Saint Bruno. Confessor. Feast Day 6 October.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Bruno.
   Confessor.
   Feast Day 6 October.

Double.

White Vestments.

Saint Bruno.

Artist: Girolamo Marchesi.

Date: Circa 1525.

Current location: Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,

Maryland, United States of America.

Credit line: Acquired by Henry Walters

with the Massarenti Collection, 1902.

Source: Walters Art Museum

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Life of Saint Bruno.

Available on YouTube at

YOU TUBE

Saint Bruno was born at Cologne, Germany, in the 11th-Century. With six of his friends, he retired to one of the desert heights of Dauphiny, France, called “Chartreuse”, which had been conceded to them by the Bishop of Grenoble (Gospel).

There, he Founded the first Monastery of The Order of Carthusians, which is held in so high esteem by The Church that, by the prescriptions of Canon Law, The Religious of any other Order may enter it so as to lead a more perfect life. [The Order of Carthusians has given to The Church several Saints, two Cardinals, seventy Archbishops and Bishops, and several famous writers, one of the most distinguished being Dionysius The Carthusian.]

Saint Bruno died, pressing The Crucifix to his lips, on 

6 October 1101.

Mass: Os justi.

English: Saint Bruno refuses

the Archbishopric of Reggio di Calabria

Español: San Bruno renuncia ante el papa Urbano II

al arzobispado de Reggio Calabria.

Date: 4 November 2011.

Current location: Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

Source: http://www.gabitos.com/museodelpradomadrid/

template.php?nm=1329244185

Author: Vicente Carducho (1576-1638).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

Bruno of Cologne (1030 – 1101) was the Founder of The Carthusian Order and personally Founded The Order's first two Communities. He was a celebrated Teacher at Reims, and a close advisor of his former pupil, Pope Urban II.

On the verge of being made Bishop, Bruno instead followed a Vow he had made to renounce Secular Concerns and withdrew, along with two of his friends, Raoul and Fulcius, also Canons of Reims.

Bruno’s first thought on leaving Reims seems to have been to place himself and his companions under the direction of an eminent Solitary, Saint Robert, who had recently (1075) settled at Sèche-Fontaine, near Molesme, in the Diocese of Langres, France, together with a band of other Hermits, who were later on (in 1098) to form The Cistercian Order.

But he soon found that this was not his Vocation. After a short stay, he went with six of his companions to Saint Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble. The Bishop, according to the pious legend, had recently had a vision of these men, under a Chaplet of Seven Stars, and he installed them in 1084 in a mountainous and uninhabited spot in The Lower Alps of The Dauphiné, France, in a place named Chartreuse, not far from Grenoble. With Saint Bruno, were Landuin, Stephen of Bourg, and Stephen of Die, Canons of Saint Rufus, and Hugh the Chaplain, and two Laymen, Andrew and Guerin, who afterwards became the first Lay Brothers.

They built an Oratory, with small individual Cells, at a distance from each other, where they lived isolated and in poverty, entirely occupied in Prayer and Study; for these men had a reputation for Learning, and were frequently honoured by the visits of Saint Hugh, who became like one of themselves.

Divine Holy Mass: The Solemnity Of Our Lady Of The Most Holy Rosary. Church Of Saint-Eugène - Sainte-Cécile, Paris. Sunday, 6 October 2024.

Divine Holy Mass of The Solemnity 

of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.

Sainte messe de la solennité 

de Notre Dame du Très-Saint Rosaire.

Church of Saint Saint-Eugène - Sainte-Cécile, Paris.

Sunday, 6 October 2024.

1100 hrs (Paris Time).

1000 hrs (London time).

0500 hrs (New York time).

Available on YouTube

HERE

Christ Will Never Fail Us. Cardinal Burke’s Nine-Month Novena To Our Lady Of Guadalupe.,

Nine-Month Novena To Our Lady Of Guadalupe.

Fourteenth Reflection by Cardinal Burke.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Tie-Wig. Bob-Wig. Bag-Wig. Periwig. Queue. Chiving Lay. Solitaire. Macaroni. Sunday Buckle. Part Three.

A Gentleman’s Wig.

Text and Illustrations: GERI WALTON

It was applied before hair powder, which was also perfumed. Among the popular scents for powder were “musk, civet, ambergris, bergamot, rose, violet, almond, and orange-flower perfumes, and many more of differing qualities.”[8]

Early engraving of Wigs from 1773.

