Juventutem Bristol

Good news! Juventutem, which is an association for Young Catholics, aged 18 - 35, who are drawn to the Traditional Liturgy of the Church has returned to Bristol. Regular events have been booked for the rest of the year, and details will be published in due course.

It is hoped that there will be Sung Masses and High Masses in future, as well as recollections. There will also be social events.

The first event will be a Low Mass on Wednesday 08 February 2012 at 6.30pm at Holy Cross, Dean Lane, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 1DB. The celebrant will be Fr Andrew Goodman, and there will be an opportunity for a social gathering after the Mass.

Details of future Masses and social events will be published in the near future. For further information please visit: http://lmsclifton.blogspot.com/ or email: juventutembristol@gmail.com

Please spread the word and encourage people to come along.

The Mass is open to anyone of any age. (It is only the social events that are designed for 18-35 year olds).

Epiphany!

For those still in Oxford over the vacaction: in addition to the usual things happening in Oxford over Christmas, there will be a Sung Mass for Epiphany at 6pm at SS Gregory & Augustine's, accompanied by the Schola Abelis.

There is also Low Mass at the Oxford Oratory at 12.15pm, as usual.

Fab Oxford Pilgrimage

(What I missed: Fr Richard Conrad OP giving the blessing at the end of a beautiful Solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite in Blackfriars.)

The Latin Mass Society Oxford Pilgrimage took place on Saturday, and was well attended as usual. The Mass in Blackfriars was in the Dominican Rite - not surprising, you say, since it is a Dominican church and all the ministers were Dominicans, but this is apparantly the first Solemn Mass in their Rite to take place there since the 1970s.


(This was the first outing for the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, which was blessed at the end of Mass. The priest is Fr Thomas Crean OP.)

So it was particularly annoying, and indeed shameful, that I had to miss it because of a secular pursuit like rowing... 'For the exercise of the body profiteth little', says St Paul. However, I DID make the procession, which is important to support as a public act of witness for the Faith. I thought perhaps my newly acquired rowing muscles would come in handy as we struggled through heaving mobs of animal-rights protesters, students on their way to graduation ceremonies, shoppers and tourists, but in the event everyone was very friendly and interested in what we were doing.


(Graduands, animal-rights protesters, and the Juventutem flag, which is carried in triumph all the way from Paris to Chartres on the great annual Chartres Pilgrimage.)

I even saw the Chairman of the LMS trying to compress the history of the Catholic martyrs into 15 seconds for the benefit of an American tour guide, who had a distressingly powerful mental association between the phrase 'Oxford martyr' and 'Protestant'. It is just that kind of thing we can try to overcome with this sort of public event.


(Not a procession you'd fail to notice. Sadly, I don't seem to appear in any of the photos, as I was bringing up the rear.)

The famous 'Paul and Sean' comedy duo were in attendance, representing Juventutem London; they even had a flag to prove it. If anyone would like to return the favour and go to their next big event, it is this very Friday: Solemn Mass, 6pm, St Patrick's Soho Square, followed by dinner in a restaurant which they have block-booked for the occasion. Go to the Facebook event!

LMS Oxford Pilgrimage

This is the big event of the year for the Latin Mass Society locally, and involves not only a a really splendid Mass with beautiful singing, but a procession through the streets of Oxford from the place where some of the Catholic Martyrs were held, before their execution, to the place of execution itself. The priests who died in 1589 were dragged to their execution on hurdles; it seems right that we should retrace that route on foot, in thanksgiving for their witness to the faith, and in doing so make an act of witness ourselves.

This Pilgrimage has been instrumental in getting Oxford's two sites of martyrdom publicly recognised. This year we are going to the place where two priests and two laymen were hanged in 1589; there is a slate plaque marking the site at the end of Holywell Street (on number 100) which was blessed at the Oxford Pilgrimage by an auxiliary bishop of the Birmingham diocese, Bishop William Kenne, in 2008. Last year Archbishop Longely himself blessed another plaque, marking the site of the martyrdom of Bl George Napier, in the Castle, during the Oxford Pilgrimage. So look out for these plaques! They are not just tourist attractions, but sites of special spiritual significance. In these places the Catholic Faith was confirmed by the blood of martyrs.

