The Web-Site of The Shrine of Saint Augustine and The National Pugin Centre at Ramsgate, Kent, can be found
25 March, 2026
The Annunciation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Feast Day 25 March. White Vestments.
“The Annunciation”.
Artist: Paolo de Matteis
Date: 1712.
Current location: Saint Louis Art Museum,
Missouri, United States of America.
Source/Photographer:
(Wikimedia Commons)
“Sequentia Flos Carmeli”
(Flower of Carmel).
Performed by:
Schola Cantorum de Regina Pacis
(Klaipeda, Lithuania)
www.regina-pacis.org
Available on YouTube
Illustration: ZEPHYRINUS
Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless otherwise stated.
unless otherwise stated.
Gabriel told Mary to name her Son, Jesus, meaning “Saviour”. Many Christians observe this event with the Feast Of the Annunciation on 25 March, nine full months before Christmas, the Ceremonial Birthday of Jesus.
According to Luke 1:26, the Annunciation occurred “in the sixth month” of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. Irenæus (circa 130 A.D. - 202 A.D.), of Lyon, regarded the Conception of Jesus as 25 March, coinciding with The Passion.
Our Lady of Ushaw,
Durham, England.
Photo: April 2010.
Source: Own work.
Illustration: ZEPHYRINUS
Both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church hold that the Annunciation took place at Nazareth, but differ as to the precise location. The Basilica of The Annunciation marks the site preferred by the former, while the Greek Orthodox Church of The Annunciation marks that preferred by the latter.
The Annunciation has been a key topic in Christian Art, in general, as well as in Marian Art in The Catholic Church, particularly during The Middle Ages and The Renaissance.
Illustration: ZEPHYRINUS
Illustration: ZEPHYRINUS
The Annunciation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Illustration: THE RACCOLTA
Artist: René de Cramer.
“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.
Used with Permission.
The Annunciation Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Feast Day 25 March.
Double of The First-Class.
White Vestments.
This Feast, prepared by the Feast of Saint Gabriel, yesterday, recalls the greatest event in history, The Incarnation of Our Lord (Gospel) in the womb of a Virgin (Epistle). On this day, The Word Was Made Flesh, and united to Itself for ever The Humanity of Jesus.
25 March is, indeed, the Anniversary of the Ordination of Christ as Priest, for it is by the Anointing of the Divinity that He has become Supreme Pontiff, Mediator between God and man.
[Should it not be possible, on account of 25 March falling in Holy Week or Easter Week, to keep The Feast of The Annunciation on that day, it is Celebrated on The Monday after Low Sunday.]
The Mystery of the Incarnation has earned, for Mary, her Most Glorious Title, that of “Mother of God” (Collect), in Greek “Theotokos”, a name which the Eastern Church always inscribed in Letters of Gold, like a Diadem, on the forehead of her images and statues.
“Standing on the threshold of Divinity” [Saint Thomas], since she gave to The Word of God the Flesh to which He was hypostatically united, The Virgin has always been honoured by a super-eminent Veneration, that of Hyperdulia.
“The Son of The Father and The Son of The Virgin naturally became a single and identical Son”, says Saint Anselm; hence, Mary is Queen of the Human Race and is to be Venerated by all (Introit).
To 25 March, will correspond, nine months later, 25 December, the day on which will be manifested to the World the Miracle as yet only known to Heaven and to the Humble Virgin.
Since the Title of Mother of God makes Mary All Powerful with her Son, let us have recourse to her intercession with Him (Collect), so that, by the Merits of His Passion and Crucifixion, we may have a part in the Glory of His Resurrection (Postcommunion).
Every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
Mass: Vultum tuum.
Commemoration (in Lent): Of the Feria.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Last Gospel (in Lent): Of the Feria.
English: Innocence.
Français: L’Innocence.
Русский: "Невинность", картина Виллиама Бугро
И маленький ребёнок, и ягнёнок — символы невинности
Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Date: 1893.
Source/Photographer: http://www.illusionsgallery.com
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Mystery of the Incarnation has earned, for Mary, her Most Glorious Title, that of “Mother of God” (Collect), in Greek “Theotokos”, a name which the Eastern Church always inscribed in Letters of Gold, like a Diadem, on the forehead of her images and statues.
“Standing on the threshold of Divinity” [Saint Thomas], since she gave to The Word of God the Flesh to which He was hypostatically united, The Virgin has always been honoured by a super-eminent Veneration, that of Hyperdulia.
