Monday 13 October 2014

The Greatest Persecution of the Church Comes not from Her Enemies Without, but Arises from...Within



On the journey to Fatima in 2010,  Pope Benedict noted that the message of Fatima is still ongoing and that the greatest threat to the Church comes from not from outside but from within the Church: he stated:-

 " Consequently, I would say that, here too, beyond this great vision of the suffering of the Pope, which we can in the first place refer to Pope John Paul II, an indication is given of realities involving the future of the Church, which are gradually taking shape and becoming evident. So it is true that, in addition to moment indicated in the vision, there is mention of, there is seen, the need for a passion of the Church.... As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on....the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church. This too is something that we have always known, but today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from...within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice.

 Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely this essential: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological virtues. This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history."

Taken from http://www.vatican.va.

Saturday 27 September 2014

Young Catholic Adults Douai Weekend 2014 - Photographs




                                    Solemn High Mass of Our Lady
 

Dominican Rite Vespers with
the Scola Gregoriana of Cambridge
Fr. Goddard FSSP  - Talk
 

Dominican Rite Sung Mass 


Dominican Rite Sung Mass - Communion
                                                                                 
Fr Pearson OP - Talk

                              


For more photos please see Flikr


   







Wednesday 17 September 2014

Young Catholic Adult 2014 Weekend at Douai Consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
                                             

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Amen.

--Venerable Pope Pius XII

Sunday 14 September 2014

The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel





The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been in existence for approximately 700 years. It is said that , Saint Simon Stock, General of the Carmelite Order in the thirteenth century, saw Our Lady in a vision in 1251 and presented him with the well-known brown scapular, a garment, reaching from the shoulders to the knees. It was given as a guarantee, for all who died wearing it, of Her heavenly protection from eternal damnation.

Devotion to the Scapular spread post haste throughout the Christendom. Pope after successive Pope enriched it with various indulgences, and there were many miracles associated with it .

In 1858 at Lourdes, Bernadette said that the Virgin appeared on July 16th, the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (which was the very day the Church commemorates Her appearance to Saint Simon Stock). On October 13, 1917, at Fatima the three Shepard children – Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco stated that Mary appeared to them as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In a general sense, wearing the Scapular is a sign of someone’s commitment and devotion to Our Lady.

Individuals can be enrolled in the Scapular after the YCA High Mass and Marian Procession on Saturday 20th September 2014 in the Parish Church at Douai Abbey. 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel – pray for us.

Timetable for Young Catholic Adults/Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge Douai Weekend 19-21 Sept 2014

 
 
 



Timetable for Young Catholic Adults/Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge
 Douai Weekend 19-21 Sept 2014
 

Theme of the Weekend

True conversion of the Soul :-“We undertake to convert our hearts to the horizons of grace,” - Pope Benedict XVI.

Friday - Feast of St. Januarius 3rd  Class - Red

5-6pm Arrival
6:55pm Supper
8pm-8.30pm Rosary or Chant Workshop -
8:40 Sung Dominican Compline after Workshop
9pm: Social


Saturday – Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday 4th Class - White

8-9am Breakfast
9-9:40am - Chant workshop followed by practice
9:45am 1st Talk
John Pridmore –“ Gangland to the Promised Land” hear John’s conversion story.
11am: High Mass in the Parish Church
( EF Roman Rite Gregorian Chant )
12.00pm: Marian Procession in honour of Our Lady of Fatima around the extensive grounds  of Douai Abbey, followed by enrolment into the Brown Scapular and a sung Litiya
1-2pm: Lunch
2-3pm: 2nd Talk
Fr. Matthew Goddard– “Striving for Holiness”
3-4pm: Chant workshop
[4-4.30pm: Chant rehearsal for Schola Gregoriana]
4.30-5.30 pm: 3rd Talk – Fr. Gregory Pearson OP
– “Initial conversion”
5:30-6pm Free time

6-6.30pm: Vespers in Dominican Rite
6:55pm Supper
7.30-8:30pm: Rosary Adoration, Bedediction and Confessions
8.30pm: Social

Sunday 15th Sunday after Pentecost - Green

8-9am Breakfast
9am-9:45am: Schola Gregoriana rehearsal
10:30am: Sung/High Mass
( EF Dominican Rite, Gregorian Chant)
11:45am-12:40pm: 4th Talk – Fr. Gregory Pearson – “Ongoing Conversion”
12:45-1pm Rosary
1pm: Lunch
2pm: Finish

 

 

Thursday 11 September 2014

Young Catholic Adults Weekend 2014 Latest -There have been a COUPLE of cancellations so booking has recommenced temporarily



(There have been a COUPLE of cancellations so booking has recommenced temporarily).

