No Mass at Halifax for the next two weeks

There will be no Mass at St. Mary's Halifax for the next two weeks and so the next Traditional Mass will be Saturday 22nd. August at 6.00p.m.

LMS press release

The LMS recently announced that Bishop Athanasius Schneider ORC, will attend the forthcoming priests' training conference.

The release states:

Bishop Athanasius Schneider to attend conference

The Latin Mass Society has announced that Bishop Athanasius Schneider ORC, Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganga in Kazakhstan, will be attending the forthcoming priests' training conference held at Downside Abbey from Tuesday 10th to Friday 13th August. Bishop Schneider will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the Abbey Church at Downside on Thursday 12th August at 11.00 am. He will also deliver a lecture as part of the conference.
Around 30 priests are expected to attend the conference where tuition will be given in the celebration of Mass in the older form. Some will be beginners, and will be studying Low Mass; whilst others with more experience will be expanding their skills to include Missa Cantata and Missa Solemnis. Tuition will also be provided for altar servers.
Bishop Schneider is best known for his defence of the traditional practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. His book, Dominus Est, originally written in Italian but now available in English, deals with the subject in some detail. The public will be able to attend the 11.00am Mass in the Abbey Church each day of the conference, but will be particularly welcome at the Pontifical Mass on the Thursday.
There are a few last minute places available at the Downside conference. Priests and potential servers interestedshould contact the Latin Mass Society by telephoning 020 7404 7284 for further information and an application form.

This will be the 6th conference to be organised by the LMS during the last 3 years. Earlier ones have been held at Merton College in Oxford, Ushaw College in Co Durham and All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney, Herts.
Over 100 priests have attended these conferences, of whom about 85 now regularly celebrate Mass in the Usus Antiquior.
Practically all restrictions on the use of the Usus Antiquior or Extraordinary Form were lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, published in July 2007. Since then the number of both Sunday and weekday Masses celebrated in the Usus Antiquior has increased in all dioceses of England and Wales.
The website of the Latin Mass Society includes listings of Masses celebrated in this form. See www.latin-mass-society.org

Blog comments

Since establishing this blogsite I have never needed or wanted to moderate any comments made by anybody. Recently I have started to receive several "comments" on a regular basis which turn out to be a link to some oriental pornographic web pages - something a Priest blogger also reported happening to him a while ago.

However, I have always maintained, this blogsite is primarily an informative effort with personal observations and not designed as a forum for discussion, as there are plenty of other blogsites which encourage this and whose editors can devote more time to it.

Thanks to our oriental friends, who I'm sure could employ their hands and minds far more productively, I have decided to cease allowing blog comments at least until speaking to a more advanced and experienced blogger who can show me how to prevent this happening. I shall be in no immediate rush to do this. I have tired of deleting the comments/links from this nasty and creepy source.

First Holy Communion

Tomorrow is our son's First Confession and First Holy Communion Mass. The Mass will be at St. Mary of the Angels, Batley at 3.00p.m. and will be a Missa Cantata.

Pentecost VIII

Masses on Sunday.

Castleford, St. Joseph's, Pontefract Road. 3.00p.m.

Leeds, St. Augustine's, Harehills Rd. 5.00p.m. Mass will be offered by the Parish Priest, Fr. Michael Kelly.

What a blessing

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is good, my week at school was hovering around minus 5, when I left at 5.00p.m. this evening. Thinking that things couldn't get worse I arrived home half an hour later to discover that my youngest son had thrown a stone and broken a neighbour's (large) front window.

I immediately went over to offer to pay for any damage. The lady was very nice and the first thing she said was that as soon as he had done it, he went and told her what had happened and to apologise before telling his Mum. I felt proud that he had done the right thing - next week is First Confession and Holy Communion for him.

Later he admitted that the whole thing could have been avoided if he had done as he had been taught- to only throw stones into the sea.

Small stones cast long ripples!

Busy, busy

Since the Bishop's latest round of new appointments I have been busy contacting clergy to continue existing provision, whilst discussing with the Rev Co-ordinator for the Extraordinary Form of Mass, possible future openings. I do receive letters requesting Mass in various parishes from people who do not know how to go about it or are too afraid to ask, for lots of reasons.

Fortunately the majority of clergy in this diocese are more than happy to help me if asked, even if the old Mass is not to their own taste. It is the occasional contact with these Priests which I enjoy, because they see that we are not out to do anything seditious and we often share concerns about how difficult it is to reach out to people in an out of control secular state.

Bishop Roche's support, in appointing priests to teach the rubrics (pre Summorum Pontificum) and to co-ordinate the old Mass (post Summorum Pontificum) were and still possibly are, unprecedented, as far as I am aware.

There are some unsatisfactory things which need to be addressed, and again I hear far more of these than anything.

So as things change over the next few weeks I shall take the recent changes and information received into consideration.

Today marks the third anniversary of Summorum Pontificum and we must give thanks to God for all the positive benefits this has brought, but there is a lot more to do.

God bless the Pope!