Saturday, June 23, 2012

Feast of SS Peter and Paul

It is quite a shock to be having a proper Holyday on Friday. As usual there will be a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at SS Peter and Paul`s, Longbenton on Friday at 7pm. We`ll be having a Palestrina Mass setting: at the minute I don`t know which one. After Mass there will be refreshments in the parish hall.

 UPDATE:
 
Photos from the Mass can be found here. Many thanks to Mike.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

FSSP Vocations weekend

I`m just back from a few days in Rome. More on that anon. In the meantime Fr de Malleray has asked me to mention this which I`m pleased to do.


Vocation discernment weekend: 27-29 July 2012 in Reading:
For any English-speaking Catholic men between 18 and 35 years of age (under 18 please contact us).
Starts on Friday 27th July 2012 at 6pm (arrivals from 5pm) – ends on Sunday 29th July 2012 at 3pm.
Led by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, assisted by Fr Matthew Goddard, FSSP and Rev Alex Stewart, FSSP.
Location: St John Fisher House, 17 Eastern Avenue, Reading, RG1 5RU, England.

(Picture: FSSP seminarians praying the Divine Office in the FSSP parish church in Rome)

Programme: Spiritual conferences, socials, Holy Mass each of the three days (Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite), silent prayer, and optional private talk with Fr de Malleray, FSSP. Fr de Malleray will explain what a vocation is in general and to the priesthood in particular.
Cost for the whole weekend, 2 days + 2 nights, full board: no set price for students or unemployed – any donation welcome; others: £50 suggested.
Contact: Tel: 0118 966 5284; Email: malleray@fssp.org; website: www.fssp.co.uk/england

Friday, June 15, 2012

The Irish College Rome

An interesting report on the Irish College in today`s Irish Times on the Vatican visitation.. I was particularly taken with the line :

The general rule of governance is ‘Let’s keep doing what we have been for the last 35 years’,

and:

Staff, it added, were “critical about any emphasis on Rome, tradition, the magisterium, piety or assertive orthodoxy, while the students are enthusiastic about these features”.
A change in the staff was recommended.

Elsewhere the report said: “The apostolic visitor noted, and heard from students, an ‘anti-ecclesial bias’ in theological formation.”

This may also be true of other seminaries, even in Rome, I suspect.

The whole report is here.
 

Fr Grieves` Ordination

This is very late but just to say back on May 29th I was delighted to be at Fr Grieves` priestly ordination at St Anne`s, Darlington. Fr Dickson wrote an account of the evening shortly afterwards. What stays with me is the enthusiastic singing of the congregation, the beautiful singing of the Byrd four-part Mass and the well-trained altar servers. Two other things struck me too. Maybe there had been a lack of communication but when one of our diocesan priests got up to read the Gospel he said `The Lord be with you` and got a choral response of `And with your spirit` and the same for the introduction to the Gospel. It marked for me our sometimes utilitarian approach to liturgy compared to those of an Anglican background. The other thing was that at the consecration the well-drilled torch-bearers raised their torches at the elevations. I`d not seen that done before and assume it is an Anglo-Catholic practice. I`m wondering whether I like it or not and whether to introduce it here at Forest Hall as we often have torch-bearers on a Sunday.

Here`s a picture from the Ordinariate Flickr page of Fr Grieves and his team of servers.


Ad multos annos to Fr Grieves and the Darlington Ordinariate!

Monday, June 04, 2012

New Blog

I`ve a number of things to blog about but Fr Henry`s blog has reminded me I should have mentioned Fr Gary Dickson is the co-author of a new blog, Catholic Collar and Tie. The Tie part is provided by Andrew McDowell. Fr Dickson has had quite a number of letters in the Catholic press over the years and I am delighted that he has finally taken to blogging. It`s good to have another Hexham and Newcastle blog too: Fr Dickson is parish priest in Thornley, Co Durham. Looking at the blog also reminds me I was going to write about Fr Grieves ordination last Tuesday so I hope to do so as soon as I can.