The Gang of Four

Lewes' own World Youth Day Pilgrims.

 Jack Trott, William Zammit, Stuart Henderson & Fr Richard Biggerstaff

Getting International

As we prepared for Madrid it was clear things were becoming very international

Luke Daly, Fr Aaron & Steve White

 

We left for Madrid on the Feast of the Assumption, but not before a Procession of Our Lady and Holy Mass

DAYS IN THE DIOCESE OF SALAMANCA

Welcome to Spain. Our parish in the diocese of Salamanca prepared for us a huge paella.

This is Cyril, a young seminarian from Hong Kong

A deacon, soon to be ordained priest, with fellow pilgrims from the archdiocese of Cambrai in France.

John Watts, a seminarian for our diocese with Feli, my host

                                                         There was music and laughter.....

Fr Kevin Dring is the principal celebrant at the Mass of the Assumption 

The days in the diocese form a prelude to World Youth Day. Our Arundel & Brighton group were divided. 'Arundel' went to the countryside and 'Brighton' stayed in the city. We all met up on Sunday, with other dioceses, for a huge Ponfitifcal Mass in the open air at Alba de Torres, where St Teresa of Avila's relics are to be found. We continued our day with the Bishop of Salamanca at his Cathedral for Vespers.

Our Year Six Leavers

Mrs Turner, head teacher, Mrs Lord, class teacher, Mrs Langston and Mrs Shiel, teaching assistants, are all pictured with Fr Richard and the year six school leavers.
A votive mass of the Holy angels was celebrated for them, together with the whole school.
Fr Richard said:
Just because we can't see something, it does not mean that it is not real..... The angels are unseen, but they are surrounding us and aiding us  in our worship of Almighty God. You young people may well have been called angels during your time at St Pancras School! Today you look back and you look forward. The angels neither look back or forward, they stand in the eternal presence of God and that is their eternal value. At St Pancras School, in all your education, you have learnt your own worth and value. Every day you have been told that you are loved by God. You are like the angels then, who know this and worship God in the love of the God who loves them.  

Fr Frederich Kernbach

A new priest for the diocese of Paderborn.

I was privileged to preach at his first High Mass in the extraordinary form at St Mary Magdalene, Brighton today.

From left to right: Me, Fr Blake pp, Fr Spinelli (who will join me in Horsham), Fr Frederich, Fr Sean Finnegan (author of the new history of St John's Seminary Wonersh).

Can you bear to read the homily....

It is a great privilege for me to come all the way from Lewes to preach at this first High Mass celebrated by Fr Frederich, our new priest. Of course Father has travelled further, from Paderborn, from Germany. You are our first German today. We welcome you amongst us and thank you for giving your life to the service of Almighty God and Holy Church as a priest.

The interrogator, prosecutor and eventual successor as chancellor of England of St Thomas More, one Thomas Cromwell, has an association with Lewes. It was Cromwell who came personally to dissolve the great priory of St Pancras at Lewes in 1535, the same year as the deaths of our martyrs Thomas More and John Fisher

Whilst we associate the two Thomases in the telling of English history -More and Cromwell - for the Catholic mind they are not the usual association. More and Fisher our great Catholic English martyrs for us! They are depicted in the new (1939) St Pancras Lewes side by side in stained glass.

Imagine my own surprise when travelling to New York and viewing and eclectic collection of pictures organised in the 1920s by a man called Frick I saw More & Cromwell side by side! Holbein, our second German and the great portrait artist, was the connection. These pictures, the one of More so familiar in Catholic devotion, looking every inch the saint; Cromwell (perhaps this is just prejudice) looking rather sinister. Holbein’s sketches of a similar portrait of Fisher survive, but alas not the portrait itself.

Holbein travelled to England in 1526 in search of work and he had got it, first through More and subsequently, returning in the 1530s and with the tide turning through Cromwell and Anne Boleyn herself.

