Latin Mass Society

Chairman's Blog

11/12/2019 - 16:43

Magazine of Una Voce International: new edition

Among my regular tasks is the editing of the magazine of Una Voce International, the FIUV (Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce). This is a mainly-electronic periodical, and a new edition is now available, number 8 in the series.

It can be downloaded here.

Anyone can join the mailing list for receipt of Gregorius Magnus:


to receive mailings like this one.

With best wishes for Advent and Christmas!

Support the Latin Mass Society
29/11/2019 - 15:05

Burse-making in Hampton Court with the Guild of St Clare



Burse-making at the RSN with Heather Lewis

The Guild of St Clare is collaborating with the Royal School of Needlework to provide a special one day course in burse-making. This is a unique opportunity to learn the skills necessary to make one of the more tricky pieces of the traditional vestment set. The tuition will be provided by RSN tutor Heather Lewis, who led our previous Guild of St Clare course in ecclesiastical goldwork, back in 2012. The course will take place at Hampton Court Palace in the RSN's teaching apartments, and is subsidised by the Guild of St Clare.

The date is the 8th February 2020, and the course will run between 10am and 4pm. Tea and coffee are provided; you will need to bring a packed lunch, or you can visit one of Hampton Court Palace's cafes. The cost, including the materials and the special Guild of St Clare discount, is £105.

For more information please email Lucy on lucyashaw@gmail.com, or book through the registration link on the LMS website.

Support the Latin Mass Society
25/11/2019 - 16:17

Colin Mawby 1936-2019, Requiescat in pace

IMG_0756

Colin Mawby, Catholic composer and a Patron of the Latin Mass Society, has died aged 83.

IMG_0969

He was a great supporter of Gregorian Chant, and took an enthusiastic part in several chant training events the Latin Mass Society organised. The above two photographs are from 2016, below I found one from 2012. His enthusiasm was infectious and his knowledge and practical experience enormous. As Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral over the time of the liturgical reform, he was responsible at that crucial moment for the Cathedral's musical tradition not being jettisoned like so much else.

He told us that he had first learnt the Te Deum as a choir boy at Westminster Cathedral to sing at the formal arrival of Cardinal Griffin in 1946: he would have been 10, so this makes perfect sense. We were fortunate to have such a vibrant connection with the old days.

He was kind enough in 2012 to compose for the Latin Mass Society a setting of the Song of the Papal Zouaves, which we have in our Vademecum Peregrini and sing on the road to Walsingham. The words were recorded from 1861, but not the music.

We will not forget him.

IMG_9688

Support the Latin Mass Society
23/11/2019 - 18:43

LMS Pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 2019

IMG_0945

Today we had our second pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Catholic Church of the Holy Child and St Joseph in Bedford.

IMG_0963

They have there a very special reproduction of the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which goes on tour around the country. The church has recently been officially designated as a shrine.

IMG_0941

We had a High Mass, a Votive Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is celebrated in the United States (and no doubt in other countries) on 12th December, with its own liturgical texts: it can be found in the 'PAL' (Pro Aliquis Locibus) section of various Missals.

IMG_0966

This pilgrimage has proved very popular. Last year was the first time it took place, and it is already one of our biggest local events. There were more than 90 people in church on a rather wet November Saturday; many of them had come a long way. I was there myself, to sing, and I brought the subdeacon with me from the Oxford Blackfriars.

IMG_0969

A lot of work went into this event, from the super-efficient Local Latin Mass Society Representative, Barbara Kay, and many other local volunteers, servers, singers, and of course the clergy. Mass was celebrated by Fr Patrick O'Donaghue FSSP, assisted by Fr Gabriel Diaz as deacon and Br Albert Roberton OP as subdeacon. The MC and thurifer both came from London for the occasion.

IMG_0973

The Fraternity of St Peter have a regular Sunday Mass at 8:30am in the next parish in Bedford, at the church of Christ the King, where Fr Patrick is the regular celebrant, where they have 120 faithful on a Sunday.

Support the Latin Mass Society
13/11/2019 - 14:23

Requiem at St Benet's Hall: photos

IMG_0649

Fr John van den Burgh of the London Oratory, an alumnus of St Benet's, celebrated a Sung Requiem Mass for the deceased of the Hall on Saturday 9th November. He was assisted by Fr Daniel Lloyd. Mass was accompanied by the Schola Abelis of Oxford.

