Blog Archives - THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY IN WREXHAM

Saint John XXIII : Revolutionary Leftie? of course not!

27/4/2014

Ss John Paul II and John XXIII

An interesting post on Father Simon Henry's blog, Offerimus Tibi Domine on the Apostolic Constitution, Veterum Sapientia (On the Promotion of the Study of Latin).

Of course, Saint John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council. But he died in 1963 before the Council concluded in 1965.

Some commentators call him a reformer (today, one even mentioned revolutionary!), others claim he was on the 'left' of the Church - all predictable lazy journalistic tags.

But as Father Henry asserts, perhaps he could foresee the real reform seekers and he was attempting to anticipate them by documents like Veterum Sapientia and the calling of the Council itself.

Maybe the 'breath of fresh air' he sought for the Church was not the gust of wind that ensued in immediate post-conciliar period?

Confirmations at New Brighton

26/4/2014

Bishop Davies celebrates Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Gricigliano Headquarters of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest last Advent

You will be encouraged to learn that Bishop Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury, will confirm a number of candidates at the Shrine Church of Ss Peter & Paul & Philomena in New Brighton next Sunday (4th May @ 11.30am). This will be followed by Pontifical Low Mass. Both the Confirmations and Mass will be conducted using the 1962 liturgical books.

Low Sunday at Holywell and Pantasaph

26/4/2014

Pantasaph Friary

Tomorrow, (Sunday 27th April), there are two Traditional Masses being celebrated in the Diocese of Wrexham both within the CH8 postal district - I don't think we have been blessed with an abundance of Old Rite Masses on the same day for some considerable time.

The normal monthly Sung Mass at St Winefride's, Well Street, Holywell will take place at 1130am.

Earlier at 9am, a Low Mass will be celebrated at the Franciscan Friary, Pantasaph. This is part of a retreat being preached by Father George Mary Roth of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.

25th April : The Greater Litanies

24/4/2014

Adapted from
The Liturgical Year by Abbot Gueranger

April 25th is honoured in the Liturgy by what is sometimes called Saint Mark's Procession. The term, however, is not a correct one, inasmuch as the Procession was a privilege peculiar to April 25 previously to the institution of the Evangelist's Feast, which even as late as the 6th century had no fixed day in the Roman Church.

The real name of this Procession is The Greater Litanies. The word Litany means supplication, and is applied to the religious rite of singing certain chants whilst proceeding from place to place in order to propitiate Heaven. The two Greek words Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy on us) were also called Litany, as likewise were the invocations which were afterwards added to that cry for mercy, and which now form a liturgical prayer used by the Church on certain solemn occasions.

The Greater Litanies (or processions) are so called to distinguish them from the Minor Litanies, that is, processions of less importance as far as the solemnity and concourse of the faithful were concerned. We gather from an expression of St. Gregory the Great that it was an ancient custom in the Roman Church to celebrate, once a year, a Greater Litany, at which all the clergy and people assisted. This holy Pontiff chose April 25 as the fixed day for this Procession, and appointed the Basilica of St. Peter as the Station.

The institution of the Greater Litanies even preceded the Processions prescribed by St. Gregory for times of public calamity, such as the one famously held to end in the plague in 591. It existed long before his time, and all that he did was to fix it on April 25. It is quite independent of the Feast of St. Mark, which was instituted at a much later period.

As the 25th April occurs on the Friday of the Octave of Easter, the Procession takes place but the Feast of the Evangelist is not kept proper to the day. Those who keep the Breviary but who do not take part in the procession will recite the Litany of the Saints, normally at the conclusion of Lauds.

