Please let me know in advance if you wish to serve, e-mail me here.
Men and boys are welcome to come and serve at the LMS Pilgrimage Mass in Holywell on Sunday 2nd July at 2.30pm. If you are able to perform a duty on the sanctuary, bring your cotta and cassock!
Please let me know in advance if you wish to serve, e-mail me here.
0 Comments
Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite on Sunday after the Ascension St Winefride's, Well Street, Holywell, Flintshire Sunday 28th May 2017 at 1130am When Jesus came to this earth in the Incarnation, He took upon Himself our flesh and blood, but He did not leave His Heavenly Father. The Father and He are One. When we see the Son we likewise behold the Father. The opposite is likewise true; when Jesus ascended into Heaven, He did not leave us, but remains with us. He is even now one with us also.
Jesus has taken our humanity to the highest parts of Heaven. Where He goes mankind goes also because Jesus is the head of mankind. (Both as God – our Creator; and as God – our Redeemer) Through Christ not only are the gates of Heaven opened up for mankind, but men are invited to ascend with Jesus to the utmost heights of Heaven. As Jesus walked this earth, He performed many miracles all testifying to His divinity. Nonetheless, it remained difficult for the apostles and disciples (and us) to conceive of this divinity, and they clung to Jesus in His humanity. It was necessary that Jesus should leave them and the Holy Ghost come upon them so that they could come to a better understanding and appreciation of the divinity of Jesus Christ. St. Leo the Great says: “It was then, Dearly Beloved, the Son of man, the Son of God, became known in a more perfect, a holier, manner: when He betook Himself to the majestic glory of the Father, and in an ineffable way began to be more present to us in His Divinity, as His humanity became more remote to us. Then a more instructed faith began by way of the soul to draw nigh to that Son Who was equal with the Father, without need to touch and feel the bodily substance in Christ, in which He is less than the Father. For though the nature of His glorified Body remains, the faith of the believing began to be called whither the Only-Begotten Who is equal to the Father might be touched and felt, not by our bodily hand, but by the spiritual understanding.” “It was because of this the Lord said to Mary Magdalene when she, representing the Church, drew near to touch Him: Do not touch me, for I am not yet ascended to my Father that is, ‘I do not wish you to approach me in a bodily manner, nor that you should know me by the feel of My Flesh: I would have you wait for what is higher; I am preparing for thee what is greater. When I have ascended to My Father then you shall touch me more perfectly and more truly, for you shall know what you touch not, and believe what you do not see.’” The Apostles witnessed Our Lord ascending into Heaven and were instructed that in this same manner He will return to the earth. From that day until the end of time the true faithful await this second coming. At this time all the bodies of the dead will rise, reanimated with their souls, to stand before Christ as our judge. Those who have loved Jesus will be rejoicing that this day has arrived. All that has been seen and believed through faith will now been seen in the flesh. The Mystical Body of Christ (the Church) will be united with Her Head, Jesus Christ. The world will be renewed or recreated; our bodies will be like to Christ’s Body with all His glorious attributes. With the devils and all evil now driven out, the earth will finally fulfill the desire of Her creator. The Garden of Paradise will have expanded with all its wonder and glory to encompass the entire earth. The saints have always rejoiced in Christ’s ascension and now it is our turn. How wonderful it would have been to have seen, heard, touched and walked with our Lord when He was here on earth, but then our faith would have the obstacle of Christ’s Humanity constantly in the way of our seeing His Divinity. As it is God has chosen the exact and perfect time in history for us to live. History tells us that Jesus Christ is truly Human and our faith tells us that He is truly Divine. As we contemplate His Divinity and glory it fills our hearts with joy and entices us to do all that we can to follow Him there. As a reward for this our faith, we are given the hope to see Him in the glory of His Divine Human presence for the rest of eternity. Our souls will be filled with all their desires, and our bodies