Communion in the hand & married priests

Whilst searching for a statue of St Brigit of Sweden I came across a website quoting her writings given by Our Blessed Lady. As, on numerous occasions, these two subjects have come up in conversation I recommend the website; www.ladyofroses/brigit. This site gives clear understanding of both subjects and I commend it to you.

A Spiritual Bouquet for Pope Francis

The Latin Mass Society is gathering together a Spiritual Bouquet for our new Holy Father, Pope Francis I. We are asking you, our members, supporters & friends, to help us with this. We are encouraging everyone to ask priests they know to celebrate Masses in the Extraordinary Form for the new Pope, that he may receive the graces necessary to fulfil the duties of his new office (you should pay the priest a stipend for this - suggested minimum offering £10). We are also asking you to offer up your rosaries & other prayers & devotions for the Pope. In particular, offer up your Communion for the Pope. The Pope has asked for our prayers to help him in his new office. Let us respond generously to his call. As Catholics, the Church has always asked us to pray, in charity, for others, living & dead, but one of the people She has always specifically requested the Faithful to pray for is the the Pope. This is a good & holy Catholic tradition. Let us live up to that tradition. Offer a priest that you know a stipend to celebrate a Traditional Mass for the Pope, or offer your daily Rosary for Pope Francis, or add him to your intentions in your daily prayers, or offer a novena for him. The choice is up to you. Once you have done this, or decided that you will do this, email or write to us at the LMS to tell us how many Masses, Communions, Rosaries or other prayers & devotions you have offered, or will offer, for Pope Francis. Please let us know as soon as possible. Why not do it today? These will then be gathered together & presented to the Holy Father on behalf of the Latin Mass Society & its supporters & friends. You don't have to be an LMS member to take part in this spiritual initiative. Email at: info@lms.org.uk

Habemus Papam!!

So our new Pope is almost a complete unknown even though (it is rumoured) that he was runner up to Pope Benedict XVI. His choice of name seems to tell us little. We have no Pope Francis to compare him with. We are told that he is, theologically, traditional but what does this tell us about his future dealings with those of us who love the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. We can only wait & see & pray that our new Pope carries on the reforms of Pope Benedict & makes the EF Mass even more available to the Church.

Easter Sunday in Gateshead

Please note that our Sunday Mass on Easter Sunday (31st March 2013) will be Missa Cantata and celebrated at 9am instead of 12 noon.

Our new Pope

So on Tuesday 14th March 2013 the cardinals of the Church gather in conclave to elect our new Pope, the successor of St Peter (& more recently) of Benedict XVI. As good Catholics we must & will accept their choice but should this preclude us from praying for the candidate(s) we prefer? Can we not pray to the Holy Ghost that he will guide the cardinals to choose a candidate who will not undo all the good done by Benedict XVI? Can we not pray that our new Pope will compel the hierarchies to be more pro-active in promoting the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass? Pope Benedict instructed that seminarians should be trained in both forms of the celebration of Mass & yet we hear of seminaries which not only do not follow this instruction but have actually forbidden the celebration of the EF in the college. Our prayer must be; "Give us a holy Pope & give us one who will have the strength of character to renew the Church in tradition & who will weed out the evils of whatever kind which beset Holy Mother Church at this point in history."

LMS campaigning results in two new Sunday EF Masses in Westminster Archdiocese

We are delighted to announce that there will be weekly Sunday Masses in the Extraordinary Form at two new venues in the Archdiocese of Westminster in the near future. The Masses will take place in St Albans in the parish of St Bartholomew's, 47 Vesta Avenue, St Albans, AL1 2PE, and in Willesden, north-west London, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden, Nicoll Road, London NW10 9AX. In both cases the parish priests have been asked by the archdioces to learn and celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Neither Fr Tim Edgar of St Albans nor Fr Stephen Willis of Willesden has previously celebrated the Extraordinary Form, but both are approaching the opportunity of offering the ancient form of Mass with a very positive and pastoral attitude. It will obviously take some time for them to reach the necessary level of proficiency to start offering Masses publicly. Nevertheless, training has begun and regular weekly Masses on Sundays will start later this year on dates and at times yet to be announced. Their parishioners have already been consulted and informed about the introduction of the Extraordinary Form in their parishes and the reaction has been positive. This very good news follows meetings between the LMS and the archdiocese over a period of a year or more, in which the LMS Chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, Local Representative for Hertfordshire, Mike Mason, and the LMS General Manager, Mike Lord, met with Bishop Alan Hopes and Bishop John Sherrington a number of times to discuss wider provision of the Extraordinary Form. The LMS would like to thank Bishop Hopes, Bishop Sherrington and Archbishop Vincent Nichols for their work in helping to make the Traditional Mass available in these areas of the Archdiocese of Westminster. LMS General Manager Mike Lord commented: "We are very pleased at this positive response from the archdiocese to what has been something of a pastoral crisis in Hertfordshire and north-west London in recent years for Catholics attached to the Extraordinary Form of Mass." "It is doubly pleasing that the parish priest in each case has been asked to be the principal celebrant. The Traditional Mass needs to become a full and accepted part of parish life in dioceses across the country with an important role in drawing the faithful closer to Christ, especially in this Year of Faith. In the cases of St Albans and Willesden, The Extraordinary Form is set to do just that."

Mass for the election of a Pope

Today at St Mary's, Forest Hall, Newcastle our Saturday morning EF Mass was 'For the election of a Pope'. We all prayed that our new pontiff would carry on the traditional mindset of Benedict XVI. I was concerned to read in our diocesan newspaper - Northern Cross - the report that "Parishioners call for a new vision". Why I was surprised I don't know as the article read "The Northern Cross, acting also for The Tablet, sought the opinion of three parishioners as they left morning Mass on Sunday, February 17." It is always concerning to right minded Catholics that anyone even reads "The Tablet" but more concerning that our own diocesan newspaper seems to align with it. Perhaps we should not be surprised that they took such a 'sweeping' poll of THREE parishioners. The fact that comments such as "will it be a good thing to bring in married priests?", "I would have liked him to have proposed a new vision for the Church", "the Church needs to engage with social, political and religious leaders", "we need to see power come down to the lowest level" were the level of comments made makes one worry about the level of Catholicity. We must remember that the Church is not a democracy, that the last time we had a 'new vision of the Church' was Vatican II with all the sorrow, upheaval & general malaise it left behind and we need to realise that the Church is there to GUIDE social, political and religious leaders, not come to a lowest common denominator agreement with them.