The art of the portrait reminds us of the importance of the way the priest is seen: his joy and his manners, his attire (naturally) but also his ease and reverence with the holy, his care for himself so that he might easily be disposed to care for others... 

How the fortunes of More and Fisher changed so quickly. Prominent and sought after.... Theological as well as governmental collaborators of the King, their prominence and company was sidelined, until on charge of treason these loyal servants of God first and only then King, died a traitor’s death. The consistency of words and ideas, the integrity of their lives made them both attractive and then all too quickly repugnant to the new established order.

In 1521 Fisher was called upon to devote this consistency and integrity in thoughts which were to become his historic sermon in St Paul’s against our third German, Martin Luther. Almost certainly with More two years earlier, our martyrs had supported the witness of the King himself in Henry’s treatise Assertio septem sacramentorum.  And as defender of the faith Henry was supported again by Fisher and More who upheld Henry’s cause against Luther's counterattack in the work Contra Henricum regem Angliae, of 1522.

The battle with the heretic reminds us of the importance of the way the priest teaches. His consistency and his integrity. His heroism to make a stand and remind others of the stand they had taken, his focus on the eternal truths rather than the trendy response....

Fr Frederich, many of us here do not know you, but simply because of what you now are in the mystery of the sacrament of holy order, we know what you are about. After your long and thorough formation and probably (by this stage) too many homilies like this, you have received much advice, many words. But you know most of all that what will help you to be a good priest is your daily devotion to the King of the martyrs, Jesus Christ himself, in whose priesthood you now share as His priest. Live so that He might be seen in you, teach so that His words might become your own.

FR RICHARD ON THE MOVE

Bishop Kieran has asked Fr Richard to be the new parish priest of Horsham.

Fr Richard will leave Lewes on 12 September to take up the appointment and return to Lewes in early October for a farewell.

Fr Jonathan Martin, chancellor of the diocese of Arundel & Brighton, is to be the new parish priest of Lewes.

Fr Richard will be joined in Horsham by a new assistant priest, Fr Aaron Spinelli.

St Pancras, pray for our priests and for our parishes

St John, beloved disciple of the Lord, pray for our priests and for our parishes

Reverence

Our First Holy Communion children, and indeed our whole parish, are encouraged to make a sign of reverence before receiving Holy Communion. Hannah is pictured genuflecting before the Lord. Today two of the children, Luke and Joseph, received Holy Communion at the monthly extraordinary form Mass at 12.30pm. They knelt alongside their grandfather.  

Our First Holy Communion Children

Emma, Joseph, Luke, Bailey, Kate, Elodie, Hannah and Sophie

Fr Richard in the middle.

The vestment belong to Fr Wood, first parish priest and depicts the pelican in her piety,

a beautiful traditional eucharistic motif.

Sixty Years A Priest

The Holy Father celebrated 60 years of priesthood by doing what he has done every day of his priesthood, he celebrated Mass. This Mass on this feast and in St Peter's Basilica is the particular occasion when the pope gives the pallium to new archbishops. Archbishop Stack of Cardiff received his pallium. Philip Andrews, a follower of this modest blog, was spotted serving Mass. Philip is a seminarian for the archdiocese of Southwark. The seminarians of England & Wales are pictured with Pope Benedict at Oscott at the end of the Pope's visit to these shores last September. Today in Arundel & Brighton we had our own jubilee celebrations at the cathedral. My beloved predecessor, Canon Eric Flood, celebrates 50 years of priesthood this year although alas, he was too sick to join us. We looked forward to David King's ordination in a few weeks time. Three priests of the Ordininariate of Our Lady of Walsingham from this area were present. They spoke of the warmth of welcome they had received, which is heartening. It is an amazing gift to be in communion with Peter.

The newly confirmed

Jane Frances, Rose, David, George Preca be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you.

