10 May 2015

Consecration Of England And Wales To Our Lady And St Peter

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From a Directory published in 1909:

CONSECRATION TO OUR BLESSED LADY AND ST PETER

On June 29, 1893, in obedience to the earnest wish and exhortation of Pope Leo XIII, England and Wales were solemnly dedicated and conscrated, by the Cardinal Archbishop and the Bishops, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and to St Peter, Prince of the Apostles; and this dedication and consecration is to be renewed yearly in every public church - to Our Blessed Lady on Rosary Sunday, to St Peter on the Sunday within the octave of June 29.

The respective entries in the Ordo say:

In omnibus Eccl renovatur Dedicatio S PetroAp   

and


In omnibus Eccl fit renovatio Dedicationis BMV, et apud ejus imaginem offeruntur flores 

From The Tablet 24 June 1893: (I've saved you from many of the verses)

MARY'S DOWRY AND PETER'S THRONE.

For Mary's love and Peter's name, 
Let thankful voices raise 
Glad songs that still unquenched proclaim 
The faith of olden days !

...
   See where they pass, those pilgrim lines 
Along the well-worn way, 
At Walsingham and Willesden shrines 
Their vows of love to pay !

...
 For Mary's love and Peter's name, 
This gladsome song we raise, 
And still with loyal hearts proclaim 
The faith of olden days !

—W. H. KENT, O.S.C.
Written for the Consecration of England to Our Blessed Lady and St. Peter, June 29, 1893.

If I ever knew about this, I have most surely forgotten it; but I think this is the first time I've ever heard of the Consecration, or its annual renewal.  It's definitely the first time I've heard of England (and Wales) referred to as St Peter's Throne.

Sunday 1 July, and Sunday 4 October would have been the relevant dates for this year, though there is no Octave of SS Peter and Paul any more, and the First Sunday of October is no longer the Feast of the Rosary of the BVM (though the Ordo of the Saint Lawrence Press points out that even after the reforms of Pope St Pius X and until the New Mass and Calendar of Pope Paul VI, the Mass of Our Lady's Rosary could replace all Masses on this Sunday except the Conventual).

Whatever the degree of my personal ignorance, however,  it feels to me that this is a practice that could bring nothing but good to this country, and it seems to me that it would be open to us to do it ourselves, assuming that we couldn't persuade the Hierarchy, or individual priests, to reinstitute the practice.  We might bring flowers for Our Lady's statue as well.

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5 comments:

Rubricarius said...

The Ordo had both of those instructions in it up until the middle of the 1990s. Until then there were several other 'In Anglia' references. (And until a few years earlier the Ordo retained an Octave for the $$PX not that, by then, it would have been of any interest to them). An editorial decision was taken to excise anything not in the Universal Calendar to make the Ordo more international and as a reason to politely refuse the compilation of Ordines for specific countries and dioceses.

Ttony said...

Rubricarius: you will have seen the fourth prayers for Rogation Wednesday for England and Wales, then, which explicitly draw in the BVM and St Peter.

Rubricarius said...

Ttony,

No, I am afraid I have not. Please do enlighten us.

Ttony said...

Oratio

Deus, qui nos ab Ecclesiae nostrae nascentis exordio Beatae Mariae Virginis dotem, ac Petro Apostolorum Principi subditos effecisti: concede propitius: ut in catholicae fidei firmitate constanter eamdem Virginem diligere, atque in Petri obedientia permanere valeamus. Per Dominum.

Secreta

Clementissime Deus, cujus misericordiae non est numerus, immaculatae hujus hostiae oblatione placatus, Beata Maria Virgine cum Petro Apostolorum Principe intercedente, ita populi hujus mentem illumina et corda succende, ut in ea fide quae caritatem operatur constans perseveret. Per Dominum.

Postcommunio

Deus, qui gentem nostram, Beatae Mariae Virginis dotem, antiqua erga Petrum Apostolum fidelitate clarificasti: hujus sacrificii virtute, eam in ejusdem beatae Mariae Virginis affectu, atque erga Aposolicam sedem obedientia confirma. Per Dominum.

Ttony said...

... atque erga Apostolicam sedem obedientia confirma ...