Public domain.

Because everyone was wearing a Wig, the price was high. Costs “sometimes amount[ed] to thirty, forty, and fifty guineas … [but] Wigs could be had at all prices, being worn by every class of the community.”[9]

In fact, Wigs were so popular, Wig stealing became a profitable enterprise in England. To accomplish these thefts, a Wig thief, known as “chiving lay” [Editor: A “chiv” is another name for a knife. Hence, the modern slang term “shiv”, for a knife], would position himself “behind Hackney Coaches, which were generally compelled to go at a slow pace owning to the narrowness of the streets and the absence of proper paving, and [the chiving lay] would cut out the back and snatch a gentleman’s Wig from his head … ladies lost their head-dresses [similarly, and] … sometimes a gentleman would find himself suddenly denuded of his head covering in the street.”[10]

It seems, small boys were also trained to be Wig thieves: They would hide in baskets and snatch Wigs off people’s heads as they passed by.

Various Wigs remained popular throughout the 1700s, and almost every profession had their own peculiar Wig, with “the oddest appellations … given to them.”[11]

Alice More Earle noted that each profession seemed to chose a Periwig that best expressed its function. For instance,

“The caricatures of the period represent[ed by] full-fledged lawyers with a towering frontlet and a long bag at the back tied in the middle; while students of the university … [sported] a Wig flat on the top, to accommodate their stiff cornered hats, and a great bag like a lawyer’s at the back.”[12]

Yet, for all the Wig’s popularity, the French Revolution and England’s 1795 hair powder tax — an annual tax costing one guinea and imposed under William Pitt — put an end to Wig wearing.

French revolutionaries revolted against anything that reminded them of nobility or the Monarchy, and, in England, when the tax was enacted, Whig leaders were said to have cut off their “queues”, thereby heralding in the Wigless and natural hairstyles embraced during the French Directory and Regency era.

THIS CONCLUDES THIS ARTICLE.

References:[1] Hill, Georgiana, A History of English Dress from the Saxon Period to the Present Day, Vol. 2, 1893, p. 9.
[2] Sydney, William Connor, England and the English in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 1, 1892, p. 106.
[3] Hill, Georgiana, p. 18.
[4] Ibid, p. 19.
[5] Ibid., p. 25.
[6] Ibid., p. 20.
[7] Ibid., p. 12.
[8] Ibid., p. 13.
[9] Ibid., p. 22.
[10] Ibid., p. 22-23
[11] Ibid., p. 19.
[12] Earle, Alice Morse, Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1, 1903 p. 336-337.

“The Splendours Of The Liturgy Are More Efficacious Than Documents Of The Ecclesiastical Magisterium. And Even More Important” - Pope Pius XI.

English: Pope Pius XI.

Deutsch: Papst Pius XI.

Photo: 1930.

Source: Politisch Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, 1932.

Author: Alberto Felici (1871-1950).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

“In instructing the people in The Divine Truths, and raising them to spiritual and interior joys”, said Pope Pius XI, “the splendours of The Liturgy are more efficacious than Documents of The Ecclesiastical Magisterium, and even more important”.

Saint Placid And His Companions. Martyrs. Feast Day, Today, 5 October.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Saint Placid And His Companions.
   Martyrs.
   Feast Day 5 October.

Simple.

Red Vestments.

English: Church of Saint Placid, France.

Français: Église Saint-Plaçide sous le soleil.

Photo: 26 May 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Léo Camus

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Holiness of Saint Benedict in his grotto at Subiaco soon drew around him many Disciples, among whom the two greatest were Saint Maurus, Apostle of The Benedictine Order in France, and Saint Placid. Both were committed to the care of The Holy Patriarch, the former at twelve years of age and the latter when a child of four years old, by their parents, who belonged to the most illustrious Patrician Families of Rome; under the guidance of such a Master, they made rapid progress in Holiness.

Saint Benedict had a special predilection for young Placid, and, just as The Saviour chose certain of His Disciples to be witness of His Miracles, so he liked to be accompanied by the pious child when God gave him Miracles to work.

English: Church of Saint Placid, Catania, Italy.

Italiano: Catania - Chiesa di San Placido.

Photo: 27 September 2014.

Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/115564911

Author: giggel

(Wikimedia Commons)

One occasion, while drawing water from The Lake of Subiaco, Placid fell in, and the waves carried him far from the shore. The Man of God sent Saint Maurus, who, walking miraculously on the water, saved him. Placid and Maurus followed Saint Benedict to Monte Cassino.

