Young Catholic Adults Host International Juventutem Weekend

During the weekend of the 10-12 September . For the first time, Young Catholic Adults will be running the 2010 Juventutem International Conference at Douai Abbey(before the Douai weekend was aimed at the UK), the weekend will be led by Juventutem Ecclesiastical Assistant Fr de Malleray . The weekend will be full-board

Places are limited so please book early

* There will be Sung Mass, Low Mass, Rosary, Adoration, Confession, a Marian Procession in honour of Our Lady of Fatima and socials

* Fr. de Malleray FSSP head of Juventutem will preach the retreat, Masses will be in the Extraordinary form.



THE MAIN GUEST HOUSE

Saturday 11th – Sunday 12th September (full board)*

51 pounds full-board (except Sunday lunch) PER PERSON PER NIGHT

25 pounds for students/low waged/unwaged (or whatever you can afford)



THE COTTAGES

£35 per person per night (full board). Self catering £25 per person per night (reductions for students:- or whatever you can afford) .



SELF CATERING CAMPING

£5 per person per night (or whatever you can afford - please bring your own tent and food ).



Limited places so please reserve your place early

To reserve your place FOR THE WEEKEND (no deposit needed if you are coming for the day on Saturday 5th July), please a 20 pound deposit (NON RETURNABLE) to Damian Barker, Flat 5, 12 St. Catherine Street, Kingsholm, Gloucester, Glos. GL2 9DU (please make any cheques payable to Damian Barker). For enquiries ring 07908105787.



For more details see:- http://www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk/

UK / 'Hate registers' for children who make anti-homosexual comments

Hate Register set up for Children in the UK who make any homophobic comments against homosexuals. Is Sodom and Gomorrah happening all over again.

We must find a new home!

The meeting for Jan. 30th is cancelled as most will have discovered.

We do need to find a new venue for the family day or this apostolate will end!

Any possibilities, please contact Jane and Mark or Fr. Southwell

Appropriate Prophecies for today

Here are the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success (Prophecies for Our Times).
Prophetic revelations made to Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres

http://www.olrl.org/prophecy/goodsuccess.shtml

Crucifixion depicted on Toast



and we can't even manage to have 6 candles and a cross on Catholic Altars!

Picture copyright of www.DailyMail.co.uk

If you missed the sermon, download the podcast...


"Vatican II Springtime" update : The Collapse of the Church in France

H/T to Rorate Caeli

The IFOP Institute has just made a survey on Catholicism in France for the daily La Croix. The result is mind-blowing:

  • Whilst, in 1965, 81% of the French declared themselves as Catholics, they were no more than 64% in 2009.
  • More serious: whilst 27% of the French went to Mass once a week or more in 1965, they are no more than 4.5% in 2009.
  • At a doctrinal level, generally, it’s a catastrophe: 63% of practicing Catholics think all religions are the same; 75% ask for an “aggiornamento” of the Church on contraception and even 68% for abortion.
  • As for communion with the Roman Pontiff, the situation is no better: only 27% of practicing Catholics consider that Benedict XVI “rather well” defends “the values of Catholicism” (personally, I don’t even understand the question, but that doesn’t matter) when 34% think he defends them “rather badly”.

That’s the least we could say, that in view of the figures, it is urgent to change the strategy and reunite the living forces of French Catholicism to re-evangelise the former Eldest Daughter of the Church! To find all the survey data (in French): “La Croix“.

Full Body Scanners

Full body scanners at airports will use ionizing radiation that could damage chromosomal DNA leading to cancer, miscarriage, fatal illnesses:

What if we said "be quiet"?

A new site which asks people to support its campaign to slow down (in other words stop) the new translation of the Roman Missal.

The petition is a joke, since its taken years to even get this far with a new translation, but of great interest are the suppporters from England...

