Sunday 9 August 2020

St Mary’s Priory, Smith Street, Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 2NS, England 01925 635664 – warrington@fssp.org – https://fssp.co.uk/warrington/  – facebook.com/fssp.england

Extra Holy Mass today!

In addition to our usual 11.00am Sung Mass

and to our 6.00pm Low Mass (Celebrant & Homilist Fr Philomeno of the Marian Franciscans),

we will offer an extra Low Mass at 12:30pm.

Confessions are heard in the confessional from 10.30am and during most of the 11.00am Mass, and again at 5.30pm before the 6.00pm Mass.

No booking is required to attend Mass at St Mary’s Shrine Church.

Please observe social distancing as signed, and kindly bring your face covering unless you are exempt as per Government guidelines (see last Sunday’s post on this page below).

Make sure to park in our TWO car parks, both of them adjacent to the church.

The better known one is accessed via Smith Street, a cul-de-sac off Mersey Street immediately on your left before The Borough Arms pub, and to the end of Smith Street through the gates and into the car park.

Our lesser known car park is easier to access and to exit: when driving along St Mary’s Church (on your left) on Buttermarket Street, turn left immediately before the Crossed Keys pub, into Priory Court car park, and walk through the pedestrian gate on your left into the back garden of the presbytery towards St Mary’s church.

Church Opening Times:

Weekdays                  11:00am – 1:30pm & 5:00pm – 6:30pm

includes 12:10pm Holy Mass, following Confessions 11:40am-12:05pm and Holy Rosary 11:30am-11:55am

Saturdays: 10:00am-1:30pm (no opening in the afternoon)

With Confessions & Adoration 10am-12noon before 12:10pm Holy Mass

Sundays                     10:am– 1:00pm & 5:00pm-7:00pm

(no Sunday Vespers & Benediction in August)

Daily Mass open to all present on site, and accessible online for free daily via LiveMass.net)

OFFERTORY COLLECTION at the END of EVERY Mass, daily: a steward will be holding the collection basket by the Porch door as you exit, for you kindly to drop your offering. Thank you for your vital support to St Mary’s.

Mass readings: If you are new to St Mary’s Latin Mass community, please note that we normally have printed sheets with English translations and booklets to help you follow Holy Mass. Those are currently not available due to anti-virus regulations. But you can find on our website a link to the readings for the Mass of each day. You can also subscribe for free to our weekly circular emails with all news and interactive links.

Summer Recess in August:

There will be one priest at St Mary’s rather than 2 or 3 for most of August. He will be responsible for our usual schedule:

Mon-Sat: daily 12:10pm Mass and 11:40am Confessions (Sat: 10am-12noon Eucharistic adoration and Confessions)

Sundays: 10:30am Confessions; 11:00am Sung Mass; 5:30pm Confessions; 6:00pm Low Mass.

We look forward to resuming our Sunday Vespers & Benediction, Men’s Group, Women’s Group, Youth Group, Educational Activities and sacramental preparation in September, pandemic allowing.

Please bear with the priest in charge in August, remembering that our part-time Shrine Secretary Mrs Jane Wright is also away on a well-deserved summer break. For these reasons, please do not expect speedy responses from St Mary’s this month outside of cases of emergency.

Good Bye Fr Whisenant!

Thank you to all for your very generous collection as a farewell gift to Fr Henry Whisenant last Sunday. He is now back in his home diocese of East Anglia after spending a year with us a priest-in-residence to learn the traditional ways. He asks for prayers, that his attempt to launch a traditional apostolate in his part of the country might be successful. Please do not write to him at St Mary’s, but contact him directly: henrywhiz@hotmail.com.

Looking Ahead in the UK:

From New Zealand Deacon Gilbride is asking for prayers as his priestly ordination scheduled on 8th August in Sydney’s cathedral was postponed again due to virus restrictions in Australia.

We are delighted that Fr Neil Brett, a diocesan priest, was given permission by his Bishop of Brentwood to join the FSSP as Postulant. He is to begin at our personal parish in Reading next month (with Frs Goddard and Phipps), succeeding Fr Patrick O’Donohue who is to launch our permanent apostolate in his home country of Ireland.