Today's Office and Mass Celebrated the memory of several Christians who were put to death in Sicily about 541 A.D., by Saracenic Pirates. According to a pious Tradition, these Martyrs were Saint Placid, his sister, and the Monks which Saint Benedict had sent to Sicily with him.

Mass: Salus autem.
Collects: From The Mass: Sapiéntiam.

The Divine Holy Mass Of The Solemnity Of The Most Holy Rosary Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Church Of Saint-Eugène - Sainte Cécile, Paris. Sunday, 3 October 2021.

English: Divine Holy Mass of The Solemnity of

The Most Holy Rosary of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

Church of Saint-Eugène - Sainte Cécile,

Paris, France.

Sunday, 3 October 2021.

Download the Booklet for this Mass: 

https://schola-sainte-cecile.com/prog...

Plus, more information at:

https://schola-sainte-cecile.com/2021...

Français: Sainte messe de la solennité du Très-Saint Rosaire.

Paroisse Saint-Eugène - Sainte-Cécile,

4 bis rue Sainte Cécile FR-75009 Paris, France.

Le livret du jour: https://schola-sainte-cecile.com/prog...

Plus d'informations: https://schola-sainte-cecile.com/2021...

Available on YouTube

HERE

Reclaiming The Hush Of The Sacristy And Of The Sacristy Ceremonial.

A beautiful Catholic Sacristy.

Illustration: PINTEREST

The response to Father’s appeal

for new Altar Servers has been quite good.

But, now, Father wants to introduce a little

“Hush” and “Reverence” in the Sacristy.

Illustration: FACEBOOK, SACRISTIES OF THE WORLD

The Text of this Article is taken from, and can be read in full at,
LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

By: Shawn Tribe.

Those seeking to create a more Reverent and Prayerful approach to The Sacred Liturgy often give great focus to The Liturgy, itself; but a Reverent and Prayerful Liturgy doesn't begin with the ringing of the Bell at the beginning of Mass; it begins in the Pews and in the Sacristy before Mass even begins.

Illustration: LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

“The Sacristies”.

Available on YouTube at

YOU TUBE

S I L E N T I V M.

Wander in to many a Sacristy, today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it is little more than the Ecclesiastical equivalent of a Locker Room.

It is not uncommon for the Servers to be visiting or joking around, for Laity to be coming in and out to catch up with the Priest, for Priests to be visiting with one another, and so forth.

Discussions surrounding sporting events, work, upcoming dinner engagements, the weather, or practical Parish discussion abound. No doubt, most of us have participated in this to one degree or another- myself included - and, in a culture that is often devoid of silence, this is hardly a surprise, it is rather a symptom.

The Sacristy.

Basilica of The Nativity of Mary,

Senglea, Malta.

Illustration: 

LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

Human nature being what it is, we cannot simply turn off one disposition and turn on another, like a light switch, and, if the climate in the Sacristy is one of socialising and camaraderie (good things within the right context) rather than mindfulness and Prayer, this will hardly be conducive to proper preparation for either the Priest or the Servers - and it is liable to seep into The Liturgy, itself.

By contrast, if you enter a Traditional Roman Sacristy, you will find the following command and reminder prominently hung from the Sacristy's walls:

S I L E N T I V M.

This single word is a powerful reminder that the Sacristy is not a social place; rather, the Sacristy is a place of Prayerful preparation; it is an echo and extension of The Liturgy, itself. This “echo” is something that we must regain, and it is not solely through this practice of silence that it will be regained, but also through associated Ceremonial actions that Traditionally take place there.

With that in mind, let's take a quick look at some things that could be done to reclaim our Sacristies.

1. Post the “SILENTIVM” sign in The Sacristy.

Catechise Around It.

And Begin To Practice It.

It all begins with silence. So, in the first instance, I would recommend posting the aforementioned sign in your Sacristy and - importantly - provide some Catechesis around it. Set clear expectations and give the underlying reasons for this custom.

The Sacristy of Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome. (Source)

Illustration: LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

Illustration: LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

This sign should be placed inside the main part of the Sacristy (though one could also be posted without, of course). If you wish this to be taken seriously, the amount of effort you do or don't put into this signage will speak volumes about how important it really is or isn't.