English: “The Virgin With Angels”.
Latin: Latina: “Regina Angelorum”.
Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905).
Date: 1900.
Current location: Petit Palais, Paris
Source/Photographer: Art Renewal Center
Copied from English Wikipedia to Commons.
(Wikimedia Commons)
To 25 March, will correspond, nine months later, 25 December, the day on which will be manifested to the World the Miracle as yet only known to Heaven and to the Humble Virgin.
Since the Title of Mother of God makes Mary All Powerful with her Son, let us have recourse to her intercession with Him (Collect), so that, by the Merits of His Passion and Crucifixion, we may have a part in the Glory of His Resurrection (Postcommunion).
Every Parish Priest Celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
Mass: Vultum tuum.
Commemoration (in Lent): Of the Feria.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Last Gospel (in Lent): Of the Feria.
Wednesday In Passion Week. The Lenten Station Is At The Church Of San Marcello-Al-Corso (Saint Marcellus). Violet Vestments.
Peterborough Cathedral.
© Chel@SweetbriarDreams
www.sweetbriardreams.blogspot.co.uk
unless otherwise stated.
Wednesday in Passion Week.
Station at Saint Marcellus’s.
Indulgence of 10 Years and 10 Quarantines.
Violet Vestments.
English: Church of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Façade by Carlo Fontana
Italiano: San Marcello-al-Corso è una chiesa di Roma.
Photo: November 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: sv:User:Torvindus
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Church of Saint Marcellus, where today’s Lenten Station is held, was one of the twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome in the 5th-Century A.D. Originally the house of the holy matron, Lucina, where she received Saint Marcellus, it was transformed by her into a Sanctuary and Dedicated to this Holy Pope, whose body rests under The High Altar.
The Mass of today shows us the obstinacy of the Jews in rejecting Jesus, as they had already rejected His Father. The Divine Law, given by Him Whom the Epistle calls six times “The Lord”, “Whose word is stable” declared formally “that one may not shed his neighbour’s blood, nor hate his father in his heart”.
The Members of the Sanhedrin, on the contrary, hated Christ and sought to stone Him (Gospel). Unfaithful to God, “Who orders His laws to be kept” (Epistle), they blamed Jesus “Whom The Father has sent” and Who is The Son of God. “The Father and I are One. The Miracles that I have worked come from My Father.” “Rejecting the legitimate pastor of their Souls, they are no longer His sheep,” and will be replaced by the Gentiles, who, Baptised or reconciled to God at The Easter Festival, are “the sheep who hear His voice and to whom He gives Eternal Life” (Gospel).
The High Altar,
Basilica of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
Permission: CC-BY-SA-2.5.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Let us be faithful to Jesus and Pray God “to Sanctify our Fast and illumine our hearts” (Collect), in order that, delivered from the abyss into which our sins had made us fall (Gradual), we “may wash our hands among the innocent and proclaim the wondrous works of God” (Communion).
Three Feasts called the Jews to Jerusalem:
1. In The Spring.
Three Feasts called the Jews to Jerusalem:
1. In The Spring.
Instituted to commemorate the departure from Egypt;
2. In The Autumn.
The Feast of Tabernacles:
2. In The Autumn.
In commemoration of the sojourn of the Jews in tents in the desert;
3. In The Winter (Middle Of December).
The Feast of The Anniversary of The Dedication of The Temple:
3. In The Winter (Middle Of December).
Which The Machabees had purified after their victory. It was on the occasion of this last Feast, that Jesus, in the Third Year of His Ministry, spoke the words in today’s Gospel. He was then under Solomon’s Porch, which faces the ravine of Cedron.
Mass: Liberátor meus.
Preface: Of The Holy Cross.
The following Text is from Wikipedia.
Mass: Liberátor meus.
Preface: Of The Holy Cross.
The Apse,
Church of Saint Marcellus.
Photo: July 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: SteO153
(Wikimedia Commons)
The following Text is from Wikipedia.
San Marcello-al-Corso is a Church in Rome, Dedicated to Pope Marcellus I. It is located in Via-del-Corso, the ancient Via-Lata, connecting Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. It stands diagonally from the Church of Santa Maria-in-Via-Lata (see yesterday's Post).