Cottages (student style dormitory accommodation) ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED.

Guest House (mostly single rooms - hotel style accommodation) £60 per person per night (incl. food). It's possible to stay just for the Saturday night.

Day Guests. For those wishing to come for the day on Saturday or Sunday - please bring a packed lunch. It will not be possible to provide food in the Guest Refectory for people coming for the day.

Please go to https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2014 to book!

Monday 8 September 2014

Beautiful song to Our Lady on her feast day

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
 
 
For something truly angelic to celebrate this beautiful feast of Our Lady, please take the time to listen to this Russian/Armenian 11 year old, Viktoria (Vika) Oganisyan, sing Ave Maria by Giulio Caccini (1551-1618).
 
 
May Our Blessed Mother bless you this day and always!

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Just a Few Places Left for YCA Douai Weekend 2014!

Book now!


 
 
 Just a few Guest House places left - see below for photo's of the rooms!
















Booking Deadline For YCA Weekend 2014 now FRIDAY 5TH SEPT go to https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2014.




 

Monday 1 September 2014

Young Catholic Adults Retreat at Douai Abbey 2014 and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge


 Photo: Credit http://www.scholagregoriana.org/  
                                         

The Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge will be assisting in the 2014 Young Catholic Adults weekend in Douai Abbey. They will be providing Gregorian Chant Workshops among other things. Christopher Hodgkinson will be leading the Schola at this event.

The Schola website states that:- it was "founded in 1975 by Dr Mary Berry, a Cambridge musician and musicologist, in order to ensure that the chant should continue to be taught, and that all those who wished to sing and study this profoundly spiritual and ancient music should be able to do so. It became a registered charity in 1984.The Schola aims to promote the teaching and singing of Gregorian chant and, whenever possible, to foster its study and research."

For more details about the Schola  please see http://www.scholagregoriana.org/ 






 

The absolute Booking Deadline For YCA Weekend 2014 now FRIDAY 5TH SEPT 2014.



(The Abbey have allowed us to book a few extra rooms) - the absolute deadline is now  FRIDAY 5TH SEPT 2014.

Thank-you Douai!!!!

Monday 18 August 2014

John Pridmore at YCA Weekend at Douai Abbey


Come and hear the conversion story John Pridmore and listen to him describe his early chaotic life of  despair. A life changing calamity made John decide that  he needed to change direction and re-convert back to the Catholic faith of his childhood.

 His talk starts at 9:45am on Saturday 20th September 2014 , this will be followed by Sung/High Mass and then a Marian procession through the grounds of the Abbey.

If you are in  the 18-35 AGE RANGE:-  come and meet like minded individuals at the Young Catholic Adults Weekend (19th-21st September 2014) .

 To book please go to:- https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2014. For more details please see:- http://www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk/events.htm.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

BOOK NOW FOR YOUNG CATHOLIC ADULTS NATIONAL EVENT 2014

BOOK NOW FOR YOUNG CATHOLIC ADULTS NATIONAL EVENT 2014



BOOK NOW FOR YOUNG CATHOLIC ADULTS NATIONAL EVENT 2014

Guest Speakers - John Pridmore, Fr. Gregory Pearson OP, Fr. Matthew Goddard FSSP

There will be:-
Sung/High Masses
Talks
Rosaries
Confessions
Marian Procession
Socials

Cottages (student style dormitory accommodation) £18 per person per night (incl. food).

Guest House (mostly single rooms - hotel style accommodation) £60 per person per night (incl. food).

Day Guests. For those wishing to come for the day on Saturday or Sunday - please bring a packed lunch. It will not be possible to provide food in the Guest Refectory for people coming for the day.

-Please note to guarantee your place this year Douai Abbey have requested that everyone books in 3 weeks before the start of the weekend i.e. 29th August 2014.