Using your home or office printer and tacking your print-off onto the wall will have less effect than a proper sign. My own recommendation would be to get a sign properly made up, which then has some permanence to it.

This should really be fairly simple and inexpensive to accomplish and examples abound on the Internet, if you want to look for some ideas.

S I L E N T I V M.

The response to Father’s appeal

for new Altar Servers has been quite good.

But, now, Father wants to introduce a little

“Hush” and “Reverence” in the Sacristy.

Illustration: FACEBOOK, SACRISTIES OF THE WORLD

Then, of course, you must actually pursue the practice. There is, typically, a reasonable progression in these things. In the Sacristy, outside of Mass times, this matter of silence is obviously less strict. As the hour of Mass approaches, however, the Cloistral hush should begin to take a firmer hold, beginning at first with hushed tones and moving into near total silence and whispers once the Clerics begin to Vest.

At this point as well, the Servers should be at full attention; their Serving role has now already, even though the first Bell of The Mass has yet to be rung.

Speaking of which, I would note that The Vesting Prayers should be mounted in the Sacristy in the place where the Priest Vests. Typically, these are printed and framed. Not only is this beneficial to the Priest, but all of these elements combine to set the tone of the Sacristy.

S I L E N T I V M.

Prayers for Altar Servers have also been created by organisations like The Guild of Saint Stephen, and these could, likewise, be posted, and that practice promoted amongst the Servers by the Priest or M.C.

2. Laying Out The Vestments And Assisting In The Vesting.

Another one of the rich Traditions of the Sacristy that not only constitutes an art in its own right, but which is also Ceremonial in nature, is that of the laying out of the Vestments in a particular order. This method has both a symbolic connotation (for example, forming an "IHS") and also a practical benefit: namely of assisting the Priest in his act of Vesting.

This is typically done by the Servers (or Sacristan) and, in my experience, the Servers quite enjoy learning and participating in these Ceremonial aspects. They become part of the art and knowledge of Serving at the Altar. What's more, these sorts of activities help to give them focus and maintain the appropriate disposition in the Sacristy in preparation for Mass.

FSSP Lyon (Source)

Illustration: LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

Closely related to this, Servers will also often assist the Priest as he Vests and Prays The Vesting Prayers, helping him to get his Alb on properly, ensuring that the Vestments are on straight and the like. In this regard, there are similarities to be found here, loosely speaking, between this and the Vesting of the Bishop in the Solemn Pontifical Mass. If you don't think all of this sets a particular tone in the Sacristy, you would be mistaken.

3. The Sacristy Crucifix.

One final piece, that I would mention, is that of The Cross at The Final Blessing. The Crucifix is an important feature of any Traditional Sacristy and it should be prominent.

Traditionally, the Priest and Servers will bow to The Cross as they prepare to leave the Sacristy at the beginning of Mass, and they will also do so at the end of Mass, before they “divest”.

S I L E N T I V M.

If your Sacristy does not have a Cross in it, make sure to add one, and also begin these customs of acknowledging The Cross before and after Mass with the Servers.

Something as simply as this helps to facilitate a more Prayerful environment that flows to and from The Sacred Liturgy.

* * *

The reality is that a great deal more could be said on this subject, but I hope that these three very simple suggestions might serve as a starting point for the process of re-shaping and re-claiming our Sacristies.

Sacristy of Ss. Trinita Rome (Source)

Illustration: LITURGICAL ARTS JOURNAL

Mediæval Monastic Library Re-Created Online.

Text and Illustration: MEDIEVALISTS.NET

Durham Cathedral possesses the finest collection 

of Mediæval Manuscripts of any English Cathedral.

Durham University, in partnership with Durham Cathedral, is engaged in an ambitious project to digitise Durham Priory Library — the books owned and used by the Benedictine Monastery of Durham and its dependant Cells.

Durham Priory Library re-created.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Durham University and Durham Cathedral have teamed up to digitally recreate a Mediæval Monastic Library. 

The Durham Priory Library Recreated project, which was officially launched, recently, will make available over 350 volumes of texts that once belonged to the Priory in Northern England.

The Durham Priory Library Recreated project Web-Site can be found HERE

The Manuscripts and early-printed texts, which date back to the 6th-Century A.D., originally belonged to the Benedictine Monks of Durham Priory until The Dissolution of The Monasteries by King Henry VIII from 1536-1541. 

Fortunately, much of this collection remained at Durham Cathedral, and, over the next five years, they will be digitised and made freely available online.