Preparing for the big day

Victoria & Pamela McNeill, daughter and mother in law, have been arranging the flowers in church for the First Holy Communion Mass tomorrow. Lovely blues, whites and greens. Meanwhile Kirsty, the catechist, has been organising the cake for the parish celebration after Mass. Last week the children made their second confession, this Saturday we made our final rehearsal. Fr Isidore will concelebrate the Mass with me. I will give the children the Body of Christ and Fr Isidore will give them the Precious Blood. Please say a little prayer tonight for Elodie, Sophie, Emma, Hannah, Kate, Luke, Bailey and Joseph.

St Pancras' ombrellino in use at Lanherne

We have three ombrellini (?) at St Pancras. One is in use at St Mary Magdalene's in Brighton, one we have kept for our own use and one has been given to the Franciscan sisters of the Immaculate at Lanherne. They use the traditional liturgy and calender so they celebrated Corpus Christi yesterday. This is a picture of their procession. The convent is in a beautiful spot in West Cornwall. Sister Maria Rosa Pia sent this picture today together with the community's thanks. It is lovely to think that we here at St Pancras Lewes have a place in the prayers of these sisters.  

Carpet of Flowers Arundel

This year the Arundel Corpus Christi carpet of flowers commemorates the Tenth anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Bishop Kieran and the Millennium anniversary of devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. Even though we celebrate Corpus Christi on a Sunday in England and Wales, there is a Solemn Votive Mass of Corpus Christi t Arundel on the traditional Thursday followed by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction in the grounds of Arundel Castle. At St Pancras the Mass at 12.30pm today will be of St Thomas Garnet, Jesuit priest and martyr. Our English Martyrs heroically gave their lives for love of the Mass and Holy Church, we are asked to give half an hour or so here and there. A humbling thought......... 

Mayfield

.

The Catholic secondary school I most regularly visit is St Leonard's Mayfield.

The staff and girls give a great welcome and I am delighted to have the opportunity to offer Mass in their lovely chapel. The school is the foundation of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus themselves founded by Cornelia Connelly.

Cornelia died on 18 April 1879, at St Leonards on Sea Sussex, where she had established the first St Leonards school. Today, the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus are active in fourteen countries, striving to live the apostolic life as Cornelia did, seeking to meet the wants of the age through works of spiritual mercy.

They are engaged in education and related spiritual and pastoral ministries.

In 1992, the Church proclaimed Cornelia as Venerable.

This is her tomb in Mayfield where I said a prayer for her intercession.

 I bought a cake and some excellent bread from the local baker.

My only regret was that I did not have enough time to call on the parish priest, the splendid Fr Mario Sanderson.

Red Shirts

The Red Shirts are a young peoples' group in our diocese. They make pilgrimage to Lourdes with the diocesan pilgrimage and make a significant contribution to the workings of the pilgrimage. They are not quite old enough to be helpers but many of them will become helpers; they are too old to be part of the regular family groups.
Ray Mooney, a long standing Lourdes friend of mine and our lead diocesan youth worker, pioneered this group. On Saturday the Red Shirt Group Leaders attended the Vigil Mass at St Pancras with Ray (pictured far right) and stayed on to supper in the Presbytery. We ate a meaty lasagne, green salad and stawberries and cream.
The preparation Ray and the leaders undertake is crucial for the success of the group. The excellent Fr Rob Esdaile is the group's chaplain.
Ray talked about 'a top of the mountain experience' for young people. Like Moses in today's Trinity Sunday first reading they descend with shining faces and make a real diiference, in the grace of Almighty God, to their families, parishes and schools.
My godson George is next to Ray in the picture. He was a red shirt two years ago. This year his younger brother Henry (another godson- I am very proud of them both) is called to shine in Lourdes with some 120 others.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us

St Bernadette, Pray for us 

Pastor juventus

Fr Dominic Allain and I were at university together. London the university, Kings the college, from 1984-87. Fr Dominic read English. He has always had a way with words but their power come from a deep interior  life. He speaks with the wisdom of the man who prays and not the cleverness of the man who got a good degree (which he did!). The Catholic Herald publish his column every week. He said recently of the Angelus: 'Herein is the drama of what it is to be human. First, God is not remote, nor man abandoned to some existential search for him, but rather God seeks man out. God is not the watchmaker; he reveals himself as one among us....'

