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.
I have just seen this new prayer from Pope Leo to the Sacred Heart:
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.
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.
This Sunday's Mass - the fifth after Easter is at the usual time of 1.00 p.m. at St. Patrick's. It will be a Low Mass.
Confessions at call.
The 1.00 p.m. at St. Patrick's on Sunday will be a Low Mass. Fr Hall has to leave smartly after Mass for another engagement so there will be no confessions available after Mass.
The conclave to elect a successor to St. Peter is now well underway. The first ballot saw black smoke. The results of that secret ballot are known only to God and those men in the Sistine Chapel. Its results will have undoubtably fuelled much anxiety, joy or need simply for prayerful reflection. I found this prayer while surfing the web:
Lord, as the Church enters this time of transition, we ask for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit. Pour forth Your wisdom upon the College of Cardinals as they gather to discern Your will for the successor to the Chair of St. Peter.
Grant them clarity of mind, purity of heart, and courage of spirit, that they may choose a shepherd after Your own heart, one who will lead Your flock with wisdom, holiness, and love. Amen
Sunday's regular 1.00 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick's in Bradford will be a Low Mass. I hope that by then we will have a pope.
Each failed ballot until the appearance of white smoke will continue to cause joy or anxiety in increasing measure and therefore increased prayerful reflection.
Oremus pro invicem.
Mother of the Church, pray for us.
This Sunday's Mass at St. Patrick's, Bradford at 1.00 p.m. will be a Low Mass and will be livestreamed.
With the death of my mother-in-law, I have not yet thanked all those who made the Sacred Triduum such a resounding success. The servers, Fr. Frantisek and our cantatrix, Madeleine all contributed to make the whole thing a very smooth and extremely moving event. Likewise, the visit of the relic of the Holy Cross on Low Sunday with Benediction, after Mgr. Grogan's Low Mass was executed very smoothly.
As the conclave now approaches, we must pray that a pontiff with the humility of Pope Francis will emerge and who will unify the Church and help heal those so unnecessarily re-opened wounds of division, especially in the field of liturgy, inflicted over recent years.
My prayer is for a unifier Pope who is not afraid to promote orthodoxy and orthopraxis.
The link for this Sunday's Mass:
Saturday at 7.30 p.m. sees the start of the Easter Vigil.
At the Vigil the Easter fire is blessed and then the flames from it light the blessed paschal candle. The candle has been studded with five grains of incense and is carried by the deacon/priest to a central point before the altar to sing the Praeconium.
.After this follow the 4 readings from the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Isiah and Deuteronomy.
The first part of the Litany of the Saints follows and then there is the renewal of Baptismal promises. with the sprinkling of the people thereafter.
The second part of the Litany takes place as the altar is being prepared for the first Mass of the Resurrection.
The bells will again tinkle and chime during the Gloria.
The altar party will stand towards the lady altar to sing the Regina Caeli at the end of Mass.
Thank you to those of you who have contacted me about my mother-in-law, who died very peacefully on Sunday morning.
The Triduum at St. Patrick's, Bradford is as follows:
Maundy Thursday 6.00 p.m.
Good Friday 3.00 p.m.
Holy Saturday 7.30 p.m.
Easter Sunday 1.00 p.m.
On Laetare Sunday there was a pastoral letter from Bishop Stock about the Assisted Suicide Bill. His Lordship drew our attention to the very short time the Committee had spent reviewing the evidence and arguments about this matter. (Since then Kim Leadbeater has delayed her pernicious Bill's next reading in Parliament.) The bishop's message was very clear in his letter,
"...I appeal to you: even if you have written before,
please make contact now with your MP∗ and ask them to vote against this Bill, not only on
grounds of principle but because of the failure of Parliament to approach this issue in an
adequate and responsible manner..."
The footnote to the letter was the following:
∗ The charity Right to Life UK has a simple online mechanism to help you contact your MP. It takes little more than a few minutes to input your postcode, make sure the suggested text suits your viewpoint and submit your message to ask your MP to stop assisted suicide being rushed into law.
Go to the Right to Life UK website: https://righttolife.org.uk/
If this becomes enshrined in law I have no doubt it will not be long before we have "suicide" on demand. It tells its own story that the original suggested judges are now to be social workers.
A similar path has been trodden with David Steel's Abortion Act.
Please do as the bishop asks.
The 1.00 p.m. Low Mass at St. Patrick's, Bradford will be be preceded by the blessing of palms and the customary surrounding the church procession round the block.
As always, we will be using the 1962 missal for the whole of Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum.
It will be Father's third Mass, so we will again have the short Gospel.
Confession at call.
In your prayers, please remember my wife's mother. The hospital has said that she is not now strong enough to fight off the double pneumonia she contracted last week.
Triduum Times:
Holy Thursday 6.00 p.m.
Good Friday 3.00 p.m.
Holy Saturday 7.30 p.m.
Times of Masses for the Sacred Triduum at St. Patrick's, Westgate, Bradford.
Maundy Thursday: 6.00 p.m.
Good Friday: 3.00 p.m. (Day of fast and abstinence)
Holy Saturday: 7.30 p.m.
Sunday's 1.00p.m. Mass at St. Patrick's, Bradford will be a Low Mass.
Fr. Driver will hear confessions before Mass.
Passion Sunday is often mistaken for Palm Sunday. It is normal to veil the crucifix and statues from Passion Sunday until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil to recall Christ hiding Himself and then emerging from the shattered tomb.
The liturgy is now pruned and omits the Judica me (Psalm 42) at the start of Mass and is not unlike a requiem. The Judica is next heard on Easter Sunday.
Next week, when it is Palm Sunday, we shall be processing around the streets near the church again, singing All Glory, Praise and Honour. A couple of years ago it touched my heart to see an old Muslim man stop and remove his hat in respect as we processed back to the church.
I hope to be able to advertise times of the Triduum's liturgies very shortly.
We are now half way to Easter Sunday. The liturgy relaxes a little and we are encouraged by seeing rose coloured vestments. The introit calls for rejoicing, just as it does on the third Sunday of Advent. Salvation is at hand. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Mass at St. Patrick's at 1.00 p.m. will be a Low Mass with confessions beforehand.
I hope to be able to publish times of the Masses for the Sacred Triduum very soon.
PLEASE REMEMBER THE CLOCKS GO FORWARD THIS WEEKEND.