Chesham Bois
February 10, 2018
On Ash Wednesday (14 Feb), the 11am Mass in Chesham Bois and the 7:30pm Mass in Reading will both be Sung Masses. For those who wish to familiarise themselves with some of the chant and prayers, clicking on the images below will open links to wonderful resources. In Chesham Bois, Mass XVII will be sung with the longer Kyrie (score A) also used for the chant for the Ite missa est. A recording of the Marian antiphon, Ave regina caelorum, can be heard below.
V. Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata.
R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.
Oremus. Concede, misericors Deus, fragilitati nostrae praesidium: ut, qui sanctae Dei Genitricis memoriam agimus; intercessionis eius auxilio, a nostris iniquitatibus resurgamus. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
by Fr JM
February 7, 2018
Today the FSSP UK priests’ meeting included a visit to Lancaster.
Image (above): close to the spot in Lancaster Castle where St Edmund Arrowsmith was held before being martyred in 1628.
Image (above): A memorial stone marking the location of several martyrdoms in Lancaster. Among those whose intercession we invoked was Bl James Bell, born in Warrington, and martyred in Lancaster in 1584 under Bloody Queen Bess.
Downhill from where the martyrs died is the plot on which in 1859 the Catholic Cathedral of St Peter was built. The cathedral’s fine windows tell of St Peter’s life and death in Christ. Above:
- St Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost
- St Peter at the Council of Jerusalem
- St Peter delivered from prison by an angel
And below:
- St Peter’s restoreth Tabitha to life
- Lord, where goest Thou
- St Peter is crucified at Rome
St Peter, pray for us.
by Fr JM
Every priest is appointed to offer sacrifice (cf Heb 5:1).
FSSP UK priest meeting at St Mary’s Shrine.
by Fr JM
February 2, 2018
Welcome to FSSP England’s new website. While the site was born on the Commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord, it is going public today, Feast the Presentation of Our Lord. Remembering also the Purification of Our Lady today, the Church sings the Ave Regina Caelorum at the end of Compline from tonight until Wednesday of Holy Week. Of your charity, please say a prayer for the good fruit of this website, asking Our Lady’s patronage, so that it serve the mission of her divine Son.
V. Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata.
R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos.
Oremus. Concede, misericors Deus, fragilitati nostrae praesidium: ut, qui sanctae Dei Genitricis memoriam agimus; intercessionis eius auxilio, a nostris iniquitatibus resurgamus. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
For the website itself, the homepage is a simple portal:
There are dedicated pages for apostolates in Bedford, Chesham Bois, Reading and Warrington, plus a link through to FSSP Scotland. And given the regular visits by FSSP priests, there is a dedicated page for Ireland. Under ‘Activities’ the ‘Calendar’ gives notice of forthcoming events–with options to display weekly, monthly or as agenda:
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by Fr JM
January 17, 2018
The theme for this year’s Summer Camps will be True Devotion to Our Lady according to St Louis Marie de Montfort. Children on the camps will learn how simple it is to devote oneself to Jesus through Mary, and how incomparably beneficial for both this life and the next.
We will not ask children to make any consecration of themselves, as this is properly a decision to be taken within their family. Instead we will use the catechism and the play to inform and inspire interest.
The theme for the 2017 camps was “The Reformation” and for 2016 was “Fatima”.
This year’s theme is chosen with prayerful gratitude to the priests, brothers and staff of the Company of Mary (the De Montfort Brothers) who have hosted our Summer Camps in recent years with such generosity at their beautiful house and grounds in the New Forest. As the numbers of participants on the camps keeps increasing from year to year since we began in 2013, we have needed to find a larger venue.
St John Bosco, pray for us.
St Louis Marie de Montfort, pray for us.
Our Lady Conceived without sin, pray for us.
by Fr JM
January 13, 2018
“Tribus miráculis ornatum diem sanctum cólimus:
hódie stella Magos duxit ad præsépium:
hódie vinum ex aqua factum est ad núptias:
hódie in Iordáne a Ioánne Christus baptizári vóluit,
ut salváret nos, allelúia.”
“This day we keep a holiday in honour of three wonders:
this day a star led the wise men to the manger;
this day at the marriage, water was made wine;
this day was Christ pleased to be baptized of John in the Jordan,
for our salvation. Alleluia.”
— Magnificat Antiphon, last day of Epiphanytide
Three theophanies are traditionally celebrated together, for they are intimately linked: the worship of Jesus by the Magi stands for the revelation of the Son of God to the Gentiles; Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan stands for His revelation to the Jews; and the marriage feast at Cana stands for our Lord’s revelation to His Apostles.
The order is significant. The first happened at the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth, as the Gentiles having been converting to Christ from the beginning. The second happened toward the end of Jesus’ mortal life, as St Paul and the Prophet Malachi tell us the Jews will convert to Christ at the end. This is also foreshadowed in the final chapters of Genesis, when all the world has gone to Joseph, Saviour of the World, to beg for bread, for life, and then finally Joseph’s brothers come too, and recognise him whom they thought was dead, and great was their love! And the third, Jesus’ revelation to His chosen ones, His friends, in the context of marriage, tells us that the final vision of the Divine Glory will mean eternal union between Christ the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride.
Blessed Epiphanytide. May our new website be all for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
13 January 2018, Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord
by Fr JM