This week, as we returned to the recitation of the Angelus (Regina caeli during Eastertide), the pace of the church bell in Lewes changed. We ring it automatically at St Pancras. A slower toll for a longer prayer. Some people, including our freinds and neighbours,  have noticed! Tonight I dined with Fr Dominic and a new seminarian, Andrew Penson, who begins at Valladolid in Spetember. There was a little wisdom, a lorra laughs and some golden silence.

Pray for us O holy Mother of God,

That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Feast of St Richard of Chichester, Secondary Patron of the diocese of Arundel & Brighton

St Richard's Prayer

Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits which you have given us,
for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us.
Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
Amen.

Please pray for those to be ordained priest in Arundel Cathedral by Bishop Kieran Conry on Friday 17th June

for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Jan Biggerstaff RIP

Today is the Second Anniversary of the death of our darling Ma.

This photo was taken just a few months before she died.

Lord for your faithful people life is changed, not ended.

Il Santo, l'amico

Today is the feast of St Anthony of Padua. I was privileged to celebrate the Mass of the feast at the Church of St Francis & St Anthony, Crawley. I was ordained on the Solemnity of Pentecost and celebrated my first Mass the following day fifteen years ago in that church, so today was especially significant. This picture is at the altar of St Anthony. This is an excerpt from the homily at Mass.
How can I tell you about this saint? He was born in Lisbon and became an Augustinian before entering the friars minor. He yearned for mission in Africa but ended up preaching in Italy. But these are simple facts about the saint who is our friend. And a friend both famaliar and attractive. For the people of this parish this saint-friend has shared our tears and joined our happiness. We know his face and have seen him weep with us and laugh with us.  But his attraction is so that we, with our patron, might be attracted to Our Lord himself who springs from Anthony's very life so that: 'It is not I who live, but Christ who lives within me....' Anthony's attractiveness to us becomes our attractiveness to others, in Christ and for Christ.
If you haven't been to Crawley recently do go; the shops and eateries are plentiful, the welcome is warm, the Friary church is beautiful and there is also the lovely, attractive shrine of Anthony of Padua, saint and friend.

Fathers & Sons of encouragement

Today is the feast of St Barnabas. It is also my father's 67th birthday. I thank God for my father and the gift of fatherhood  from which my brother and I have benefited in ways too deep for words. St Barnabas was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. I consider that my father has a very suitable patron. Yesterday we took him out to a jolly good lunch in London. I wont name the restaurant as they may be inundated with punters and it will be impossible for their regulars to get tables! I understand that in the aftemath of the royal wedding waiting time for a table at The Goring is about 3 months. Please say a prayer for Bill seen here receiving Holy Communion at Holy Mass in Rome. 

Wonderful Women

Today I called by, with Fr Jonathan Martin, to see the Fransican sisters of Littlehampton in their mother house. I can't think why I do not go more often. These religious women are holy, great fun, wise and hospitable. I had bumped into Sr Savio & Sr Dolores with Tony the dog on the sea front. This Tony is Tony IV, his fortunate forbears have all been Tonys. Sr Bonaventure reminded us that when Tony is called, if Mgr Tony Barry is in ear shot it is the monsignor who jumps to heel! Sr Peter, Sr Damien, Sr Anastasia and Sr Augustine joined us for tea. My own special pal and spiritual powerhouse is Sr Dominic. These wonderful women ask nothing and seem to give everything. Last weekend they celebrated the Centenary of their congregation with Bishop Kieran.