The question naturally presents itself—why did Pope St. Gregory choose April 25 for a Procession and Station in which everything reminds us of compunction and penance, and which would seem so out of keeping with the joyous Season of Easter? Liturgists have shown that in the 5th, and probably even in the 4th century, April 25 was observed at Rome as a day of great solemnity. The faithful went, on that day, to the Basilica of St. Peter, in order to celebrate the anniversary of the first entrance of the Prince of the Apostles into Rome, upon which he thus conferred the inalienable privilege of being the capital of Christendom. It is from that day that we count the 25 years, 2 months and some days that St. Peter reigned as Bishop of Rome. The Sacramentary of St. Leo gives us the Mass of this solemnity, which afterwards ceased to be kept. St. Gregory, to whom we are mainly indebted for the arrangement of the Roman Liturgy, was anxious to perpetuate the memory of a day which gave to Rome her grandest glory. He therefore ordained that the Church of St. Peter should be the Station of the Great Litany, which was always to be celebrated on that auspicious day. April 25 comes so frequently during the Octave of Easter that it could not be kept as a feast, properly so called, in honour of St. Peter's entrance into Rome; St. Gregory, therefore, adopted the only means left of commemorating the great event.

But there was a striking contrast resulting from this institution, of which the holy Pontiff was fully aware, but which he could not avoid: it was the contrast between the joys of Paschal Time and the penitential sentiments and Station of the Great Litany. Laden as we are with the manifold graces of this holy Season, and elated with our Paschal joys, we must sober our gladness by reflecting on the motives which led the Church to cast this hour of shadow over our Easter sunshine. After all, we are sinners, with much to regret and much to fear; we have to avert those scourges which are due to the crimes of mankind; we must, by humbling ourselves and invoking the intercession of the Mother of God and the Saints, obtain the health of our bodies and preservation of the fruits of the earth; we have to offer atonement to Divine Justice for our own and the world's pride, sinful indulgences, and insubordination. Let us enter into ourselves, and humbly confess that our own share in exciting God's indignation is great; and our poor prayers, united with those of our Holy Mother the Church, will obtain mercy for the guilty, and for ourselves who are of their number.

A day, then, like this, of reparation to God's offended majesty, would naturally suggest the necessity of joining some exterior penance to the interior dispositions of contrition which filled the hearts of Christians. Abstinence from flesh-meat was long observed on this day at Rome; and when the Roman Liturgy was established in the Kingdom of the Franks by King Pepin and St. Karl the Great, the Great Litany of April 25 was, of course, celebrated, and the abstinence kept by the faithful of that country. A council held at Aachen in 836 enjoined the additional obligation of resting from servile work on this day: the same enactment is found in the Capitularia of Charles the Bald. As regards fasting, properly so-called, being contrary to the spirit of Paschal Time, it appears never to have been observed on this day, at least not generally. Amalarius, who lived in the 9th century, asserts that it was not then practised even in Rome.

During the Procession, the Litany of the Saints is sung, followed by several versicles and orations.

We take this opportunity of protesting against the negligence of Christians on this subject. For centuries, even many persons who had the reputation of being spiritual thought nothing of being absent from the Litanies said on the Feast of St. Mark and the Rogation Days. One would have thought that when the Holy See took from these days the obligation of abstinence, the faithful would be so much the more earnest to join in the duty left—the duty of prayer. The people's presence at the Litanies is taken for granted; and it is simply absurd that a religious rite of public reparation should be one from which almost all should keep away. We suppose that these Christians will acknowledge the importance of the petitions made in the Litanies; but God is not obliged to hear them in favour of such as ought to make them and yet do not. When St. Charles Borromeo first took possession of the See of Milan, he found this negligence among his people, and that they left the clergy to go through the Litanies of April 25 by themselves. He assisted at them himself, and walked barefooted in the Procession. The people soon followed the saintly pastor's example.

Surrexit Dominus Vere, alleluia!

21/4/2014

Introit - Easter Sunday (Missale Romanum 1962)
Ps. 138:18,5,6,1,2

Resurréxi, et adhuc tecum sum, allelúja: potuísti super me manum tuam, allelúja: mirábilis facta est sciéntia tua. Allelúja, allelúja.(Psalm) Dómine, probásti me et cognovisti me: tu cognovísti sessiónem meam et resurrectiónem meam. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

I arose and am still with thee, alleluia: Thou hast laid Thy hand upon me, alleluia; Thy knowledge is become wonderful, alleluia, alleluia. (Psalm) Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me; Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Image courtesy of Daniel Mitsui

2nd LMS One Day Conference

18/4/2014

Just one of the speakers is Bishop Athanasius Schneider - well known as the author of Dominus Est - It is the Lord! - a defence of the traditional manner of receiving Communion.

