Pentecost IV

This Sunday's 1.00 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick's, Bradford marks the fourth Sunday of Pentecost. It will be livestreamed.

Apologies for the late post; we have just returned from a scorching week in Berlin. 

Once again I visited the newly reordered Cathedral of St. Hedwig in Berlin, on which no expense has been spared. 

In the crypt of the cathedral there are fourteen side chapels representing the Stations of the Cross (no images). There are no Stations in the main body of the cathedral. I was concerned to see that whilst twelve of the stations are the same as in most other churches, the fourth and sixth stations had been replaced with some scriptural verse which I couldn't photograph because my phone was dead. Normally these stations refer to Our Lord meeting his afflicted mother and having his face wiped by St. Veronica respectively. 

The entire building which was the first Catholic church to have been built in Germany since the Reformation (but razed at the end of the Second World War) has the sterility of an operating theatre. 

Little wonder that there are more seminarians in the two traditional seminaries in Germany, FFSP at Wigratzbad and SSPX at Zaitzkofen than in all the diocesan seminaries in the Federal Republic put together. Little wonder that people are still asking where the fruits of the promised New Pentecost are.  Cries of "We are the Easter People and Alleluia is our song", have withered and died and are as dated as the clay chalices and tawdry vestments beloved of so many of the clergy when I was growing up in the seventies and eighties. 

Only this week documents leaked by Rome journalist Diana Montagna seem to suggest that contrary to what we were told in the document Traditiones Custodes, many of the world's bishops were in fact content with the liturgical peace which Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum had brought about. This explains why relatively few of the bishops used Tradititiones Custodes to extirpate the Extraordinary Form in their dioceses following its publication. It seems that because many bishops chose to ignore or sideline Traditiones Custodes, a more stringent application of it was introduced by Rome and as we know these saw further petty and vindictive restrictions such as forbidding the EF Mass being advertised on parish bulletins. 

These leaked documents raise questions not only about the honesty of TC but also of justice.

Sunday's Mass can by seen here:

 https://www.youtube.com/@LMSLeeds

If you have not already done so, please can you subscribe to this site (it is free) and even add a like. I am hoping that problems with the sound will now be overcome with the use of a microphone attached to the priest's chasuble. 

This last Wednesday James Baxter from this diocese was ordained to the diaconate at the Institute of Christ the King's seminary in Gricigliano in Italy. Deacon Baxter will preach at the sung Mass at St. Patrick's next Sunday. 

We wish Deacon Baxter every joy as he prepares for ordination to the priesthood next year and wish him a long and fruitful ministry in the vineyard of the Lord.

St Francis of Sales, pray for us.

St John Vianney, pray for us.

Our Lady Queen of Saints, pray for us.

                                        

Saints Peter and Paul

 

This Sunday's  Mass at St. Patrick's, Bradford is back to its regular 1.00 p.m. slot  for the Feast of the Blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul. 

Many thanks to Fr. Frantisek for stepping in as it was clear Fr. Driver is not yet sufficiently recovered to offer the Mass. 

Corpus Christi Sunday

 

On Sunday we celebrate the transferred feast of Corpus Christi. 

The Mass at Saint Patrick's, Bradford will start at the later time of 1.30 p.m. because the celebrant has First Holy Communions and a Corpus Christi procession in his own parish as I announced last Sunday after Mass. 

Father will give Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday after the Low Mass and I am most grateful to him for this.

Please remember Fr. Driver in your prayers as he continues to recover from scheduled surgery last Tuesday. I am hoping he is well enough to offer Mass for us on the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul on June 29th. If he is well enough I have offered to pick him up and take him home afterwards.

Also in your prayers, will you remember the vote to legalise euthanasia which comes before Parliament on Friday. 

The atrocious Bill to decriminalise abortion up to birth sailed through this week in the Commons and now the Lords must  be lobbied to prevent this iniquitous and diabolical wickedness from becoming law. 

The Conference of Catholic Bishops for England and Wales published this on their website following the vote:

 “New Clause 1 lifts any criminal liability for women performing their abortions for any reason, at any time, including up to and during birth. This decision significantly reduces the protection of unborn lives and will result in grave harm for pregnant women. Women will be even more vulnerable to manipulation, coerced and forced abortions. This legal change will also discourage medical consultation and make the use of abortion pills for dangerous late-term, at-home abortions more likely."

I think that the decision results in even graver harm for the unborn child. Words cannot describe my revulsion at what this vote means. 

We are living in the culture of death.

The Blessed Trinity

 

Fr Driver will offer the 1.00 p.m. Mass on Trinity Sunday at St. Patrick's, Bradford.

Confessions at call before Mass.

June, the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

I have just seen this new prayer from Pope Leo to the Sacred Heart:

Pope Leo XIV's Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord, I come to your tender heart today,
to you who have words that set my heart ablaze,
to you who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor,
on those who suffer, and on all human miseries. 

I desire to know you more, to contemplate you in the Gospel, to be with you

 and learn from you and from the charity with which you allowed yourself to be touched by all forms of poverty.

You showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure
with your divine and human heart.

Grant all your children the grace of encountering you.
Change, shape, and transform our plans,
so that we seek only you in every circumstance:
in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine. From this encounter, send us out on mission, a mission of compassion for the world in which you are the source from which all consolation flows. Amen.

Pentecost

 

Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost and is the birthday of the Church. Mass at St. Patrick's at 1.00 p.m. will be a Low Mass. There will be a red frontal on the altar in the lady chapel for the octave of Pentecost.

Last week after Mass, our server Paddy was able to send £350 (equivalent to 400 Euros) to the seminary in Griciliagno where Abbe James Baxter will be ordained to the diaconate in early July. I hope Deacon James will be able to join us at Mass in July. Thank you to all who contributed. the seminary gratefully acknowledged receipt of the donation.

Confessions available before Mass on Sunday.

Sunday after the Ascension

 Sunday's 1.00 p.m. Mass this week will be livestreamed. It will be a Low Mass. 

There will be a retiring collection for one of our three traditional seminarians who will be ordained to the diaconate in Griciliagno, Italy in June The cheque will be forwarded to the seminary to pay for his clerical garb. Thanks to one of our servers, Dr Paddy Spencer, for undertaking this.

UPDATE - Our camera operative is unwell today and so the Mass will not now be livestreamed today. We hope to be up and running again on the first Sunday of July.