Fred & Rosemary WestLay PersonPlymouthUK
Reggie KrayLay PersonBrentwoodUK
Anthony Charles Lynton BlairLay MinisterWestminsterUK
Cormac Murphy O'Connor
Lord
WestminsterUK

Some dates for 2010

Some dates from Auntie Joanna for your diary:

  1. On March 25th there's a Day of Art and Music, aimed at RE teachers in Catholic primary schools, but also open to catechists, leaders of children's groups in parishes etc. It's at the Monckton Room at the beautiful and historic Holy Redeemer Church, Chelsea and is FREE for teachers. Includes lunch. Opportunity to view glorious art, and to learn Gregorian chant. The day finishes with Mass at which we'l be singing the chant we have learned...
  2. Need a good wintry walk? Lamplight? History? Join us on January 20th on the steps of Westminster Cathedral at 6.30pm, following the 5.30pm sung Mass. A London Catholic History Walk, looking at the Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Thames...wear warm clothes, comfortable walking shoes, gloves, and bring a torch. No need to book, just turn up
  3. Feb 17th, same venue (Westminster Cathedral), for another Walk, which will have a Royal theme and take in St James Park, Buckingham Palace, etc...
  4. February 25th, this time meeting at St Mary Moorfields, 6.30pm, for a walk which will explore some of the City's history.

Message from Carolyn

Hello all


Carolyn here.

I don't make it toTCFA at the moment but this seems like a lovely way to keep in touch for the moment--as long as I don't get swamped by technology!

Some of you know us already --Mike and Carolyn home educating our 5 children in St Albans.

No, it is not Ganesh I'm afraid!

Exactly 1 year after the persecution and murder of innocent Christians in India, the boys turn up to "get the job done".

Key paragraphs:

Typically, smaller elephants enter a village first, appearing to survey the community. They then rejoin the larger herd, and larger elephants soon follow and get the job done.

The ministry partner in India stated “We think that it might have something to do with the avenging the blood of martyrs. In fact the fear of God has fallen on the local people, who have labeled these elephants “Christian elephants.”

Time is running out to defeat bill

Please read John Smeaton's post concerning defeating the compulsory sex education laws.

I myself has emailed my MP with no response....and he is a Catholic! Next stop is his surgery.

At least some politicians recognise the Holy Family for something!







HT to Creative Minority Report


Interesting fact...

Many know of Bishop Athanasius Schneider and his book 'Dominus Est' (It is the Lord), for its defence and promotion of the ordinary method of receiving Holy Communion i.e. Kneeling and on the tougue.

What you may not know is that he influenced the Holy Father himself:

"The Bishop ultimately decided to write a book defending the traditional way of receiving Holy Communion, and when the work was finished he gave a manuscript to the Holy Father. The Pope wrote back to the Bishop praising the work and his accuracy of knowledge of the patristics.

Bishop Schneider told he had also asked the Pope to stop distributing Communion in the hand in Papal Masses, and even if the Pope's answer was supportive it was not certain that it would happen. But since only a few months later, all communicants have been asked to receive Holy Communion from the Pope only kneeling and on the tongue. A true miracle, says Bishop Schneider."

(HT to Rorate Coeli)

Crash Courses in Traditional Catholic Philosophy

Hat tip to Rorate Coeli for informing the blogsphere about a series of crash courses in Traditional Catholic Philosophy.

See the website of the Society of scholastics for more details. It's live and uses video conferencing technology which enables interaction...so make sure you have a decent PC setup first! :-)

If anyone is able to attend it, then maybe a blogpost or two about your view on the course(s)?

Children's Guided tour of National Gallery

Fr Andrew Southwell, who says Mass for us and gives catechism at the Ware Family Days, gave a guided tour of a number of important paintings in the National Gallery, with the theme of the Nativity. A large number of children, accompanied by parents and friends, many associated with the Ware meetings, attended the tour, and many of us had a very jolly lunch afterwards in Pizza Express.

Fr Southwell gives these tours regularly, with different themes.

Joseph Shaw

2009 CINO Awards

Hat tip to Fr. Z. for pointing out this new award in the USA.

