FSSP
United Kingdom and Ireland

Ireland

July 16, 2020

Eucharistic Reverence

Today, an on-line conference for all.

Details here: https://voiceofthefamily.com/events/love-and-reverence-to-our-lord-lets-always-receive-holy-communion-on-the-tongue/

LOVE AND REVERENCE DUE TO OUR LORD: LET’S ALWAYS RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION ON THE TONGUE

An online conference “Love and reverence due to Our Lord: Let’s always receive Holy Communion on the tongue” will be held on Thursday, 16 July 2020 from 12:00pm EST until 2:30pm.

This event is being held online for free and can be viewed on LifeSite’s YouTube channel and on the LifeSiteNews Catholic Facebook page. To bookmark the LifeSite YouTube channel, click here.

The event will feature the following guests: 

  • Fr. Serafino Lanzetta, Diocese of Portsmouth, UK
  • Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Author
  • Alexander Tschugguel, St. Boniface Institute
  • Theresa Habsburg
  • John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews
  • John Smeaton, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

No registration is necessary. Please tune in Thursday, 16 July 2020 beginning at 12:00pm EST!

All presentations will be readily available to watch immediately afterwards if you cannot attend.

***

About the theme of this conference

Voice of the Family in union with the pro-life movement worldwide advocates for the inviolability and value of human life and proudly so. Indeed, we consider it a privilege and honour to defend the most vulnerable human lives. Many in the pro-life movement are prepared to lay down their own lives for the lives of those they seek to protect. This is the strength of our commitment.

And yet there is something even more precious than the sanctity of human life, and this is the divine life truly present in the Holy Eucharist in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Our greatest treasure on earth is the Blessed Sacrament. There is no other nation so great, the Divine Office of Corpus Christi sings, “as to have its gods so near as our God is present to us”. The Eucharist is our dearest treasure and the thought of having it so near to us in our Catholic churches fills us with gratitude and awe. 

We rejoice as churches around the world re-open. Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist can be received again. But whilst the life of a Catholic might be characterised as discerning how we can best offer the love and reverence due to Our Lord, Catholics in many places in the world are now faced with a new and terrible challenge of how are we allowed to worship Our Lord. New regulations, issued by some of the world’s bishops, recommend that the faithful receive Holy Communion in the hand and, in the most radical cases, including in Britain, bishops attempt to ban Holy Communion on the tongue. These recommendations contradict divine and Church law, they obscure the reality of the Real Presence, and they lead the faithful, albeit, please God, in most cases unintentionally, to engage in practices lacking in reverence towards the divine life. 

What are we, the laity, to do in such a situation? How can we defend the Eucharist and offer Our Lord the love and reverence due to Him?

First, we must know that by insisting on receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, we are standing on solid ground, prepared by the Tradition of the Church and made fertile with the blood of her martyrs. Tradition demands the greatest possible reverence towards the Holy Eucharist. In fact, serious punishments used to be reserved for practices which are being recommended by some bishops today. The faithful are being misled into believing that the responsible option is to receive Our Lord in the hand despite the very real danger of losing and desecrating fragments of our Eucharistic Lord. And following the instructions issued in the current crisis, Catholics are being schooled to remember in future that this is the so-called “safer option” when similar problems arrive. 

But generations of Catholics before us have kept their devotion to our Eucharistic Lord unchanged throughout wars, epidemics, and other disasters that have struck the world – not because they did not know the danger they were in, but because they knew Who is in the Eucharist they approached. 

St. Thomas taught: “Out of reverence towards this Sacrament, nothing touches it, but what is consecrated; hence the corporal and the chalice are consecrated, and likewise the priest’s hands, for touching this Sacrament. Hence, it is not lawful for anyone else to touch it except from necessity, for instance, if it were to fall upon the ground, or else in some other case of urgency.” (16 ST, III, Q. 82, Art. 13)

The Real Presence does not change. It is not possible that what the Church has always taught about the Holy Eucharist does not apply following the coronavirus. 

Secondly, receiving Holy Communion on the tongue remained the norm even after the practice of Communion in the hand was introduced in 1969 under certain conditions despite the opposition of the overwhelming majority of the bishops at the time. Thus, it is a practice that the Church in modern times, tragically, tolerates. 