Fr Emerson remains in charge in Edinburgh.

At St Mary’s: There are no changes planned as regards Fr de Malleray and Fr Verrier. Fr Whisenant is now gone and Fr Stewart still unwell, not residing at St Mary’s. This leaves us at St Mary’s with fewer clergy than we were used to (unless some priest wishes to learn our ways here, succeeding Fr Whisenant). Two (youngish) priests is still twice more than during our first year (2015-2016). We are also grateful to Fr Andrew Jolly, a retired diocesan priest from Wigan, who generously assists us at St Mary’s for Holy Mass and Confessions.

But over the past 4 1/2 years, our congregation has grown and our activities have multiplied. The acquisition of 2/3 of Priory Court and the maintenance of St Mary’s Church and Priory, plus two car parks, manifest this dynamic expansion of St Mary’s Community against difficult odds. However, this also means a heavier load of administrative work. Without entering into details, and while thanks to the assistance of several competent persons we have done well so far, we will have of a necessity to muscle up our organisation for the care of the St Mary’s Shrine site. Unless additional competent and reactive collaborators are found, we might need to hire someone so that the two priests can meet the growing pastoral demands in accordance with their priestly calling, while shifting to lay persons more of the administrative tasks. We ask for your prayer for this important need.

Dear Newcomers:

With great joy, we have noticed many new faces in our pews since the reopening last month. We welcome you all wholeheartedly. Please note that like all other churches, we are prevented by the COVID restrictions from functioning as we would normally wish.

For instance, we are not allowed to provide as before a printed sheet with the epistles and gospels for the entire week. You can find them in your recent Traditional hand missal, or ask for a new copy of the Baronius one, available from us for £37 (cash only). You can also find the readings on our website via the link below on our website: http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/missa/missa.pl#

We also would normally give conferences to help everyone become more familiar with the traditional Latin Mass. This is more difficult because of the retrictions. But you can find explanations here https://lms.org.uk/resources .

Similarly, our parish hall is not yet re-opened. It is obviously an essential feature of our community life.

Do feel very welcome to chat with our parishioners after Holy Mass and ask any question about the traditional liturgy and spirituality. They made the same journey as you, since there was only the new Mass in English at St Mary’s until our Fraternity was invited to take over in November 2015. Naturally, priests are also happy to answer your queries and, after the Summer recess, to offer various options to support you and your family in your faith. Already, make use of the many articles in our online magazine Dowry: https://fssp.co.uk/category/dowry/

Your financial support is greatly appreciated, since St Mary’s Shrine and community do not receive any money from the Liverpool Archdiocese in which we serve. The cost of running St Mary’s (including priests’ allowance and healthcare, car allowance and building maintenance) is an estimated £1,700.00 per WEEK. You can send your donation to St Mary’s Shrine via our Donate page: https://fssp.co.uk/donate/ . Ask us for a Gift Aid form to increase your donation by 20% at no extra cost to you.

Some of you many not know that St Mary’s Shrine is run by an international priestly society, the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP). The FSSP is the largest traditional priestly community in full communion with the Holy See: https://www.fssp.org/en/ . St Mary’s was owned and run by the Benedictines of the Abbey of Ampleforth. For want of priests, they had to withdraw and after two years the Archdiocese of Liverpool was about to shut down this magnificent church. Our Fraternity took it over. Our registered charity legally owns the church, presbytery and entire site. Archbishop McMahon of Liverpool entrusted us with the canonical mission of making the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite available to all in the Liverpool Archdiocese. Needless to say, anyone is welcome also from other dioceses. The Confirmation of 19 candidates from several dioceses last month illustrated this point. We are grateful for the active support of our Archbishop McMahon, who came twice to ordain our priests at St Mary’s and every year to confirm our candidates, always in the Traditional liturgy. He also granted the Imprimatur for the last two books by Fr de Malleray, X-ray of the Priest in A Field Hospital and Ego Eimi – It is I – Falling in Eucharistic Love.

Vocations:

Our three First Year seminarians from the UK & Ireland are to resume formation in Nebraska later this month after spending a fortnight on apostolate in Warrington and Reading. Please pray for them, as well as for our three other seminarians from the UK; and for possibly two new seminarians to begin formation in October. Pray also for two young ladies from our youth groups in England taking their first steps as religious sisters in America, and for three more actively discerning.

