Today at West Grinstead

Fr Agley celebrated Mass this afternoon, and preached on how the practice of Lent should lead us all to change, and should ultimately transfigure us.

Having missed the last Mass at OLOC, it was a real breath of fresh air to assist at the EF again. A month of EF cold turkey might be thought good for you in some respects, but it definitely isn't for me.

The Sunday after next will be a Missa Cantata, celebrated by Fr Hurley. The Seaford Schola will be providing the music, and I hope lots of you can come.

Mrs Goddard is out and about again, and all good wishes for her continued health.

After Mass, there was some interesting talk regarding the CES and Balls' sex education, none of it pro, surprise surprise. The DH handed me a copy of the Herald to look after before Mass, and the image on the front page was quite an occasion of sin (as soon as I got home I gave in to temptation and scribbled a toothbrush moustache on it). The unity of thought the folk I've talked to have expressed is so strong it makes me wonder how on earth the CES were able to get in bed with Balls in the first place. So sign the petition!

Elizabeth from Sussex has a great Sunday prayer for the Bishop, pop along and have a pray.

Petition

It's sign on line time. Fr Boyle has details of a petition to the Bishops regarding sex ed, please sign!

Stable Groups

The latest news from Ecclesia Dei freeing up the EF even further is tremendously good news. The 'stable group' requirement is no more. We've moved on from 'how many parishioners make a stable group? It doesn't matter, the answer's always going to be no', but we are far from being out of the woods. If anything, the situation is more entrenched in certain areas than ever, and there is a great deal of frustration and sadness on the part of Latin Mass lovers.

Ask if your parish priest would be willing to learn the EF,or ask for the EF in your parish. I have. No joy yet, but the seeds are sown, and I've not given up hope!
If you feel so inclined, join in with Prayers for the Bishop, and
Rosary for the Bishop.

Sunday 28 February...

...Mass at Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead.

If there are any other EF Masses being said in the Diocese that don't appear on the side bar, or are one offs, please let me know so I can put them on the blog.

Where to start. Readers of a delicate disposition might like to skip this one.

It's been a bit quiet on here because I haven't, as the header says, known quite where to start.

I know I'm far from alone in being absolutely horrified that the Government sponsored sexualisation of infant and junior school children is about to become law. This isn't about 'education', it's about power and control, like rape. I don't think the analogy is too extreme. The thought of six year olds being forced by government policy to acknowledge any kind of sexuality is nauseating. I thought grooming was illegal, yet what is the Government in their right on wisdom proposing to do in the confines of the classroom?

Equally nauseating is the idea that Catholic schools are to be forced into telling children where to obtain abortions. This one actually made me laugh.
From my experience, as soon as anyone becomes pregnant and has contact with the medical profession, whatever their age or state in life, they are offered an abortion. It's kind of de rigueur, I mean if you're a professional woman, 'it' might interfere with skiing this year; if you're a student 'it' will ruin your career.
So what is all this total rubbish about young girls being 'deprived access' to 'reproductive services'?

Abortion, like infant/junior/preteen sex ed is all about control, and giving one side of the argument. The Catholic schools I've known have always had the Balls, if you'll excuse the pun, to very much show the workable and always preferable alternative.

What always boggles my mind being, I hope, a fairly logical kind of person, is that there is so little consistency among the liberal intelligensia and their lobby groups, with whom this social experiment developed.

Just look at Facebook as an example. On Facebook, it's permissable for a girl/woman of any age to post photos of herself in a string bikini, as long as you don't bare your nipple. You can see it through fabric, wear as wet a t-shirt as you like, but you can't bare it. Yet if you post a photo of yourself breastfeeding your newborn, in which all you can see is far less boob than in a bikini, you can have your account deleted as being pornographic. It's ok for boobs to be an object, it's not ok to use them for their natural function (As with Facebook, so with my current bete noire, the BBC. But I'll save trashing that for another time when I'm feeling less, er, angry).

Likewise, it's essential to promote abortions, but it's never ok to show pictures of what having an abortion actually does to a baby. Good God in heaven, it might actually put people off, and then where would the abortion industry be?

Nice dual standards. What a messed up society.


Where to start? With my trusty Rosary, and St Michael I think.

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen


Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle, be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

On a lighter note, if you're on Facebook and feel so moved, join this group!

This just in

LATIN MASS SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE. 15 FEBRUARY 2010


LAUNCH OF THE GREGORIAN CHANT NETWORK

A new organisation – The Gregorian Chant Network - has been launched to organise training in Gregorian Chant and to link singers and choirs singing Gregorian Chant for the Catholic liturgy, with the support of the Latin Mass Society, Una Voce Scotland, the Association for Latin Liturgy, and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge.

On Saturday 30th January, at a meeting at the London Oratory, 35 Chant directors, Gregorian Chant experts, and interested parties, including representatives from more than twenty Gregorian Chant scholas from all parts of England, Wales, and Scotland, and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, met to launch a new association to coordinate and promote Gregorian Chant training initiatives, and to facilitate mutual support, both moral and practical, among chant scholas. They were addressed by Dr Joseph Shaw, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society, which sponsored the meeting, and Colin Mawby, the composer and former Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral. The meeting ended with Vespers in the Little Oratory, led by Fr Anthony Alexander.

Dr Shaw introduced the Gregorian Chant Network and outlined its practical work, which was further discussed in an open forum. Mr Mawby gave a paper on the importance of Chant, and led a practical session on conducting a chant schola.

