Today is the Solemnity of St George, patron of England, here is an icon I have of this great martyr Saint.
The Great and Holy Martyr St George, Conqueror of Sin and Death, Defender of the Pure, Victor over Heresy and Slayer of Disease and Suffering, pray for us!
God bless you on this Feast of great Saint George.
On Low Sunday, Quasi Modo Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered for the people of the parish.
As Catholicism.org says:
The Sunday that began this week is called Low Sunday. It is also called Quasi Modo Sunday, after the Latin words of the Introit, and yes, this is the same as the given name of the “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” who received it from the priest who adopted him, having found the deformed Gypsy baby on that particular Sunday.
On account of the newly-Baptized neophytes taking off their white garments on this Sunday, it is anciently called Dominica in albis depositis. Lastly, and more recently, it is named Divine Mercy Sunday.
These various names can be related to each other. The words of the Introit come from I Peter 2:2: Quasi modo géniti infántes, allelúja: rationabiles, sine dolo lac concupíscite, allelúja, allelúja allelúja. (As newborn babes, alleluia, long for pure spiritual milk, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.) They refer to the newly baptized, who are just taking off their baptismal garments (which, anciently, they had worn all week) on this day, and are encouraged to desire the rational milk of grace without guile. In addition to Baptism of the neophytes, the “second plank” of Penance traditionally has a place in the Sunday’s Gospel, and is directly relevant to the Divine Mercy revelations and the promise for Mercy Sunday.
Why the Sunday is called “Low” has been only surmised, but it is probably in relation to the comparatively “High” Sunday, the week before, of Easter.
Mass was today offered for you all. Hope you are all safe and well, God bless and keep you.
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.
See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.
I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.
Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.
I just finished the Sacred Liturgy, I followed the Old Rite, hence black vestments and I used our relic of the True Cross to be venerated, I left it on the altar between candles where it will stay during Matins and Lauds tomorrow.
"...and there they stripped him of his clothes"
At the Solemn Liturgy today, I was struck by your absence and yet of the mysterious presence of the whole Church.
Today. we who are not poor during this time of pandemic have suddenly discovered how poor we really are, and how fragile we and our world are.
We have been stripped of so much which a month ago we felt could never be taken away; liberty, friends, community, some of us live with death or sickness a little too close for comfort,
especially those in the healthcare services, but also others who have to work at this time so we can eat. and, if necessary, travel.
Still, we are in a far, far better place than many people; refugees and migrants are an obvious example.
But we have been stripped of something so very important to us, the sacraments and the Sacred Liturgy and the consolation of our brothers and sisters in the faith.
We are in similar position to those saints who left everything to become solitaries in the desert or the forests far from other human beings.
The word 'monachus' from which we get 'monk' means 'one alone'. For us Catholics the desert and the experience of the solitary hermit is important.
In the Eastern Rites, the newly baptized receive the monastic tonsure, a reminder that all the baptized share in the contemplative life.
Monastic life is important, the priest who is ordained to offer Mass alone everyday of his life and to pray alone, has always been regarded as the highest form of Christian living.
Now, for us, even the Sacraments are taken away. How blessed we priests are not only to offer them but to receive them not only for ourselves but on your behalf.
And yet for all Christians the only thing that matters, the most important thing in the Universe the very centre of all being is Cross of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
I pray that when we come out of this experience we will have learnt to be alone and naked before the Crucified who died alone and naked for us.
For by His Cross and by His Cross alone are we saved.
With every blessing,
Fr Ray ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Many of you have a devotion to the Divine Mercy.
The Divine Mercy Novena begins today, Good Friday, and the Novena
The Mass of the Lord's Supper was offered for the people of this parish
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered by Fr Ray for the people of the parish today on this sacred day, Holy Thursday, marking the first day of the Sacred Triduum. The Mass of the Lord's Supper commemorates that holy day when our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Mass, the first Mass, in the presence of His Apostles.
The Altar of Repose
This day saw the institution of both the Sacred Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Traditionally, during the liturgy, men are taken from the congregation to have their feet washed by the priest in the manner in which Christ Himself washed the feet of His Apostles.