However, the universal law of the Church states that the faithful have the right to receive Communion on the tongue and that this right cannot be denied to them. This is the universal norm that no bishop or a bishops’ conference can overrule. As lay faithful, we must insist upon our right to receive Holy Communion on the tongue. But above all, we must insist that Our Lord has the right to be received in the most reverent manner possible. This is not a matter of our personal piety but justice due to Him.

The ultimate target of Satan’s attacks is the Holy Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ is really present. The devil will do everything in his power to obscure the sacred reality of the Eucharist in order to diminish reverence due to Him. Today his scheme aims to lead large groups of faithful to desecration of the Eucharistic Body of Christ on an unprecedented scale. He wants the Body of Christ to be trampled on by the feet of clergy and laity in Catholic churches around the world. For a vast number of Catholics in the past fifty years, the practice of receiving Communion in the hand has weakened faith in the Real Presence, in transubstantiation and in the divine character of the Sacrament. The devil would use anything to advance his wicked plots, even our longing to be united with Our Lord again in the Holy Eucharist after being deprived of assisting at Holy Mass for months. 

We must join in making acts of reparation for sins committed against the Holy Eucharist in our churches. The Eucharistic fragments falling down and crushed by the feet of God’s own people has to be for us a tragedy that demands action. 

And this brings us to the role of the pro-life movement. We could take the view that this painful development troubles us as Catholics, but does not relate to our noble work of saving babies. However, this is not the case. 

On the contrary, to be fully pro-life means being fully Catholic: offering everyone the gift of eternal life, which comes only through Jesus Christ and the saving truth He has confided to the Catholic Church. How can we say we care deeply about an unborn child, his mother, or anyone, and not offer them the possibility of eternal life, which only comes through the Catholic Church?

We in the pro-life movement defend the reality of hidden life. We are accustomed to defending human life hidden in the womb and now we are being called upon to defend the divine life hidden in the tabernacle, Who is being abused by many of those who should be the first to love Him. Catholics in the pro-life movement are uniquely well prepared to counter these offences.

Also, we may wonder, is it merely a co-incidence, that Communion in the hand that obscures the dignity of divine life was introduced about fifty years ago, just as abortion in many western countries that denies the dignity of human life was introduced about fifty years ago? Today we reap the bitter fruits: human life has lost its value in human society and the Body of Christ has become abused in His churches.

And just as it is impossible to calculate the countless desecrations of the Body of Christ in the sacrilegious treatment of the Holy Eucharist brought about by the practice of Communion in the hand, it is also impossible to number the unborn children – made in the image and likeness of God – killed worldwide not only under permissive abortion legislation, but also those killed as a result of abortifacient contraceptive drugs and devices, and through IVF procedures.

The truth about the sanctity of human life before birth cannot triumph without the recognition of the truth about Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. 

This is why we have organised this online conference, as Voice of the Family, uniting pro-life and pro-family groups from all around the world. With this conference we wish to mobilise our fellow lay Catholics to offer the love and reverence due to Our Lord truly present in the Holy Eucharist. We are very pleased to bring you some moving personal witnesses, as well as interviews and presentations by some of the outstanding Catholic thinkers and activists today. 

Please join us on 16 July 2020!

CONFERENCE 2020LOVE AND REVERENCE TO OUR LORD

Tags: CONFERENCE 2020LOVE AND REVERENCE TO OUR LORD

June 17, 2020

St Peter and St Petronilla Summer Camps 2020 cancelled

I regret to inform you that the FSSP England summer camps scheduled for this coming August in the Peak District have had to be cancelled. This is due to the restrictions imposed by the government, which made it unrealistic for Savio House to host us this time.

Here’s hoping and praying that the 2021 camps will be even better to compensate!

May 24, 2020

Dowry #45

Spring 2020

In this issue:        

Editorial: God Is At Work

To Believe, Or Not To Believe?

LiveMass: Consoling And Evangelising

Empty Churches And Full Communion

St Louis De Montfort And the Bishops

Principles Of Hierarchical Communion

Dowry Of Mary

I Am The Good Shepherd

New Book On The Sacred Priesthood

Support Our Apostolate

May 14, 2020

Best Re-open Our Churches petition to sign

Please sign this important petition: https://citizengo.org/en-gb/rf/179408-open-our-churches-and-restore-worship

Open our churches

To Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,

All of the signers of this petition have experienced, like everyone else, the separation from our loved ones… but also the separation from places of worship as part of the COVID lockdown imposed on our country. 