While Tradition holds that the Church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I (who died in 309 A.D.), it is known that the "Titulus Marcelli" was already present in 418 A.D., when Pope Boniface I was Elected here.
Pope Adrian I, in the 8th-Century A.D., built a Church in the same place, which is currently under the modern Church.
The corpse of Cola di Rienzo (an Italian Mediæval politician), was held in the Church for three days after his execution in 1354. In 1519, a fire destroyed the Church. The money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the Landsknechts, who were pillaging the City during the Sack of Rome (1527).
The original plan to rebuild the Church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the City during The Sack and never returned to finish it. The work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who rebuilt the Church, but a Riber Tiber flood damaged it again in 1530. It was only in 1592 that the Church was completed, and, later, Carlo Fontana built the façade.
Under The High Altar, decorated with 12th-Century opus sectile, are the Relics of several Saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus, as well as Digna and Emerita.
While Tradition holds that the Church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I (who died in 309 A.D.), it is known that the "Titulus Marcelli" was already present in 418 A.D., when Pope Boniface I was Elected here.
Pope Adrian I, in the 8th-Century A.D., built a Church in the same place, which is currently under the modern Church.
The corpse of Cola di Rienzo (an Italian Mediæval politician), was held in the Church for three days after his execution in 1354. In 1519, a fire destroyed the Church. The money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the Landsknechts, who were pillaging the City during the Sack of Rome (1527).
The original plan to rebuild the Church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the City during The Sack and never returned to finish it. The work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who rebuilt the Church, but a Riber Tiber flood damaged it again in 1530. It was only in 1592 that the Church was completed, and, later, Carlo Fontana built the façade.
Sacristy Ceiling fresco: “Gloria di San Marcello”,
Church of San Marcello-al-Corso.
Photo: November 2005.
Source: Flickr
Author: antmoose
Reviewer: Mac9
(Wikimedia Commons)
Under The High Altar, decorated with 12th-Century opus sectile, are the Relics of several Saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus, as well as Digna and Emerita.
The last Chapel on the Left is Dedicated to Saint Philip Benizi. The Late-Baroque decoration contains sculptures by Francesco Cavallini and Reliefs by Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi. The first Chapel on the Left has the double tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Michiel and his grandson, Antonio Orso, sculpted by Jacopo Sansovino.
Behind the façade is a Crucifixion (1613) by Giovanni Battista Ricci. Along the first Chapel is an Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi; in the second Chapel, a Martyrdom of Saints Digna and Emerita (1727) by Pietro Barbieri; in the third Chapel, a Madonna with Child, a fresco of the Late-14th-Century, episodes of The Life of The Virgin by Francesco Salviati, fresco and paintings by Giovan Battista Ricci.
Behind the façade is a Crucifixion (1613) by Giovanni Battista Ricci. Along the first Chapel is an Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi; in the second Chapel, a Martyrdom of Saints Digna and Emerita (1727) by Pietro Barbieri; in the third Chapel, a Madonna with Child, a fresco of the Late-14th-Century, episodes of The Life of The Virgin by Francesco Salviati, fresco and paintings by Giovan Battista Ricci.
In the fourth Chapel, a Creation of Eve and the Evangelists, Mark and John, frescoes by Perin del Vaga, Matthew and Luke, begun by Perin del Vaga and finished by Daniele da Volterra.
“Saint Philip Benizi refuses The Papal Tiara”,
by Antonio Raggi (1686).
The Church of Saint Marcellus.
Photo: October 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: User:Torvindus
(Wikimedia Commons)
Inside, is a Ciborium (1691) designed by Carlo Bizzaccheri; in the fifth Chapel, is a Monument to Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci (1726) by Pietro Bracci and a Monument to Cardinal Camillo Paolucci by Tommaso Righi (1776) and Wall Paintings by Aureliano Milani.
On the Left Nave, in the fifth Chapel, is a San Filippo Benizi (1725), by Pier Leone Ghezzi; in the fourth Chapel, the Conversion of Saint Paul (1560) by Federico Zuccari and his brother, Taddeo, and, on the sides, a History of Saint Paul.
The inside of the Chapel has Busts of Muzio, Roberto, Lelio Frangipane by Alessandro Algardi (1630-1640).
In the third Chapel, on the Left, is a “Doloroso” by Pietro Paolo Naldini, Sacrifice of Isaac and discovery of Moses by Domenico Corvi; in the first Chapel, a Madonna and Seven Saints by Agostino Masucci.
