St Mary’s Shrine Bulletin Sunday 7 June 2020

Churches to re-open for private prayer on Monday 15th June:

Because ‘stewards’ will have to be present to ensure safety, there will have to be specific opening times. We will soon release them.

We need volunteers as stewards. They must be members of our community, with no health condition (and preferably under 70 years of age).

Read full guidance instructions here.

Mass intentions:

[More Masses are offered daily using the intentions booked on your behalf. Ask Fr Whisenant for further information if needded.]

Updating Mass times

While during lockdown LiveMass allows us to reach out to many souls far away from Warrington, the following enquiry is meant for those actually present in the pews under normal circumstances.

It will have been over three months without our congregation in the pews when Holy Masses resume, please God next month. Now is a good time to assess the needs and expectations of those among you who normally attend our Holy Masses.

While we kept the pre-existing 12:10pm weekday Mass since we took over St Mary’s in November 2015, we must recognise that this midday slot failed to attract those working in the town centre, who could have attended during their lunch break. On the other hand, nearly all of those who attend regularly could come at a more convenient time. Changing long-established Mass times must only occur if real improvement is expected. Thus, please email us your preferred Mass times, if applicable:

Monday-Saturday: 8am, or 9am, or 10am, or 11am.

Sundays: 8am and 11am; or (current schedule) 11am and 6pm.

Would you attend Sunday Vespers & Benediction at 5pm if continued after lockdown?

Any other suggestions regarding our regular activities?

Read the latest issue of our quarterly magazine Dowry here https://fssp.co.uk/category/dowry/ .

If you live in the UK and Ireland, you can have the printed version sent to you through subscribing here: https://fssp.co.uk/manageprofile/index.php

Thank you for your support to St Mary’s Shrine during this lockdonw and after. You can send your donation here, mentioning ‘Warrington’ is relevant: https://fssp.co.uk/donate/

Priory Campaign:

Dear friends, supporters and benefactors, thank you wholeheartedly for your continued interest for our Priory Campaign. While we already own Units Two & Three (bought last October for £480k, i.e. £240k each), we need to raise the remaining £125,000.00 (out of £240k) before 16^th October 2020 to complete the purchase of Unit One, currently leased to us.

As you are aware, our aspiration is to buy the remaining part of Priory Court (Unit 1) as part of the Campaign, but should we not have sufficient funds to convert and reconfigure the whole Priory Court building to better suit the needs of St Mary’s Shrine, then Unit One will be handed back to its owner in October 2020 and Campaign funds would then be used for the purposes of conversion and reconfiguration of the parts of Priory Court that we do own (namely, Units 2 and 3).

Each unit is 2,561 Sq ft on three floors. We will thus own 5,122 Sq ft, plus 18 parking spaces.

Please get in touch with us if you would like further clarification or wish to discuss a donation that you have made. Kindly email any inquiries to malleray@fssp.org.

God bless you.

Despite the lockdown, we haven’t been idle:

Like the entire country, our Priory Campaign has suffered from the Covid-19 lockdown. Work, social activities and fundraising were de facto suspended. But we were able to transfer all the music archives on new shelves into Unit One where our new Music Room is now located. This allowed us to move our liturgical items into the original church Sacristy, until then used as Music Room. With frequent solemn high Masses, Lauds, Vespers and Compline prayed daily, and many altar servers, the need for a dedicated sacristy was becoming critical. Playing musical chairs – no pun intended – our lay servers moved into the former Sacristy, originally the Servers’ Vesting Room. This in turn freed up the side Confessional they were using to hang their cassocks and cottas, now available again as a Confessional when the church re-opens. The last stage will be to move the free-standing confessional out of the Memorial Chapel where confessions have been heard for five years, and to have the chapel used for smaller groups, devotions etc. In addition, our only Meeting Room so far was in the Presbytery. Moving it out into Unit 1 allowed us to turn that room into a much needed sitting-room for our resident clergy and occasional guests (until then we only had the dining-room and kitchen as common rooms at the Presbytery). Last but not least, assessment has taken place to move all our administration into Unit Three. We need to create offices for the four priests, since so far all but one have only their bedroom for work. Our Secretariat, Archives and storage will also move there.

None of this would have been possible without the purchase of Units Two and Three last October. If God grants us to complete the purchase of Unit One, it will allow us to plan more activities beyond the immediate needs of Warrington, with your support.

Special intercessoress: the Servant of God Elizabeth Prout (1820-1864) founded the female branch of the Passionists with Bl. Dominic Barberi. Her congregation served deserving families in the North West. The Sisters of the Cross and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ arrived in Warrington on 3 January 1899. Their convent, 80 Buttermarket Street, was beside St Mary’s Benedictine Priory.  They came to teach, to visit sick and needy parishioners, to instruct converts and to help the poor. The Sisters taught in St Mary’s girls’ and infants’ schools from 9 January 1899 to 1967. Her congregation now ask to be informed of any favour granted specifically through her intercession. This could lead to her beatification. With the 200^th anniversary of her birth occurring this September, less than a month before the fundraising deadline for our Campaign, I now request you confidently to make daily if you can the following prayer: “Servant of God Elizabeth Prout, to further your work of Catholic education and assistance to Catholic families in our country so much in need of it, please obtain from God’s Providence the successful completion of the Priory Campaign in Warrington, on the very location where your Sisters served for decades.”

by Fr AM