So come along to Mass in Blackfriars at 11am on Saturday 22nd, Sat of 2nd Week, for a Solemn Mass in the ancient Dominican Rite celebrated by the Dominicans. The procession starts from outside St Michael at the North Gate, the Saxon church in Cornmarket which stood next to the Bocardo Prison in the 16th Century, at 2pm. We will walk down Broad Street and Holywell Street singing the Litany of the Saints, the Te Deum, and English hymns, and back again to Blackfriars for Benediction.

If anyone would like to be a marshall, or would like to volunteer to carry the LMS banner or the very exciting new processional statue which will be used for the first time on this procession, please email us!

(Photos: Archbishop Bernard Longley leading the procession in 2010; Solemn Mass in Blackfriars on the same occasion.)

What to do in Oxford?

If you are interested in, or already love, the Catholic Church's ancient liturgy, there are lots of things to do and get involved in. For those who are new to Oxford, here is are a few suggestions.

The Oxford Oratory: they have Mass every Sunday (Low: said, not sung) at 8am, in the Extraordinary Form. Look out for special events and Masses on Holy Days.

SS Gregory & Augustine's Church: in North Oxford, further up the Woodstock Road, there is Low Mass at 6pm every Wednesday, and every First Friday of the month. On First Thursday there is Low Mass at 12 noon. There are lots of Sung Masses on other days.

St Anthony of Padua, Headley Way, in Headington. Low Mass on Thursday mornings at 9am.

Do you want to learn to serve Mass? There are lots of opportunities; enquire with the Oratorian Fathers, or the LMS Representative Joseph Shaw. We hope there will be a Server Training day this term.

Do you want to sing? The Oxford Gregorian Chant Society, the 'Schola Abelis', exists to sing at the Extraordinary Form and they are singing at something almost every week this term, and in the vacations too. On their blog you can see videos of them singing at Mass. Ask them for an audition! They have an all-male Chant Schola and a mixed polyphonic consort, singing Renaissance Polyphony.

As well as Juventutem Oxford, there are Juventutem groups in Reading and in London (and elsewhere). The London group organises a monthly Mass in St Patrick's Soho Square, followed by dinner in a restaurant nearby, which is definitely worth the trip: see their blog for more details.

(Mass in St Patrick's with Juventutem London.)

Welcome to Juventutem Oxford!

Juventutem Oxford welcomes you to a new Oxford term and academic year. There are lots of things going on, so here is a quick summary for the next couple of weeks. More detail will follow on some of these.

Extraordinary Form Masses convenient for central Oxford.

Forty Hours at the Oratory, starting on Friday 14th with Traditional Solemn Mass at 6pm.

Sung Mass on Sunday 16th at 12 noon, at SS Gregory & Augustine, Woodstock Road.

Oxford Pilgrimage in honour of the Catholic Martyrs of Oxford: Solemn Mass in the Dominican Rite at Blackfriars, 11am, Procession 2pm, from Cornmarket, and Benediction 3pm, Blackfriars.

Tuesday 1st November, All Saints: Low Mass, Oxford Oratory

Wed 2nd Nov All Souls:

6pm Low Mass, Oxford Oratory

6pm Sung Mass, SS Gregory & Augustine

Juventutem London: Mass of the Glorious Martyrs of England and Wales

A Celebration of the Glorious Martyrs of England and Wales, who died at Tyburn Tree in witness to the True Church of Our Lord, and the vicariate of the successor of Blessed Peter the Apostle.

HT to Orbis Catholicus Secundus, http://orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.com/2009/10/english-martyrs-commemorated-in-rome.html

Followed by a picnic and Seán's birthday party (Pt III).

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5.30pm: Presentation of the Crypt and relics by one of the Tyburn nuns – Confessions heard during that time next to the Crypt by FSSP priest
6pm: Sung Mass (Celebrant Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP).
7.pm about: Prayer of thanksgiving at the Tyburn Tree (traffic island outside the Convent).
7.15pm about: Picnic in Hyde Park afterwards.

I reckon the picnic might be too cold so we'll retreat somewhere warmer. 

Location: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?client=safari&q=8+Hyde+Park+Place%2C+London+W2+2Lj&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq&hnear=8-9+Hyde+Park+Pl%2C+London+W2+2LJ%2C+United+Kingdom&z=16

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