I suspect if we started it in this country, the Blairs would be top of the list.

Cardinal Newman on Education

'the aim of … education is not to fit students for this or that particular profession or career, nor to equip them with theory that will later on find useful applications to this or that form of practice.

It is to transform their minds, so that the student becomes a different kind of individual, one able to engage fruitfully in conversation and debate, one who has a capacity for exercising judgement, for bringing insights and arguments from a variety of disciplines to bear on particular complex issues. Independence of mind, rather than compliance with socio-economic expectations, is the goal of education.'

The Sacred Made Real

Hat tip to Fr. Ray Blake for posting about the "Sacred made real" exhibition.
Excellent video on the post showing how the sculptures are made. Simply amazing!

Pledge Bank - Against "licencing" of home educators

Not sure what to make of this, but this lady has summed it all up! See the Pledge bank for more details of her pledge.

Installation of the new Archbishop of Birmingham

Great hope for this country with Bernard Longley's installation as Archbishop of Birmingham.
Please see pictures of the Mass of installation.

I'm ignorant on these matters, but are attending Bishops supposed to intentionally look worse that the new Archbishop on these occasions? The last time I saw head-dress like that, it was in KFC.

Chant Course 2010

Please see post on the LMS Chairman blog which provides details of a residential chant course led by Nick Gale, at the Oratory School, Berkshire.

Worth considering as it's available for just £80 including accomodation and meals.

Chant Resource

Further to discussions at Ware, I came across via Fr. Z, the Sainte Antoine Daniel Latin Gregorian Chant Ordinaries.

Hopefully this will prove of some use. Comments from our exisiting choir members on this would prove interesting.

Please contact me to sign up and start blogging and commenting!

Blogmaster

Christmas/New Year Masses in East London/Essex

For anyone who lives in the area or would find it more convenient, there are confirmed traditional masses in the Brentwood diocese and also in the City of London over Christmas and New Year

October Family Day

At our meeting this month we had a First Communion at Mass.

2009 10 17_4531_edited-1

It was well attended; here we are having lunch.
2009 10 17_4542_edited-1

St Catherine's Trust Summer School 2009

This has now taken place, and here are some pictures. It was great fun as always; I have already posted on it on my Oxford Events blog.
098'
Our Chaplain at the Summer School is the Chaplain for the TCFA in Ware: Fr Andrew Southwell. Here he is at the end of our Sung Mass at the Church of St Pancras, Lewes, where we had a day outing.
Lewes 4

Some of the boys playing football.
Football 1

The Summer School is subsidised by generous benefactors, including the Latin Mass Society, making it possible for us to accept students regardless of their ability to pay. We ask merely for a donation in accordance with parents' means; these contributions usually ammount to about a third of the cost of the school. The staff are all volunteers; the main cost is the accomodation.

We would welcome any donations for our work, which can be made on-line though the St Catherine's Trust website; any enquiries about next year's Summer School can be made to info@stcatherinestrust.org

Photos of June Meeting

June was our last meeting before the Summer break, and I took some photos.

Mass was Sung, and as it was within the octave of Corpus Christi we had the same chants, including the Sequence. The celebrant was Fr Andrew Southwell. The chapel of St Edmund's College is by Pugin; as you can see it has never been 'reordered'. The photographs are taken from the choir loft, which is in fact the Rood Loft. The chapel you can see is, in Pugin's original conception, the choir of a much larger church.
Mass4

Mass9

Mass13

Mass15

Among other activities and talks (which always include Catechism by Fr Andrew Southwell for all age groups) we had a demonstration of how to make sugar roses from Lucy Shaw Cakes.
Sugar flower demo

Here is one of the smaller children's activities.
Children's craft

For more photographs see here.