Resurrection Promise

At the end of the 1980s I returned from a year in Nice and took up a place at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. I began preparation for ordination in the Church of England. Growth in holiness, growth in wisdom and growth in pastoral effectiveness were the three pillars, as it were, of our formation. Key to all of this was the Principal, Denys Lloyd, himself a member of the Community of the Resurrection, the largest community of religious men in Anglicanism. The community and college history and ethos and the strong sense of common life was imbued by us all. In 1990 Denys left Mirfield and was received into the Catholic Church, he was eventually ordained a priest for the diocese of East Anglia. This made a great impact on us all. From my Mirfield year alone five of us have become Catholic priests.
Last night Fr Denys came to celebrate Mass and stayed to dinner. It was a great joy to see him and talk over old times with a great deal of humour and perhaps some important insights. I didn't relate this story to the people at Mass, the liturgy is not for that, and anyway, what is important is that Denys and I are now Catholic priests.

Oxfordshire countryside

My friends Ric and Val Morton Jack live in the Oxfordshire village of Swerford, near Chipping Norton. At noon today I baptised their first born, Arthur John. I celebrated Ric and Val's wedding at the Oxford  Oratory a couple of years ago, so today was particularly special. Unusally the baptism took place in the old church in Swerford with the agreement of the parish priest, Bishop Mark Jabele and the kind permission of the rector and his lovely assistant, Wendy Cunningham. I have been pondering at Eastertide baptisms a thought I had for the Easter Sunday 10.30am Mass; simply that in a human face, the face of the risen Christ, we see our God. In the faces of those who become Christ's through baptism we are privileged to understand in such an initmate way that baptism is the sacrament of eternal life. Through our baptism 'we shall go out to meet Christ with the all the saints in the heavenly Kingdom.'    
Arthur was very happy throughout and only flagged a little towards the end. He is the first Morton Jack grandson and the third of four for the Sloane family whom I know from my Camberley days.The splendid standard of Sloane hospitality was maintained by Val Morton Jack's excellent duck ragu.  

Coffee after First Friday Mass

On the first Friday of the month we generally celebrate a votive Mass of the Sacred Heart at St Pancras. During the great seasons of the Church votive Masses are not usually celebrated and anyway, today was the commmemoration of St Charles Lwanga and his companions, the Ugandan martyrs. The Easter weekday reading from the Acts of the Apostles reminds us of a vow St Paul took which led him to cut off his hair! I love HV Morton's A Traveller in Rome. In the book HVM speaks about the tradition in apostolic iconography which depicts St Peter with  a full head of hair and St Paul  as almost bald. The tradition is believed to go back to the days of Nero and to those who knew the Apostles by sight. How could this be? HVM offers us this explanation:

I was reminded of a story which the late Monsignor Stapylton Barnes was fond of telling to illustrate the length of human memory. His mother, who died in 1927 at a great age, could clearly remember, as a small girl, hearing Victoria proclaimed queen in 1837. When a child she was often taken to see a very old lady who remembered the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793. This old lady had spent her childhood in Philadelphia and had known Benjamin Franklin, who was born in 1706. Thus it would have been possible for Franklin to have described some event in his early childhood-perhaps the great fire of Boston in 1711-to the little girl, who could have told it in her old age to another little girl, Mrs Barnes, who could pass on the story to her son in the twentieth century.
In his book The Martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul, Monsignor Barnes refers to the great sweep of human events commanded by such lives, and says 'it would have been possible for a Christian child in Rome in the year 67 to have been actually present at St Peter's martyrdom and to have seen him nailed to the cross, and still to have been alive and able to tell the tale in 150. And the child to whom he told it then could have told the story again in his extreme old age to one who lived to see the peace of the Church in 312 under Constantine.' 

After Mass Jill & Avril made us a superior cup of coffee together with those lovely fig biscuits which take me right back to my childhood.

Congratulations Marie Claire & Luke

It was my great pleasure to be in Ronda this weekend for the marriage of Marie Claire Dunlop and Luke Parker. I have known Marie Claire's wonderful family since my Woking days (assistant priest Nov 97-Aug 99). The marriage took place in the church of Espiritu Santo where I was fortunate enough to celebrate Mass on the Satrurday and Sunday. In Spanish style we began the ceremony at 5pm and the bride left the dance floor after 5 the next morning!
The sacristan Diego and the pp Don Salavador gave us the warmest of Spanish welcomes.
It is a great treat of the priesthood to be asked to preside at these wonderful moments of God's grace and to spend time like this with people who have been such solid friends and great supports over the years.
Please pray for the newly married and for at least four other couples who were at the wedding and preapring for marriage in the near future./

We four.....

