Bedford
February 26, 2018
Those brining children to the Family Catechism Day either on 3rd March (in Bedford) or 24th March (in Chesham Bois) are asked if possible to prepare your children by giving them a prayer card with an image of Jesus’ Holy Face on the Shroud of Turin and one of Our Lady of Guadalupe as miraculously produced and preserved on St Juan Diego’s tilma. If prayer cards cannot be found or brought along, then a few minutes studying the result of a Google search is another option.
How much God desires to be close to us, to give us everything we need, so that He has arranged most tenderly that we have to this day an image of His incarnate Face, and a true image too of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary! Both images show peace, humility, suffering, strength and an astonishing majesty–not the world’s version of power, but God’s.
As the theme for the Family Catechism Days on 3rd & 24th March will be the Incarnation, it is a perfect preparation for children or adults to gaze on these two beautiful faces of Jesus & Mary. The doctrines are very high, and the pictures very close; thought the greatest mind on earth cannot fathom them, even a child of five can love them.
“Ecce mater tua” (Jn 19:27)
“Qui videt me, videt et Patrem” (Jn 14:9)
“Behold thy mother” (Jn 19:27)
“Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9)
“Non relinquam vos orphanos” (Jn 14:18)
“I will not leave you orphans“
by Fr JM
February 20, 2018
By concession of the Holy See, the Chair of St Peter (22 Feb) is a Feast of the First Class in FSSP apostolates. And by decree of the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, dated June 7, 2008, a plenary indulgence is granted under the usual conditions to the members of the Confraternity of St Peter on this feast (22 Feb). The conditions are:
– to have the intention of gaining the indulgence
– to make a Sacramental Confession (within several days before or after the feast)
– receive the Holy Eucharist (within several days before or after the feast)
– to pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, for example a Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.
– to be free from all attachment to venial sin. This last is difficult, but if it can’t be fulfilled, a partial indulgence may be gained.
Members of the Confraternity can also gain plenary indulgences on the day of their admission into the CSP and on the Feast of SS Peter & Paul (29 June). To sign up, please visit the “Confraternity” tab above. And for information on indulgences click here.
by Fr JM
February 19, 2018
The chaplains for this year’s Summer Camps will be the by then newly ordained Fr Phipps, FSSP (Summer Camp St Peter) and Fr Verrier, FSSP (Summer Camp St Petronilla). The venue for the camps is a Salesian house, whose founder St John Bosco, shortly after his ordination in 1841, wrote of his convictions in rescuing street children:
“The young, who form the most cherished and attractive portion of human society, and in whom are centred all our hopes for a happy future, are by no means intrinsically perverse or inclined to wickedness. Once you have counteracted the carelessness of some parents, the effects of idleness and of evil companions, it becomes the easiest thing imaginable to instil into their young hearts the principles of order, of good behaviour, of respect towards others, and to accustom them to the practice of religion; and if you should meet any who are already spoiled at that tender age, it is the result of neglect rather than of downright wickedness. These are the ones who especially need a helping hand; the difficulty lies in finding the means of gathering them together in order to speak to them and control them. This was the mission the Son of God took upon Himself; this can be done by His Holy Religion alone, which is eternal and unchangeable in itself, which was and always will be the teacher of mankind, which contains a doctrine so perfect that it is suited to all times, and adapted to the different characters of all men.”
From where did the inspiration come to try and pull children of Victorian-era England out of the mire? Surely from Jesus through His Saints. St John Bosco, pray for us.
Details of the camps, and how to book places, can be found here.
by Fr JM
February 17, 2018
Here is a beautiful reflection on an aspect of Our Lady which I had never previously considered. It is to be found in Catholicism Pure and Simple: https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2018/02/17/marys-martyrdom-lifelong/
The Passion of Jesus, as St. Bernard says, began with His Birth, so did Mary’s Martyrdom endure throughout her whole life. Wherefore well might Mary say: My life is wasted with grief and my years in sighs. My sorrow is continually before me.
I.