Some Good News! Young Catholic Adults Douai Abbey Retreat Gets Bigger and Better

During the weekend of the 18-20 September 2009. Young Catholic Adults (YCA are part of the international Juventutem Federation) will be running a Traditional Retreat at Douai Abbey in the south of England, the weekend will be led by Juventutem Ecclesiastical Assistant Fr de Malleray. Summorum Pontificum must be working - at least in a "brick by brick" fashion, just look at the following:-

-For the first time Young Catholic Adults will be using the main Abbey Church for Mass

-For the first time YCA will be organising a Missa Cantata, sung by the Douai Singers; this will be followed by a Marian Procession

- YCA has booked out the whole of the retreat complex this year, on the advice of Douai Abbey itself, as the monks were so pleased with the YCA retreat last year

Places are limited so please book early

-YCA will have the retreat centre to itself
-There will be a social in the evening
- Fr.. de Malleray FSSP head of Juventutem will preach the retreat, all Masses will be in the Extraordinary form
- There will be a Sung Mass (Missa Canta) on Saturday 19th September 09’ at 10am. The choir will be the Douai Singers, in the main Abbey Church, followed by a Marian Procession at 11am (starting from the main Abbey Church) around the extensive grounds of the Abbey (weather permitting, if the weather is poor there will be Marian devotions in the main Abbey Church )
-The weekend will be full-board (except for the Sunday lunch)

How to book

The cost of the weekend will be from as little as 25 pounds for students (or 48-88 pounds for non students) for more details, please see http://www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk/news.htm or email juventutemcatholicam@yahoo.co.uk or ring 07908 105787

Events Open to the Public

The Sung Mass (Missa Canta) on Saturday 19th September 09’ at 10am followed by a Marian Procession around the extensive grounds of the Abbey at 11am (starting from the main Abbey Church) are open to the public.

There are also a few rooms allocated for all age groups (not just YCA) so please book soon.

There are limited places so please reserve your place early!

St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat and Chant Courses

St Catherine's Trust is having its annual Family Retreat 26th-29th March (Friday to Sunday); the prices and the schedule are designed to make it possible for parents to attend with children of all ages.

See the St Catherine's Trust website for full details. I put a report about last year's here.

This year, for the first time, there will be a Chant course running alongside the Retreat. Nick Gale, Director of Music at St George's Cathedral in Southwark, will be leading the course, which will work with the music of the liturgies taking place during the Retreat: Sung Mass each day, Vespers, Compline etc.. This is open to men and boys over 16 who have 'at least some' experience of chant. There are details on the SCT site and also on my Oxford blog here. To my knowledge there has never been anything like this in the UK in recent years; please help to make it a success.

See the same post on my Oxford blog for details of a one-day Chant Training Day with Philip Duffy, for Saturday 25th May, in Oxford.

New Blog on the Liturgical Year




I've been asked by a blogger to publicise his new site entitled In the Sight of Angels.

If you have an interest in the liturgical year and specifically on the same named classic by Dom Prosper Guéranger, please check it out and tell others about it. If you spot an error or omission, please tell the author about it!

Next Family Day

The next meeting of the TCFA will be on Saturday 22nd November. The day will commence with Holy Mass at 12pm sharp. Please be in the Chapel in good time and wrap up warm! Brrrrrrr!

Latin Mass Society 2008 Pilgrimage to Lourdes


In October the Latin Mass Society, led by Fr Andrew Southwell, made a pilgrimage to Lourdes to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous.

In the first instance, our group had a long journey to Lourdes, with a 90 minute flight, followed by a 2 hour coach transfer from Toulouse. Any thoughts of tiredness soon vanished as we sung "Ave Maria" upon entering the town.

The daily schedule consisted of Missa Cantata, the praying of the Rosary and sung Compline.

We had two additional outings as part of the pilgrimage.

First, we went to Betharam, a shrine which is older than Lourdes itself. There, we made the Stations of the Cross, with each station being in the magnificent form of a small chapel.

Secondly, a trip to Bartres, a small town where St. Bernadette was sent as a baby to be wet nursed and subsequently she worked there, tending sheep. Here, Mass was offered in the beautiful parish Church.

