Fifth Sunday After Pentecost 1863

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28 SUNDAY Fifth after Pentecost, semidouble. White. Vespers of Sts Peter and Paul without any commemoration.

The Indulgence begins.

29 Monday. SS PETER AND PAUL, Apostles, Double of the First Class with an Octave, during which commemoration of the Octave, Creed,  and Preface of the APostles.Alban, Martyr, greater double. Second prayers of St Paulinus, Bishop Confessor. Red. Second Vespers of the Feast.

30 Tuesday. The Commemoration of St Paul, Apostle, double. Second prayers of St Peter. Red.


1 Wednesday. The Octave of St John the Baptist, double. White.

2 Thursday. The Visitation of the BVM, double of the second class. In Low Mass second prayers of SS Processus and Martinian, Martyrs. Creed.  Preface of the BVM. White. Plenary Indulgence.

3 Friday. St Angela Merici, Virgin, double (transferred from 31 May). White. Abstinence. [In Diocese of Plymouth St Eleutherius, Pope Martyr, double (transferred from 29 May). Red. In Diocese of Shrewsbury, Mass of the Octave of Sts Peter and Paul, semidouble, second prayers Concede. Third prayers for the Church or the Pope. Red.]

4 Saturday. St Francis Carracciolo, Confessor, double (transferred from 4 June). White. [In Dioceses of Clifton, St David's and Newport, and Plymouth, principal Mass of the BVM, with Gloria, one Prayer and Creed. In Diocese of Northampton, third prayers for the Bishop. In Diocese of Plymouth, St Angela Merici, double (transferred from 31 May). White.]

As ever, a feast of SS Peter and Paul is answered by one of SS Paul and Peter. How rich these four days are: the feast of the two Saints, the Commemoration of St Paul, the Octave of St John the Baptist, and the Visitation.  All of those closest to Jesus are commemorated in less than a week, long after Easter, six months before Christmas: but God's work in men and women is made manifest again.

The Indulgence attached to the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul is one of the eight in the year during which most Catholics went to Holy Communion. It is unique in the conditions attaching to it.  They are: sacramental confession, reception of Holy Communion, and prayers to God "with a sincere heart, for the conversion of Infidels and Heretics, and for the free propagation of the Holy Faith".  These feel like prayers we should be saying anyway.  Note that attendance at Mass isn't one of the conditions: receiving Communion separate from Mass was quite normal until the second half of the twentieth century.

There is another plenary indulgence available on Friday, it being a feast of the BVM.


St Mary's Abbey, at East Bergholt, near Colchester, is served by the Rt Reverend William Wareing, Bishop of Retimo.  Local people can enter an extension to the chapel where they can see from the side the priest saying Mass but can't see the community..

Bishop Wareing had been a Confessor to a Convent of English Benedictine nuns who had been forced to abandon France after the Revolution, and had also taught at Oscott, where he became Vice President and Spiritual Director.  After the reorganisation of the Vicariate, he became the first Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern District with the title of Bishop of Ariopolis, and, with the establishment of the Hierarchy in 1850, was the first Bishop of Northampton.  He received Frederick William Faber into the Church.  As an old man he resigned his See, was "translated" to a See in partibus, and became once again Chaplain to a Benedictine convent, where in time he died and was buried. 

On his deathbed he said: "I have no great talents; I have never done any great things; but I have always endeavoured to do my duty". I think this is an epitaph we might all strive for.

The Convent became a Friary, and the friars went in the 1970s.  Though the cemetery has been preserved, Bishop Wareing's tombstone is now pretty well illegible.  The Abbey/Friary has become a commune.  There are more pictures here, and here as well. They leave me feeling pretty depressed.

Helping Out With Crisis Pregnancies In 1910

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I found this classified advertisement from 1910 most affecting. Poor Mgr Nugent and Fr Walsh, who could probably never have imagined that the slaughter of unwanted children would become industrialised.  At least they did what could, and it strikes me as like the acts of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta: something beautiful for God.

SAVE THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD !

HOUSE OF PROVIDENCE

West Dingle, Liverpool

UNDER THE CARE OF SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY

This Institution was founded in 1897 by the late Rt Rev Mgr Nugent, its chief object being to provide a safe refuge for young unwedded mothers and their infants. and thereby to prevent the prevalent destruction of child life. Infanticide under some of its worst forms has become so widespread that an asylum of this character had long been an urgent necessity. Each week sets forth gruesome accounts of the finding of dead bodies of infants, often horribly mutilated. How many unfortunate unmarried mothers have fallen through circumstances rather than choice or wilfulness? Ruined and then cruelly deserted, they seek to hide their shame by resorting to acts from which they would otherwise naturally shrink in horror.

The knowledge gained by Father Nugent during twenty-two years' chaplaincy in the Liverpool Prison induced him to endeavour by these means to remedy in some degree, this growing evil. No infant is admitted unless the mother enters with it, and remains at least twelve months to nurse and work for her child. the natural maternal tie is thus fostered and maintained, with the satisfactory results as shown by the working of the Institution and the very gratifying successes already achieved. Help is now much needed to support and develop this merciful and beneficent agency for the saving of both mother and child.

A few words as to how the mother and child are saved may not be out of place. Whilst in the Institution at West Dingle, the mother is reformed and thoroughly confirmed in a life of virtue. She tends her own babe as one of her many daily duties. Then when she goes forth once more into the world, the devoted Sisters always see that she has a safe and respectable livelihood, which enables her to bring up her little one in security and adequate comfort.

Donations and subscriptions to be sent to the Rev Edmund Walsh, St Thomas, Waterloo, Liverpool, or the Rev Mother, West Dingle, Liverpool.

Fourth Sunday After Pentecost 1863

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21 SUNDAY Fourth after Pentecost. St Aloysius Gonzaga, double of the second class. Second prayers and Last Gospel of the Sunday. Third prayers for the Pope (Anniversary of the Coronation of His Holiness). White. First Vespers of St Alban, with Commemoration of St Aloysius, the Sunday, and of St Paulinus, Bishop Confessor. Red.  [In Diocese of Birmingham, fourth prayers for the Bishop.]

22 Monday. St Alban, Martyr, greater double. Second prayers of St Paulinus, Bishop Confessor. Red. [In Dioceses of Salford, Shrewsbury, and Southwark , third prayers for the Bishop.]

23 Tuesday. Vigil. St Gregory VII, Pope Confessor, double (transferred from 28 May). Commemoration and Last Gospel of Vigil. White. [In Diocese of Northampton St Ethelreda, Virgin, double. Commemoration and Last Gospel of Vigil. White. In Diocese of Plymouth St Philip Neri, Confessor, double (transferred from 27 May). Commemoration and Last Gospel of Vigil. White.  In Diocese of Shrewsbury, St Eleutherius, Pope Martyr, double (transferred from 29 May).  Commemoration and Last Gospel of Vigil. Red.]


24 Wednesday. (Feast of Devotion) THE NATIVITY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST, double of the First Class with an Octave during which Commemoration of the Feast. White. {In Diocese of Liverpool Plenary Indulgence.]

25 Thursday. St William, Abbot Confessor, double. White.

26 Friday. SS John and Paul, Martyrs, double. Red. Abstinence.

27 Saturday. Vigil. St Eleutherius, Pope Martyr, double. Second prayers of the Octave. Third prayers and Last Gospel of the Vigil. Red. FAST. [In Diocese of Plymouth St Gregory VII, Pope Confessor, double (transferred from 28 May). Second prayers of the Octave. Third prayers and Last Gospel of the Vigil. In Diocese of Shrewsbury St Basil, Bishop Confessor Doctor, double (transferred from 14 June). Second prayers of the Octave. Third prayers and Last Gospel of the Vigil. Creed. White.]

Not a lot to comment on this week.  The Sanctoral moves forward, and there is no Green.

I remember jumping over the fire (or, as wicked observers with an agenda probably said: shuffling alongside the fire with a bit of an upward motion if anybody was looking) several times on St John's Eve, la noche de San Juan (in fact la nueche de San Xuan), in Spain. There is something wrong when the secular world keeps feasts the Church doesn't want to celebrate any more.

Will St Alban be celebrated in England this week? How many children attending Catholic schools will be told about our protomartyr?

