Mass of Ages Print Edition - Summer 2016

The magazine is FREE - you only pay for postage.

Mass of Ages is the quarterly magazine of the Latin Mass Society. It contains reports on our many activities across the country, national and international news of Traditional Catholic events, feature articles on different aspects of traditional Faith and culture, and opinions and views on developments in the Catholic Church.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the acclaimed composer and director Colin Mawby KSG speaks exclusively to Mass of Ages. Discover how the distinguished musician met a martyr, why he thinks the Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium got into the wrong hands, that drinking coffee hopefully won't send him to hell and how the Latin Mass changed his life. Colin is one of the Patrons of the LMS.

"You see my life is really shaped by an extraordinary thing that happened before l was born. Dad was caught in a rainstorm outside the Catholic cathedral in Portsmouth. He had nowhere to shelter so he went inside, where he saw a most extraordinary thing going on. It turned out to be a Pontifical High Mass, l think sung by Bishop Cotta, and he went to the sacristy afterwards and asked, "What on earth is this all about?' And so he was told and took instruction and that led him to be a Catholic. Now the amazing thing is that had it not been for that rainstorm, my career would not have happened. It was all shaped by a rainstorm. My experience of God is that he acts in the most peculiar ways."

2017 marks the centenary of the Fatima apparitions. Donal Anthony Foley, Secretary of the World Apostolate of Fatima in England and Wales, is involved in planning a programme for the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima, which was blessed by Pope Paul VI in Fatima in 1967, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the first apparition on 13 May 1917, and which was handed over to WAF in 1968, to be visiting various cathedrals and churches around the country.

"The statue will be accompanied by relics of Blessed Jacinta and Francisco, thus giving the faithful an opportunity to see it and venerate the relics, while also hearing about aspects of the Fatima message, and particularly about the importance of the Rosary and the Five First Saturdays devotion."

As Her Majesty the Queen celebrates her 90th birthday this year, making her the oldest reigning monarch, Fr Bede Rowe asks, 'Do we still believe in Royalty? He points out that, 'she has been a great example of steadfast service to her country' a life dedicated to the role she inherited and did not choose.

"In Queen Elizabeth II, we see a woman who knows her obligations under God, and on the final day she will stand before him, as a Queen. And I have no doubt that she will acknowledge His Majesty, for she is a woman of faith."

In the fourth of his series of articles, Paul Waddington takes a look at the Birmingham Oratory and shows us the treasures that can be seen within.

"Once inside, the visitor is treated to a riot of bright colours executed in marble, alabaster and porphyry. Any surfaces where these materials do not occur are treated with mosaics or decorative paintwork with much use of gilt. Although the overall effect is stunning, many find the variety of colours overpowering and wish for more restraint in the decoration. Nevertheless, the Oratory church is undoubtedly a building of remarkable architectural merit."

As we approach the feast of Pentecost, Caroline Shaw helps us contemplate Jean II Restout's painting 'Pentecost'.

"Our Lady has almost always been placed by artists at the centre of any image of Pentecost, for it was she who had initiated the Apostles' novena of continuous prayer, she who sustained them in the aftermath of the Ascension and she who would guide them in the early days of the Church. This painting reminds us that it is Our Lady who, as Mother of the Church, leads us, in union with the Holy Spirit, towards Heaven. As St Thomas Aquinas beautifully puts it, 'as mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so are Christians guided to Heaven by Mary' "

Also in this issue:

• Regular columnist the 'Lone Veiler' warns of the dangers of a celebrity civilization.
• In an interview with Edmund Adamus, Director of the Department for Marriage and Family Life at the Diocese of Westminster, he outlines his views on the greatest threat facing the family today and what role the family has in the work of salvation. He is asked, "Is the family facing a particular attack by diabolical forces in our own time?" and concludes by saying why Pope Saint John Paul II has been the greatest influence on his life.
• Fr James Bradley, a priest of Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, looks at the relationship between Divine Worship (the Missal for the personal ordinariates erected under the auspices of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus) and the Extraordinary Form?
• LMS Chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, explains why the recent petition to Rome by the Bishops of England and Wales for the prayer, "for the conversion of the Jews", used in the Extraordinary Form Good Friday service, be replaced by its equivalent in the Ordinary Form is deeply troubling for the international movement in support of our liturgical tradition.
• Clare Bowskill, LMS Publicist, reports on the recent Family Retreat and Gregorian Chant Course. And, in another article, reports how extraordinary numbers attend the Triduum in the Old Rite this year.
• Barbara Kay, a regular worshipper at Christ the King in Bedford reveals how St Margaret Clitherow led her to the Latin Mass.

All our regular features are there, including comment and opinion pieces, book reviews, Lone Veiler, Rome Report, your letters, a prize crossword, reports from our network of Diocesan Representatives, full listings of Traditional Masses across England and Wales, and much more besides. Read the summer edition of Mass of Ages HERE.

Thanks to the cooperation of priests in whose parishes the Traditional Mass is celebrated, Mass of Ages is available from more than ninety cathedrals and churches around the country. If you do not live near one of these but would like a copy of the magazine, we would be very happy to send one from the office. However, due to the high cost of postage, we do ask that you cover the cost of postage.