The Passion of Jesus, as St. Bernard says, began with His Birth. So also did Mary, in all things like unto her Son, endure her Martyrdom throughout her life. Amongst other significations of the name of Mary, as Blessed Albert the Great asserts, is that of “bitter sea.” Mare amarum. Hence to her is applicable the text of Jeremias: Great as the sea is thy destruction. (Lam. ii. 13). For as the sea is all bitter and salt, so also was the life of Mary always full of bitterness at the sight of the Passion of the Redeemer, which was ever present to her mind. There can be no doubt, that, enlightened by the Holy Ghost in a far higher degree than all the Prophets, she, far better than they, understood the predictions recorded by them in the sacred Scriptures concerning the Messias. This is what the Angel revealed to St. Bridget, and he also added: “that the Blessed Virgin, even before she became His Mother, knowing how much the Incarnate Word was to suffer for the salvation of men, and compassionating this innocent Saviour Who was to be so cruelly put to death for crimes not His own, even then began her great Martyrdom.” Mary’s grief was immeasurably increased when she became the Mother of this Saviour; so that at the sad sight of the many torments that were to be endured by her poor Son, she indeed suffered a long Martyrdom, a Martyrdom which lasted her whole life. This was signified with great exactitude to St. Bridget in a vision which she had in Rome in the church of St. Mary Major, where the Blessed Virgin with St. Simeon, and an Angel bearing a very long sword, reddened with blood, appeared to her, denoting thereby the long and bitter grief which transpierced the heart of Mary during her whole life. Whence Rupert supposes Mary thus speaking: “Redeemed souls, and my beloved children, do not pity me only for the hour in which I beheld my dear Jesus expiring before my eyes; for the Sword of Sorrow predicted by Simeon pierced my soul during my whole life. When I was giving suck to my Son, when I was warming Him in my arms, I already foresaw the bitter death that awaited Him. Consider, then, what long and bitter sorrows I must have endured.”
II.
Wherefore, well might Mary say, in the words of David: My life is wasted with grief, and my years in sighs. (Ps. xxx. 11). My sorrow is continually before me. (Ps. xxxvii. 18). “My whole life was spent in sorrow and in tears; for my sorrow, which was compassion for my beloved Son, never departed from before my eyes, as I always foresaw the sufferings and death which He was one day to endure.” The Divine Mother herself revealed to St. Bridget, that even after the Death and Ascension of her Son, whether she ate, or worked, the remembrance of His Passion was ever deeply fixed in her heart, and ever fresh in her memory. Hence Tauler says that the most Blessed Virgin spent her whole life in continual sorrow; for her heart was always occupied with sadness and suffering.
Therefore time, which usually mitigates the sorrows of the afflicted, did not relieve Mary; nay, it even increased her sorrows; for, as Jesus, on the one hand, advanced in age, and always appeared more and more beautiful and amiable; so also, on the other hand, the time of His death ever drew nearer, and grief always increased in the heart of Mary, at the thought of having to lose Him on earth. In the words addressed by the holy Angel to St. Bridget: “As the rose grows up amongst thorns, so the Mother of God advanced in years in the midst of suffering: and as the thorns increase with the growth of the rose, so also did the thorns of her sorrow increase in Mary, the chosen rose of the Lord, as she advanced in age; and so much the more deeply did they pierce her heart.”
by fsspuk
February 14, 2018
Deo gratias for a seventh priest joining the FSSP’s UK apostolate. Fr Konrad Loewenstein is returning to St Mary’s Warrington today. He was born in England in 1958, of Bavarian descent. After A-levels, he studied at Oxford (Christ Church) and later taught in the USA. Fr Loewenstein joined the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in 1997, studying at our motherhouse in Wigratzbad. After his priestly ordination in 2002, he taught at our seminary and later on started our apostolate in Venice, Italy, where he served for a decade.
In November 2017, Fr Loewenstein came to St Mary’s Warrington temporarily, and is now assigned there for six months. His brother is also a priest, in the English Dominican province, and his late father was a well-known supporter of the traditional Latin Mass. Brief biographies of the FSSP’s seven priests in the UK can be found here.
by Fr JM
February 13, 2018
Dear Rev Father,
Fraternal greetings, and may we wish you a happy Shrove Tuesday and a grace-filled Lent.
May we bring to your attention the following conferences, i.e. eight meditations recorded live during our latest clergy retreat at Douai Abbey, Berkshire (22-26 January 2018).
The theme was: Mary, Mother of Priests and Protectress of our Frailty.
We were 15 in total, mostly diocesan, from all over England and Scotland. We are grateful to the Benedictine Community of Douai for their warm welcome, and to the Marian Franciscans of Gosport who kindly make these talks available on their website. Lastly, we thank the various bishops who included this retreat in their Ad Clerum, as in previous years.