In a very real sense, the vivid recollection of Jesus's arrest and imprisonment is this year something that strikes us all as something altogether even more personal. The reaction to Covid-19 has led our government to place the most stringent safeguards upon Catholics and indeed the whole population of the United Kingdom. Most Catholics around the world are experiencing Christ's imprisonment in a personal way, they are for the most part, especially if vulnerable, shut in, enclosed, isolated, some alone.
The psychological burden of being in 'lockdown' leads us to being reclusive, often introspective, locked away, for most of us against our will, even if we understand that it is not for any real or perceived crime and that precautions for the sake of public health have been strongly advised.
While we may not experience the same harrowing cruelty that Christ experienced in His prison, since many of us still have access to certain comforts which we surround ourselves with, many Catholics will feel this evening a profound anguish and sense of disappointment that they are unable to be where they want to be this evening, at Mass, honouring the Lord's great gifts to His Church, remembering with faith and devotion the events leading up to His Passion and Death. The liturgy on this day in this Mass ends tradtionally with a Procession to the Altar of Repose.
There the Pange Lingua is intoned by the celebrant in darkness as lighted candles are placed before the Altar of Repose created for the Lord and many faithful stay for a long time to make a vigil with Christ, our Eucharistic Lord, the Prisoner of the Tabernacle, bringing their own burdens to Him, offering prayer for themselves and loved ones, in penitence and in atonement for sin, keeping the Lord company and finding consolation in His Eucharistic Presence.
That the Faithful are unable to attend this liturgy this year, nor make these consoling devotions is a cause of grief, anxiety and pain to so many. To the priest, who, like Christ made present on the Altar, is both priest and victim in the Mass, the loss of the presence of the Flock on this sacred day in the Church's year, is a great sadness and every parishioner is in his continued prayers.
The priesthood of the Faithful baptised is important in the Church today, for as ever the lay faithful are called to pray, to offer sacrifice in their lives, to offer themselves to God, to intercede for the Church and the World, to pray for the Salvation of the World. The present emergency situation calls us all to cling more tightly than ever to the Lord Jesus and His Cross, many are struggling with the psychological and spiritual pain that this unexpected season of separation from the liturgical life of the Church has brought upon us as well as the sense that the world is closing in on them more generally. Let us plead with the Lord our God that He will bring to an end this separation and impediment, free captives, end pestilence, grant wisdom to our leaders and bring us all together in worship of God soon.
To learn more about Holy Thursday, a good link can be found here.
Today, Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week, the holiest week in the Church's liturgical calendar. Mass was offered by Fr Ray, as on every Sunday, for the people of the parish.
Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week, and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.
Palm Sunday is known as such because the faithful will often receive palm fronds which they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem.
In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was a customary practice for people of great respect.
Palm branches are widely recognized symbol of peace and victory, hence their preferred use on Palm Sunday. The use of a donkey instead of a horse is highly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving on a steed in war. A week later, Christ would rise from the dead on the first Easter.
During Palm Sunday Mass, palms are usually distributed to parishioners who carry them in a ritual procession into church. The palms are blessed and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion. These may be returned to the church, or kept for the year. This year, it has sorrowfully come to pass that parishioners were absent from the liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday.
Because the palms are blessed, they may not be discarded. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year's Ash Wednesday observance.
The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red and white, symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.
Pray for the restoration of our liturgical life and the return of public Mass, may this be for you a fruitful and blessed Holy Week.
With so many of us self-isolating or being withdrawn from the world, it is an opportunity for us to meditate on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to draw close to Him on His bitter road to Calvary, to find consolation in His merciful love.
May all of us honour the Passion and Death of the Lord our Saviour so that we may celebrate His rising from the tomb and victory over Satan, death and sin.
This seems very much to be the hour of the Church's Passion and tribulation in darkness. Darkness and gloom pervade our thoughts, but Our Lord Jesus Christ is the light which banishes darkness, fear and sorrow. He is with us until the end of time.
May His triumph over darkness and evil give us all hope and confidence that we may obtain eternal life and liberty to worship God once more in the Eternal Sacrifice of the glorious Son of God to the Eternal Father.
May we overcome our sinfulness and our pride this Holy Week, to rise with Him as we commemorate His Resurrection on Easter Day. The tomb could not hold back the Bridegroom of the Church, the Church also, the Lord's Bride will rise again!
