceses (3 in the UK), the FSSP has ordained 6 British priests over the last 10 years and currently has 9 seminarians from these Isles on formation, including 3 in Wigratzbad. Please pray for us, and for more good priestly vocations from this country. God bless you and your ministry. Visit us on www.fssp.co.uk/england.   ◘

St John Bosco

The relics of St John Bosco have arrived in the UK. Sadly their itinerary does not include the North East of England. Maybe this is because the resposnse to the relics of St Therese was rather poor in Newcastle. However I notice that he is weaing a maniple, something I`ve not seen any Salesian priest do. I do hope this doesn`t mean he is against Vatican II!

For statistics for the visit of the relics of St Therese see here.  There were 5000 visitors in Newcastle. This included visitors from Scotland. In Middlesbrough there were 15,000, in York 10,000 and even in Portsmouth 4,500. Then there were the 30,000 at Salford!