How to book

For more details, please see:- http://www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk/events.htm



Or use the online booking system at: https://bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2014

Saturday 5 July 2014

Marian Saturdays and the First Five Saturdays Devotion

 

Today is the First Saturday of the month of  July, so perhaps it is time to think about the First Five Saturdays Devotion . As http://catholicismpure.wordpress.com eloquently states:-

I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

Immaculate Heart of MaryIt may come as some surprise that this devotion of the first five Saturdays, requested by Heaven through Sister Lucia of Fatima in 1925 at her convent in Pontevedra, was not new; in fact it is an ancient custom in the Church! It fits precisely into the long tradition of Catholic piety that, having devoted Fridays to the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ and to honouring His Sacred Heart, found it very natural to devote Saturdays to His Most Holy Mother.

It is sometimes asked why Our Lady asked for Communions of reparation on five first Saturdays, instead of some other number. On 29th May, 1930 Our Blessed Lord explained to Sr. Lucia in another apparition to her that it was because of five kinds of offenses and blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, namely: blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception, against her perpetual virginity, against the divine and spiritual maternity of Mary, blasphemies involving the rejection and dishonouring of her images, and the neglect of implanting in the hearts of children a knowledge and love of this Immaculate Mother.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6)
It is also an age-old tradition that Jesus appeared to Mary on the Saturday, the day after His death, whilst the world lay in hushed waiting for the Resurrection. The great theologians of the 12th and 13th centuries, Sts. Bernard, Thomas and Bonaventure, explained the dedication of Saturdays to Mary by pointing to the time of Christ’s rest in the grave. Everyone else had abandoned Christ; only Mary continued to believe, demonstrating her deep faith by never doubting for a moment her Son’s promise of Resurrection. This was her day!

St Peter Damian, one of those who most aided the spread of Mariology in the eleventh century, expresses the same thought in the following manner: “Sabbath signifies rest, for one reads that God himself rested on that day. Is it not then fitting that the same day should be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, in whom the divine Wisdom chose its abode, and rested as on a couch of holiness?”
The liturgical books of the ninth and tenth centuries containing Masses in honour of Mary on Saturday were largely the work of Alcuin (735-804), the Benedictine monk who was “Minister of Education” at the court of Charlemagne and who contributed in a decisive manner to the Carolingian liturgical reform. Alcuin composed six formularies for Votive (i.e. devotional) Masses – one for each day of the week. And he assigned two formularies to Saturday in honour of Our Lady. The practice was quickly and joyously embraced by both clergy and laity.

There were several theological reasons for dedicating this day to Mary. A 15th century missal gives
several of those reasons in a hymn: Saturday is the day when creation was completed, therefore it is also celebrated as the day of the fulfillment of the plan of salvation, which found its realisation through Mary. Sunday is the Lord’s Day, so it seemed appropriate to observe the preceding day as Mary’s day. In addition, as Genesis describes, God rested on the seventh day, Saturday. The seventh day, and the Jewish Sabbath, is Saturday; we rest on Sunday, because we celebrate the Resurrection as our Sabbath Day. In parallel, Jesus rested in the womb and then in the loving arms of Mary from birth until she held His lifeless body at the foot of the Cross; thus the God-head rested in Mary.
St. John of Damascus (d. 754) writings testify to the celebration of Saturdays dedicated to Mary in the Church of the East.


 
Down through the centuries the Marian Saturdays were expressed in several local devotions. This was the day the faithful selected to go on pilgrimages. Sodalities held their meetings on Saturdays and called them Fraternity Saturdays or Sodality Saturdays. The seven colours or sorrows of Mary were in some places commemorated on seven consecutive Saturdays. The 15 Saturdays before the liturgy in honour of Mary as Queen of the Rosary, 7th October, recalled the fifteen decades of the rosary; in some areas this was the day that the crops and harvests were blessed and celebrated. An Irish version of the Saturday devotions to Mary is known as the Fifteen Saturdays of the Rosary. The devotion consists in receiving Holy Communion and saying at least five decades of the Rosary sometime during the day or evening on fifteen consecutive Saturdays or to meditate in some other way on its mysteries.

The devotion in honour of the Immaculate Conception by the Franciscan Order has also contributed to furthering this pious custom of “the Marian Saturdays”.

H/t to http://catholicismpure.wordpress.com.

Sunday 22 June 2014

Please note to guarantee your place this year Douai Abbey please book in before 29th August 2014.



Please note to guarantee your place this year Douai Abbey have requested that everyone books in 3 weeks before the start of the weekend i.e. 29th August 2014.

How to book

For more details, please see:- http://www.youngcatholicadults.co.uk/events.htm


Or use the online booking system at: https://bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2014



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