Fr Steven Purnell, Fr Jonathan Martin, Fr Brian Taylor, Fr Richard Biggerstaff.
Fr Taylor had the spelendid idea of signing an ordination card and sending it to Cardinal Murphy O'Connor.
We are so grateful to the cardinal for his kindness to us. We talked warmly of the priests who welcomed us into their presbyteries and parishes in those early months after reception into the Church and before ordination: Mgr Jim McConnon RIP, Fr Gordon Simmons RIP, Canon Bernard Thom RIP as well as Fr Bennie O'Shea, at present pp of Esher and a vicar general.

A close up of the holy faces

Feast of St Philip Neri

Fr Richard celebrates his fifteenth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood today. He was one of four ordained by Bishop Murphy O'Connor at Arundel on this day in 1996 which was the Solemnity of Pentecost. Fr Jonathan Martin, chancellor of the diocese of Arundel & Brighton, Fr Steven Purnell and Fr Brian Taylor are meeting at Arundel Cathedral to make a pilgrimage and enjoy a lunch. All four had been Anglican ministers. Today there are some 17 former Anglican clergy who are serving as priests of the diocese of Arundel & Brighton.

Stella Cooper

Stella Cooper is pictured in the grounds of St Pancras Priory. Each week Stella takes Holy Communion to Mary McDougall in Ringmer. Stella reads at Holy Mass and organises the readers rota for the 6pm Vigil Mass. She is always full of good humour and is a joy to meet. The other day I bumped into her at the garden centre, she was there for her dinner!

Mrs Brenda & Mr Tony Wade at the Mass of St Pancras, Lewes Priory on the Feast

The baptism of Greta

Last Saturday Greta was baptised at St Pancras. The daughter of Andrei & Caroline, this family live in Canada. Caroline & Andrei were married in St Pancras Lewes on 1st November 2008. This was a lovely occasion. Andrei's mother was present from Russia and Caroline's parents from Gundreda Road! There were also assorted friends and family. Mrs Wade, one of our longstanding parishioners and Caroline's first school teacher, came to the baptisim. Baptism is the most beautiful moment, and the most important.  We treasure the celebration of a baptism, not least because it is the most eloquent reminder of our own moment of baptism and therefore the most important day of our lives. 

Holy Mass of St Pancras at Lewes Priory

Was this the first Mass to be celebrated at Lewes Priory since the English Protestant Reformation and the destruction of the Priory Church.? Almost 200 of us gathered to celebrate the Mass of St Pancras our Patron. The Mass was offered for Fr Tony Collins who is sick and all those who are sick in the parish.
Pancras the Peerless Patron of children, Pray for us

Pope Blessed John Paul II

I managed to be in Rome for a few days after the beatification ceremonies of John Paul II. I was with freinds and a vast number of pilgrims and we managed to find our way into the basilica at 2am on Monday! It was worth the wait. I prayed for the parish and for all parishioners at the relics of Pope Blessed John Paul II.   

William & Catherine, Peter & Laura

Trish Underhill made this splendid wedding cake for the Royal Wedding. It will not actually be used by the happy couple but by well wishers who will be partying during the day. We will remember William and Catherine at Mass on Easter Friday. On Easter Saturday at St Pancras we celebrate the marriage of Peter MacNeil & Laura Flynn.

I'm on the top of the world

We said farewell today to Fr Mark Podesta, priest of the archdiocese of Sydney, who has been staying with us since Easter Sunday. Fr Mark (pictured middle - I'm on the left and Fr Jonathan Martin, chancellor of the diocese of Arundel & Brighton, is on the right) is studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome. We are on The Mount in Lewes, close to our Good Friday cross positioned after the walk of witness. Behind us are the Lewes Priory ruins. In front of us Lewes Football club were playing the equivalent fom Bishops Stortford. Today I requested permission from the Priory trsutees to celebrate Mass in the Priory grounds on the feast of St Pancras, Thursday 12th May. I look forward to their response.

