6th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage Report And Photos

On Saturday 30^th July 2016 my brother-in-law Stephen agreed to give me a lift to the starting point of the Annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage. This allowed me to stay in bed slightly longer than normal, for which I am grateful. Hooray! While waiting outside St George’s C of E Church in Aubrey

Walk, to see if anybody else would arrive for the 8am start, Malcolm wandered around the corner, went into the Church grounds and promptly announced on social media that I wasn’t there! At 8am we read the paragraph from Chesterton’s autobiography, said the prayer and started marching off in the direction of Ealing. Hooray! We bemoaned the fact that many people had said they would come if the pilgrimage was ever on a Saturday as two is the smallest number that we have had start the Pilgrimage since the first year we walked. Upon arriving outside the abortion “clinic” at 87 Mattock Lane in Ealing 5 minutes ahead of schedule, we prayed for the closure of the “clinic” with the hardy souls who go there each Saturday to pray and offer support to the women tempted to abort. We were joined by three more pilgrims at this point, the five of us headed off, joining the canal just before Hanwell Hospital by The Fox public house. We now had to pick up speed as we needed to arrive in Uxbridge for the 1.30 Mass.

The Sung Old Rite Mass started shortly after our arrival and thanks to Fr Schofield for allowing us to use his parish.  To Fr Michael Cullinan for being the Celebrant, Gordon for being MC and Peter, Steven, Nathanael and Jerome for serving and a special thanks to Matthew Schellhorn who provided the excellent musical accompaniment to the Mass. And thanks to the Latin Mass Society for helping to cover the expenses of the Mass. Hooray! There were more than 50 people at Mass, which was offered in thanksgiving for the Conversion of GK Chesterton, whose reception into the Catholic Church had taken place 94 years ago to the day. After a brief lunch we were off again to walk the last 12 miles through the countryside to the grave of GK Chesterton in Beaconsfield. There were now more than 30 of us for the last leg of our journey. Hooray! A couple of American film-makers joined us for the afternoon, filming proceedings to be part of a documentary that they are making about GKC. We said the Rosary on the way, sang a few bits, said the Angelus twice and even stopped in one pub.  Upon arriving at Chesterton’s grave we said the Prayer for the Beatification of GK Chesterton in English, Welsh, Gaelic, French, Maltese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Latvian, Hungarian, Portuguese and Latin, Hooray! 

Half the Pilgrims were dropped back to Uxbridge station in a minibus while the rest of us patiently waited in Chesterton’s local pub, The White Hart, for the minibus to return and take us back to London. Thanks to Ken who patiently followed us in the minibus during the day, to provide lifts to anyone who needed a break or was having trouble keeping up. Our youngest walking Pilgrim was 5 years old and we have no idea how old our oldest Pilgrims were as we were too polite to ask them but we are fairly sure they were septuagenarians.

Please say the Chesterton Prayer and print copies off. Please email Canon Udris (Chesterton (at) oscott.org) and tell him that you say the prayer even if you haven’t received any favours yet as at this time, Bishop Peter Doyle just requires evidence that there is a cult of prayer and devotion to GK Chesterton so that his cause for Beatification can be opened. Please like and follow the Catholic GK Chesterton Society on Facebook and Twitter (@CatholicGKCSoc), Read GK Chesterton’s books and essays, many of which can be read here for free  and watch ‘The Apostle of Common Sense’ on EWTN (Sky 589 or online) Tuesdays 5pm or Wednesdays 7am or Thursdays 10pm each week. (30 minutes long) and do give Chesterton books to friends and family for birthdays, Christmas and etc, ensuring that you put a GK Chesterton prayercard in the book, which they can use as a bookmark.

Chesterton once said, “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” If each time we open a book we find a Chesterton prayercard marking our page, we could say the prayer before we read.
And £4,735.68 was raised for the wonderful Catholic Pro-Life work of The Good Counsel Network and you can still donate here.

