Ireland
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