As with all pilgrimages of tradition, you can trust the shrine authorities to throw a few spanners in the works. Mrs Maria Chang, our gracious organiser, found it an extremely difficult task to obtain chapels in which to celebrate Mass. When her requests were met, the locations provided were unimpressive. "Barely enough room to swing a cat" is a phrase that springs to mind! Even our chapel for Compline on the first full day was being used by another group with no regard for timing.

However, trust in God and he will provide! By his grace, Mrs Chang arranged for Mass to be held in the crypt of the Parish Church, (where we had Mass on the first day), from the third day to the end of our pilgrimage. Deo gratias!

Since it was impossible to take part in the torchlight procession as a group, Fr Southwell instigated the idea of holding Compline, opposite the grotto, by torchlight instead. This was a wonderful and beautiful setting for the evening office which attracted people to join the group, two of whom were traditional Catholics from Paris.

On the penultimate day, we walked the Jubilee Way. This allowed us to gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, by visiting and praying at 4 specific places in the life of St. Bernadette:

  • The parish church where she was baptised;
  • The “Cachot”, the abandoned prison, where the Soubirous family lived;
  • St Michael’s Gate, the Arches and the Grotto; and
  • The Hospital Oratory where Bernadette made her first Holy Communion.

Our allocated guide impressed us with her historical knowledge of Lourdes. Even more moving was her emphasis on the spiritual significance of undertaking the Jubilee Way.

The Holy Hour we had in the Basilica Crypt, proved spiritually nourishing for all. Many pilgrims joined us for the Rosary, a wonderful sermon from Fr. Southwell and Benediction. This proved that the sheep have a desire to be led by the Shepherds!

Other highlights included

  • Stations of the Cross opposite the Basilica
  • Visit to “Petite Lourdes
  • Visit to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Crypt and Rosary Basilica.
  • …..and fresh pancakes :-)


All pilgrims gave their sincerest thanks to Fr. Southwell for spiritually leading us, and to Mrs Chang for physically getting us there!

We left with joy in our hearts and many graces for our souls.

Pictures


Holy Mass being celebrated in the Crypt of Lourdes Parish Church


The Beautiful Church in Betharam


One of Betharam's wonderful Stations of the Cross


"Onward Christian soldiers!"..as we continue to the next station.


"Que Soy Era Immaculada Concepciou!"


Sung Compline, after discovering another group using our Chapel! (Believe it or not, that is actually an Altar you can see behind us!)


Holy Hour: The Shepherd feeds the sheep


Standing at the foot of the Cross


A wonderful pilgrimage comes to an end with the customary photo!








Pilgrimage and plaque in Oxford: report

I mentioned the LMS pilgrimage to Oxford in an earlier post on this blog; now it has actually taken place. Thanks to the participation of many TCFA supporters, the day was a huge success, with 230 at the Mass, and 180 taking part in the procession. This is a very large procession, and we had trouble at some points negotiating the narrow pavements around bus queues and the like. It was a glorious witness to the faith; I have posted the full details here. But here, at any rate, is the plaque itself, and Bishop Kenney of the Archdiocese of Birmingham blessing it on behalf of Archbishop Vincent Nichols.

Joseph Shaw

Can society make its mind up?

A mother was described as "evil" for killing her 4 year old daughter, who suffered from mild celebral palsy.

Joanne Hill, 32, claimed "diminished responsibilities" after drowning her child, as she was "ashamed" of the condition and wanted her adopted or fostered. She will now spend 15 years in jail.

Comment: This mother was labeled as " evil" by the sentencing judge, who said she simply couldn't deal with her daughters disability. But when a pregnant mother finds out her unborn child may have a "disability", it seems she is being "very brave" for wanting to carry out the same end as the afore mentioned unfortunate soul.

How can we be so confused over the issue of life?

Faith & the Family Conference

A conference is being organised by Catholic families for Catholic Families. Please support this if you can.

More details can be found at the Faith & the Family website.