Saturday, 24 May 2014
Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ
(opposite BHS, less than 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus)

Doors open: 10.30am

Conference Theme:
'The Traditional Mass and Evangelisation'

BOOK ONLINE NOW

This is the second one-day conference that the LMS has organised. Our first in 2012 was a great success. This year's event promises to be even better.

We have Bishop Athanasius Schneider from Kazakhstan. Bishop Schneider is well known as the author of Dominus Est - It is the Lord! - a defence of the traditional manner of receiving Communion.

Joseph Pearce is the critically acclaimed author of several biographies of Catholic literary figures, including Chesterton, Belloc, Tolkien and Oscar Wilde, as well as Literary Converts - the conversion stories of a string of early 20th century English writers who were received into the Catholic Church.He has recently written his autobiography Race with the Devil - the story of his conversion from a Catholic-hating member of the National Front to a devout Catholic.

Fr Michael Mary is the superior of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Transalpine Redemptorists), based in Golgotha Monastery on the Orkney island of Papa Stronsay. A completely Traditional Order, their canonical status was regularised after having reconciled with the Holy See following Summorum Pontificum, having previously worked for many years with the SSPX.

Dr Christopher Hodkinson is the director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, one of the leading influences in the revival of Gregorian Chant in England in recent years.

Professor Thomas Pink lectures at King's College, London, and is known for his work on the fraught topic of religious liberty.

This year's conference theme: 'The Traditional Mass and Evangelisation'

We hear much in the Catholic media about evangelisation, but what part has the Traditional liturgy to play in converting and re-converting people to the Faith? Has it been neglected by the Church as a powerful weapon in winning souls for Christ?

Come along and listen to the excellent range of speakers we have lined up for you and hear what they have to say about evangelisation in the context of the Extraordinary Form. Bring your family and friends. All are welcome.

Tickets and booking information

Admission is by ticket only and these must be bought in advance from the LMS. You can do that online, below. Alternatively, you can phone the LMS office on 020 7404 7284 and pay by credit/debit card. Finally, you can send a cheque payable to 'LMS' to: LMS, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH.

Lunch

There will be a buffet lunch available, but this needs to be booked with your admission ticket. There is a modest charge of £5 per person. You are free, of course, to make your own arrangements for lunch, but the conference audience last time found that having the buffet lunch in the hall offered an ideal opportunity to chat and socialise.

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Quia per Crucem tuam redemísti mundum

18/4/2014

Adorámus te, Christe, et benedícimus tibi, quia per Crucem tuam redemísti mundum.

Per lignum servi facti sumus, et per sanctam Crucem liberáti sumus: fructus árboris sedúxit nos, Filius Dei redémit nos.

Salvátor mundi, salva nos: qui per Crucem et Sánguinem tuum redemísti nos, auxiliáre nobis, te deprecámur, Deus noster.

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, because by Thy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Through a tree we were enslaved, and through a holy Cross have we been set free: the fruit of a tree led us astray, the Son of God bought us back.

Saviour of the world, do Thou save us, do Thou, who through Thy Cross and Blood didst redeem us, do Thou help us, our God, we beseech Thee.

Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Retreat at Pantasaph

15/4/2014

I have just been advised that Father George Mary Roth FFI will be leading a retreat at the Capuchin Franciscan Retreat Centre In Pantasaph in North Wales over Low Sunday weekend. The Masses during the retreat will all be offered in the Traditional Rite.

The Retreat begins on Friday 25 April with Mass at 5.30pm and ends around 4.00pm on Sunday 27 April (Low Sunday). Anyone interested in the retreat should call the Retreat Centre to book, details below.