LMS launches Sodality for lapsed or non-Catholic friends

St Monica and St Augustine

The Sodality of St Augustine of Hippo is a new initiative, launched today.

From the website:
The purpose of the Sodality is to unite the prayers of members for the conversion of those dear to them. There can be few Catholics today who do not have family members or close friends who have either lapsed from the practice of the Faith, or never had it; it is a particular source of grief when parents see children and grandchildren living without the support of the Sacraments. We take heart from the example of St Augustine, converted at last by the prayers and tears of his mother St Monica, and wish to demonstrate our fellowship with others in the same position, by praying not only for our own dear ones, but for those of others who will do the same for ours.

The Sodality takes advantage of three principles of Catholic prayer:

1. The Public Prayer of the Church is more pleasing to God than private prayer.
Not only are the Sodality's prayers supported by regular Masses, but the Sodality's own prayer is a Collect of the Roman Missal, linking our individual prayers further to the Church's prayer and the Masses being said for the same intention.

2. The united prayer of a group of Catholics is more pleasing to God than the prayers of individuals alone.
The prayers of Sodality members are united for a single intention: the conversion or return of our friends and family to the Faith.

3. Prayers motivated by charity are more pleasing to God than prayers motivated by necessity.
By praying for each others' friends, members of the Sodality show fraternal solidarity and charity, even towards those unknown to them.

St Thomas Aquinas wrote (quoting someone else):
"Necessity makes us pray for ourselves, fraternal charity urges us to pray for others. But sweeter before God is prayer which is not sent from necessity, but commended by fraternal charity."
("...pro se orare necessitas cogit, pro altero autem, caritas fraternitatis hortatur. Dulcior autem ante Deum est oratio, non quam necessitas transmittit, sed quam caritas fraternitatis commendat.")
Summa Theologica II, Q88 a.7 c.
So please join the Sodality! There is no fee, you just send us an email: info@lms.org.uk

The penitant Magdalen

You can arrange your own Masses for the intentions of the Sodality, but the LMS is offering the service, which will be convenient for some people, of passing on Mass Offerings to priests for such Masses. We are also going to have at least one Mass a year said publicly, with more solemnity, for this intention, which we will advertise, towards which you can make a donation.


The Sodality prayer (Collect of the 'commemoration' pro devotis amicis):

Deus, qui caritátis dona per grátiam Sancti Spíritus tuórum fidélium córdibus infudísti : da fámulis et famulábus tuis, pro quibus tuam deprecámur cleméntiam, salútem mentis et córporis ; ut te tota virtúte díligent, et quæ tibi plácita sunt, tota dilectióne perfíciant. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte eiúsdem Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sæcula sæculórum. Amen.

O God, who, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, hast poured the gifts of charity in the hearts of thy faithful, grant to thy servants and handmaids, for whom we entreat thy mercy, health of mind and body; that they may love thee with all their strength and, by perfect love, may do what is pleasing to thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who liveth and reigneth in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Masses said for the intentions of the Sodality should when possible make a 'commemoration' as per the above Collect, and its accompanying Secret and Postcommunion. These are found among the 'various prayers' in the Roman Missal; they were included in the first printed Missal, that of 1474. They are said in addition to the Collect, Secret, and Postcommunion of the day. This liturgical commemoration can be done at any Low Mass on a day of the 4th Class (ie, not on important feast days). The LMS Ordo has more details on these rules.

 

(Taken from; http://www.lmschairman.org/ )

Self-Publicists Really Make Me Cross

Self-publicists really make me cross! Therefore, let me just say that there will be a great one day Catholic Conference in London, on Saturday 9th June organised by The Latin Mass Society.

VENUE: Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ (opposite BHS, less than 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus)

Conference Theme: 'The Traditional Liturgy and the Catholic Life'

This is the first time the LMS has organised a one-day conference, and we have some excellent speakers lined up for you. The conference is aimed principally at ordinary LMS members, although non-members are very welcome to join us. The Conference timetable is as follows:

9am Low Mass at St James's, Spanish Place.