The Church has been administered and owned by the Servite Order since 1369.
The Church has been administered and owned by the Servite Order since 1369.
Our Lady Of The Atonement Cathedral,
Baguio, Philippines.
Photo: 29 March 2024.
Source: Own work.
This File is made available under the
Author: Galaxiaria
(Wikimedia Commons)
Wells Cathedral.
Photo: August 2006.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.
Author: Steinsky
(Wikimedia Commons)
Wednesday In Passion Week.
Peterborough Cathedral.
© Chel@SweetbriarDreams
www.sweetbriardreams.blogspot.co.uk
© Chel@SweetbriarDreams
www.sweetbriardreams.blogspot.co.uk
Text from The Liturgical Year.
by: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 6.
Passiontide & Holy Week.
It is God Who here speaks; it is God Who commands. Observe that phrase: “I am the Lord”: He repeats it several times, to show us that if we injure our neighbour, He, God Himself, will become the avenger.
How strange must this doctrine have seemed to the catechumens, who had been brought up in the selfish and heartless principles of paganism !
Here they are told that all men are brethren, and that God is the common Father of all, commanding all to love one another with sincere charity, and without distinction of nation or class.
Let us Christians resolve to fulfil this precept to the letter; these are days for good resolutions. Let us remember that the Commandments we have been reading were given to the Israelite people, many ages before the preaching of the law of love.
If, then, God exacted from the Jew a cordial love of his fellow-men, when the Divine Law was written on mere tablets of stone, what will He not require from the Christian, who can now read that law in the Heart of the Man-God, Who has come down from Heaven and made Himself our Brother, in order that we may find it easier and sweeter to fulfil the precept of charity ?
Human nature united in His Person to the Divine, is henceforth Sacred; it has become an object of the Heavenly Father’s love. It is out of fraternal love for this our nature that Jesus suffered death, teaching us, by His own example, to have such love for our brethren, that, if necessary, we ought to lay down our lives for them.
It is the Beloved Disciple that teaches us this, and he had it from his Divine Master.
24 March, 2026
Holy Week 2026. Saint Dominic’s — The Rosary Shrine, London NW5 4LB.
Saint Dominic’s Priory Church, Camden, London.
Photo: 22 November 2017.
Source: Geograph Britain and Ireland
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.
Attribution:
Saint Dominic’s Priory Church, Belsize Park.
Author: John Salmon
(Wikimedia Commons)
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HOLY WEEK 2026.
SAINT DOMINIC’S — THE ROSARY SHRINE,
SOUTHAMPTON ROAD, LONDON.
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MAUNDY THURSDAY
2 April 2026.
Tenebræ
1000 hrs.
Mass of the Lord’s Supper
2000 hrs.
Vigil at the Altar of Repose until Midnight.
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GOOD FRIDAY
3 April 2026.
Tenebræ
1000hrs.
Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion
1500 hrs.
Stations of The Cross
1930 hrs.
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HOLY SATURDAY
4 April 2026.
Tenebræ
1000 hrs.
EASTER VIGIL
(EVENING OF HOLY SATURDAY).
Solemn Easter Vigil
2000 hrs.
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EASTER SUNDAY MASSES.
8.30 hrs.
1000 hrs.
1200 hrs.
1700 hrs
(Latin Dominican Rite).
Adoration
1600 hrs.
Benediction
1700 hrs.
Vespers
1845 hrs.
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CONFESSIONS.
GOOD FRIDAY
1400 hrs - 1500 hrs.
HOLY SATURDAY
1900 hrs - 2000 hrs.
EASTER SUNDAY
0945 hrs - 1045 hrs
and
1145 hrs - 1215 hrs.
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LENTEN TALKS.
Fr. Peter will give the Final Talk in our Series of Lenten Talks this Thursday, 26 March 2026, 1900 hrs, in the Parish Hall.
All are welcome.
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The Weekly Newsletter can be read
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The Web-Site can be read
Veiling Of The High Altar During Passiontide. Church Of Saint Anne, Berlin, New Hampshire, United States of America.
The Veiling of The High Altar during Passiontide.
Church of Saint Anne,
Berlin, New Hampshire,
United States of America.
Illustration: NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT
Holy Week At Saint-Eugène - Sainte-Cécile, Paris. Semaine Sainte Saint - Eugène - Sainte - Cécile. Triduum Pascal.