Christ is risen!

The great joy of the Easter celebration is the baptism, reception, confirmation and first Holy Communion of so many who come into full communion with the Catholic Church. In our parish we celebrated the baptism and confirmation of Joanna Stephens and the reception and confirmation of Lucy Williams and Steve Wilson. Joy Wilson (no relation) decorated the font this year. The church looks beautiful! 

The Easter Triduum begins

The altar of repose at St Pancras Lewes was built this afternoon. The Mass of the Lord's Supper begins at 8pm and the watch before the Blessed Sacrament continues until Midnight.
Tomorrow, Good Friday, Children's Way of the Cross at 10am.
12 noon Stations of the cross
3pm The Liturgy of the Passion and Death of the Lord. This year we are singing the Passion.
6pm The Walk of witness with other Christians from St Pancras Church
On Holy Saturday 
9am Office of Readings & Lauds, a quiet and reflective time to mark the day
8pm The Easter Vigil & First Mass of the Resurrection
On Easter Sunday
9am Mass of Easter Sunday with the schola singing
10.30am Mass of  Easter Sunday with a homily for the children
12.30m Low Mass in the Extraordinary form.

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us
Therefore let us keep the feast.

HOLY WEEK & EASTER

The Mass at 10.30am on Palm Sunday begins with a processon from the school playground.

The Easter Triduum begins at 8pm on Thursday 21st April with the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper with a watch at the altar of repose until Midnight.
Jesus said to his disciples, 'Would you not watch with me one hour...' Following the Lord himself then, we keep this watch. For some,  just a few minutes, others stay for the duration. The important thing is that we keep some of the watch and  allow Our Lord to help us enter deeply into the mystery. The church is stripped after Mass, except the altar of repose which has been beautifully decorated with candles and blossoms. Before Mass the holy water stoups have been drained and the tabernacle stands empty and unveiled. There is a sense here of both the basics and beginnings of our faith. The procession of the Blessed Sacrament, consecrated at this Mass, to the altar of respose brings the Mass to a conclusion but there is no formal end to the liturgy. Like the first disciples we drift away into the night.

As I think about the Cross

Term finished at St Pancras School yesterday. We prayed before we left school and made the way of the Cross. The school hall became Calvary hill and the children effortlessly spun round in their places to follow the action. Our Lord and Our Lady were beautifully and movingly portrayed and the readers and other players were well prepared and serious in their presentation. Many thanks to Ms McGregor Boyle and Miss de Vere for their hard work.
The way of the Cross for children will be celebrated in St Pancras Church on Good Friday at 10am and we will enjoy a hot cross bun (a good morning collation on a day of fasting and abstinence) in the Wood Room afterwards.

We will sing again the moving children's hymn As I think about the Cross. In these days our focus is the Cross of Christ; again we will be led more deeply into the mystery of the Cross. Our children got us off to a very good start yesterday.

Friday Stations & Pizza

What is it about pizza? If we'd said first vespers of St Joseph yeasterday evening we could have had a meat feast blow out! As it was we confined ourselves to margherita, mushroom and pesto and it was delicious. All in the spirit of a Friday in Lent and Fridays for Catholics generally.
Great to see Megan (stage crew WSS), Georgie (recently appearing in LOGS Alice in Wonderland), Dominic (A WSS Jet), Eddie, Jack, Stuart, Anthony (already preapring for Lourdes in Easter week) and Elliot for pizza and the important prayers beforehand. We'll meet again on Friday 15th April , same time and place. Our focus for prayer on that day will be the people of Japan.
We adore you O Christ and we bless you
For by your holy cross you have redeemed the world

Here is a lovely picture of Andrew on his beloved Downs