Below is a description of each conference.
Marian Clergy Retreat 01 Douai 2018 – She’s More Than Worth It
Spending five days in a monastery is arduous – but worth it, as an investment in our spiritual life. Life is about packing what we will need for an eternal ‘holy day’. So many great things have been written already about Our Lady and the Sacred Priesthood. But we need to make such truths ours, hence the time we take meditating on them. With knowledge comes responsibility. Our Lady will help us become saints, as our priesthood calls us to. The interior life of Our Lady is where it all begun. On her Annunciation, Our Lady knew all that She needed to know about the mission of the Messiah her Son, and about us, her spiritual posterity.
Marian Clergy Retreat 02 Douai 2018 – The Triple Eclipse
The Incarnation of the Logos in Our Lady’s virginal womb is explained as a triple eclipse. A mineral and cosmic eclipse of the sun by the moon. An organic and microcosmic eclipse of Our Lady’s eye (symbolising her soul) by the ovum. In between, a spiritual eclipse (or superimposition) of God’s loving will by Our Lady’s created will, humbly and joyfully responsive.
Marian Clergy Retreat 03 Douai 2018 – God’s First Child Is A Priest
Our Lady is the Mother of God, because her Son is divine as a Person. The human nature He assumed from Her belongs immediately to Him as Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Until Jesus, no child was ever conceived by a sinless mother; and that first Child of grace is a priest. Our Lady loves priests as formally sharing in the distinctive feature of her Son, His priesthood.
Marian Clergy Retreat 04 Douai 2018 – Her Son’s Fingers and Lips
Our Lady wishes to be a mother to all humans, in fulfilment of the Redemption wrought by her Son. Those marked with the sacramental characters of Holy Baptism and Confirmation bear a particular resemblance to her Son Jesus. But in priests only does She find embedded a permanent capacity for imparting divine life, even after some of them may have lost God’s grace. Our Lady watches all the more lovingly over them, until they reach heaven.
Marian Clergy Retreat 05 Douai 2018 – Cord Of Grace Or Bonds Of Death
The Visitation prolongs the Annunciation. Our Lady acts as heavenly midwife to St John the Baptist, the Precursor of the Sovereign High Priest. She forwards to him the Holy Ghost to graft him into the mystical Body of her Son, while carrying Jesus as the Head of the same Body. The devotion to ‘Mary Undoer of Knots’ illustrates this truth. All further members must be connected to their Head through Mary. Despising her spiritual motherhood binds one to the Father of Lies instead, as no middle path is offered.
Marian Clergy Retreat 06 Douai 2018 – Mary As The Potter’s Field
Judas is the type of the fallen priest. Our Lady invites him to come back to the divine Father. Any fallen priest must hope in her intercession, even when engrossed in ungodly business. She can reshape in him the priestly features of her Son even when distorted through betrayal. Filiation to Mary secures life, but filiation to the devil leads to death.
Marian Clergy Retreat 07 Douai 2018 – Espoused to Christ’s Church
As the New Eve, Our Lady is also the Virginal Bride of Christ, the New Adam. She appears at Cana and on Golgotha as ‘The Woman’. With and through Her, the divine Bridegroom fosters a spiritual progeny. Guided by St Joseph, priests may prudently enter into this sponsal companionship. Priestly celibacy is a treasure for the world, as a striking sign of the power of divine grace working through ordinary men. Priests sacrifice to God the great good of biological fatherhood. This makes them even more apt to protect unborn children, images of the Saviour in the earliest stage of His redemptive Incarnation.
Marian Clergy Retreat 08 Douai 2018 – Him Whom My Soul Loveth
As the Word became flesh, Christ was ordained a priest. Marked indelibly with the priestly character of her Son, priests are ontologically entitled to Our Lady’s assistance. Hence, priests have a greater duty to bear fruit of grace. Non-priests can be more holy though, if they love more. Mary was granted priestly powers once, but priests have them at their constant disposal. Mary will seek her Son’s priests, not resting until She sees them secure in grace, forever in heaven. Priests respond to her zeal by becoming her sons.
Ordinations:
We ask for your prayers for 23 of our seminarians who were ordained to the minor orders and subdiaconate last Saturday, including Gwilym, from Wales.
See all the pictures here.
