Mass of Ages Print Edition - Winter 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.
The winter 2016 edition is now available, in which we report on traditional organisations associated with the LMS, namely the St Catherine’s Family Trust and the Guild of St Clare.
Clare Bowskill, LMS Publicist, talks to Dr Joseph Shaw about the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School. He explains:
“We thought it would be good to have an event like that which was based unashamedly on the Traditional Mass, especially for the many home-schooling families we were in touch with.”
Children are given a taste of a range of subjects, with a Catholic flavour: history, history of art, catechism, philosophy, and even a bit of Greek and Latin, and Gregorian Chant.
“Not only do we have Mass, but Rosary after breakfast, and Sung Latin Compline, sometimes with Benediction, in the evening. The children accept this as part of the daily routine, and even the ones not used to the Traditional Mass appreciate it. I am sure it helps that for much of the week we have managed, in recent years, to have High Mass, with Deacon and Subdeacon, accompanied by a highly competent chant schola.”
Asked what the children thought about the Summer School, Dr Shaw said:
“The most trustworthy kind of feedback is that the children keep coming back, and bring siblings back with them. Very much in their minds is the social aspect of the school, making friends and spending time with them. We have also seen students and some staff members go on to seminary of the religious life.”
The Guild of St Clare is a network of needleworkers who are actively developing their sewing skills and experience in making and mending vestments and liturgical furnishings, as well as domestic sewing skills.
Lucy Shaw explains:
“The Guild of St Clare aims to provide not merely a botch job that will just about hold your maniple together for another 12 months, but a competent repair that will give your vestments a new lease of life, make them a pleasure to use again, preserve items of real artistic value, and assist the glorification of God in the beauty of the liturgy.
“At the time of writing there are two Guild chapters meeting regularly, one in London and one in Oxford. These undertake both repairs and commissions such as altar frontals, sanctuary furnishings, vestments and habits. It has been very exciting to see the Guild nurturing its members’ talents.”
To show sewing is an activity for all ages, Lucy adds:
“We don’t want only to develop our own skills as adults, however: we have also begun running a class for children at the Oxford Homeschooling Group, so they can be introduced to basic sewing skills in a series of small projects. At the St Catherine’s Trust Summer School, we can attempt something more ambitious, with five afternoon sessions with the children who have chosen sewing as an activity. We have made rosary purses, aprons, tote bags, scapulars, and other items, using embroidery, quilting, Appliqué, Silk Shading, and Goldwork techniques.”
In a feature article on the LMS Walking Pilgrimage to Walsingham, Clare Bowskill speaks to three of the pilgrims who took part this year.
Fr James Mawdsley, FSSP, was one of the priests leading the pilgrimage. Speaking of the privilege of doing so, he said:
“What is it like to do this as a priest? It must be because better men are not coming forward that ones like me are permitted to serve. To offer Solemn Masses at the chapel at Oxburgh Hall (where there is a priest hole) and then at the Catholic Shrine in Walsingham, is more than my mind can process. But all along the way I thanked God for the good company of the faithful on the LMS pilgrimage: they are rich in charity.”
He adds:
“If prayers in Walsingham ceased, then the most damaging tyrant England ever suffered, Henry VIII, would have triumphed over the purest goodness ever created: the Virgin Mary. By making a pilgrimage one is reassured that evil fails and in the end Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Speaking of the difficult but all-important task of sustaining the physical needs of the pilgrims, Lucy Shaw, chief cook, said:
“It takes at least three hours to cook soup each evening for the pilgrims. We have our own cooking equipment - the ovens in the kitchens we stay in are small and unreliable. The support drivers have the unenviable job of heaving the calor gas bottles and burners between the kitchens and transports each day. I usually bring my own chicken stock on the first evening, but on Friday and Saturday we make our own. We pride ourselves on the standard of the cooking during the pilgrimage - the recipes we use are very simple, which means we can cook from scratch something approximating a meal you might have at home.”
The third pilgrim, Antonia Robinson, a mother whose husband and two of her children took part in the pilgrimage for the first time this year, said:
“Walking a pilgrimage as a family (or partial family) is probably quite different from walking alone: I was moved by how stoic my children were in the face of demanding physical hardship, how prayerful they were, how cheerful and helpful they were to others. Walking in prayer for long, hard miles with my husband nourished our marriage in ways that I didn’t expect.”
Also in this issue of Mass of Ages, LMS Secretary Kevin Jones, reports on a pilgrimage to North Wales in honour of Richard Gwyn, one of the patrons of the LMS. Kevin writes:
“Some 40 pilgrims made the journey to the Gothic Revival church of Our Lady of Sorrows, which was designed by Edwin Welby Pugin … and the seat of the Bishop of Wrexham, the Rt Rev. Peter Brignall.
This was a joint pilgrimage with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. Canon Scott Tanner, from the shrine church of Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena at New Brighton, sang Mass and we are indebted to him and Canon Poucin (of St Walburge, Preston) who sang in the choir.”
Paul Waddington visits a London gem, the church of St James, Spanish Place, which is featured on the cover of this issue, and was the venue for the recent LMS organised Confirmations.
Alberto Carosa reports on how choirs from two widely separated countries joined together to perform a masterpiece of sacred music, Bach’s B Minor Mass.
Also in this issue:
• Regular columnist the ‘Lone Veiler’ writes on the Beauraing apparitions and the film Risen
• David Gorman writes about St Winefride’s Aberystwyth, a Catholic crisis in north Wales
• Catherine Donner looks at the rich symbolism of Hugo van der Goes’ Portinari Altarpiece
• Mary O’Regan asks, “What does it mean to be truly sorry?”
• Fr Bede Row asks, “Do we still believe in maniples?”
• Joseph Shaw reviews The Awakening of Miss Prim, a new novel with Catholicism at its heart
All this, and much more, shows that Traditional Catholicism is alive, growing and enjoyed by more and more people throughout England and Wales.