On 11th May the government published a 50 page roadmap outlining the steps which will be taken in order to alleviate some of the restrictions placed on the population. We respectfully ask you to also pay attention to the needs of Christians, the UK’s largest aggregate community and to consider our need to celebrate our faith. In particular, we ask you to prioritise the immediate reopening of churches as places of private prayer along with the swift resumption of weekly worship services, Masses, wedding ceremonies, funerals and baptisms. 

Places of worship will know how to organize adequate instruments of social distancing within their facilities, and you should trust people of faith to be smart about protecting themselves and others. Please take a step forward to protect the right to believers to freely profess one’s religious faith and practice its worship, as recognized by the European Convention on Human Rights.


May 6, 2020

Stabat Mater tonight Part 2


The Men’s Talk this evening (Wed 6th May 2020 8pm) on LiveMass.net (Warrington live) will be given by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Hans_Memling_-_Triptych_of_Jan_Crabbe_-_WGA14810.jpg

In response to interest expressed after a Lenten sermon on this topic, Fr de Malleray will offer a two-part commentary on the celebrated Marian hymn.

While the Stabat Mater fits with Lent rather than Eastertide, its spirituality can benefit Catholic souls at all times, especially in the present sacramental dearth.

This is part of St Mary’s weekly Men’s Group (but surely Our Lady won’t object to women attending remotely). Litany of St Joseph and Sung Compline will follow as usual.

We recommend this sober and evocative renddition of the sung Stabat Mater with subtitles.

Stabat Mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa
Dum pendebat Filius.
The grieving Mother
stood weeping beside the cross
where her Son was hanging.
Cuius animam gementem
Contristatam et dolentem
Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti!
Through her weeping soul,
compassionate and grieving,
a sword passed.

O how sad and afflicted
was that blessed Mother
of the only-begotten,
Quae moerebat et dolebat,
Pia Mater, dum videbat
Nati poenas incliti.
who mourned and grieved,
seeing and bearing the torment
of her glorious child.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret
In tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari,
Christi Matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum Filio?
Who is it that would not weep,
seeing Christ’s Mother
in such agony?

Who could not feel compassion
on beholding the Holy Mother
suffering with her Son?
Pro peccatis suae gentis
Vidit Iesum in tormentis,
Et flagellis subditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum
Moriendo desolatum
Dum emisit spiritum.
For the sake of his peoples’ sins,
she saw Jesus tormented,
and subjected to whips.

She saw her sweet child
die desolate,
as he gave up His spirit.
Eja Mater, fons amoris
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum
Ut sibi complaceam.

Sancta Mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo valide.
O Mother, fountain of love,
make me feel the power of sorrow,
that I may grieve with you.

Grant that my heart may burn
in the love of Christ my God,
that I may greatly please Him.

Holy Mother, make
the wounds of the Crucifixion
in my own heart.
Tui nati vulnerati,
Tam dignati pro me pati,
Poenas mecum divide.
Let me share the pain
of your own wounded Son
who chose to suffer so much for me.
Fac me tecum, pie, flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
Donec ego vixero.
Let me weep with you, O pious one,
and show compassion for the crucified
as long as I live.
Juxta crucem tecum stare,
Et me tibi sociare
In planctu desidero.
I wish to stand with you next to the Cross
and to be your companion
in lamentation.
Virgo virginum praeclara,
Mihi jam non sis amara
Fac me tecum plangere.
Most illustrious virgin of virgins,
Do not be harsh with me,
allow me to weep with you.
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem
Passionis fac consortem,
Et plagas recolere.
Grant that I might bear
the suffering and death of Christ,
and receive his wounds.
Fac me plagis vulnerari,
Fac me cruce inebriari,
Et cruore Filii.
Flammis ne urar succensus,
per te virgo sim defensus,
in die judicii.


Wound me with his wounds,
make me drunk with the Cross
and the blood of your son.
Burning and on fire,
let me be defended by you, O Virgin,
on the Day of Judgment. May I be guarded by the cross,
protected by Christ’s death,
nurtured by grace.
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animae donetur
Paradisi gloria.
Amen.
When my body dies,
let my soul be given
the glory of paradise.
Amen.
April 29, 2020

Stabat Mater Talk today 8pm

The Men’s Talk this evening (Wed 29 April 2020 8pm) on LiveMass.net (Warrington live) will be given by Fr Armand de Malleray FSSP.

