Every shade of red

Over the last few weeks the same couple of topics have swum through the oceans of news to bite me.

The first is euthanasia. The second abortion. I know and you know that the practice of and attitudes to  the two are inextricably linked, but obviously not in the secular world, because it's all 'choice, choice, choice'.

 

The first big issue, the disrespect heaped upon many of the elderly, makes me see every shade of red there is. This week I've heard of another elderly lady dehydrated to death in hospital because, well, she's old. I'm sure had she realised she was going to be dehydrated to death on admission to hospital, she might have declined, and said she could very well 'forget' to drink in her own home, thank you very much.

Anyone I speak to seems to have the same stories to tell, and have been more or less impotent to do anything about it in the face of the 'medical profession'. I make no apologies for the speech marks, there is nothing 'medical' about dehydrating someone to death. It's torture.

Now, again, we have more noise from government once more suggesting the elderly get jobs, and move out of their own homes. The arrogance is quite simply breathtaking.

Abortion is absolutely another thing that makes me see all shades of red. It's the hypocrisy associated with it that I find so utterly galling. The report here about Texas, and the ruling concerning the viewing of their unborn by any woman considering abortion, really does highlight the hypocrisy of the, again, 'medical' profession regarding the value of life. Nigella (she won't mind me repeating her)commented that:

Why is everyone so 'shocked and appalled'?

You are shown the xrays when you break your leg, if abortion's so easy, common place, risk and consequence free, and run of the mill, and you have free choice, why complain about being shown an ultrasound of your baby before the abortion?

It's like people getting het up about being shown photos of aborted babies. Why so squeamish, it's not illegal, is it?

Let's not be coy.     

It's so not nice to talk about murdering the elderly and the unborn. Like everyone else, sometimes I'd actually rather put my head in the sand and pretend it doesn't happen, but like I said, these two things have a habit of swimming up to bite me. I'm off to say a rosary.

Missa Solemnis at 7pm on Monday 27 February, at St Mary Magdalen, Brighton.

  As I'm sure you all know, this year is the 150th anniversary of St Mary Magdalen.

It's going to be a year of celebrations, I believe, and to open the festivities, there will be, as the poster above says, Schubert's Mass in G, there will be chant, there will be polyphony, and a world premiere of 'Tu es Petrus', and His Hermaneuticalness, Fr Tim Finigan will be preaching.

Really, this is too good to miss.

Equally Important News from Brighton

On Palm Sunday,

and Easter Day, there will also be EF Masses at 9.00 am.

Please do try and support these Masses, and if you haven't been to one before, you have no idea how much you are missing!

 

At St Mary Magdalen, there is also a regular weekly Sunday Mass at 9.00 am.

Details of this and other Masses in the Diocese can be found on the sidebar, just scroll down.

Important News from Lewes

From the first Saturday in Lent (25 Feb), Fr Jonathan Martin will, AD EXPERIMENTUM, be celebrating the 10 o'clock Mass on Saturday mornings in the EF (it is currently Latin O.F.). 

It would be great if you could spread the word, and if you are able, get along to these Masses to support the EF, and Fr Jonathan.

More good news, there will be a Low Mass on Palm Sunday, as it is the first Sunday of the month, usual time of 12.30.

Leaving the best til last, there will also be a Low Mass (12.30pm) on Easter Sunday.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY

2 February 2012

LMS Announces Its 8^th Priest and Server Training Conference, Belmont Abbey, Hereford, 16-19th April 2012

To meet the continuing and growing demand for the Extraordinary Form, the Latin Mass Society will be organising another in its series of much-praised residential training conferences for priests and servers wishing to learn Mass in the usus antiquior. On this occasion, it will be held at Belmont Abbey, Hereford, HR2 9RZ. This will be the eighth such conference organised by the LMS since 2007, which has now trained well over 100 priests in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Bookings have already started to come in for the Belmont event.

Tuition, which will be given by experienced priests, will be tailored to suit the needs of each priest. The conference will also be open to servers who wish to learn or improve their skills with the older form of the Mass.

The fee for attending is £120,, inclusive of board and lodging at Hedley Lodge, which is adjacent to the Abbey. There is a concessionary rate available of £60.