“This project opens up the Priory Library for researchers around the World to explore,” said Judy Burg, Head of Special Collections at Durham University. 

“By the end of the project, around 350 volumes will have been digitised and we hope to extend the work to include about 200 more volumes that were originally part of the Priory Library, but were scattered across the United Kingdom since The Dissolution of The Monasteries, 1536-1541.”

Saint Francis Of Assisi. Confessor. Feast Day, Today, 4 October.

Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.

Saint Francis Of Assisi.
   Confessor.
   Feast Day 4 October.

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.

“Saint Francis in Meditation”.

Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664).

Date: 1635-1639.

Current location: National Gallery, London, England.

Source/Photographer: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

paintings/francisco-de-zurbaran-saint-francis-in-meditation/27646

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Francis of Assist.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

Artist: René de Cramer.

"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".

Used with Permission.

Born at Assisi, in Umbria, Italy, Saint Francis was raised up by God to work at the same time as Saint Dominic for the moral regeneration of the World at a most troublous period.

[Francis, says Dante, was a true Seraph by the love which devoured his Soul; Dominic, by his enlightened knowledge, ranks with The Cherubim. The former lived 1182-1225, the latter 1170-1221. It is related that Saint Louis, King of France, used to say that, if he could divide himself, he would give half of himself to Saint Dominic and half to Saint Francis].

He had been Christened "John", but was called "Francis", by his father, to celebrate his return from a successful business journey in France.

"The more the sublime enthusiast," says Montalembert, "hid himself and depreciated himself to make himself worthy by humility and men's contempt to be the vessel of Divine Love, the more, by a wonderful effort of of Grace, men rushed to follow him."

Saint Francis of Assisi.

Illustration: PINTEREST

Francis soon had disciples (Communion) who reduced themselves to the same poverty as himself and shared his ardour for the conversion of the people. "My Brothers," he would say, "let us Preach Penance, by example, rather than by word."

He gave them a Rule, which was approved by Pope Innocent III in 1210. In the following year, he obtained from The Benedictines the little Church of Our Lady of The Angels, called "Portiuncula", which was the cradle of his Order [The property of The Benedictines of Mount Subasio was thus called because it was made up of small portions of land. After having restored The Church of Our Lady of The Angels, Saint Francis obtained from the Pope the grant of a Plenary Indulgence for all The Faithful who visited it on 2 August, the Anniversary of its Consecration. For the last few years, all Parish Churches enjoy the same privilege (Note: This Text was written in 1945)].

The new Religious Family, with which he enriched The Church (Collect), multiplied so rapidly that, at The General Chapter held at Assisi about ten years after its birth, there were five thousand Brothers.

Church of Saint Francis of Assisi,

Aleppo, Syria.

Photo: 8 January 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Preacher lad

(Wikimedia Commons)

[In 1264, The Franciscans possessed already 8,000 Houses. The Friars-Minor have given to The Church twenty-nine Saints, sixty Blesseds, five Popes, and many Cardinals, Bishops, and Learned Men, such as Saint Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus. The Capuchins six Saints and eleven Blesseds. The Conventuals one Saint and one Blessed. In 1936, The Friars-Minor numbered about 24,500 Members, The Capuchins 13,500, and The Conventuals 3,000, not to mention the 83,000 Regular Tertiaries and the 1,904,000 Secular Tertiaries.]

Wishing to consider themselves the least among Religious, Saint Francis gave them the name of Friars-Minor, and he himself remained a Deacon all his life. After this First Order, he Founded a Second Order, "The Order of Poor Clares", thus called after Saint Clare, the illustrious Virgin of Assisi (Feast Day 12 August).

Lastly, in 1221, he Founded a Third Order, called "The Order of Penance", on which the Popes, and especially Pope Leo XIII, who considered it an honour to belong to it, lavished the greatest encouragement and the richest favours.

Saint Francis sent his disciples to France, Germany, Spain, Africa; he himself wanted to go to Palestine and Morocco, but Divine Providence stopped him on the way. The Divine Love which burned in him caused him to be surnamed “Seraphic”.

On 4 October 1226, he gave up his Soul to God while finishing the last Verse of Psalm 141: “Bring my Soul out of prison, 

O Lord, that I may praise Thy Name.”

Mass: Mihi autem.

Worksop Priory In The Snow.

Worksop Priory in the snow.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Make Friends With The Angels — Saint Francis de Sales.

