Third Sunday of Lent 1863

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8 SUNDAY. Third of Lent, semidouble. Violet. First Vespers of St Frances of Rome, commemoration of the Sunday. White. [In the Diocese of Birmingham First Vespers of St Felix, Bishop Confessor, commemoration of the Sunday. White.  In the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Plenary Indulgence. In the Diocese of Northampton Plenary Indulgence of eight days.]

9 Monday. St Frances of Rome, Widow, double. White. [In the Diocese of Birmingham St Felix, Bishop Confessor, double (transferred from yesterday). White.]

10 Tuesday. The Forty Martyrs, semidouble. Third Prayers A Cunctis. Red.

11 Wednesday. St John of God, Confessor,  double. White.

12 Thursday. St Gregory the Great, Pope Confessor Doctor, Apostle of England, double of the second class. Creed. White. Plenary Indulgence.

13 Friday. The Five Wounds of OUR LORD, greater double. Second prayers and last Gospel of the feria. Creed. Preface of the Cross. Red. Plenary Indulgence.

14 Saturday. St Felix, Bishop Confessor, double. (Transferred from 8 March.) White. [In Diocese of Birmingham St Frances of Rome, Widow, double. White. (Transferred from 9 March.)]

I will put my hands up and admit that I don't know why St Felix should cause St Frances of Rome to bumped into the end of the week in the Diocese of Birmingham.  He isn't a Patron of the diocese and the date seems to have no significance in itself, either for the diocese or its Bishop.  If anybody has any idea, I'd be grateful to know.  (He is an English Bishop, a Patron of East Anglia, and his feast was still celebrated in the diocese of Northampton, from which the diocese of East Anglia was carved, in the 1962 Missal, although the feast was no longer observed in all English and Welsh dioceses.)

There are two plenary indulgences available this week to the whole Catholic population of England and Wales; as well as an extra one for Hexham and Newcastle, and a whole week in the diocese of Northampton which will end on Laetare Sunday. We've seen how easy it is to get to Confession: this week, you can confess, fulfill your Easter obligation and spring a soul from Purgatory: what's not to like?

Although Pope St Gregory the Great is not a Patron of England, he, rather than St Augustine of Canterbury, is called the Apostle of England. He seems to have been moved in the modern calendar to 3 September, the date on which some communities celebrated his Translation.  There will be more on national Patron Saints, or at least St George, next week.

The celebration of the Five Wounds comes well in the week in which we also celebrate the witness of the Forty Martyrs and of St Gregory, because it was the Banner of the Five Wounds under which the Catholics of England rose up against Henry VIII in the Pilgrimage of Grace.  

We can see what Jesus suffered out of love for us.

The Church of St Anne, Albert-place, Spicer-street, Spitalfields is served by the Marist Fathers. The Very Rev Stephen Chaurain is the Superior, and the rest of the community consists of the Revv Joseph Ecuyer, Charles faure, Joseph Gautherin, Charles Augustus Leforetier, Nicholas Binsfeld and Hugh Patrick Kenny.  Masses on Sunday are at 6.00, 7.00, 8.00, 9.00, 10.00 (with an Instruction), and High Mass and Sermon is at 11.00. Churchings and Baptisms are from 1.30 to 3.00 pm, and on Wednesday at 6.00 pm.  Vespers, Sermon and Benediction are at 7.00.  On Holydays, Masses are at 5.00, 6.00, 7.00, 8.00, and 9.00, with High Mass at 10.00.  Every Thursday at 9.30, Mass is said in the presence of children frequenting the schools.  Devotions are every night except Saturdays at 8.00 pm, followed by Benediction on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Stations of the Cross on Fridays.  Catechism is in the church every Tuesday and Thursday at 11.00, and on Sunday at 3.00 pm.  There are Confessions every morning from 7.00 to 9.00, and every evening from 6.00 to 10.00.  Persons unable to attend at these hours will always find one of the Fathers at the Monastery.  There are Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Family, the Living Rosary, and of the Most Sacred and Most Holy Heart of Mary.  Meetings of the Confraternity of the Holy Family are every Tuesday at 8.15 pm: men only are admitted.  There is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the third Sunday of every month at Vespers.  The Marist Fathers occasionally give Missions and Retreats.  The parish serves Whitechapel Workhouse; Mile-end Old-town Workhouse and Workhouse schools; Victoria-park Hospital for Diseases of the Chest; and Bethnal-green Lunatic Asylum.  New and spacious girls' schools are now being erected in this locality.