Face masks:

[The masks displayed here can be purchased on https://www.redbubble.com/shop/?iaCode=all-masks&query=virgin%20mary&ref=search_box]

The Government announced mandatory face masks in churches from 8th August. Until then, wearing a mask was only recommended. We at St Mary’s take every proportionate precaution to ensure the safety of our congregation. Our safety settings were checked and approved by the Archdiocesan authority.

For believers, such measures include spiritual welfare. We prayed and still recite after every Mass the Latin Prayer Against Pestilence from the Roman Ritual [click HERE to open this prayer in Latin and English as pdf to download or print].

We also had the Votive Mass Against Pestilence offered. Twice we had outdoor processions to ask God for protection, right before the lockdown and during (then with only the clergy and resident servers). Just before lockdown, we preventively administered the sacrament of Extreme Unction with Plenary Indulgence to 1/3 of our congregation.

Over the past 5 months, no member of our congregation has died from Coronavirus, and to our knowledge none has contracted the virus. Thanks be to God.

While wearing a facemasks is presented as a proportionate precaution (the pictures in this post show that it can also be a way of evangelising), the British Government recognises that not everyone is able to wear one. Anyone will agree that the mask makes breathing difficult, especially in this summer month; it also obscures one’s spectacles with moisture, causing trip hazard; some wearers can feel claustrophobic and others might feel distressed by the lack of facial communication. Should you fall into any such categories, the Government has provided a badge to print and wear so as to indicate that your not wearing a mask entails no neglect or carelessness. The Government writes (see below) that displaying or wearing such an exemption sign “is not necessary in law“. Click here to access the Government badges. Obviously no mask can be worn to receive Holy Communion.

We copy below the official Government guidelines on face covering exemptions as accessed on 8th August 2020.

“3. When you do not need to wear a face covering

In settings where face coverings are required in England, there are some circumstances, for health, age or equality reasons, where people are not expected to wear face coverings. Please be mindful and respectful of such circumstances, noting that some people are less able to wear face coverings, and that the reasons for this may not be visible to others.

It is not compulsory for employees of indoor settings or transport workers to wear face coverings (see section 6), although employers may consider their use where appropriate and where other mitigations are not in place. Employers should continue to follow COVID-19 Secure guidelines to reduce the proximity and duration of contact between employees.

You do not need to wear a face covering if you have a legitimate reason not to. This includes (but is not limited to):

• young children under the age of 11 (Public Health England do not recommended face coverings for children under the age of 3 for health and safety reasons)
• not being able to put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability
• if putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress
• if you are travelling with or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading to communicate
• to avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury, to yourself or others
• to avoid injury, or to escape a risk of harm, and you do not have a face covering with you
• to eat or drink if reasonably necessary
• in order to take medication
• if a police officer or other official requests you remove your face covering

There are also scenarios when you are permitted to remove a face covering when asked:

• if asked to do so in a bank, building society, or post office for identification
• if asked to do so by shop staff or relevant employees for identification, the purpose of assessing health recommendations, such as a pharmacist, or for age identification purposes including when buying age restricted products such as alcohol
• if speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions and clear sound. Some may ask you, either verbally or in writing, to remove a covering to help with communication

Exemption Cards

Those who have an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering should not be routinely asked to give any written evidence of this, this includes exemption cards. No person needs to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about their reason for not wearing a face covering.

Some people may feel more comfortable showing something that says they do not have to wear a face covering.This could be in the form of an exemption card, badge or even a home-made sign.

This is a personal choice and is not necessary in law.

Access exemption card templates

For exemptions in different parts of the UK please refer to the specific guidance for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”

[End of quote from the official Government guidelines on face covering exemptions as accessed on 1st August 2020 at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own#when-you-do-not-need-to-wear-a-face-covering.]

MASS INTENTIONS

Fr de Malleray, FSSP sermon for LMS anniversary

LiveMass

Sermon on the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

LiveMass

And many more homilies and talks here: https://www.facebook.com/londonjuventutem/videos

by Fr AM