In response to interest expressed after a Lenten sermon on this topic, Fr de Malleray will offer a two-part commentary on the celebrated Marian hymn.

While the Stabat Mater fits with Lent rather than Eastertide, its spirituality can benefit Catholic souls at all times, especially in the present sacramental dearth.

This is part of St Mary’s weekly Men’s Group (but surely Our Lady won’t object to women attending remotely). Litany of St Joseph and Sung Compline will follow as usual.

We recommend this sober and evocative renddition of the sung Stabat Mater with subtitles.

Stabat Mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa
Dum pendebat Filius.
The grieving Mother
stood weeping beside the cross
where her Son was hanging.
Cuius animam gementem
Contristatam et dolentem
Pertransivit gladius.

O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti!
Through her weeping soul,
compassionate and grieving,
a sword passed.

O how sad and afflicted
was that blessed Mother
of the only-begotten,
Quae moerebat et dolebat,
Pia Mater, dum videbat
Nati poenas incliti.
who mourned and grieved,
seeing and bearing the torment
of her glorious child.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret
In tanto supplicio?

Quis non posset contristari,
Christi Matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum Filio?
Who is it that would not weep,
seeing Christ’s Mother
in such agony?

Who could not feel compassion
on beholding the Holy Mother
suffering with her Son?

Pro peccatis suae gentis
Vidit Iesum in tormentis,
Et flagellis subditum.

Vidit suum dulcem natum
Moriendo desolatum
Dum emisit spiritum.

For the sake of his peoples’ sins,
she saw Jesus tormented,
and subjected to whips.

She saw her sweet child
die desolate,
as he gave up His spirit.
Eja Mater, fons amoris
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.

Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum
Ut sibi complaceam.

Sancta Mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo valide.
O Mother, fountain of love,
make me feel the power of sorrow,
that I may grieve with you.

Grant that my heart may burn
in the love of Christ my God,
that I may greatly please Him.

Holy Mother, make
the wounds of the Crucifixion
in my own heart.

Tui nati vulnerati,
Tam dignati pro me pati,
Poenas mecum divide.
Let me share the pain
of your own wounded Son
who chose to suffer so much for me.
Fac me tecum, pie, flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
Donec ego vixero.
Let me weep with you, O pious one,
and show compassion for the crucified
as long as I live.
Juxta crucem tecum stare,
Et me tibi sociare
In planctu desidero.
I wish to stand with you next to the Cross
and to be your companion
in lamentation.
Virgo virginum praeclara,
Mihi jam non sis amara
Fac me tecum plangere.
Most illustrious virgin of virgins,
Do not be harsh with me,
allow me to weep with you.
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem
Passionis fac consortem,
Et plagas recolere.
Grant that I might bear
the suffering and death of Christ,
and receive his wounds.
Fac me plagis vulnerari,
Fac me cruce inebriari,
Et cruore Filii.
Flammis ne urar succensus,
per te virgo sim defensus,
in die judicii.


Wound me with his wounds,
make me drunk with the Cross
and the blood of your son.
Burning and on fire,
let me be defended by you, O Virgin,
on the Day of Judgment. May I be guarded by the cross,
protected by Christ’s death,
nurtured by grace.
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animae donetur
Paradisi gloria.
Amen.
When my body dies,
let my soul be given
the glory of paradise.
Amen.

Maundy Thursday uploaded

Thanks to our dedicated LiveMass team, we can now watch online permanently the entire Maundy Thursday liturgy 2020 filmed at St Mary’s Shrine, with Fr Alex Stewart, FSSP as celebrant and homilist.

(The last hour or so is adoration at the Altar of Repose.)

https://vimeo.com/408741709

Dowry of Mary

Presentation given on the National Consecration of England to the Blessed Virgin – March 29th 2020, by Fr Henry Whisenant, Assistant Priest at St Mary’s Shrine, Warrington, England

What a blessing that because of the LiveMass facilities in this church, those of you watching at home can join us in these devotions for the national consecration of England to Our Lady, even if we cannot be united in person.

This consecration, taking place across our country today, is to renew the offering of England to the Blessed Virgin under its privileged title of Dos Mariae, the Dowry of Mary.

It’s difficult to know when such a title was first in use – perhaps by the time of St Edward the Confessor – but there are at least clear, indisputable references to it by the 14th century. Already in 1350, one preacher was able to state: “it is commonly said that the land of England is the Virgin’s Dowry”. And on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, priests in England prayed to Our Lady under the title, “Protectress of her dower”.

