Pentecost XV

 As it is the first Sunday of the month the 1.00 p.m. Mass at Saint Patrick's  will be livestreamed.

The Mass can be viewed here along with previous transmissions:  https://www.youtube.com/@LMSLeeds

As always, please subscribe and give it a like!

Pentecost XIV

This Sunday's 1.00 p.m. Mass at Saint Patrick's in Bradford for the fourteenth Sunday of Pentecost will be a Low Mass. 

Confessions at call before Mass.

This past week we have been in Berlin where we were able to hear Mass every day and follow it by either breakfast or our evening meal. Again the congregations were mostly made up of faithful people much younger than we are - including the priests offering the Masses.

The following is 'pinched' from the Rorate Caeli blogsite and its author is the auxilliary Bishop of 's-Hertogenbosch in Holland (of all places),  Mgr  Robert Mutsaerts and I found it impressive enough to share:

The Church Will Not Be Saved by Bureaucrats Who Think Everything Must Change 

There is a peculiar mistake common among modern people: when they discover that the Church is full of sinners, they conclude that Christianity has failed. This is rather like discovering that a hospital is full of sick people and concluding that medicine does not work.

The Church has never claimed to be an association of perfect people. She has claimed something far stranger: that God has decided to entrust His perfect truth to extraordinarily imperfect people. Those who find this implausible should look at the Apostles. Peter denied Christ. Thomas refused to believe his friends. James and John quarreled over who would get the best seat in the Kingdom. Judas managed the finances — which, in retrospect, may have been an unfortunate appointment. And yet Christ began with them. That is probably the first reason why I would not worry too much when someone points out that popes, bishops, and pastors say strange things. The Catholic Church has survived worse.

The revolution within the Church is peculiar because it is almost always carried out by people who insist that no revolution is taking place. The old-style revolutionary at least mounted a barricade. The modern revolutionary takes a seat on a committee. He does not say: "We will change the doctrine." He says: "Of course the doctrine does not change; we are simply going to apply it in an entirely different way."

This is how it goes. The liberal sees mercy and forgets judgment. The rigorist sees judgment and forgets mercy. The revolutionary sees change and forgets continuity. The reactionary sees continuity and forgets that living things grow. The orthodox believer sees something else: the Church must be simultaneously unchanging and alive; she must simultaneously obey and resist the abuse of authority; she must be simultaneously universal and particular; she must simultaneously defend Peter and permit Paul to withstand Peter "to his face."

The modern answer is always: we must devise something new. The Catholic answer is usually: we must rediscover what we have forgotten. If Catholics no longer know their faith, give them the catechism. If priests no longer know what the priesthood is, give them the Mass. If bishops forget that they are successors of the Apostles, remind them that nearly all the Apostles died as martyrs and not as chairmen of a synodal commission. If the liturgy becomes banal, make it sacred again. If morality becomes blurred, speak clearly again. If young people no longer find anything worth dying for, finally give them something worth living for.

What then of Rome? One need not believe that every thought of a pope has fallen directly from heaven — not even when he is sitting in an airplane. Nor need one believe that the Church ceases to be Catholic the moment a pope does something unwise. How do I know this? Know your Church history.

The Pope is not the successor of Jesus but of Peter — just as Pope Leo is not the successor of Pope Francis but of Peter. We believe that a divine institution can be governed by human beings who sometimes make extraordinarily human decisions. This is not an argument against Catholicism. It is an argument for Catholicism. For only an institution that truly comes from God could survive two thousand years of its own clergy. The Church will not be saved by those who continuously cry that all is lost. Nor will she be saved by bureaucrats who think everything must change. She will be renewed in the same way she has always been renewed: by saints.

It is sometimes forgotten that Francis of Assisi did not reform the Church by writing a document on ecclesial renewal. He became a saint. Teresa of Ávila did not organize a congress on contemplative participation. She prayed. Thomas Aquinas did not make the faith relevant by making it simpler. He thought more deeply about it. And Philip Neri knew something we sometimes forget: that a person can be entirely orthodox and still laugh. That may even be a sign of orthodoxy.