IMG_0636

IMG_0638

IMG_0639

IMG_0643

IMG_0653

IMG_0655

IMG_0663

Support the Latin Mass Society
09/11/2019 - 18:30

Photos from the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage, 25-27 Oct

IMG_0605

Above: Bishop Dominique Rey of Frejus Toulon celebrating Mass in Sta Trinita on Sunday 27.

IMG_0331

Mass in the Pantheon on Friday 25

IMG_0358

Below: Benediction in St Lawrence in Damaso

IMG_0413

Below: the procession to St Peter's

IMG_0446

IMG_0453

Below: Bishop Rey processes into St Peter's, to celebrae Mass in the Chapel of the Throne.

IMG_0496

IMG_0510

IMG_0538

Below: more photographs of Bishop Rey's Mass in Sta Trinita

IMG_0578

IMG_0593

IMG_0599

IMG_0605

IMG_0617

Support the Latin Mass Society
06/11/2019 - 16:00

A response to Zita Ballinger Fletcher: the Mass is not 'a cult of toxic tradition'

IMG_0466
Procession to St Peter's during the Summorum Pontificum Pilgrimage

My latest on LifeSiteNews.

A certain Zita Ballinger Fletcher, writing in the National ‘Catholic’ Reporter (a notoriously not-very-Catholic publication) has written an unintentionally hilarious article attacking the traditional Mass. It alternates between statements of the obvious, presented as though they were horrifying revelations — the Latin Mass is said in Latin! The priest celebrates facing away from the people! — with bizarre non sequiturs: this form of the Mass is sexist, oppressive, and clericalist.
And worst of all, people aren’t allowed to wear red.
Fletcher is worried about division in the Church — at least, this is presumably the point of talking about the Latin Mass creating ‘sects’ — but it is she, not Catholics attached to the ancient liturgical tradition, who is causing divisions with this article. Her embittered and rather personal attack contrasts very much with the attitude of her victims. Traditional Catholics do not fill their leisure hours attacking the character of Catholics who attend the ‘Ordinary Form’. 
Support the Latin Mass Society
05/11/2019 - 13:58

The problem with 'Great Books'

My latest in the Catholic Herald: a book review.

In the 1920s, some influential academics were dismayed to find that many graduates of elite American universities were, not to put too fine a point on it, culturally illiterate. They lacked the knowledge that could be taken for granted among cultivated Europeans at the beginnings of their tertiary education, let alone at the end.

The academics’ natural response was to attempt to address this lack, and so the “Western Civilisation Course” or “Great Books Programme” was born, and made compulsory (or strongly recommended) in many institutions. These courses frog-marched students through a carefully selected canon of Western literature, from the Greeks and Romans onwards, with excursions into philosophy and history.

04/11/2019 - 13:54

Requiems this Saturday: London and Oxford

IMG_3658
Sung Domincan Rite Mass in St Dominic's from the spring, celebrated by Fr Lawrence Lew

The Catholic Medical Association is holding a Requiem for deceased members followed by a day of recollection in St Dominic's, Havestock Hill, this Saturday: the Dominican Rite Sung Mass begins at 11am. See here for more details.

The annual Requiem for deceased members, staff, and benefactors at St Benet's Hall, 38 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LN will take place on Saturday at 10:30am. It will be a High Mass in the traditional Roman Rite, and will be celebrated by Fr Edward van den Burgh of the London Oratory.

IMG_2996
Last year's Requiem at St Benet's Hall
Support the Latin Mass Society
31/10/2019 - 19:10

Prof Stephen Bullivant at Iota Unum talk Friday (1st Nov) in London

Our series of Iota Unum talks in London continues with Prof Stepen Bullivant, author of Mass Exodus, talking about his study of Catholic lapsation since the second world war.

Did Vatican II have anything to do with it? Stephen Bullivant, a sociologist of religion, will tell you...

6:30 for 7pm in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street: please use the Golden Square entrance. £5 on the door. Drinks and a good company.

Click for a map.

See my discussion of the book on LifeSiteNews.

Support the Latin Mass Society

Charity web design by Turtlereality

© LMS 2016 | Registered Charity Number: 248388 | Terms & Conditions

Latin Mass Society, 9 Mallow Street, London EC1Y 8RQ | 020 7404 7284 | [email protected]

randomdiss