How To Get There:

Hereford is close to the motorway network and is easy and quick to get to from most parts of England and Wales.

Rail: Hereford mainline station is two hours 50 minutes from London, around 90 minutes from Birmingham, two and half hours from Manchester, one hour from Cardiff and 90 minutes from Bristol.

Road: The M50 motorway (which connects from the M5) is about half an hour (or less) from Hereford. Belmont Abbey is about a mile and a half outside the city of Hereford.

How To Apply:

Please follow this link for more information, downloadable booking form, and online booking. Please fill in an application form and send with your cheque (payable to 'Latin Mass Society') to the address on the application form.

Photo credit: Belmont Abbey

Candlemas at St Mary Magdalen, Brighton

Good News from Fr Ray:

There will be a Missa Cantata and procession for the Feast of Candlemas, at 7.30pm.

Our Lady of Consolation

A reminder that there is a Mass at noon on 29th January at West Grinstead.

All things slippery

It's very disturbing when I read articles written by people who seem to to abhor being human so much that they want to separate birth and death from life itself. Wouldn't they rather just upload consciousnesses to androids, and have done with it? Especially galling seems to be the pesky type of person who would rather conceive naturally, and die when supposed to, rather than when it's expedient for the medics and convenient for the family. 

So when I read today of the artificial womb to which all women should be entitled, because pregnancy doesn't half get in the way of 'who you are', I felt slightly queasy. Actually, more than slightly.

Now, if the 'artificial womb' was some kind of incubator for the extremely premature, I'd have sympathy. I might be all for it. But not as a vanity project for people who believe that pregnancy is beneath them, some sort of disease they are better off without.

   

More Human Than Human

I've read Brave New World, seen Gattaca, and Logan's Run, think Bladerunner is absolutely one of the best movies ever made, and even marvelled at the geometric pregnancy (don't ask) in Farscape, but the thought of anyone being grown to order in a perspex box in faux amniotic fluid just turns me over. And that is the bottom line, artificial wombs make artificial people grown to order. They'll have 'best before' dates as well.

Perhaps there'll be a catalogue, "Yeah, no. 312, please, yeah, that's the caucasian male, green eyes, black hair, IQ 145, and make that to go."

The arguments are always made from the point of view that the foetus is parasitic aggressor, so I was relieved to find this article that challenges the popular view that, as a woman, you're really doing the cells a favour letting them gestate in you. The article concludes:

“Long post postpartum, we mothers continue to carry our children, at least in a sense. Our babies become part of us, just as we are a part of them. The barriers have broken down; the lines are no longer fixed.”

Now you won't get that from a menu baby.

Why...

...am I not surprised? What are the incentives, I wonder? Buy one, get one free?

The final instalment...

"Men and Women Are Different"

"Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" Discuss.
"Equality does not equal 'sameness'" Discuss.

In the past "men discovered their masculinity in the Church"

More on Masculinity from The Vortex...

OK, this will separate the...

...men from the boys. Like him or loathe him, he's always thought provoking. Enjoy!

A couple of things

I've been a tad busy recently, so haven't done much reading in the press or anywhere else for that matter, but at the weekend, and this morning, a couple of things caught my eye.

The first thing was a Facebook post about a blog promoting the restoration of Holy Communion on the tongue. Since I try to mainly assist at the usus antiquior whenever possible, it's hard not to be acutely aware of How Different Things Can Be in the ordinary form Mass. And not in a good way. I shall never forget the sight of the pudding basin on the flower stand, used for incinerating  incense. As I sincerely believe kneeling and on the tongue is the way to receive Our Lord, have a look at the blog, and see what you think.






Euthanasia. Such a soft and sinuous word for murder/suicide.

Lots about that, negative and positive, in the press at the moment. And another interesting twist is a government proposal for all the irritating and useless old folk who have the audacity to live, to want to live, and worse, stay in their own homes. It would seem they might be, er, 'encouraged' to downsize.  Downsize to where, exactly? Or is the underlying thought: displace, depress, die off?