What does the term mean: Our Lady’s Dowry or Our Lady’s Dower? It refers to the custom in marriages of old, that when a woman was married, the bride’s family provided certain possessions or property to be given with her to her husband. This property, this “dowry”, could not simply be liquidated by the husband – rather it was a conditional gift that was still in some way attached to the bride, so that if the husband were to die, the widow would have some financial security for herself and her children. It was also customary in certain cultures for the husband himself to provide a “dower”, a gift of wealth of property to his bride upon their wedding, for this same purpose.

England then was seen to be Our Lady’s Dowry, or Our Lady’s Dower, in this sense: that the Lord God, the Divine Spouse of her immaculate soul, entrusted to her this small island country to be her portion, to be under her custody and at her disposal. Throughout the centuries, from its evangelisation until the wanton destruction of the country’s faith under the Protestant revolution, the people of this land felt a great affection for the Mother of Christ as their mistress and protector, and they had a devotion to her that was famed in Europe.

At the height of this devotion, in 1381, around the Feast of Corpus Christi, King Richard II took the step of formally consecrating the country to Our Lady, in front of her image in Westminster Abbey, an event which is famously commemorated in the Wilton Diptych, which you can go see (but not right now, alas!) in the National Gallery in London.

On this Passion Sunday, in 2020, we gather, if not in body then in spirit, to renew this same consecration to Our Lady once again.

We might be forgiven for regretting the timing of this renewal, with all this happening around us. We might be forgiven for hankering after the solemn ceremony of 1381, and for thinking that – with the current virus doing the rounds, and everything cancelled and everyone in lockdown – we are, by contrast, in the very worst possible circumstances – the most dispiriting, the most underwhelming – for a renewal of that national consecration today!

But I suggest we look again at that first consecration of 1381… For we will find that, in reality, even more than ours today, that historic event took place in the midst of terrible pestilence and disease, social disruption and national anxiety.

To see this, we must go back 33 years before that consecration to the Black Death. The Black Death, the Plague, was a disease that also began in China, and was carried to Europe in 1348 by infected rats along prominent trade routes from East to West.

Between 1348 to 1349, the Black Death swept through England, and wiped out as much as 40-60% of the population. To get a sense of the magnitude of this, compare it to the coronavirus today. To this date, roughly 20,000 people in the UK are said to have tested positive with the virus: that’s 0.3% of the population. And just over 1,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus: that’s less than 0.002% of the current population… And now imagine a disease that claimed 40-60% of the populace! Not only this, but the plague returned every dozen years or so until the end of the century… For example, from autumn 1379 to 1380, it carried off up to another20% of England’s population!

The country, in terror, came to a standstill. Parliament was postponed. The King’s court was dismissed from Easter until midsummer. The London Guildhall was closed.

Keep in mind that this was less than a year before King Richard’s consecration of the country to Our Lady. The consecration took place in a country that was struggling to function normally after such a great atrocity – a plague significantly more crippling than anything we are yet facing today.

And not only this…

Because of the dramatic and sudden loss of life, England under Richard II was also experiencing profound social unrest. With the drastic shortage of labourers, those who were left to do the work demanded a greater salary for the increased work that was left to them. But the landowners, the employers, were reluctant to do this, and the ongoing tension led finally to the Peasants’ Revolt in June of 1381, when thousands of workers marched on London, killed anyone they found connected to the Royal Court (including the chancellor and the treasurer), and forced King Richard to meet with them and accede to their demands. It wasn’t until the end of June that this riot was largely quelled, and the rebels killed or dispersed.

Now bear in mind that this was the very same month when the Dowry Consecration took place. In other words, the King was not consecrating England to Our Lady simply as a nice and pleasant thing to do…! He was consecrating it to her, as her Dowry, as a way of saying: “Help! I don’t know what to do about all this! I don’t know how to manage all this chaos in my country! Come and be the mistress and protector and ruler of this land, your possession.” The consecration of 1381 was a plea to Our Lady in a time of great confusion and need.