Zephyrinus strongly recommends Readers to keep an eye on the Holy Week ceremonies from Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile, Paris, including the Triduum Pascal (Easter Triduum).
For those Readers who cannot Assist at a Traditional Latin Mass, these broadcasts from Paris are a great solace.
Keep a regular watch on their YouTube Channel
The 2025 Holy Week ceremonies can be seen at
“Dullborough Town”. Charles Dickens Describes A Visit To His Childhood Home.
Number 2, Ordnance Terrace, Chatham
(Dullborough Town), Kent.
Dickens’ childhood home from 1817-1821.
Text and Illustrations: THE CHARLES DICKENS PAGE
“Dickens’s Dream”.
By: Robert W. Buss.
Robert William Buss was hired by Dickens’s
publishers, Chapman and Hall, to provide two
illustrations for Pickwick Papers after the original
illustrator, Robert Seymour, committed suicide.
The publishers were disappointed with the illustrations provided by Buss (Kitton, 1899, p. 51) and the job
went to Hablot Browne.
Buss, however, remained a life-long admirer of
Dickens and produced several paintings celebrating
the author’s works.
The watercolour, “Dickens’s Dream”, showing the
author surrounded by the characters he created,
was done after Dickens’ death in 1870.
Buss did not live to complete the painting.
The painting is now in the Charles Dickens Museum, London (Schlicke, 1999, p. 64-65).
A Charles Dickens Article
from “All The Year Round”, June 1860.
“Dullborough Town”.
Charles Dickens describes a visit to his childhood home.
Charles Dickens, at age forty-eight, describes a trip
to his childhood home of Chatham, Kent, which he refers to
as “Dullborough Town”, and finds it “mysteriously gone,
like my own youth”.
First published in Dickens’ Weekly Journal
It lately happened that I found myself rambling about the scenes among which my earliest days were passed; scenes from which I departed when I was a child, and which I did not revisit until I was a man.
This is no uncommon chance, but one that befalls some of us any day; perhaps it may not be quite uninteresting to compare notes with the reader respecting an experience so familiar and a journey so uncommercial.
I call my boyhood’s home (and I feel like a Tenor in an English Opera when I mention it) Dullborough. Most of us come from Dullborough who come from a Country Town.
As I left Dullborough in the days when there were no Railroads in the land, I left it in a Stage-Coach [Editor: Dickens states that the name of the Stage-Coach was “The Blue-Eyed Maid”].
Through all the years that have since passed, have I ever lost the smell of the damp straw in which I was packed - like Game - and forwarded, Carriage Paid, to the Cross Keys Public House, Wood-street, Cheapside, London ?
There was no other inside passenger, and I consumed my sandwiches in solitude and dreariness, and it rained hard all the way, and I thought life sloppier than I had expected to find it [Editor: It is noteworthy to mention that Dickens used the name “Sloppy” for a character in “Our Mutual Friend”].
With this tender remembrance upon me, I was cavalierly shunted back into Dullborough the other day, by Train. My ticket had been previously collected, like my taxes, and my shining new portmanteau had had a great plaster stuck upon it, and I had been defied by Act of Parliament to offer an objection to anything that was done to it, or me, under a penalty of not less than forty shillings or more than five pounds, compoundable for a term of imprisonment.
When I had sent my disfigured property on to the hotel, I began to look about me; and the first discovery I made, was, that the Railway Station had swallowed up the playing-field.
It was gone. The two beautiful Hawthorn-Trees, the Hedge,
the Turf, and all those Buttercups and Daisies, had given
place to the stoniest of jolting roads: while, beyond the Railway Station, an ugly dark monster of a Railway Tunnel kept its jaws open, as if it had swallowed them and were ravenous for more destruction.
The Stage-Coach that had carried me away, was
melodiously called Timpson’s “Blue-Eyed Maid”
[Editor: Up until fairly recently, there was still a Timpson’s Coach Company running Motor Coaches for hire], and belonged to Timpson, at the Coach-Office “up-Street”.
The Locomotive Engine, that had brought me back
to Dullborough, was called, severely, “No. 97”, and
belonged to S.E.R. [Editor: South-Eastern Railway], and
was spitting ashes and hot water over the blighted ground.
The remainder of this fascinating Article and its glimpse into the past, and Dickens’s thoughts on the same, can be found at
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