10am Doors open.

10am -11am Registration. Stalls in the Conference Hall will be available to browse

11am - 11.50am 1st talk: Dr John Rao (Roman Forum): ‘From Darkness Into Light: Contemporary Barbarism, the Traditional Liturgy, and the Construction of a Civilized Society’

12 noon - 12.50pm 2nd talk: Stuart McCullough (Good Counsel Network): ‘Spiritual Warfare and the End of Abortion’ followed by Lunch.

2pm - 2.50pm 3rd talk: Fr John Zuhlsdorf (Fr Z): (Title of talk to be confirmed)

3pm - 3.50pm 4th talk: Fr Tim Finigan (columnist and blogger): 'Traditional Liturgy in the Modern Parish’

4pm - 4.50pm 5th talk: John Hunwicke (of the Ordinariate): ‘Education without Religion a pure Evil?’

5pm - 6pm Panel discussion

6pm Close

BOOKING INFORMATION: Admission is by ticket only. Ticket prices: LMS Members £15 Non-LMS Members £20 (includes morning and afternoon refreshments) Optional: Buffet lunch including drinks £9 supplement.

You can buy your ticket by phoning the LMS office on 020 7404 7284, sending a cheque (payable to 'LMS') to LMS, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH or online here.

Photo, Father Finigan giving Benediction in the small Good Counsel Network's chapel and the Server seems to be doing a good job.

Mass Tonight For Good Counsel, 15 Today!

There will be an Old Rite Mass organised by the Latin Mass Society, on Friday 13th January at 6.30pm at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London. This Mass is offered for the work of the Good Counsel Network. This is the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Good Counsel Network.

Sung Old Rite Requiem Mass Today

There will be a Sung Requiem Mass (Old Rite) for the deceased supporters of the Good Cousnel Network on Friday 11th November at 6.30pm.
The Mass is the one organised by the Latin Mass Society on the 2nd Friday of each month at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, Central London - the nearest tube station is Charing Cross Station.

Old Rite Mass For Good Counsel, 6.30pm Today, London

There will be an Old Rite Mass organised by the Latin Mass Society, on Friday 9th September at 6.30pm at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London. This Mass is offered for the work of the Good Counsel Network.

World Exclusive, Father Colven Offers His First Old Rite Mass?

Fr Christopher Colven, PP of St James Spanish Place, London, offered the 9.30am regular Sunday Old Rite Mass in his Parish on 7th August 2011. He had an Altar Server and the LMS MC to help him and did very well. He started his Homily with, "I must apologise for being here, but the Celebrant did not arrive and I got pushed in."

God bless him for offering this Mass at a moments notice, in front of such a 'difficult' congregation. I have not seen Father offer an Old Rite Mass before. The photo was taken at the very end, after the Prayers after Mass. This video was filmed just after the Our Father.

Spanish Place is a very nice Church, if you are ever in London it is well worth a visit. The Parish History was written by Fr Nicholas Schofield and is very well produced. I think that Hilaire Belloc's parents got Married here, but don't quote me, as I'm not going to look it up.

It is only a short distance from the Good Counsel Network's office/chapel.

Walsingham: England's Nazareth On Foot & On Television

Follow the history of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in this documentary presented by Joanna Bogle. It will be on for one hour on EWTN (sky 589 or online) 3pm Wednesday 3rd August and 3am Saturday 6th August.

It has been said, "That when England returns to Walsingham, Our Lady will return to England." Now before you just drop everything and walk out the door and keep going until you get there, as Br Francis did when he heard this, let's just see what Paul Smeaton is up to. He and the Latin Mass Society will be walking from Ely to Walsingham over the August Bank Holiday weekend, for details.


I'm very proud to say that my Wife walked from London to Walsingham once, to raise money for Good Counsel, as well as doing it as a Pilgrimage.