REPORT - SAINT JOHN'S DAY

After the festivities of the whole Order at the Oratory in the morning, it was the turn of the Conventual Church, the Hospital and the local community to celebrate our Patronal Festival in the evening, with a High Mass celebrated by the Chaplain of the Grand Priory, Monsignor Antony Conlon.  The music was all chant, provided by a schola under the direction of Paul Tobin, Prefect of Music in the Church, and again we had the joysome benefit of Colin Mawby on the organ. The Mass was followed by a  reception in Fortescue House, at which the Order's own prosecco from Magione was served.

Sancte Joanne Baptistae, ora pro nobis.

REPORT - SAINT JOHN'S EVE

Solemn Vespers were sung on Wednesday evening, presided over by Monsignor Antony Conlon, chaplain of the Grand Priory, assisted by our chaplains Father Creighton-Jobe of the London Oratory and Father David Irwin.  The choir was again Cantores Missae under the direction of Charles Finch, and Colin Mawby, former organist of Westminster Cathedral, was on the organ.  At the end of Vespers there was veneration of the Relic of Saint John the Baptist.

The evening ended with a buffet dinner in Fortescue House, attended by 30 members of the Order, Companions and friends.

We are grateful to a member of the Order for stepping in to take photographs at the very last minute on his iphone, the light in church is not ideal.

A report on the evening Mass of Saint John's Day will follow when the photographs are available.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

MONSIGNOR ANDREW WADSWORTH

It is with great joy that we learn than today, the Feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher, one of our Chaplains of BASMOM, Monsignor Andrew Raymond Wadsworth, who is currently Secretary General of ICEL, has been made a Chaplain to His Holiness and Member of the Papal Household. 

Monsignor Wadsworth has been a great friend of the Conventual Church over the years, supporting the Easter Triduum since the first year in 2003, and has sung the main Mass of Easter Sunday on several occasions, as well as on many feasts of the Order.

We know many of those who attend the Conventual Church regularly will wish to join in congratulating Monsignor Wadsworth on this joyful news, and to wish him well in his continuing work in Washington.

TUESDAY 29 JUNE - FEAST OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

Carravaggio, The Conversion on the Road to Damascus

The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Princes of the Apostles, a Holyday of Obligation, falls this year on a Tuesday. There will be Holy Mass at 11 am and a simple sung latin Mass at 6.30 pm in the Conventual Church.

At 9.30 pm there will be a sung solemn Salve in Church followed by Palestrina's 'Tu es Petrus' for 6 voices, with the Order's choir Schola Baptista.

All are most welcome to celebrate this great Feast of the Church with us.

Carravaggio, The Martyrdom of St Peter

SATURDAY 12TH JUNE - SAINT FLEUR OF BEAULIEU, V ON

Fleur, or Flora, was born about 1300 at Maurs in the diocese of Saint-Flour (France) and took the veil as a girl of thirteen in the monastery of the Sisters of St. John of Jerusalem at Beaulieu, in the diocese of Cahors (France), where she devoted herself to tending the poor and the sick in the hospital attached to the monastery. Attractions and temptations she sublimated in the love of God and even in mystical experiences. She had a special devotion to Christ Crucified, Our Lady of the Annunciation and St. John the Baptist. She died in 1347 and her relics are still in the church at Issendolus, in the diocese of Cahors.

Collect of the Mass.

Almighty and merciful God, who wished blessed Fleur to love and live as a virgin in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, grant that, following her example, we also may love you more and more. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

More information here.

Sancta Flora de Beaulieu, ora pro nobis.

FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART

ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

MOST sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behaviour, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.

Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honour, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.

This prayer was prescribed to be recited on this feast by Pope Pius XI .

23 & 24 JUNE - SAINT JOHN'S DAY AND EVE

On Wednesday 23rd June, Vigil of the Solemnity of St John the Baptist, there will be Solemn First Vespers, and Veneration of the Relic of St John the Baptist, Patron of the Order.  This will be at 6.30pm in the Conventual Church.


The next evening, that is, Thursday 24th June, the Feast of St John the Baptist, there will be High Mass at 6.30pm in the Conventual Church, for which we shall be joined by staff and patients of the Hospital, for whom it is also the Patronal Festival.  There will be a drinks Reception in Fortescue House afterwards to which all are welcome.


The celebrant on both days will be Monsignor Antony Conlon, Conventual Chaplain ad honorem, Chaplain to the Grand Priory.

At 7.30pm on 23rd June there is a Bowling Evening to raise money for the Pilgrimage to Walsingham in September.  It will be possible for those who attend Vespers to arrive at All Star Bowling, Whiteleys, Porchester Gardens W2, by 7.45pm if they would like to support this very worthwhile event.