Latin Mass Society

Chairman's Blog

26/09/2021 - 10:00

Server training and vestment mending at Spanish Place

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Our activities at St James' Spanish Place were jolly affairs as usual on Saturday, and well attended. The Guild of St Clare vestment making and mending was in the basement, and the Society of St Tarcisius server training was in the church upstairs.

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As well as lots of progress being made on various vestments belonging to the Latin Mass Society, we had several groups of server trainees going through Low Mass and a team looking at the rubrics of Missa Cantata. We were fortunate to have four excellent instructors (I don't count myself!).

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Fr Andrew Southwell, a priest of Southwark Archdiocese familiar from the St Catherine's Trust Summer School who has been in Rome doing studies but is currently in London, was able to enroll five new members of the Society of St Tarcisius, including a Senior MC, who is our MC at the Monday evening Masses in Corpus Christi Maiden Lane.

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We have another such event booked, on Saturday 20th November: what you need to know is here (for servers) and here (for the vestment mending).

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24/09/2021 - 22:09

Who’d like to talk about Socrates?

Socratic Seminars: October 2021

I am returning to these after a break over the Summer. I have been doing them since January 2021 and have an established pattern, alternating different dialogues to discuss in a series of four  seminars.

The idea is that these are open to anyone over 16, regardless of prior knowledge, and take place on line, for a modest fee. The early dialogues are works of real philosophical value but presented in a way designed (I imagine) to engage people without prior training: they are the training. These seminars have been satisfying for me and have engaged the interest of a range of participants: at any rate they tend to come back for more.

This round the following are on offer:

For beginners:

Series 2: Apology (on Socrates' mission), the Crito (on political obligation), Charmides (on temperance), and Hippias Minor (on voluntary wrongdoing). 

Intermediate (for those who've done either or both of the introductory series of seminars 1 and 2):

Series 4: Protagoras (virtue and its teachability) and Gorgias (oratory and justice), each divided into two parts.

More advanced (for those who’ve done either or both of the intermediate series of seminars, 3 and 4):

Series 6: Symposium (on eros) and Parmenides (on the Forms), each divided into two parts.

I teach on Thursdays, we find a time convenient to each person in each seminar. Numbers between two plus plus me to five plus me.

I hope to start on Thursday 7th October.

Email me to register your interest. Joseph.shaw99 AT gmail.com

More information can be found here.

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24/09/2021 - 11:08

A Sacristan's Reflections on the Walsingham Pilgrimage

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Charles Bradshaw assists Fr Henry Whisenant with the Blessing of Pilgrims
The New Liturgical Movement has published a lovely reflection on the LMS Pilgrimage to Walsingham by Charles Bradshaw, who was our Sacristan.
We’re on the road again!” The past few years have seen a sharp increase in off-grid living, and with it a deep desire to give the modern world the heave ho. Off-grid traditional Catholicism is certainly what it feels like as you pack the car for the annual Walsingham Pilgrimage, not just with your backpack and tent but an entire sacristy, from vestments right down to grains of incense. Blessed with Solemn High Mass on each of its three days, the pilgrimage offers a chance to shed the cares of this world for a brief moment and connect with the essential: God; carefully lifting every second of the liturgy from suitcase to sanctuary.
Read the whole

thing there.

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High Mass in the Chapel of St Margaret, Oxburgh

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23/09/2021 - 15:13

Rosary Crusade of Reparation, London, 9th October

Please support this! Always a wonderful event.


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The procession in 2013

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22/09/2021 - 17:26

Server training in London this Saturday: last call for bookings

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This Saturday we are holding another Server Training day with the Society of St Tarcisius, in St James' Spanish Place, from 10:30am. We conclude at about 4pm. 

Please book a place: this gives us an indication of number and of what people want to learn.
No previous experience is necessary, and there is no fee.

25th September: St James' Spanish Place, London 

(booking page) (info about the venue)

20th November: St James' Spanish Place, London 

(booking page(info about the venue)

As usual, there will be a Guild of St Clare Vestment Mending Day running alongside these events: see here for more details.
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21/09/2021 - 10:00

Videos from the Guild of St Clare

The Guild of St Clare is releasing a series of instructional videos about how to do simple repairs on vestments and a bit of domestic sewing--one episode to come will explain patching children's trousers.

This is the introduction to the series.

This one explains how to thread a needle, and how to stitch down loose braid. Yes, pretty well anyone can do a simple thing like this, and with a bit of patience and practice, and the right advice, can do it to a decent standard.

