Easter Monday in Dorchester
I've just returned from the Family Retreat I organise each year for the St Catherine's Trust; this and the preparations for it explain the recent lack of blogging. I am just about to visit the Latin Mass Society Priest Training Conference at Leicester so this situation may continue a little longer.
But in the meantime, here are some pictures of the lovely Solemn Mass of Easter Monday in St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames, which is always a highlight of Easter for me. Organised by the Parish Priest, Fr John Osman, it was accompanied by the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, led by Dr Christopher Hodkinson.
This small church was packed. There are more photos here.
But in the meantime, here are some pictures of the lovely Solemn Mass of Easter Monday in St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames, which is always a highlight of Easter for me. Organised by the Parish Priest, Fr John Osman, it was accompanied by the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, led by Dr Christopher Hodkinson.
This small church was packed. There are more photos here.
More about the Retreat and Chant Course
Our Retreat Giver this year was Fr John Hunwicke of the Ordinariate. He was brilliant - as I knew he would be. He was also rather heroic in taking it on, since he has not fully recovered from a very nasty broken shoulder.
Fr Guy Nicholls of the Birmingham Oratorty, and Scott Tanner, a seminarian of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, joined us on Saturday, making Solemn Mass possible. Fr Matthew Goddard of the Fraternity of St Peter also came over (from Reading) to hear confessions one afternoon.
Among the events of the Retreat, we always have a Marian procession; this goes from the Oratory School's main chapel to the smaller 'old' chapel.
After this we have tea; St Philip's Books, the well-known Oxford Catholic bookshop (second hand and new), had a stall.
The liturgy of the weekend included Mass, Sung or Solemn, plus Compline on the two evenings, and Vespers and Benediction on Saturday. The presence of the 25 or so singers on the Chant course at these liturgies meant that these were all accompanied with great confidence and gusto. I'll do another post on the chant.
The special point of the Retreat is that, as parents can only attend a spiritual talk if someone is looking after their children, we have activities for the children, both 'older' and 'younger' (the dividing line is about 12). The culmination of the younger children's activities is an Easter Egg hunt on Sunday morning. The activities include talks for the older children, including (this year) one from Scott Tanner ICKSP about seminary, and one from me about miracles, as well as fun creative things for the younger ones - they cut out and coloured in some very cleverly designed vestments this year, which could be put onto a cut-out priest. We are very grateful to the volunteers who looked after the children in these sessions.
This is bit of real Catholic life and community, spiritual and social.
Family Retreat: reply to 'Ora Pro Nobis'
Over on Fr Ray Blake's blog, some pseudonymous commenter suggests, not for the first time, that 'traditionalists' - presumably this means people attached to the traditional liturgy - don't do enough. This person's private apostolate is, apparently, to rid the Church of liberal Catholics by making them choke to death on their after-Mass biscuits by quoting the Catechism at them. Well, good for him (or her). There can be a place for that kind of thing, but it is not the only kind of activity pleasing in the sight of God. Far more productive, generally speaking, is the combination of the worthy worship of God and the Spiritual Works of Mercy, 'instructing the ignorant', 'comforting the afflicted', and 'giving counsel to the doubtful', where the recipients of our help actually want it. And this is what happens during a traditional retreat.
We've gone one further by making this experience available to the parents of families, and to their children, the lay people perhaps most under attack in our society, and most in need of support.
And we go a step further still by combining this with a Chant training weekend designed to improve the standard of liturgical music in parishes up and down the country, whether they sing for the Traditional Mass or the Novus Ordo. This year we had singers from the schola of St Bede's Clapham Park, the LMS Schola in Lancaster, the (lay) schola at Ealing Abbey, the Schola Abelis of Oxford, and the Juventutem Schola in Bristol.
Pontifical Mass in Ratcliffe College for the LMS Training Conference
Bishop Malcolm McMahon, Bishop of Nottingham, celebrated the opening Mass for the LMS Priest Training Conference in the large school chapel of Ratcliffe College, our venue. The photos are uploading.
I will update this post when I next get a chance, but that won't be for a couple of days.
I will update this post when I next get a chance, but that won't be for a couple of days.
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