Juventutem Summer Weekend 18-20 July
Please book now to help us pay the early deposit for the venue. Please share with your friends, or with their children between 18 and 35 years of age.
Click here: lms.org.uk/juventutem2025.
Reading
Summer Camps 2025
The annual FSSP Summer Camps will take place once again this August at Savio House, in Bollington, in the beautiful Peak District.
The St Peter Summer Camp for Boys will be 4-9 August; the St Petronilla Summer Camp for Girls will be 11-16 August.
The booking form for both camps may be found here: https://form.jotform.com/251174890393362
Join the 18…
Let us face it, there are serious objections against young men choosing consecrated life.
Like a sweetheart…
[click on screen below.]
Or click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn6R0e6ERIo
Or the love of good beer…
Or the fear of silence…
Click on screen above or on link below
http://www.culturepub.fr/videos/vodafone-monk/
Or a passion for football…
Click on screen above or on link below
http://www.culturepub.fr/videos/amstel-aguila-les-moines/
To find out which of the above are compatible with consecrated life as a priest or a monk, join us in just a fortnight at the following event.
MORE SPACES for our annual Vocation discernment weekend
on 28 February, 5pm – 2 March, 2pm 2025
for single Catholic men 18-35 at Buckden Towers, PE19 5TA
(under an hour from London by direct train to St Neots)
Already 18 men booked in. Spread the word!
Prayers, chats, meals with Seminarian Luke, and talks by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP
on marriage, religious life, priesthood, traditional liturgy
[Click on picture above]
Contact malleray@fssp.org.
COST: £95.00 per person in total (full board).
FREE for unwaged and students – give whatever amount you can.
Dowry No64 Winter issue now online
[Click on the picture above or here to open the magazine]
In this issue:
FSSP Wall Calendars 2024-2025
We include a complimentary copy in every printed copy of this issue of Dowry. Discover beautiful pictures of our apostolates across England, Scotland and Ireland, with the liturgical year and traditional feasts. Needless to say, all this comes at a cost and we are grateful for donations in excess of £5.00 to FSSP England.
Editorial: Three Saintly Anniversaries
Three forthcoming anniversaries of great significance for Catholics are spiritual opportunities to seize. They commemorate God’s Incarnation, the Lord’s revelation of his Sacred Heart, and Our Lady’s mediation, Fr de Malleray observes.
Hope Does Not Disappoint
Extracts from Pope Francis’ bull of indiction for the 2025 Jubilee of the Incarnation of the Lord. Further to Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical on the virtue of Hope, Pope Francis reminds all the importance of that virtue, especially in times of trial or gloom.
He Smuggled The Sacred Heart Into England
Dominica Roberts tells how French priest Father Claude la Colombière S.J. providentially brought the devotion from Paray-le-Monial into the heart of London at the cost of his life, thus securing a direct connection between the Sacred Heart and England.
Statistics, Intercession, And Sanctification
The annual statistics of the FSSP were updated to close to 600 members and over 10,000 sodality members: an occasion to give thanks to God, but also to request more prayers for us to grow and bear lasting fruit by God’s grace.
Garments of Sanctity: Opus Anglicanum
The glorious English tradition of sowing and embroidering liturgical vestments is valued anew, Ola Smalley finds, with immediate use within the traditional movement as generously provided by the busy sewing needles of the Guild of St Clare.
Interior of the Carpenter’s Shop at Forty Hill
Using a non-religious painting by John Hill (c.1780–1841) from the Tate Britain Gallery in London, Fr Armand de Malleray walks a few easy steps with beginners in the art of interpretation that can further apply to religious art.
Craft Resources For Catholic Homes
Catherine Witkowski and John Grimer introduce the online shop run by them and their siblings to equip families with home-made visual illustrations of the Catholic faith through the depictions of saints, calendars, and books.
Support our Apostolate
More than ever we need your help to keep our ministry going in Bedford, Chesham Bois, Reading, Warrington, Edinburgh, Waterford and Wexford. Please tell your friends about us, sharing links from our articles, pictures, publications, and activities, praying God that bequests be made to help us secure or acquire the buildings we need.
Click HERE to subscribe to Dowry for free.
We welcome proof-readers with a good command of English, as well as electronic submissions of articles consistent with the scope of this magazine.