Illustration: CATHOLICISM PURE AND SIMPLE

“We Cannot With Impunity Disobey The Mother Of God” — Fr. Hugh Thwaites SJ.

Our Lady of Ushaw,

Saint Cuthbert’s Chapel,

Ushaw Seminary,

Durham, England.

Photo: April 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Zephyrinus.

The sculptor of the statue of Our Lady of Ushaw in Durham, was Karl Hoffmann. He is known as the “Sculptor of Ushaw” and created many significant sculptures for Ushaw College.

The majority of Ushaw’s significant sculptures were 

produced by Karl Hoffmann (1816-1872), colloquially 

known as the Sculptor of Ushaw.

In common with the paintings by von Rohden, the works 

were executed in Rome before being transported to Ushaw. Works including Our Lady of Clemency and 

Saint Joseph with the Lily can be viewed in the Chapels.

A full illustrated list of the wonderful 

fine art and artefacts at Ushaw can be seen

HERE

“Ave Regina Cœlorum”.

Sung by: The Tallis Scholars.

Composed by: Cipriano de Rore.

Available on YouTube

HERE

 

The Tallis Scholars:

Tessa Bonner; Deborah Roberts - soprano; 

Robert Harre-Jones; Michael Lees; Adrian Hill; 

Caroline Trevor - alto; Paul Agnew; Charles Daniels; 

Simon Davies; Leigh Nixon - tenor; Donald Greig; 

Francis Steele; Julian Walker; Adrian Peacock - bass.

 Directed by: Peter Phillips.

Score: www.cpdl.org (Daniel Mahraun).

Ave regina cœlorum,

Mater Regis angelorum,

O Maria flos virginum,

velut rosa vel lilium: 

funda preces ad Dominum 

pro salute fidelium.

Amen. 

Hail, Queen of Heaven, 

Mother of the King of Angels, 

Mary, Flower of Virgins, 

Like the Rose or the Lily: 

Pour forth your Prayers to the Lord

For the salvation of the Faithful. 

Amen.

Divine Holy Mass.
Saint Cuthbert’s Chapel,
Ushaw Seminary,
Durham, England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.



Solemn Requiem Mass.
With a very young Richard Hawker as
Master of Ceremonies. Our Lady of Ushaw statue
can be seen behind the Deacon, who is sitting on the Sedilia.
Saint Cuthbert’s Chapel,
Ushaw Seminary,
Durham, England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Zephyrinus.

“How to Profit from the Rosary”.

By: Fr. Hugh Thwaites SJ.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Tribute to Rev. Fr. Hugh Thwaites SJ written on his 

95th Birthday 2012 (by Joseph Fromm, goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com).

One of England’s best-loved Priests will celebrate 

his 95th birthday on 21 July 2012. 

Known for his bright smile and infectious missionary spirit, Fr. Hugh Thwaites is a symbol of what one Priest’s unflagging commitment to evangelisation can achieve. 

Fr Hugh knows what it is to convert to Catholicism. He converted from Anglicanism when he was a passenger aboard a troop ship bound for Singapore during World War II. 

He spent three punishing years as a Japanese Prisoner-of-War, which gave him insight into human nature. “To see men in such extreme conditions is to see the very roots of their character,” he has said. 

In order to survive in the Prison Camp, Fr. Hugh sold his watch. After the War, he was ordained a Jesuit Priest. The zeal of the convert has never left Fr. Hugh, and he first asks new people he meets: “Are you a Catholic ?” If they reply “no”, then he asks: “But you would like to be, wouldn’t you ?”

Fr. Hugh is a champion of the Legion of Mary, an ardent supporter of the Extraordinary Form Mass, and renowned for his tenacity in spreading devotion to the Rosary. 

In his startling booklet, “Our Glorious Faith And How To Lose It”, Fr. Hugh links the abandonment of the Rosary with losing the Faith. 

He explains that Our Lady has asked us to say the Rosary. “If we want in any way to be like Jesus”, he says, “we must do what His Mother asks. If we do not, can we expect things to go right ? We cannot with impunity disobey the Mother of God.” 

Fr. Hugh may be advanced in years and describes himself as “living on the edge of eternity”. But his many talks are available online and Blogs are buzzing with lively discussions about how he brought new people into The Church. 

[Rev. Fr. Hugh Thwaites SJ died on 21 August 2012.

Requiescat in pace].