A lot of vestments in parishes bear the marks of incompetent repairs: certainly the LMS vestment collection does, as is noted in the video. This is not necessarily the fault of the people who carried out the repairs, who were often pressed to do it by priests who did not know anyone else who could have a go. The problem is that while every parish contains a few people who can sew, the techniques and skills needed for vestments, while not necessarily more challenging, are different. If you want to do repairs properly, even quite skilled sewers can pick a tip or two from this series.
A real eye-opener on the distinct nature of traditional vestment-making is the way stoles are made, a technique applicable to many other things. You can sign up to an online stole-making course here for 30th October (10am-4pm).
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20/09/2021 - 14:37

LMS London events and Masses at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane

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As I have mentioned before that the Sung Masses have recommenced under professional leadership on Mondays at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, which is a Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament (like SS Peter & Paul and St Philomena in New Brighton, which is looked after by the ICKSP). Another, a Requiem, will take place this evening, for the repose of Fr Wilfrid Elkin who died in March. It is being accompanied by the new polyphonic consort with Victoria's setting, a fitting tribute to a lovely priest who did so much to support tradition.
Enquire about joining the singing of polyphony or the chant on Mondays at Maiden Lane by emailing southwell@lms.org.uk; more info here.
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Last Friday I attended (and photographed) an additional, High, Mass of Requiem there for all those who died in the epidemic, organised by the parish itself. It was celebrated by Fr Alan Robinson, Rector of the Shrine, and accompanied by the Choir of Spanish Place, who sang Anerio's Requiem (with the Dies Irae sung to chant) and the Nanino Gradual and Tract.

There is a lot going on in London once again, thanks be to God, and you can keep up with events through the LMS London monthly newsletter: see the most recent one here and subscribe here.

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This Friday there will be the first of a new series of our long-interrupted Iota Unum talks, by James Bogle on Bl Charles of Austria. The talks take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street: please come to the 24 Golden Square entrance (W1F 9JR), 6:30pm for 7pm. (Full list of confirmed talks and dates here.)

This Saturday there will be Server training and Vestment Mending in St James' Spanish Place. Book the server training, organised by the Society of St Tarcisius, here (and more info); email the Guild of St Clare (lucyashaw@gmail.comif you'd like to join the vestment mending. Previous experience is not required! There is something that everyone can do, and there is masses of space and plenty of things to learn.

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18/09/2021 - 09:33

The challenge of a new school year

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Quiz at a St Catherine's Trust Summer School a while back. We've not had the Summer School
for two summers due to the pandemic.

My first article in a new initiative, a weekly Digest (bulletin) from Voice of the Family.

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Two recent news articles greeted the start of the academic year. The Irish Times informs us that official statistics confirm that since teacher assessments have in whole or in part replaced anonymised formal examinations, the relative performance of boys against girls has fallen. In the Daily Telegraph, Melanie McDonagh complains that her 14-year-old daughter’s Catholic school has brainwashed her into being a woke activist.

These are both troubling claims, and they may seem extreme, but the people making them are far from marginal. The problem of systemic bias against boys has been acknowledged by the Irish government, which is hardly a bastion of cultural conservatism. It was in fact established on the basis of world-wide statistics some years ago, in a study sponsored by the OECD. The creation of a generation of school-child activists all saying the same things about race and gender has been denounced by Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Lest anyone imagine she is some conservative culture warrior, she recently made headlines apologising for Oxford’s education of the prominent Conservative Party politician Michael Gove.

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Read the whole thing. You can subscribe at the bottom of the page.
  
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17/09/2021 - 09:55

Iota Unum talks in London are back: Jamie Bogle on 24th Sept

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Fr Edward van den Bergh giving the last Iota Unum talk of 2019

After a long break necessitated by the epidemic, we are returning to our face-to-face talks in London.
The Latin Mass Society's 'Iota Unam' talks take place on Friday evenings in Our Lady of the Assumption Warwick Street (please enter by the back entrance into the basement: 24 Golden Square, W1F 9JR): click for a map.

6:30pm for 7pm. Refreshments provided. £5 on the door.
Confirmed talks:

Sept 24, James Bogle: Bl Charles of Austria

Oct 22, Joseph Shaw: Headship and Hierarchy in the Family

Nov 19, Dominic O’Sullivan: Spanish Integralism

Dec 10, Sebastian Morello: de Maistre on Liturgy and Politics

Jan 29: Tom Pink: 'The Papal Monarchy: the exercise of power in the Church, its theological and legal basis, and its limits'

During lockdown we have been doing podcasts: have a listen!
 
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15/09/2021 - 20:22

Why priests should learn Latin

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Bilingual Vesting Prayers in the Sacristy of Westminster Cathedral
My latest on Catholic Answers. The LMS is putting its money where its mouth is: clergy and seminarians in or from England and Wales can get an 80% discount on the fee of an online Latin course.
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There is an amusing video on YouTube showing an American Latinist engaging priests in the Vatican in spoken Latin. He remarks that he spoke to a dozen priests, but only three were brave enough to go on camera with him and use Latin in actual dialogue.

Spoken Latin might sound like the preserve of hobbyists, like spoken Elvish or Klingon, but being able to speak a language is the ultimate test of fluency, and for the Church, Latin isn’t just any other language. As well as being the sacred language of the liturgy, it is an indispensable key to the Church’s theology, history, law, philosophy, and poetry. As Pope Benedict XVI described it, it is the language the Church considers as her own.

It is for this reason that Latin has always formed an essential part of the education of the clergy. The Second Vatican Council’s decree on Priestly Training, Optatam Totius, says seminarians “are to acquire a knowledge of Latin which will enable them to understand and make use of the sources of so many sciences and of the documents of the Church” (13). This means a serious grasp of the language: being able to sit down and read St. Augustine, for example—not as a homework exercise, but because you want to know what he says about something.

Read the whole thing there.

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