Dowry Mag No63, Autumn Issue, now online
[Click on the picture above or here to open the magazine]
In this issue:
Editorial: Woodcarving As Worship
Reflecting on the importance of sacred architecture as a medium of evangelisation that touches even non-believers (as the fire of Notre-Dame showed), Fr de Malleray rejoices at the new altarpiece commissioned by a traditional Dominican community in France.
A Queen For All Seasons
Aidan Harvey-Craig praises Queen Catherine of Aragon’s courageous witness to the inviolability of marriage and to the Catholic faith as a timely example for our times of matrimonial breakdown and religious relativism. Could she be declared a heavenly intercessor?
Coercion and Belief: Compelle Intrare
Fr Brendan Gerard, FSSP (who holds a licence in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome) examines whether the use of coercion to bring people into the Church is authorised by Christ’s mandate to “make disciples of all nations.”
Tintin and the Secret of the Elusive Priests
Despite being a cradle Catholic, world-famous author Hergé included almost no priest characters in his numerous comic strips; and yet, multiple priestly influences have inspired or guided the creator of Tintin―finds Fr de Malleray (Head of Tintinology at St Alban House in Bedford).
Why the Film Nefarious Is Atheists’ Nightmare
Avoiding any gory or horrible display, the supernatural thriller Nefarious cleverly depicts an atheistic doctor trying to persuade a possessed inmate that God and Satan are not real. Fr de Malleray praises this battle of wits that can prompt non-believers to ask salutary questions.
Spoiler Alert: Life Wins In The End
Young adult Sophia Rumpus took part in the joyful and peaceful March for Life, the largest event in the UK every year to celebrate the sacredness of human life, particularly in its unborn stage: an initiative worthy of support as the “legal” termination of the elderly and sick looms ahead.
Click HERE to subscribe to Dowry for free.
We welcome proof-readers with a good command of English, as well as electronic submissions of articles consistent with the scope of this magazine.
Dowry Mag Summer Issue Now Online
In this issue,
Editorial: A Stir Is Being Felt
Despite bleak times, small signs of revival give hope, especially among young people undertaking pilgrimages, founding families, and entering consecrated life, comments Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP.
Traffic Island Becomes Treasure Island
A participant reflects on her day of vocational discernment spent in London last April among twenty-three young ladies, based at Tyburn Convent where the relics of many English martyrs are displayed.
Chaste Sleuths Win By Popular Acclaim
Seldom promiscuous, some popular fiction detectives are often single, when not in sacred vows: an unwitting homage paid by secular culture to the Christian religion, Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP observes.
Challenges to Married Life in Secular Society
In this spontaneous contribution, a Catholic married septuagenarian looks back at the challenges inherent to married life in our time of faith demise, and forward to eternity as the goal of matrimony.
How Abbot Suger Invented the Gothic Style
Art historian Leslie Anne Hamel tells about the royal Basilica of St-Denis in Paris where, long before A.W.N. Pugin revived it, the Gothic style was invented as an architectural manifesto of transcendent faith.
Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance
Painted c. 1664, Johannes Vermeer’s picture displays Catholic hints about Judgement, the Blessed Virgin Mary and clandestine holy Masses, finds the author of the novel Vermeer’s Angel Fr Armand de Malleray
Tolkien and the Green Knight
Tolkien scholar Prof. Robert Lazu Kmita explains how the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight honouring chastity influenced the author of Lord of the Rings.
Parish Bulletin, Reading 12 May – Pentecost Edition!
Click here to read the latest bulletin with Mass schedule and other information for the coming fortnight.
May Crowning in Reading!
We gave honour to Our Blessed Lady with the traditional May Crowning this past weekend in St John Fisher Parish. A young girl of the parish had the privilege in bringing the floral crown to Our Lady’s beautiful statue in St William’s, accompanied by other girls of around First Communion age.
Have a look at Marco Eastwood’s lovely photos of this occasion, here.
Confirmations in Reading – Photos
On 20 April, Bishop Philip Egan conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation on 20 young people in our parish in Reading. Please see here for the brilliant photos by Marco Eastwood of this joyful occasion.
Reading bulletin, 4th Sunday after Easter
Read the latest Reading bulletin online here