Capuchin Franciscan Retreat Centre, Monastery Road, Pantasaph, Holywell
Flintshire, CH8 8PE - Telephone: 01352 711053 - E-mail: [email protected]

Itinerary 

Friday 25 April:

4.00pm or thereafter Arrival and registration
5.30pm Holy Mass (Extraordinary Form); Supper
8.00pm Conference “The Glories of Divine Grace”

Saturday 26 April:

8.00am Holy Mass (Extraordinary Form)
10.00am Conference “The Importance of Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary”
3.00pm Conference “The Tragic Loss of Faith Today”
7.30pm Conference “The Holiness of Marriage: Jesus Christ’s Spousal Love for His Church”

Sunday 27 April:

9.00am Holy Mass (Extraordinary Form) *** see note below.
11.00am Conference “The Gifts, Virtues, Blessings and Fruits of the Holy Ghost.”
3.00pm Divine Mercy Devotions, followed by a talk on “Divine Mercy and the Need for Conversion Today”

*** The usual 4th Sunday Mass at St Winefride's, Holywell will still take place as usual at 1130am.

Confession will be available throughout the retreat.

Total cost £90.00 includes accommodations in the retreat centre and meals.

Transportation: Nearest Rail Station is Flint in North Wales

Please register if you intend to be on this retreat AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Have a Blessed Holy Week!

13/4/2014

Extraordinary Faith Trailer

12/4/2014

You will recall that I mentioned this new programme, due to air on EWTN here.

Well a trailer for the show has now been made available, take a look, I cannot wait!

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Mgr Marini re-appointed as Master of Pontifical Ceremonies

12/4/2014

Monsignor Guido Marini

The Holy Father has confirmed Monsignor Guido Marini as Master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies.

Appointments usually last five years.

Monsignor Guido Marini was appointed by the Pope Emeritus in October 2007.

A substantial sign that Pope Francis is not about to 'dumb down' liturgical ceremonial as many may have feared.

Mass schedule updated

10/4/2014

The schedule of Extraordinary Form Masses in Wrexham Diocese has been uploaded on the Mass Times page of this site. Dates through to August 2014 are now listed.

Why not make a note of them in your diary now and support the Traditional Mass!

Historic Lancastrian Church to go under the tender loving care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

9/4/2014

St Walburge's Church near Preston, Lancashire is to be given into the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP).

This is the second church in England to be placed into the hands of this Traditional Order and the arrangement will give the church a more secure future.

The announcement came in a pastoral message from the local Ordinary, Bishop Campbell OSA. He wrote "The arrival and presence of the Institute in the church and presbytery at St Walburge’s will enable the sustainability and care of this magnificent church so that it can be open each day as a shrine or centre for Eucharistic devotion and adoration. St Walburge’s will remain part of the Parish of St Walburge and the Sacred Heart but will specifically provide for the celebration of Holy Mass and the other Sacraments in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It is envisaged, however, that the current Ordinary Form Mass, will continue to be celebrated here on Sunday for as long as there is a pastoral need ...... "

I am already fondly acquainted with the Institute due to their Mission at Ss Peter, Paul and Philomena, New Brighton (aka The Dome of Home) and I know that the hard work that continues to go into restoring The Dome of Home to its full splendor is testament to what can be achieved elsewhere.

I am thrilled for the Diocese of Lancaster, the Catholics of Preston and the Institute!

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam!

St Walburge’s, Preston

Holy Week and Easter in Menevia

9/4/2014

Fr. Jones

Following on from the posts about Masses at Liverpool and New Brighton, for those further south, our friend Father Jason Jones (pictured left) has drawn my attention to Extraordinary Form Masses in the Diocese of Menevia over Holy Week and Easter:

A Missa Cantata will take place at 3pm on Palm Sunday and at 3pm on Easter Sunday at the Sacred Heart Church, School Road, Morriston, Swansea, SA6 6HZ. All welcome. Both Masses are followed with refreshments.

A full compendium of Holy Week and Easter Masses across England and Wales can be found here.

Please pray that one day Wrexham may be afforded at least one Mass during the Sacred Triduum.

Easter Sunday at St Anthony of Egypt, Liverpool

8/4/2014