We would be delighted if any of you were available to attend the priestly ordination (in the Extraordinary Form) of Deacon Seth Phipps, FSSP, here at St Mary’s Warrington, on Saturday 9 June 2018, 11am, by our local Ordinary, Archbishop Malcom McMahon OP.
See pictures of last year’s ordination here.
LiveMass:
Daily (EF) Mass with homily on our FSSP channel: http://www.livemass.org/.
Thank you for your interest.
(If your inbox is already full of similar information, feel very welcome to unsubscribe from this circular emailing list. Alternatively, you may like to take a look at our new revamped website for the UK & Ireland, with interactive options: http://fssp.co.uk/.)
Fraternally,
Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP (Rector of St Mary’s Shrine, Warrington, Liverpool Archdiocese) |
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by Fr AM
Catholic Young Adults, aged 18 – 35, are invited to a social evening this Saturday 17 February in Bedford. This will be the first time the FSSP are hosting such an evening in the area, so we are flexible with the programme, depending on the preferences of those who attend.
Fr James Mawdsley, FSSP will be glad to welcome you from 5 pm at the church hall of Christ the King Church, Harrowden Road, Bedford, MK42 0SP. There is parking available in the church car park. After introductions there, we will likely go to a nearby place to eat in Bedford town centre (so best to arrive at the church hall not too late after 5 pm).
Do contact Fr Mawdsley if you have questions or suggestions or just to let him know you hope to attend. Here is the link: http://fssp.co.uk/young-adults-group-18-35-starting-in-bedford-this-saturday-17-feb/ which also gives a map.
by fsspuk
Catholic Young Adults, aged 18 – 35, are invited to a social evening this Saturday 17 Feb in Bedford. This will be the first time the FSSP are hosting such an evening in the area, so we are flexible with the programme, depending on the preferences of those who attend.
Fr James Mawdsley, FSSP will be glad to welcome you from 5pm at the church hall of Christ the King Church, Harrowden Road, Bedford, MK42 0SP. There is parking available in the church car park. After introductions there, we will likely go to a nearby place to eat in Bedford town centre (so best to arrive at the church hall not too late after 5pm).
Do contact Fr Mawdsley if you have questions or suggestions or just to let him know you hope to attend.
by Fr JM
February 12, 2018
With Lent almost upon us now, here are some suggestions which Fr Goddard gave in his homily last Sunday as to how we might use this holy time of grace.
Prayer
· Try to get to Mass more often during Lent
· Try to get to Confession regularly during Lent.
· If you are not already saying a daily Rosary then Lent would be a good time to start. If you do already, then why not take a second Rosary during Lent for the needs of others.
· The Stations of the Cross is a popular devotion which focusses us on the direction Lent leads us, namely salvation won for us through Christ’s Passion and Death.
· Why not take up a particular prayer intention for Lent:
o This could be personal or for others in your life.
o For our children’s education and the end to immoral secular agendas being imposed in the classroom.
o For the clear and unambiguous reaffirmation of Church teaching around marriage.
· Lent would be a good time to make an effort in spiritual reading: You might like to consider volume 2 of Benedict XVI’s book: Jesus of Nazareth: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.
Fasting
· Only take on things which you think you can manage for 40 days – don’t overstretch yourself.
· Don’t choose something that will make you “crabby”, thus leading you and those around you into sin.
· Don’t give up if you slip up in your resolve, but keep starting again for the 40 days.
· If charity towards a challenging person in your life is particularly difficult, refraining from a lack of charity and trying to get on with that person can be a greater penance and mortification than, for example, chocolate or television.
Almsgiving
· Home – Consider supporting a pro-life charity, such as SPUC or The Good Counsel Network.
· Abroad – Consider supporting a charity which supports persecuted Christians, such as Aid to the Church in Need.
by fsspuk
“…they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind”
Jeremiah 19
The most powerful reason against abortion is God’s Sovereign ownership of every immortal spirit, of every human soul, of every creature. There is just one week remaining to add your voice defending the unborn in the consultation on ‘buffer zones’ opened up by the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, MP.
Click on the image below to give your views online. The deadline is 19 February.
To read Bishop John Sherrington’s homily on the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act, given with depth and clarity, click here. Below is an important letter from Clare McCullough of the Good Counsel Network to the Home Secretary outlining what is at stake.
“They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood.”
Psalm 105
by Fr JM