It is in that same spirit that we present England to Our Lady on this day. “Mary, come to the aid of this country! Protect us from calamity, but protect us also from fear!” Let us not be paralysed by the daily media updates of new cases and hypothetical outcomes calculated to keep us in constant suspense and anxiety. Let us not have that fickle spirit of the world, that one day appears so confident and secure, even invincible, in its emancipation from God and in its freedom to sin, and then when the first threat comes along is paralysed by a terror mixed with morbid fascination. Such is not the spirit of the followers of Jesus Christ, who are called, rather, to live by the words of the Psalmist: “Those who put their trust in the Lord are like Mount Sion – they shall never be moved”.

We ask Mary, the mistress of her Dowry, to protect us also in these times from a spirit of bitterness and frustration…

Perhaps many of you watching these ceremonies today are frustrated that you cannot be here in the church. You might think, “What kind of consecration is it if I have to do it in the obscurity of my own home?” You may have had plans to be here, to be in your local cathedral, to be in the national shrine in Walsingham, before the lockdown made that impossible.

But let’s remember what the message of that particular shrine is about. Let’s move our focus for the last part of this reflection from the Richard II’s consecration in Westminster Abbey in 1381, to the vision of Richeldis de Faverche in Walsingham in 1061. When Our Lady appeared to Richeldis, what did she ask? She asked for a copy of the Holy House of Nazareth to be built in that place – the house where the angel announced to Our Lady herself the Incarnation of the Lord, and her vocation as the Virginal Mother of God.

Recall that event as it happened in the Scriptures. Recall that in the first chapter of St Luke’s Gospel that mystery of the Annunciation is paralleled with another announcement: to Zechariah, the father of St John the Baptist. Zechariah, a priest of Israel, was in the sanctuary of the Temple, offering incense to the Lord, and the Angel Gabriel appeared to him to tell him that his wife Elisabeth would, in her old age, conceive a son. Zechariah doubted the angel’s message, and as punishment for his doubt was struck dumb, until the birth of the Baptist…

Notice this… Zechariah is a priest… he is in the Temple… but he is not by virtue of these things alone at one with God. Rather, he is found wanting.

Then St Luke recounts the angel’s announcement to Mary. She is called full of grace, she is told that the Lord is with her, and that she will conceive the Son of the Most High by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost! And all this took place, where? Not the Temple in Jerusalem, where Our Lady had spent her girlhood, but in the obscurity of her parents’ home, in the unremarkable, unimportant town of Nazareth. It was in the isolation of her own home that Our Lady, by her Fiat, consecrated herself to the service of Jesus Christ as His mother.

At the same time, it was in in her womb, under the roof of that ordinary house, and not in a great stone temple, that Christ was consecrated High Priest of the Human Race. For at His conception in the womb, the Eternal Son of God took to Himself a human soul, and flesh and blood, and thereby the priestly power to offer sacrifice.

Again, it was not in a Temple, but on a hill of execution, outside the city walls, that the Lord offered that most sublime priestly sacrifice of Himself to save us from our sins – not on a richly carved altar, but on a rough wooden cross – a wonder that we are preparing in this Passiontide soon to commemorate.

And you too, in whatever place you are, are not hindered from acting under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and performing a supernatural and meritorious act, in consecrating England to Our Lady today. Because, by virtue of our Baptism, each one of us has become a Temple of the Holy Ghost. Whatever we do, whatever action we perform and wherever we are, if we are in a state of grace, and perform our actions for the love of God… then everything we do has a supernatural character, and becomes a pleasing offering in God’s sight. St Paul says, “Whether you eat of drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God”. So within the walls of your home today you can offer to God a prayer for this country that will pierce through to the sanctuary of Heaven itself, and that will increase, in a sense, the glory of God in this land.

So let’s be undaunted and encouraged as we make this collective consecration of our nation today. Let’s put England squarely in the hands of Our Lady, and ask her in the midst of these trying times to be the protectress of her Dowry…

May she protect England’s people from fear and anxiety, by leading them to place their security not in temporal prosperity and health, but in the saving sacrifice of her Son Jesus Christ, and in the eternal life He won for us.

And may she, the Virgin of the Annunciation, speak to us the words that echo still in her heart from the announcement of the angel: …the words, “Do not be afraid!”… and the angel’s greeting: Kaire! Which we translate as Ave, “Hail”, but which means – more than this – Rejoice! Be happy! Rejoice… for we are giving England back to her who is the Cause of our Joy, and whose Son ever harries and destroys the sadness of the Fall.

Our Lady of Walsingham: Pray for us!

Cause of Our Joy: Pray for us!