Our Lady Star of the Sea in Greenwich is served by the Rev Joseph E North, the Missionary Rector and Dean of the deanery of St Augustine, assisted by the Rev Michael O'Halloran. Masses on Sunday are at 7.00, 9.00 and 11.00. Catechism is at 3.00. Vespers are at 6.30 with a Discourse and Benediction. On Holydays Mass is at 7.00, 8.00 and 10.00, with Vespers at 7.30. On weekdays Mass is at 8.00 and 9.00. On Wednesday evening, there is a Discourse followed by Benediction at 7.30, and on Fridays either Stations or other Devotions at 7.30 pm. On the first Thursday of the month there is Mass at 8.00 am, and Benediction at 7.30 pm for the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament established here. The Blessed Sacarament is exposed from High Mass to th Vespers in the feast of the Holy Name, and on the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, being the two Festivals of the Confraternity.  The Forty Hours Exposition ends on Passion Sunday.  The parish serves the Greenwich Workhouse; Greenwich Hospital; Lewisham Workhouse; and the Hospital-ship Dreadnought.


Here is a list of the Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland in 1863.  Scotland has no Hierarchy, so has Vicars Apostolic instead: Bishops of Sees in partibus infidelium, rather than with territorial juriosdiction of their own, exactly as England and Wales were until 1850.  this also means that the Scots have no calendar of their own but follow the calendar of the Diocese of Rome.  Coadjutors are Auxiliary Bishops who have the right of succession to the See when the Ordinary dies or resigns.How many of the residences are still in Church hands?

Third Sunday After Pentecost 1863

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14 SUNDAY Third after Pentecost. The Most Sacred Heart of OUR LORD, double of the second class. Second prayers and Last Gospel of the Sunday. Preface of the Cross. White. Second Vespers of the Feast, with Commemoration of Our Lady, Help of Christians, the Sunday, and of Sts Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia, Martyrs. Plenary Indulgence. Collection for the Poor School Committee, the benefactors of which can obtain another Plenary Indulgence during the week.  [In Dioceses of Plymouth and Shrewsbury, the Commemoration at Vespers for the following day is respectively, St John a St Facundo and St Barnabas.]

15 Monday. Our Lady, Help of Christians, greater double (transferred from 24 May), Second prayers of Sts Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia, Martyrs. Creed. Preface of the BVM. White. [In Diocese of Plymouth, St John a St Facundo, Confessor, double (transferred from 12 June.  Second prayers of the Martyrs. White. In Diocese of Shrewsbury, St Barnabas, Apostle, greater double (transferred from 11 June). Second prayers of the Martyrs. Creed. Preface of the Apostles. Red. ]

16 Tuesday. St Barnabas, Apostle, greater double (transferred from 11 June). Creed. Preface of the Apostles. Red. [In Diocese of Nottingham St Peter Coelestine, Priest Confessor, double (transferred from 21 May). White. In Dioceses of Plymouth and Shrewsbury Our Lady, Help of Christians, greater double (transferred from 24 May). Creed. Preface of the BVM. White.]


17 Wednesday. St Peter Coelestine, Priest Confessor, double (transferred from 21 May). Second prayers for the Pope (Anniversary of the election of His Holiness). White. [In Dioceses of Nottingham and Shrewsbury, St Aldhelm, Bishop Confessor, double (transferred from 25 May). Second prayers for the Pope. White.  In Diocese of Plymouth
St Barnabas, Apostle, greater double (transferred from 11 June). Second prayers for the Pope. Creed. Preface of the Apostles. Red. ]

18 Thursday. St Aldhelm, Bishop Confessor, double (transferred from 25 May). Second prayers of Sts Mark and Marcellian, Martyrs. White. [In Diocese of Nottingham The Octave of St Barnabas, Apostle, double. Second prayer of the Martyrs. Creed. Preface of the Apostles. Red. In Diocese of Plymouth St Peter Coelestine, Priest Confessor, double (transferred from 21 May). Second prayers of the Martyrs. White.In Diocese of Shrewsbury St Philip Neri Confessor, double (transferred from 27 May). Second prayers of the Martyrs. White.]

