Solumn Mass for Feast of Pentecost

The 5pm Mass on Sunday 8th June (Pentecost Sunday) at the Church of St Wilfrid in York will be a Solumn Mass. This will be achieved with the assistance of Fr Stephen Brown who will be travelling from Bradford to make up the third priest. The serving team will be having to do some homework in the next week, so as not to let the side down.

Feast of The Ascension

There will be a Latin Mass at 6pm in the Church of St Wilfrid in York on Thursday 29th May for the feast of the Ascension.

Ordinations in the USA

The United States Catholic Bishops Conference have commissioned a survey of the 477 men expected to be ordained to the priesthood during 2014. The list, which includes diocesan and religious, was compiled by contacting all known US seminaries. It is not clear whether this includes the FSSP seminary in Denton. Here are a few of the points which emerged. 1 The average age of ordinands is 34. 2 9% are converts. 3 81% have two Catholic parents. 4 60% had a previous career. 5 On average they first considered the priesthood at the age of 17. 6 48% said that they received active discouragement.

Feast Days Approaching

A reminder that there will be additional Latin Masses at the Church of St Wilfrid in York on the following feast days: Thursday 29th May The Ascension and Thursday 19th June Corpus Christi They will both be at 6pm, so should be convenient for people leaving work.

Video of Margaret Clitherow Pilgrimage

The video of the pilgrimage in honour of St Margaret Clitherow and the Martyrs of York taken and edited by Mike Lord has now been produced. It can be found on the main website of the Latin Mass Society. To find it, click on the tile called Vimeo. It is well worth while taking a look.

Training Our Clergy to Celebrate Mass in the Forma Extraordinaria

I have just returned from four days at Belmont Abbey, near Hereford, where the Latin Mass Society's most recent Priest and Server Training Conference has been taking place. A total of 37 people took part, including priests, deacons, servers, tutors, a schola and an organist. It was a great success. There were two groups of priests learning to celebrate Low Mass, and one of priests, deacons and servers studying Solemn Mass. There were also two groups of servers learning to serve Low Mass, some of whom graduated on to Missa Cantata. Tuition was also given in Latin. Belmont Abbey proved to be a very good venue for the conference, having a beautiful abbey church with sufficient altars for all the groups. The food was excellent, and the sleeping accommodation very comfortable, although some of our participants had to be billeted out to a guest house about a mile away, which proved to be exceptionally grand. The free and easy way in which we were able to use all the facilities helped to make the event very enjoyable. Pictures of the conference have been posted by Joseph Shaw on his blog, LMS Chairman. One unexpected event is worth special mention. On the Thursday, the feast of St Joseph the Worker, I noticed a taxi pulling up outside the abbey church a few minutes before the Solemn Mass was about to start. A young man with a rucksack got out and went into the church. I gave him a service book, and he stayed for Mass. Afterwards, I asked him who he was and where he came from. He told me in perfect English that his name was Martin, and he came from Sweden. He is an assiduous follower of the Latin Mass in Sweden, regularly attending the Masses celebrated by Canon Kunkel. He seemed very well informed about the Latin Mass Scene in England and throughout the world. It turned out that Martin was holidaying in England and was visiting the Catholic Church in Hereford, when he noticed a poster giving details of the conference and the public services that were part of it. There was just time for him to take a taxi for the start of Mass.