Ireland
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 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
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 30, 2018
Below is a message from Coastal Rosary Ireland announcing that on Sunday, March 18, 2018, at 2:30 pm, there will be gatherings at Mass Rocks to pray the Holy Rosary for the preservation of life & faith in Ireland. More information can be found here on Facebook.
From the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Pope John Paul II spoke of Ireland’s devotion to the Mass and Holy Eucharist recalling “Mass rocks in the glens and forests” where Mass was celebrated “by hunted priests… for the Irish, it was always the Mass that mattered. How many have found in it the spiritual strength to live, even through the times of greatest hardship and poverty, through days of persecution and vexations.” On returning to Rome, he said, “I will never forget that place (Clonmacnoise)… These ruins are still charged with a great mission. They still constitute a challenge.”
Our Mass Rocks and monastic ruins tell an important story of commitment to life and faith that we must never forget. They remind us that life and faith are treasures worth the greatest sacrifice.
With the Rosary on the Coasts for Life and Faith on the Feast of Christ the King, 2017, we sought the help of Jesus Christ the King and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, His Queen in the battle for the protection of Life and the Faith. With Our Lady’s Miraculous Medal we planted a ‘hedge of protection’ around Ireland. In the next phase, the Rosary at the Mass Rocks for Life and Faith we remember and appeal to the Irish saints, who went to Mass at these locations, to help us in the effort for Life and Faith. We will, with our saints, ask Jesus once again to be King of Ireland.
We turn this Lent to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima for repentance, reparation, prayer and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and the daily rosary. With these in our hearts, we humbly gather at the Mass Rocks, Mass Houses, monastic ruins and at the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park in honour of Jesus Christ Our King crowned with thorns, to His most Sacred Heart pierced, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Ireland, to St Joseph Protector and Patron of the Family and of the Universal Church and to St Patrick, Protector and Patron of Ireland, and the saints of Ireland, especially our own ancestors, who drew strength from the rosary as they risked their lives to attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist at the hands of hunted priests at Mass Rocks and Mass Houses, and to the monks who preserved the faith through centuries of darkness.
Why Sunday March 18, 2018? Because this particular Sunday….
…bridges the feasts of our two great saints: March 17th, St Patrick, the Patron and Protector of Ireland and March 19th, St Joseph, the Patron and Protector of the Family and of the Universal Church who visited the Irish in Knock in a special manifestation of his care.
…is the Fifth Sunday of Lent (in the extraordinary form known as Passion Sunday) when we through the liturgy begin the ascent to Calvary.
…is the 145th Anniversary of the Consecration of Ireland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Passion Sunday 1873
…is the feast of Our Lady of Mercy (Savona) where Our Lady called for fasting and conversion of life so that we will be shown “Mercy not Justice”. This devotion was especially highlighted by Pope Benedict XVI.
…is the feast of Bl Christian O’Conarchy, the first Cistercian abbot in Ireland 1100s Bishop of Lismore and a model of Irish monastic devotion.
…precedes a series of referenda which seek to legalise abortion (Article 40.3.3), blasphemy (Article 40.6.1.1), no fault divorce (Article 41.3) and to remove recognition from the home carer (Article 41.2.1)
Dia idir sinn is an t-olc
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