19 Friday. St Julia Falconieri, Virgin, double. White. Second prayers of Sts Gervase and Protase. Abstinence.


20 Saturday. St Philip Neri, Confessor, double (transferred from 27 May). Second prayers of St Silverius, Priest Martyr. White. [In Diocese of Plymouth St Aldhelm, Bishop Confessor, double (transferred from 25 May). Second prayers of the Martyrs. In Diocese of Shrewsbury St Gregory VII, Pope Confessor, double (transferred from 28 May). Second prayers of the Martyrs. White.]

Of course at this time the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was celebrated on a Sunday (it was moved by Pope Pius X) and had no Octave (which was added by Pope Pius XI and removed by Pope Pius XII)—a brief liturgical history of the twentieth century—so this week is simply busy with Saints, and with catching up with missed feasts, made complex by the fact that diocesan celebrations mean that different feasts are caught up with in different ways, depending on where you live.  The Calendar expects a world in which things happen at the speed of man and beast, not at the speed of machines.

Note the second prayers for the Pope on the anniversary of his election.  There is no need to offer special votive Masses for His Holiness (though these might be said): adding prayers to the Mass adds to the Mass's richness, and doesn't take away from it. ("Both and", not "either or".)

St Mary's Agricultural Colony and Reformatory at Whitwick in Leicestershire is managed by the Rev Joseph Martin from St Bernard's Abbey (now Mount St Bernard); the Rev Austin Collins is the Chaplain. Mass on Sunday is at 7.00, with solemn Mass and Sermon at 10.00. Catachesis is at 4.00 pm. Prayers, Sermon and Benediction are at 6.00. Strangers who are not in Holy Orders are not admitted on Sundays.
 
I was told I was a bit too keen on posting the prices of wines and spirits. Well, here are some prices for tea and sugar for Temperance folk. And raisins and currants: but don't let them soak in water for too long and leave them ...

Bishop Milner

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John Milner, Titular Bishop of Castabala and Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1803-1826, had one of the strongest personalities of any of the English Bishops.  He was very devout, making his seminary at Oscott the first English centre of devotion to the Sacred Heart, and had a keen concern that his priests should be properly educated and orthodox: he was very keen that the Cisalpine tendencies which had grown since the French Revolution and which he detected in any body, lay or clerical, which opposed him, should be defeated.

He was one of the four Bishops who governed the Church in England and Wales as Vicars Apostolic, and usually found himself in a minority of one on any issue on which he and his brethren needed to agree.  He became the Parliamentary Agent for the Bishops of Ireland after the 1801 Act of Union, representing their (well, his) anti-Cisalpine views trenchantly, against those of the English Bishops, the representatives of the English laity and, as it happened, the Pope and the Roman Curia. Catholic Emancipation was achieved in 1829 but might have been in 1813, were it not for Milner's exertions. Yet it can be argued that it was because of Bishop Milner that the Bishops took over the leadership of the Catholic Church in England and Wales from the Catholic gentry who had kept it going throughout the penal period.

As Mgr Ward wrote, Milner had grievances against everyone, from the Holy Father downwards, with the inevitable result that he fell out one time or another with everyone with whom he came into contact. He denounced one of his fellow Vicars Apostolic to Rome for dishonestly keeping to himself monies from Rome which were due to Milner: in fact the accusation was baseless and the Roman authorities were exasperated by his behaviour. 

Famously, in 1813, after the defeat of Grattan's Emancipation Bill, the Catholic Board, which represented the interests of the Catholic Laity, voted to dismiss him from the "Select Committee" which it had set up to enable the Board to attend more expeditiously to public business.  Milner read to the Board a long paper of protest and, finishing, walked to the door, turned and said "You may expel me from this Board, but I thank God, Gentlemen, that you cannot expel me from the Kingdom of Heaven". These words were widely quoted among Catholics in the nineteenth century.

Less often quoted were the words of Mr Robert Clifford, one of the leading lay Catholics of the day, who refused to allow any resolution of the Board hostile to or critical of Bishop Milner to pass without a formal vote.  He wrote "I must in justice, however, say that I did it out of the respect which I bore for the character of a Vicar Apostolic, and not for the person of Dr Milner, as I should be unwilling to transact business with him without a witness".

Sources: Mgr Ward, Frs Schofield and Skinner, John Bossy

Sunday In The Octave Of Corpus Christi And Second After Pentecost 1963

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7 SUNDAY within the Octave of Corpus Christi and Second after Pentecost, semidouble. White. First Vespers of St William with commemoration of the Sunday and the Octave. [In Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Plenary Indulgence.]

