Latin Mass Society

Chairman's Blog

18/12/2019 - 13:30

Iota Unum talks confirmed for 2020

IMG_1214
Fr Edward van den Bergh giving the last Iota Unum talk of 2019

In 2019 the Latin Mass Society undertook a number of new initiatives in London: notably, a new chant schola, the Schola Cantorum Sancti Ioanni Houghton, to train new singers; a series of Server Training days under the Society of St Tarcisius; and a monthly series of talks, the 'Iota Unum' talks.

These three initiatives have each been a great success. I have already announced the early 2020 dates for server training, and I am delighted to announce another 6 months' of Iota Unum talks have also been confirmed, with some great speakers and topics.

They take place in the basement of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street (please enter through the basement stairs from Golden Square), on Friday evenings.

Doors open at 6:30pm for talk at 7pm.

All welcome. £5 on the door; light refreshments.

Join the mailing list for London events here.

January: Fri 31 Dominic Jones ‘Holiness and Chastity’
Dominic is a doctoral student in philosophy and runs the Sedes Sapientiae summer school.

February: Fri 14 Charles Coulombe: ‘Living the Liturgical Year’
Charles is a prolific author on Catholic history and a columnist for Mass of Ages, the magazine of the Latin Mass Society.

To note: Fri 28 Martin Mosebach will be speaking in the London Oratory about the new edition of The Heresy of Formlessness and his recent Subversive Catholicism. 7:30pm. Co-sponsored by the LMS.

March: Fri 27 Maria Madise ‘Attacks on the Family from Within the Church’
Maria is a leading organiser of Voice of the Family and edits their magazine Calx Mariae.

April: Fri 24 Joseph Shaw ‘Headship and Hierarchy in the Household’
Joseph teaches philosophy at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University, and is Chairman of the LMS.

May: Fri 29 Matthew Ward: ‘Latin Chant as Prayer’’
Matthew is Director of Music at Mayfield School and a the Southesat Regional Director of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge.

June: Fri 19  Mgr Keith Newton ‘The Ordinariate and the Traditional Movement: A Truly Catholic Alliance.’
Mgr Keith is the Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

IMG_1211

Support the Latin Mass Society

17/12/2019 - 13:34

Rose Vestments in Holy Trinity, Hethe

IMG_1238

Fr Richard Conrad celebrated Mass in the Dominican Rite for the Latin Mass Society's quarterly Mass in Holy Trinity, Hethe, the oldest Catholic parish church in Oxfordshire.

IMG_1244

IMG_1249

IMG_1257

IMG_1259

IMG_1261

IMG_1263

Support the Latin Mass Society
13/12/2019 - 11:52

Help the Sons of the Holy Redeemer replace their boat

IMG_9485 A recent visitor to the Sons of the Holy Redeemer on Papa Stronsay Island in the Orkeneys, a former LMS Local Representative, writes as follows:

I left Papa Stronsay yesterday evening [9th Dec]. Fixed up the boat and myself and Fr Magdala launched it in a weather window on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But- that evening a gale – a ten year freak - with 50-60 mph gusts and swell - blew up when it was on the other side at Stronsay pier. The front rope gave way on tying up. The monks were thank God all off. The boat spun round and was tossed ten to fifteen feet in the air like a toy and came down on the stone pier- smashing the deck off and the front. It ended up on the beach at Stronsay as matchsticks.

I helped pick up the bits off the beach last night. Tragic but not a disaster as they just get on with things. Boat had been overhauled for last three months rebuilding the engine, electrics, fuel and repainting. The other small boat is old, leaky and unreliable - so not useable as a main boat.

Had to get a local in a fishing boat to get us off the Island and the monks are relying on the good people of Stronsay for emergency supplies this Christmas.

This is a fundraiser!!! Please make this go viral.

This request is from me - private laity - not one of the Sons and not a representative- As the strict Rule of Saint Alphonsus does not allow soliciting. Your prayers and money in that order are vital.

Links here.
http://www.papastronsay.com/contact/index.php
http://www.papastronsay.com/donate/

IMG_9484

These photographas are from my own visit to Papa Stronsay in 2014: I assume it is the same boat, which carried me across from the larger island of Stronsay, which is accessible by public ferry and also by small aircraft. If not the same, it'll be something very similar. The Sons use it to get all their supplies to the monastery.

IMG_9539

The Sons celebrate the Traditional Mass exclusively and have an apostolate also in Christchurch, New Zealand. Please remember them this Christmas.

Support the Latin Mass Society

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

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]