I like to keep up with LifeSiteNews too, it's great to see what's going on in the pro-life movement in other places, notably the States. If you know me, you'll know I really don't like sport. Apart from Wimbledon, I think watching paint dry is preferable to pretty much any sport, so I shall be avoiding the telly like mad this Olympic year. So I surprised myself by reading an article called Hating Tim Tebow, oddly enough about an American footballer called Tim Tebow. American football, that's girly rugby, isn't it? Have a read and be inspired.

Following on from sport, here's an intro to a new week long Michael Voris/Vortex series of talks.

Don't we live in Interesting Times..?

Mass on January 29th

A reminder of the Mass at Our Lady of Consolation at noon.

All regular Masses can be found on the sidebar.

January News

In addition to the Epiphany Mass at Lewes and the regular Masses on the sidebar: 

There will be a Mass at St Joseph's, Guildford, on 15th January at 3.00 pm.

There will also be a Mass on 29th January, at 12.00 noon at Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead.

Locations of Masses can be found on the sidebar.

Well you could knock me down with a...

Francis Phillips in the Catholic Herald writes about an apparent turn around A Certain Supermarket seem to have taken regarding their charitable donations. I wonder how many of us evil people actually wrote to register concern?

In Lewes this week...

...Mass at the usual time of 12.30 pm this Sunday, 1st January.

Also, Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany,

6th January, at 7.00pm.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

Fascinating, no?

I know it's only one less drop in their considerable ocean...

...but bye bye, Tesco...and farewell to their credit card.

Upcoming Christmas Mass news

Masses for Christmas Day:

Sung Mass at Steyning at 9.00 am

Low Mass at Lewes at 12.30 pm

Please see the sidebar for locations.

Mass at St Mary Magdalene, Bexhill, THIS SUNDAY

PLEASE try and support this Mass if you can, it's at St Mary Magdalene's, Sea Road, Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex, TN40 1RH at 8.00 am, celebrant Fr Bruno Witchalls.

There is no Mass in Seaford this week.

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception

At St Mary Magdalen's Brighton, on Thursday, 8th of December at 7.30 pm, there will be a missa cantata for the Feast of The Immaculate Conception.

Benediction at North Stoke, 18th December

From Peter Cullinane:

"Deacon David will give Benediction at 3-30pm on Sunday December 18 in the delightful medieval church of St Mary's North Stoke.  For various reasons, this will be the only Catholic service to be held in the church this year and it would be wonderful if as many as possible would come so that the link with our Catholic heritage is not lost.

Benediction will include a period of silent adoration and the total service will not last more than 30 minutes.

As the church has neither heating nor lighting, just like the medieval times, please wrap up well and it would also be advisable to bring a torch for the short walk back to your car. Ample parking is available just outside the churchyard.
The hamlet of North Stoke is signposted from Houghton bridge and is just over a mile down the narrow lane by the Bridge pub. "

The Feast of St Nicholas

Here's a nice site all about St Nicholas. Have a browse!

And here's a picture from the site, of how he might have looked.

Advent

I love Advent. I just love it. I love the waiting, the preparation, the anticipation, the excitement. And of course, the solemnity of purple. The crib is up and ready (it takes over the whole sideboard even though it's not particularly big, because the sheep have to spread out), and the star is hanging above it. The Advent wreath is gloriously upstanding in pride of place on the dining table, and the calendars are waiting to be opened. No, they aren't chocolate ones. Although one day, some enterprising calendar producer is going to twig that it might be nice to have the right number of days on one, and not always start on 1st December, but that's a minor quibble.

Have a happy and holy Advent everyone!

Saturday and Sunday

I was up in the metropolis on Saturday for the reps meeting, and the Requiem in Westminster Cathedral.  The Mass was as moving as ever. There's nothing quite like a Requiem to bring home to you how the living and the dead remain dependent upon one another. Trying to explain this feeling of interconnectedness in words is almost impossible, I find, but it is something you can't help but understand at a Requiem.

So spoilt entirely this weekend with two Masses in a row, Mass at St Thomas More, Seaford, was celebrated by Fr Bruno Witchalls. He preached on the three essentials for staying true to the Faith when all about you is confusion.