Christ said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. He did not say the gates of hell would make no noise. And it sometimes seems as though the devil in particular has a very good communications department. But the Catholic knows something the devil constantly forgets: the Church does not belong to us. She belongs to Christ. That is extraordinarily good news — especially for bishops. We do not need to save the Church. We simply must not betray her. We do not need to reinvent the truth. We simply need to hand it on. We do not need to build a new Christianity. We simply need to become Catholic again.

And when someone asks me whether I have hope for the future of the Church, I would answer: of course. Not because I place my trust in ecclesiastical commissions, sociological predictions, or strategic policy plans. But because on Easter morning the tomb was empty. And that is, as far as I know, still the most important piece of news ever reported.

August 27th. 2026

Pentecost XIII

Mass for the thirteenth Sunday of Pentecost on Sunday will be a Low Mass at Saint Patrick's at 1.00 p.m.

Please excuse the late posting as we have just returned from Krakow where the old Mass is freely available at the Church of the Immaculate Conception near the central railway station. This time there was no sign of the enthusiastic schola we experienced at Easter.

I did manage to visit the Camaldolese Community which is similar to the defunct Carthusian Monastery at Mount Grace in North Yorkshire. Instead of living in community the brothers live in seperate houses, each with a little garden and who only meet for the daily conventual Mass and for meals together on high days and holy days. The chant they use is very simple and is described as recto tono.

I also visited the minor basilica and shrine of Divine Mercy just south of Krakow where there is no Latin Mass in any Rite. I could have heard Mass in Hungarian, Portruguese, Spanish or English and had confession in any number of languages. 

As it happened I attended Mass in Polish and a Polish priest heard my confession in English. The very modern but  impressive basilica was visible from our hotel window and I can recommend the food in the restaurant. 

I had an affogiato which I savoured instead of swallowing it down in the traditional four gulps.

Due to the scarcity of return trains we were unable to go to Czestochova to visit the shrine of the Black Madonna. Next time, I hope.

Of your charity please pray for a young man we know, called David, who has been diagnosed with cancer of the bowel.

The Assumption of Our Blessed Lady

 

As the Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady falls on a Saturday it is celebrated as an External Solemnity on Sunday. The Mass at Saint Patrick's will be a Low Mass at 1.00 p.m. Mass will be followed by the Litany of Loreto.

This week we have been in Brussels and it was good to see familiar faces at the church given over to the FSSP. We spoke to one gentleman who has lived in Brussels for over thirty years, originally from Scotland. Great to see over thirty at the evening Masses with the majority of the congregation making me look (and feel) very old!

On the last night (Thursday) we were unable to get to Mass because the underground train en route caught fire and we had to evacuate the darkened train and make our way up three underground floors to safety amid smoke and a strong burning smell. Emergency services were on the scene within minutes and the station was closed for several hours. A couple of (purely medicinal) cognacs were the order of the day. It was actually really quite shocking.

Next week we are in Krakow where the FSSP also has a centrally located church, along with a very enthusiastic choir.

Confessions at call before Mass on Sunday.

Pentecost XI

This Sunday marks the eleventh Sunday of Pentecost and our 1.00 p.m. Mass at Bradford's Saint Patrick's will be a Low Mass.

Confessions before Mass.

Pentecost X

 As it is the first Sunday of the month the 1.00 p.m. Mass at Saint Patrick's will be livestreamed.

The Mass can be viewed here along with previous transmissions:  https://www.youtube.com/@LMSLeeds

As always, please subscribe and give it a like!

Pentecost IX

This Sunday's 1.00 p.m. Mass at Saint Patrick's in Bradford for the ninth Sunday of Pentecost will be a Low Mass. 

Confessions at call after Mass this week.