8 Monday. St William, Bishop Confessor, double. White. [In Diocese of Westminster third prayers for the Archbishop.]

9 Tuesday. Mass of the Octave of Corpus Christi, semidouble. Second prayers of Sts Primus and Felician, Martyrs. Third prayers Concede.  White. [In Diocese of  Shrewsbury Our Lady Help of Christians, Patron of the Diocese, double of the First Class (transferred from 24 May). Creed. Preface of the BVM. White.]

10 Wednesday. Mass of the Octave of Corpus Christi, semidouble. Second prayers Concede. Third prayers for the Church or the Pope. White.

11 Thursday. The Octave of Corpus Christi, double . White. [In Diocese of Nottingham St Barnabas, Apostle, Titular of the Cathedral, double of the First Class, with an Octave, during which commemoration of the Octave, Creed, and Preface of the Apostles. Second prayers of the Octave of Corpus Christi. Red.]

The Indulgence ends

12 Friday. St John a S Facundo, Confessor, double. Second prayers of SS Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius Martyrs. White.  Abstinence. [In Diocese of Plymouth, the Octave of St Boniface, Bishop Martyr, double. Red.]

13 Saturday. St Anthony of Padua, Confessor, double. White.

Last Thursday's feast of Corpus Christi still governs the week, with only one feast reducing it to a commemoration, except in Shrewsbury and Nottingham where there are two: each diocese is its own Church.

Saint William, whose feast falls on Monday, is the St William who was Archbishop of York, the nephew of King Stephen, and who governed the Archdiocese from 1141 to 1154. He was canonised in 1227. Is his feast celebrated anywhere this year?

For the first time, let us compare pre-1910 with post-1970.

7 SUNDAY Corpus Christi (transferred). White.

8 Monday. Feria. Green.

9 Tuesday. St Ephrem, Deacon Doctor (White) or St Columba Abbot (White) or feria (Green).

10 Wednesday. Feria. Green.

11 Thursday. St Barnabas, Apostle. Red.

12 Friday. The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. White.

13 Saturday. St Anthony of Padua, (White) or the Immaculate Heart Of Mary (White).

Apart from Green,  what strikes me is the word "or". Why "or" when you can have "and"?  And this is a busy week in the new calendar! The declaration of St Ephrem as a Doctor of the Church in 1920 could have made him a particular bridge to the East, but the change of date and the reduction of his feast (the feast of a Doctor of the Church!) to an option, equal to St Columba or, if the priest can't be bothered, to a feria leaves me bemused, to say the least.

The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was transferred from the Third Sunday after Pentecost to the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi by Pope Pius X.  It provides the last ghostly echo of that Octave, which was abolished by Pius XII, in the new calendar.

A strong word, but I really think that the modern calendar is the old calendar emasculated. The old calendar was directing, ordered and hierarchical; the modern calendar, except for Sundays (most of which are "Ordinary" anyway), is (more strong words) wimpishly laissez faire.

St Patrick's, Livesey-street, Collyhurst, in Manchester, is served by the Very Rev Edmund Canon Cantwell as its Missionary Rector, and the Revv Pierce Griffith, Richard Liptrott and James Conway.  Masses on Sunday are at 8.00, 9.00, and 10.00, with High Mass at 11.00.  Mass on Holydays is at 8.00, 9.00 and 10.00.  Evening Service on Sundays at 6.30, and on Thursdays and Holydays at 8.00. Baptisms are on Sundays at 4.00 pm. 


The appeal below is for what would probably be called a Priests' Retirement Fund today. It is shaming to think that it took the Church in England and Wales so many years to make sure that there was provision for secular priests in their old age and retirement: that it took up to the dawn of the 21st Century to sort out.  Yet by the time the Spirit of of Vatican II took hold, the notion that those priests who would benefit, or who were benefiting from the scheme, would offer Mass four times a year for living and dead benefactors, was condemned as untheological by some of their successors in the secular clergy, as we have seen. (Though it seems to me that those of the modern era seemed keener on losing the obligation to say the quarterly Mass than on renouncing the benefit of a pension from the fund.)