The first is devotion to Our Lady, our Mother in Heaven.

                                                

The second, love for and fidelity to the Pope, the successor of St Peter.

The third, devotion to the Eucharist.














All in all a very good weekend.

IMPORTANT NEWS, a post of two halves.

Bad news first:

From St Thomas More, Seaford:

The Mass on 18th December at 3.00pm is cancelled, as the church is needed for the parish family reconciliation service.

But the good news:

Is from St Mary Magdalen, Brighton,

Where there will be weekly Low EF Mass on Sundays at 9am, beginning on 27th November. 

This is ad experimentum, so please, if you are in the area, try and get along!

So, the EF on the third Sunday of the month, 20^th November at 6pm will be the last.

Masses at Our Lady of Ransom, Eastbourne this week

There will be a Mass in the Extraordinary Form at OLR tomorrow, Wednesday 16th November, Feast of St Gertrude, and Thursday 17th November, St Gregory the Wonderworker.

Both Masses are at 10.30 am, the celebrant will be Fr Briggs.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY

14 November 2011

Recently Ordained Bishop Steps in at Last Moment to Enable Latin Mass Society Confirmations to Go Ahead

 

Rt Rev John Sherrington, newly installed auxiliary bishop of Westminster conferred Confirmations in the Traditional Rite on 31 candidates at a ceremony organised by the Latin Mass Society (LMS) at St James’s, Spanish Place in central London on Saturday, 12 November.

Originally, Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster was intending to confer the Sacrament but had to withdraw at the very last moment owing to ill health. Bishop Sherrington stepped into the breach at less than 24 hours’ notice to ensure a very successful and happy event went ahead as scheduled. He was assisted by Fr Andrew Southwell, the LMS National Chaplain, Fr Tim Finigan and the rector of St James’s, Fr Christopher Colven.

After celebrating Pontifical Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament the bishop joined candidates and their families and friends in the Parish Social Centre for a buffet lunch where he also cut one of two celebratory cakes.

LMS General Manager Mike Lord said: ‘We were delighted to have the chance to meet Bishop Sherrington for the first time since his installation and grateful that he was able to help us out at such short notice. It was a joyful occasion for all involved. I understand this was the first time that the bishop had administered Confirmations in the Traditional Rite, but it was a seamless performance, drawing complimentary remarks from the clergy who assisted him, all of whom are experienced hands in the Extraordinary Form. We were very happy that Bishop Sherrington spent time chatting to the candidates and their families afterwards, even delaying his departure for another appointment to ensure he had had the opportunity of speaking to everyone. Westminster archdiocese is fortunate to have acquired an auxiliary so pastorally attuned to the needs of ordinary Catholics, whatever form of the liturgy they are attached to.’

More photos can be seen by clicking HERE,

For further information, please contact Michael Lord, General Manager, on (T) 020 7404 7284; (F) 020 7831 5585; (E mail) michael@lms.org.uk

Calendars, calendars, who wants a calendar?

Tired of boring calendars?

Need to know which Sunday you're on for the EF Mass because your local parish runs on a different set of Sunday readings?

Like to have feast days clearly visible AND have space to write the dentist appointment and reminder for the dog's flea treatment?

Then look no further.

The 2012 LMS Calendar is now available from the LMS website! Click HERE for details.

You can also obtain an Ordo for 2012, by clicking HERE for details.

The Holy Souls and the Cathedral

It was a very atmospheric, murky, and cold day on Saturday when we drove to Arundel for the Requiem for the Holy Souls. Fr Sean Finnegan was the Celebrant, Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, Deacon, and Deacon Seamus Mahon was Sub Deacon. Many thanks to them.

Fr Lucie-Smith preached on a topic that doesn't get much time from an ordinary parish pulpit, that grief is part of life, and the Church gives you the hope, and the tools in the form of prayers and Masses for dead loved ones, to enable you to cope with it and also help the dead. He also reminded us that prayers for the dead are as old as the Church, quoting one of my favourites from St Monica, about being buried anywhere, but begging to be remembered at the altar of God.



