Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Traditional Confirmation

The LMS announced:
Bishop John Arnold, auxiliary bishop in Westminster, administered Confirmation in the Traditional Rite at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London on Saturday, 3 November at the request of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. A record 54 candidates received the sacrament – 50 children and 4 adults.
Apparently the Church was packed with upwards of 600 people in the Church.

&

Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton will administer Confirmation in the Traditional Rite to 7 candidates during a pastoral visit to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church, Chesham Bois, Bucks on Sunday 18 November at 10.30 am. Bishop Doyle will also celebrate Sunday Mass in the Traditional Rite.


What I find is little by little younger people are getting into the "Extra-Ordinary Form", just the same as they seem to appreciate Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Our Diocesan Vocations Director tells me where there is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament apparently there is a rise in vocations. He says it doesn't really matter on whether the parish is "traddie" or charismatic or what, simply on whether there is Exposition.

I think it is about prayerfullness: that seems to be what both the "old" Mass and Exposition have in common.

I remember the old Abbot of Caldey saying that he had a group of sixth form boys who stayed at the monastery for a week, going to the Offices, working alongside the monks, at the end of the week they had a question and answer session. The Abbot was shocked when one of the boys asked, "But Father when do the monks actually pray?"

At Exposition, at the Traditional Mass, the one thing that is evident is PRAYER.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How uplifting & inspiring!

Dr. Peter H. Wright said...

I do wonder what became of the old "Holy Hour".

It used to be a very popular practice in parishes when I was young.

Bl. John XIII placed great emphasis on Eucharistic adoration.

Annual Quarant' Ore, observing all the rubrics of the Instructio Clementina, was such a popular devotion that some people would travel to neighbouring parishes of the diocese to attend.

When I was a boy, I always loved Latin benediction.

I clearly remember Benediction survived "the changes" after Vatican II in many places.

Then began in many churches the quaint custom of Benediction, sung in English, facing the people.

No wonder as a practice it more or less died out.

But with it was lost the practice of Eucharistic adoration.

Thank you, Pope Benedict for "Summorum Pontificum".

But the Church will not recover its heritage until it encourages the widespread return of the venerable practice of Eucharistic adoration.

Anonymous said...

I have googled in 'Benediction' followed by the name of my town hoping that among the ten or so Catholic churches I might find one where I could attend 'Benediction.'

The only ones I found were all Anglican.

Forty years ago I was able to attend 'Benediction' every week in my parish at that time. Life intervened in the years that followed but I have now reached the stage when I have the time to attend a Benediction service if only I could find one within a reasonable bus journey.

I agree with Dr Wright about the importance of recovering our heritage in this way.

I have visited Lourdes three times for short visits and on each occasion was able to attend daily Benediction. I found great spiritual benefit there. I have also attended Benediction several times in Paris but do I really have to go that far to experience this devotion?

JARay said...

Here in the Archdiocese of Perth, Western Australia we have four parishes where there is 24 hour Adoration. My own parish has Adoration on Wednesdays and Fridays. There are at least twenty more parishes with a similar Exposition during the week. In terms of Seminarians Perth is second only to Wagga Wagga per head of population. Sydney and Melbourne come next.
We will have four more priests ordained next week and one deacon.
I well remember telling a priest friend of the numbers which we have in our Seminary and he asked me what we were doing right that Leeds was not. I told him about the number of parishes with Exposition.
Ah! that explains it, he said.
We have Benediction once a month after the 8-30 am Mass on the first Saturday of the month. We have people coming from neighbouring parishes on that day simply because we have the Benediction.
And......it's in Latin.

JARay

Anonymous said...

Father, where did you get the photo for this, and are there others available? I see they are not up at www.traditionalcatholic.org.uk which usually has such photos. It would be nice to have some photos, as I was at the Confirmation service. It was beautifully done, although it was a pity there was no Mass too. Prior to the 1970 changes was it normal to have the Confirmation rite done outside of Mass?

Fr Ray Blake said...

PJ.
They were sent by Johm Medlin of the LMS, have a look on their site.

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