likewise will attain the fulfillment of all they desire. As Christ, our Head has gone up into Heaven, we feel a certain loss and therefore sadness. At the same time there is great joy in knowing that Jesus is with His Father where He belongs and that soon – if we are faithful and love Him – we will one day be able to join Him forever. The sadness is also greatly mitigated because we have Christ’s promise of the Holy Ghost. Through this Third Person of the Blessed Trinity we obtain all the graces that we need to be able to believe and work so as to make this future glory, even now a present joy. Fatima reveals Hell is real, not ‘invented by the Vatican’ Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
on Sunday after the Ascension St Winefride's, Well Street, Holywell, Flintshire Sunday 28th May 2017 at 11.30am In the liturgy of the V Sunday after Easter, as in the past Sundays after Easter, we are prepared for Jesus’ Ascension, when He will leave His Apostles, and opens the way to Pentecost, when He will send them the Holy Spirit to enlighten and strengthen them. Jesus also wants to console the Apostles for His absence by promising them that they can ask the Father anything “in His Name” and they will receive it: “Amen, amen, I say to you if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you.” Jn. 16:23 This is truly a consoling promise to the Apostles who were so forlorn on hearing Jesus’ words of departure. They no longer have to fear being alone, for not only will Jesus always be there for them, but also the Father. Jesus’ promise of asking the Father for help in His Name in today’s Gospel (Jn. 16:23-30) and the teaching of today’s Epistle from St. James (1:22-27) provides us with a solid teaching on efficacious prayer. If we pray, as Jesus taught His Apostles to do, then we have absolute confidence that we will be heard. All we need to do is to pray “in the Name of Jesus” with a good conscience, with humility and with confidence.
Ask “in the Name of Jesus” When we pray “in the Name of Jesus,” our prayers and our good works obtain a superabundant value as they are founded on the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. We must remember that we are unprofitable servants (cf. Lk. 17:10) who can do nothing (cf. Jn. 15:5) of ourselves and that our sufficiency comes from Jesus Crucified. “Consequently,” according to Fr. Gabriel in Divine Intimacy, “the first condition of prayer made ‘in the name of Jesus’ is humility, an ever deeper and more realistic sense of our nothingness. It must be complemented by the second condition, a boundless confidence in the merits of Jesus, which surpass all our poverty, misery, necessities and needs. In view of Jesus’ infinite merits, we can never ask too much in His Name: we can never be too bold in imploring the plenitude of divine grace for our souls, in aspiring to that sanctity which is hidden, but genuine. ...Moreover, there is no creature of good will, no matter how weak and insignificant, who, ‘in the Name of Jesus,’ cannot aspire to sanctity.” “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” Ja. 1:22 “However, in order to make our prayer effective, a third condition is required: our life must correspond to our prayer, our faith must be translated into good works. ‘Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.’ Ja. 1:22 This strong exhortation of St. James, which is found in today’s Epistle is an urgent reminder of the practical character of the Christian life. Vain is our prayer, vain our confidence in God, if we do not add our generous efforts to perform all our duties, to live up to our high vocation. We can add, and we should, hope for everything in the ‘Name of Jesus,’ but He expects a constant effort on our part to be entirely faithful to Him. Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form will take place for the IV Sunday after Easter at St Francis of Assisi, Llay - tomorrow (Sunday 14th May) at 12.30pm. We read from St. James’ epistle today that “every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration.” It is essential to remind ourselves again that all that is good comes from God. It seems that the greater the good God wishes to give us the more reluctant we become in receiving it. Over and over again we discover that we truly do not know what is in our own best interest. In today’s Gospel Our Lord is preparing His disciples for the day when He will ascend into heaven. Instead of rejoicing at this good news we are saddened. It is necessary that Jesus should spell out for us the reasons we should be happy.