The Gregorian Chant Network (GCN) is supported by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales (LMS), and its Scottish equivalent, Una Voce Scotland, the Association for Latin Liturgy (ALL), and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge. The LMS and UV Scotland promote the use of the usus antiquior of the Roman Rite (the Traditional Latin Mass). The ALL promotes the use of Latin in the liturgy in both forms of the Roman Rite. The Schola Gregoriana, which was founded by the late Dr Mary Berry CBE, provides training in the Chant, sings at events (including Mass in both forms of the Roman Rite) across the country, and has a programme of recording CDs.

The GCN’s first training event will be a three-day course at the Oratory School, Reading, 9-11th April, directed by Nick Gale, the Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral. The course will cater for beginners and more advanced singers alike.

More details can be found on the GCN website:

http://www.gregorianchantnetwork.org

Email: chantnetwork@googlemail.com


Background

The Gregorian Chant Network is unique in the UK as a collaboration between groups which promote the Traditional Latin Mass (the LMS and UV Scotland), a group primarily associated with the New Mass (the ALL), and a group of professional singers (the Schola Gregoriana).

Gregorian Chant is called for in both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ forms of the Mass, with Vatican II calling for it to have ‘pride of place in liturgical services’. In the fifty years leading up to the Council the Chant underwent a widespread renaissance in the Church, with the help of scholarly work of the monastery of Solesmes in France. Following the Council, however, Chant fell out of widespread use in the Catholic liturgy. In the context of the renewed interest in the liturgy stimulated by Pope Benedict XVI, interest in the Chant is growing once more. The spread of the Traditional Mass, allowed greater freedom under Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, is creating a greater demand for the Chant, which is required for its sung forms. The ‘Reform of the Reform’ movement, which seeks to improve the Mass promulgated in 1969, has also led to the restoration of Chant in many churches.

The repertoire of Gregorian Chant includes much music composed for the Mass between the 4th and the 8th Centuries, and chants for the Office which go back to the time of Christ and earlier. It is written in square notes on a four-line stave, from which modern musical notation developed, and requires special skills for its interpretation and performance. It was described by Vatican II and Pope Pius X as specially suited to the Roman liturgy.

For further information contact John Medlin at the LMS: 020 7404 7284
(info@latin-mass-society.org)

Happy feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

I am very fond of the Song of Bernadette, and here's one of the best bits.

The Rosary

As the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is fast approaching, I thought I’d write about one of my favourite things.





It’s the rosary. I’ve got a thing about the rosary.





I know that for some it’s not their devotion of choice, and they might find it a bit quaint, so I thought I’d very briefly tell you why it’s very much mine.





I started saying the rosary a long while ago and was at the time, how can I put this delicately? *Ahem*, at the time I was Unschooled in the Old Ways of Tradition.


Nonetheless, I'd been drawn instinctively to this prayer, and begun saying it, (although I didn't find it at all easy and often wondered if I was even doing it right, but anyway). From there, I started to wonder what else had been missing from my Catholic life, and after a bit found out. But that's another can of worms entirely.

For me, there is no other prayer that offers such freedom within its seemingly rigid structure of repetitions.
The meditations on each mystery are only limited by my imagination. Sometimes I might not be able, for whatever reason, to meditate on anything at all, then I simply try to concentrate on the words. When prayer is difficult, the rosary is the best way of getting me back on track. Now I’m not saying I’m very good at saying the rosary. I can have a fearful time keeping focused, but whatever my mood, I always know it’s done me good.

In a nutshell, it’s the only prayer for me (outside of the Mass) that’s got it all.

Good News

I've heard from Fr Goddard at OLOC that Mrs Goddard is improving, so keep the prayers coming please.





There will be a Mass this coming Sunday 14th February at OLOC, and the celebrant will be Fr Agley (let's hope the weather forecast is totally wrong and there is no snow and ice coming our way again).


Also, on the side bar is a new venture, Rosary for the Bishop. Thanks to Elizabeth from Sussex on the Prayers for the Bishop and Jane at Spiritual Mothers for the tip off. Please do join, just click, and away you go.

In support of the Pope

As you've probably noticed, there's a lot of rubbish surrounding the papal visit in the press at the moment, most of it skewed and anti Catholic.

Cathcon is redressing the balance, and has a petition up in support of the Holy Father so please sign here.

His Holiness's visit to the UK

The Pope's address to the English and Welsh Bishops can be found here, but here's a part of it:

"Even amid the pressures of a secular age, there are many signs of living faith and devotion among the Catholics of England and Wales. I am thinking, for example, of the enthusiasm generated by the visit of the relics of Saint Thérèse, the interest aroused by the prospect of Cardinal Newman’s beatification, and the eagerness of young people to take part in pilgrimages and World Youth Days. On the occasion of my forthcoming Apostolic Visit to Great Britain, I shall be able to witness that faith for myself and, as Successor of Peter, to strengthen and confirm it. During the months of preparation that lie ahead, be sure to encourage the Catholics of England and Wales in their devotion, and assure them that the Pope constantly remembers them in his prayers and holds them in his heart."

God bless our Pope.

Just take a look at this

SACRED, BEAUTIFUL, & UNIVERSAL: Colloquium XIX from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Road works at OLOC

The Partridge Green/Steyning road is open again, hoorah.




Work is now being done in the car park at OLOC, so proceed with caution, because there are skips and presumably, holes. The top car park is now larger and usuable, the lower not so usable. Folk are requested not to park in the lane, or in front of the house.

Prayers please...

...for Mrs Susan Goddard, who suffered a heart attack last weekend, and is now recovering at home at Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead, and for Father and Kate Goddard. All best wishes for the speediest recovery.