The choir of St Mary Magdalen, Brighton, led by Clare, came along too and sang beautifully, the Dies Irae always makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and they really did on Saturday. Clare also took some photos, which you can find HERE. Andrew and his serving team, also from St Mary Magdalen, were as polished as ever.
Thank you, Team Brighton!

Thanks also to the sacristans at the Cathedral, who were very helpful in making sure we had everything we needed.








And of course, thank you also to everyone who came! I hope you found the Mass as beautiful as I did.

It is a real privilege and a real comfort to help our deceased family and friends by praying for them. It must be truly awful to believe that when you have lost someone, that's it, the end, gone forever. So I also love cemeteries. I visited ours last week, it was grey, murky and cold then too, but wandering about reading the headstones, I felt so peaceful.

Hope to see you...

at Arundel Cathedral tomorrow.

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

...isn't.

It's at 3.00pm, second Sunday, as usual, but is returning to Henfield temporarily while the underfloor heating is completed at OLOC!

So please click HERE for location and link to a map.

All Saints

Happy Feast Day Everyone!

Just in case you had forgotten...

...There is a Requiem Mass this Saturday, 5th November at noon in the Cathedral in Arundel....Just thought I'd mention it...

Mass in Arundel Cathedral this Saturday

Clare has asked for a couple of good singers to help out with the choir this Saturday, if you or anyone you know would like to participate, let me know.

MASSES FOR ALL SOULS

There will be a Missa Cantata at St Mary Magdalen, Brighton, this Wednesday at 7.00 pm. SEE HERE for details.

There is also a Low Mass at St Pancras, Lewes, at 7.00 pm. SEE HERE for details.

Steyning Masses begin this coming weekend, 23rd October...

...and every fourth Sunday of the month,

at Christ the King, Steyning, BN44 3PB  at 9.00am.

Petitions

Telly, love it or loathe it? I have a love/hate relationship with the telly. Mostly it's love, but then I'm very very picky picky about what I watch and think 75% of all programmes pander to the most basic levels of intellect, concentration, and worse, the lowest common denominator, Jeremy Kyle. His is a colosseum mentality,  and it's one of the most appalling programmes on TV, it's like gladiatorial combat but nobody wins...except perhaps Jeremy.




So when I was reading the Catholic Herald, this totally splendiferous petition was mentioned by William Oddie. It's asking the Government to slap health warnings on TV programmes directed at children. And what a good idea. I'm supporting the great idea of health warnings.

In a similar vein, round about now, with all the (bleurchh) Xmas advertising cranking up, we're going to be innundated with even more faux sex on every channel with ads, from M&S selling its knickers to those really dodgy perfume ads. Joop anyone? No, I thought not. Even an advert for shopping at your local Co-Op suggested that doing so left you more time for umm, well, you know, on a Saturday morning. Puh-leese! This kind of thing's so, well, tacky and almost subliminal in that we're all so oblivious to it most of the time. We can tune it out, but kids can't and don't, being little sponges when it comes to picking up information and behaviour from whatever source. Even if a programme seems ok, it might be diced up by some seriously inappropriate advertising. A slight tangent, even the cinema isn't immune. Off I trot to watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and before we get to the opening credits, there's an ad (which seemed to go on forever) by a well known contraceptive manufacturer who seems to be expanding its range, and comprehensively told us about it, illustrated by a series of smiling bed-head couples. Now, ok, the film was a 15 (!) but this is just another example of how low things have got.

Remember, Remember

SATURDAY, 5th NOVEMBER, SOLEMN HIGH MASS,

ARUNDEL CATHEDRAL,

AT NOON.

The old ones are always the best...

16 October, Mass at St Joseph's, Guildford

There will be a Mass at St Joseph's, Guildford on Sunday, 16 October at 3.00pm. The celebrant will be Dom Andrew Southwell. Tea and coffee afterwards.

See here for details of the November Mass.

And don't forget the Requiem in Arundel on 5th November at noon

Change of location this coming Sunday...

...from Our Lady of Consolation, West Grinstead,

to Corpus Christi, Tanyard, Henfield, BN5 9PE.

Mass is still at 3.00pm.

(I have it on good authority that thermals will no longer be de rigueur at OLOC from October to April on completion of the work)