It is fruitful for us to conform ourselves to the ways of God, as this allows us to begin to see things in a different light than the rest of the world. All that God has said and done is good. All that God gives us is good. Even when He takes something away from us we see that it is because He intends to give us something better. If we are even stripped of all pleasure and joy in this world it is a very small price to pay for an eternal happiness with God in heaven. We for some strange reason cling to the inferior fleeting pleasures of this life as if they were the greatest good; and often neglect or even destroy our hopes for an eternal good in heaven. As we mature in the faith we must put off the ways of thinking of the world and put on the ways of God. We are God’s children, therefore we must conform ourselves to Him more and more each day. There was no joyful Easter morning without first the bitter passion and death of our Lord, on Good Friday. Christ has invited us to follow Him in this great joy, but it means that we must “deny ourselves and take up our cross daily.” Not only must we accept the crosses and embrace them lovingly as perfect gifts from God, but we must also accept the apparent loss of God’s presence as He withdraws Himself from us from time to time. When Jesus announced His departure from the Apostles, He tells them that it is good for them that He goes so that He can send them the Holy Ghost. With the coming of the Holy Ghost they will receive even more graces. So we learn that when God holds something back or takes something away from us it is for our own good. It usually means that there is something greater or better in store for us. We often see this manifested in the virtue of giving. When we give away something to help another God often replaces what was given with something even more desirable than what we originally had. We see that the generous giver suffers very little or even no loss at all. This is just considering the things of this earth; when we add in eternal things we see God’s goodness manifested even more clearly. Our spiritual losses or separations are only demanded of us so as to make way within us for something greater. The material joy of Jesus’ resurrection appears to be lost with His Ascension only to prepare us to be filled with the Holy Ghost on Pentecost. Our lives appear to be this continual fluctuation: receiving the good things from God, our heavenly Father, only to have them lost or taken away and then later replaced with something that is even better than the first. In this manner we are to grow in the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. We must always treasure the things God has given us, but we must never allow ourselves to become so attached that we never want to let them go. We must always be willing to sacrifice them to something greater. Step by step, God is showing us the way to loving Him as we ought; maturing us so that we can readily let go of the little things of this earth to make room for the greatest goods of Heaven. He is teaching us how to empty ourselves so that there is room only for God. A quick update on the 2017 LMS Holywell Pilgrimage ... click here for a pdf poster
Musical direction this year is by Michael Wynne also of St Mary's, Warrington. The setting will Missa O quam gloriosum (Tomás Luis de Victoria) with a number of motets. Chant will be used for the proper. Any man or boy who wishes to serve should make contact with me ahead of the Mass. I can be e-mailed here. There have been several photographs on social media of the ceremonies of Holy Week at the ICKSP seminary and their Florence apostolate, the church of Ss Michel & Gaétan.
In addition to those circulating with the good Cardinal expressing humility in the service of the clergy and seminarians in the seminary refectory, a full set of all the photos can be viewed here. They are excellent photos which show in detail, the great care and attention paid to giving glory to God through excellent liturgy and the sanctification of those involved. Deo grátias! The Introit for the third Sunday after Easter realises the cause of this joy because Jesus has completed the plan of redeeming us if we cooperate by words of praise (Offertory) and "works" of truth, before friends and "enemies" alike, for whom we pray (Prayer) as Christians bearing the very Name of Christ.
The Alleluia describes the joy of redemption as a plan of "cross before crown," a mystery indeed, had not Jesus lived it out for us. In the Gospel Jesus explains how an unbelieving world persecutes because it regards Him as dead and gone; yet our conquering joy which no man can take away, comes from our vision of Him through the wide open eyes of faith; although (Communion) Jesus also predicts that our joy can never be perfect here, especially during persecution, since the cross of His apparent absence is the prelude to the glory of His eternal Presence. The Epistle alludes to the first Gentile and Jewish persecutors with their usual weapons of violence and calumny, yet shows how "you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." "Going to the Father" each day (Communion) in morning and evening prayer, "desiring things" of God (Secret) in our daily a ction s, receiving Sacraments (Post communion) are the guarantee of true joy now and forever. Christianity is a religion of joy! On this Sunday falls the the Feast of St. Stanislaus E. M. of 11th Century Poland, martyred by the evil King of Poland, Boleslaus II, after criticism of his immoral and tyrannical regime. He is Patron Saint of Poland. Although not commemorated in the 1962 rubrics of the Mass today, we can still pray for his intercession for the confidence to express Catholic Truth without fear as did the Saint Stanislaus himself. |
Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Francisco: Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui facis mirabilia magna solus: praetende super famulos tuos, et super congregationes illis commissas, spiritum gratiae salutaris; et, ut in veritate tibi complaceant, perpetuum eis rorem tuae benedictionis infunde.
Any views expressed neither represent those of the Latin Mass Society or the Diocese of Wrexham.
Archives
August 2022
|